But The Crab Dip Was Fantastic!
My post tomorrow will be just lighthearted and funny... actually... I think I'm going to try and make most of my posts lighthearted and funny. I don't really like writing about the whole serious business thing... but tonight I've decided to write more serious because tonight was all about the "serious business".
I wrote this as my ending... but I like it as a starter too... so i'll put it here as well:
I guess it's the artist in me speaking out. But to me... it's not about how much money you have in the bank... it's about doing something you love doing.
To me... I would rather have a modest life and be around people I love and care about and just in general love what i'm doing than to be rich beyond belief and live in a crazy giant house and all that jazz...
So my little meetup invite tonight was nothing more than a marketing attempt of something that i've already been pitched on 4 separate occasions. It kinda made me sad... I don't know... I guess... just something about the idea of it all just made me really sad!
2 people at work are doing this... along with 2 other friends that I know from open mic.
The keyword here is "saturation" because more and more people I know are jumping into this... and I think in the near future you might not be able to walk down the street without someone coming up to you asking to sell you deregulated energy. But it's mostly just very MLM to me. Those who get in on the top profit... those who don't? Well...
It's basically reselling of energy. I'm sure you've already had someone come up to you and ask to market this to you already. It's spreading like wildfire. People are pitched the idea hoping to "quit" their day jobs and make a boat load of cash. For some this might happen... for most... they may not even see their initial investment recovered.
I'm ALL about starting your own business... I just think it should be a fun idea and something you love!
Maybe, like... it takes time to build up the business... so you really feel accomplished! You know? And like you have a real connection to it personally. I think it should be something that takes a while to come up with a good business plan and maybe takes some creative thinking and some trial and error and really something that fits your personality!
I don't like the whole idea of just kinda signing up in 5 minutes and suddenly you are the proud new business owner of your very own business franchise trying to sign up others to do the same thing...
All I can say again is that it just makes me sad. Like... I don't know the whole thing irks me. 🙁
Soooo... MLM's have been around for ages... they are sort of a spin off the original Pyramid Schemes. Initial Pyramid Schemes implode quickly because they don't rely on anything more than the future investors paying off existing ones. Basically they are completely illegal.
Here's some quick info on the Pyramid Scheme:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme
So this mutated to something else called an MLM or Multi Level Marketing... It's based on the idea of a Pyramid but that you get income for signing up people and then those people get income from those they sign up and etc. etc... down to X amount of levels. It's all well and great but as more and more people sign up it becomes harder to sign up more people...
MLM's really are VERY similar to Pyramid Scheme's except that they have an actual product that is offered for sale... so generally this prolongs or attempts to create a more sustainable business model... but i'm pretty sure every MLM I've ever seen has eventually imploded once it reached saturation and the number of newbies to it slowed to a trickle.
basically just read this:
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/cs/multilevelmktg/a/problemwithmlm.htm
So I could seriously write a book on this. And there are a TON of books out there. I'm only going to focus on one small thing and keep it to that...
It's not that MLM is "bad" as in a complete fraudulent scam. It's not... at least I think? It kinda just feels wrong though... but also it's just that to me it's bad because it makes things well... for the most part awkward...
let me explain...
So really the idea of this MLM is that you are supposed to sign up friends or family to get them to either A: sell energy as well... or B: buy the energy you are selling...
cool. or hot? Well... I'm gonna say ok... also not terrible... but this makes things as I said awkward. I mean anyone trying to sell things to you is usually awkward when you don't need it...
ok this is a bad example, but it's late and I'm tired... but girl scout cookies, maybe? Although, see I LOVE thin mints... also it helps a good cause... so ok i'm cool with girl scout cookies.
I feel odd using this example... but it's all I can think of right now... I SWEAR i'm NOT against girl scout cookies!!!! I buy them every year!
But just for a second think about a girl scout selling cookies who is also your neighbor or relative. You basically can't say no without REALLY looking like you should be hanging out with the Grinch at Christmas time (and you can't really say no to a girl scout even if they aren't your friend or relative). That's a problem because now you've created some bad vibes in your circle of friends or family. Well the same thing happens with not just this program but all MLM's for the most part... if you say yes and buy in (and you do in fact have to pay a fee of 300 bucks + 25 bucks a month to sign up) then you are cool and become one of "them". But if you say no... instantly you've "shafted" your friends or family member. Not good. Not good at all... this is how wars start. Or, at least rifts in groups of people. I think?
All I know is I DO feel bad when I say no to girl scouts at the store because I already bought 12 boxes from the other girls down the street! Don't you feel bad?
Sometimes I buy a box anyways.
This is what I feel will happen with the energy selling thing... it will be all these people who already signed up at the tail end trying to sell to all these other people who have already signed up! And since it costs 300 bucks to sign up then what? And the 25 bucks a month on top of that?
It just sounds like trouble to me!
At least girl scout cookies can be frozen and eaten over time... you can't freeze energy and eat it over time.
At least I don't think you can?
The other problem is that someone hoping to find some new friends where he lives gets approached by a neighbor and asked to basically hang out. This is the way they are marketing this... they are told to be very secretive about it and just kinda make it almost seem like a friendly gathering... then maybe make some fancy food or play some board games or watch a movie...
then... spring the sales pitch on them. So a person who might have thought they had some people genuinely interested in becoming new friends instead were finding that they are now part of a VERY complex and elaborate business model to make some extra cashola...
Sigh... this might make the person slightly sad... especially if you are like me and having genuine authentic friends is more important than having people interested in signing you up for something.
But... I will say... the presentation was super professional and if I were a college business professor I would have given them all A's!
Also... the crab dip was absolutely FANTASTIC!
But I had to decline the offer to make a thousand billion million dollars and retire to hawaii in the next year. I feel bad that I didn't catch the drift of what was happening sooner...
I feel like I took up their time! So that makes me even more sad about it all. Like... I don't know... again it just makes me feel all irky because I don't know... I came over and they made the crab dip and which was yummy but then i ate the dip and sat and talked...
I feel like I took something that wasn't entitled to me... like I was the mooch... with the dip or something?
Well... again, I don't know... so... that's all I wanted to say...
I guess it's the artist in me speaking out. But to me... it's not about how much money you have in the bank... it's about doing something you love doing.
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