Business Technology

Looked for a home based business recently? If you have, then you have seen the ads that promised Guru Bob will “fill your matrix” for you, out of his own efforts and spillover and with no work on your part. All you have to do is enroll now, before it’s too late. Sounds great, doesn’t it? You just sign up, pay your hard earned money, and ride Guru Bob’s magic carpet off to Successville. Houston, we have a problem. With nearly all matrix-type pay plans, this helps them, and hurts you.

A matrix pay plan is one that limits how your organization grows, by limiting how many first line referrals you can have. (Some pay plans allow infinite width, which is even worse. The person you sign up under has zero incentive to help you at all by putting people in your organization. There is not a case where they would be better off doing that than they would be by putting everyone on their own front line.) You might see a plan that has something like a 3X6 matrix. That means in the basic part of the compensation plan, you would be paid on up to three members wide and six deep, for a total of 1092 in a perfectly executed matrix.

So, how is it possible that spillover can negatively affect you? Let’s say Guru Bob fills your first two rows for you before you find a person of your own to enroll. In fact, he is so good he fills you up with the first three rows. That means your friend Mary who signs up because she feel sorry for you, would be placed on your fourth level down. If you are conscientious and want to help her, you would be working with your first personal referral down on your fifth level, and only getting a few cents for everyone above that. And if Guru Bob helps them like he helped you, you might be adding people to your tenth level and beyond.

What you end up with, then, is a massive looking organization that actually pays you less than your monthly dues. One or two or three months later, you quit and try to find another program. Surprise! You find that Guru Bob is now on to another program he has found. “Maybe if I get in earlier,” you think, “I will get in on the big money.” Wishful thinking, but not accurate. You can sign up closer to Guru Bob this time, and you still aren’t going to make the money he’s making until you have your own personal sign ups. If spillover worked for the long term, Guru Bob wouldn’t have a list of eight other programs where he has been the top guy (or girl.) He gets in a program, runs it through his list, makes big money for a few months, and heads off to another.

Building a perfectly filled matrix requires some each person in the group to sacrifice personal enrollments, including Bob. If everyone agreed to have a maximum of three personals, all on their front line, everybody would make way more money (except Bob, who might make $25k a month instead of $50k). Additionally, if no one was bothered by where those enrollments came from, everyone’s matrix would fill completely, and everyone would work their way to the top of the pay plan, where the big money is. The only obstacle to this is finding a group of people and a company that will do that. If there were, maybe they could call it something like Unselfish Wealth.

Tags: online marketing
Filed under: online marketing