Budget Building for Your MLM, Network Marketing Business

Building your budget can be dull work for many - but this important step is too often ignored - possibly because people don't think of on-line marketing as a real business. So they don't bother to plan it out properly. And failure to budget and understand costs are likely major contributors to why over 90% of people struggle in this industry or fail and leave it altogether.

Now, I don't want to scare anyone away. But people who figure they can just dive in and make money right away, without putting in any cash and hard work, are dreaming.

Even the most basic business requires some up-front spending. Your kids' lemonade stand, for example, requires a table, chairs, lemons, a lemon squeezer, sugar, a couple of pitchers, cups or plastic glasses, a tablecloth, napkins - and, hey, maybe you want to put out a plate of cookies for them to sell too, so you need to figure out the cost of those ingredients also. Perhaps you want to use a water filter too. So, cost it out. And then you'll have an idea how much that lemonade stand needs to sell to cover its costs, hit break-even and reach profitability.

So, here you are at the start of a major change in your lifestyle and career. You're an entrepreneur in social media, mlm or network marketing. You're working on your motivation, your why, your mindset, and trying to figure out what to do next. Well, your question at this point should be: How much do I have to invest over, say, the first six months?

Maybe you've decided you have $500, $1,000, $2,000 or more to invest over the next six months. OK, let's take $2,000. That might seem like a lot to some. But it's not a lot at all, if you look realistically at the costs of establishing a traditional business.

And just to cover that basic $2,000 investment and get to break-even, you'll need to make about $340 each month

Say you've found a business opportunity that interests you and has a product/service that you think offers value to people. So you decide to join this mlm opportunity. Well, you'll probably have to pay anywhere from $30-$50 a month for the company's website. At $50, that's $300 for six months. If you use the old school belly-to-belly, contact all your friends, family and acquaintances, you'll need business cards, promotional flyers, CDs, a consultant business building kit and other stuff to hand out and leave in malls and other stores. By the time you've got everything you think you need, maybe you've spent at least another $300. And if you're promoting a product (juice drink, wellness products, cosmetics or whatever), then you're going to have to participate as a customer too, and buy the requisite items each month - a one-time annual membership (say $30-$50) and monthly orders (say $100 each month). And maybe you want to buy some basic learning books to help you get started. Well, you've pretty well used up your budget right there. And we haven't even got around to the topic of potentially very costly advertising.

And there's more. If you want to really make your presence felt in social media and network marketing, there are other things you'll probably need or want. Domain names (about $10 a pop) personal websites or professional program websites you use - most of the professional sites cost around $50 per month), customizing your Twitter and other site backgrounds and personal websites ($100 or more to get a professional to do this), affiliate programs to help you earn income, an autoresponder (around $20 per month), a link protector such as viralurl.com or listjoe.com (you can join for free, but you'll need to upgrade at a cost of about $200/yr), training courses and other specialized information ($300-$1,000), and so on.

If your dollars are tight, start with just the very basic stuff and expand your budget bit by bit as you begin to bring in some money. But do understand that you'll need to make some investment to get under way.