For people who have taken small business ownership/entrepreneur courses one of the things we’re taught is to create a business plan. We’re also told that we should be pulling out our business plan every 6 months or every year and looking it over and making any changes in our services, products, goals, etc.
For all the Amway business meetings we attended and all the lack of real business advice that was never given (silly us to actually expect to receive good business advice at a “business meeting”!) never once did I hear any Platinum, Emerald, or Diamond speaker tell the IBO’s to create a business plan. The only “plan” ever discussed was to “duplicate your upline”.
Yeah well that don’t really cut it in the real life business world. If you see a bank officer about a loan you will need to bring a business plan and financial statements with you and not your upline Eagle who had to take time off his ditch digging job and is still wearing his grubbies to accompany you to the bank to share this exciting opportunity where the money will be rolling in faster than it can be counted. Don’t need no stinking business plan when you bring a sharp Amway businessman along with you!
Ambot never created a business plan for Amway therefore there was no plan for success.
Our real business plan for our real business was 50 pages long but depending on the complexity of the business and products or services offered other business plans could be much longer. Or shorter. Or in the case of Amway pretend businesses: non-existent.
Business plans - your business blueprint - your plan for success - generally follows the same pattern:
1. Executive summary - the name of your business, address, owners, and summarizes what the business does, who the customers might be, and expenses. These will be covered in more detail later in the business plan.
2. Business philosophy - description of industry, description of the business, vision statement, mission statement, business goals
3. Operations plan - business structure, human resources structure, production methods, service delivery, strategic alliances, risk assessment, licenses, insurance, and regulations.
4. Marketing plan - products or service description, industry analysis, competitive analysis, target market description, market strategies, selling strategies
5. Financial Plan - projected cash flow, projected income statement, balance sheet, personal financial information
6. Appendices - action plan, resume, business outline, etc.
None of the above was ever taught during any Amway “business meeting”.
I did a Google search for a business plan MLM company selling soap and I actually got some hits. I was even curious enough to look at one. The company had a different business name but for all I know it was a pseudonym for Amway.
Serious business owners create business plans. For all the talk I heard about Amway IBO’s being “serious business builders” I never heard of anyone in our LOS who put together a business plan. I’m not saying its impossiblefor a “serious Amway business builder” to create a business plan but I doubt it will fly especially when it will be full of Amway speak learned from their upline, tapes, and CD’s instead of legitimate business information. Imagine filling in the competitive analysis portion of the business plan. Here’s where the IBO compares prices of similar products already established in the marketplace. The best they can do is show that similar products are sold at Costco and Wal-Mart for a lower price. “Oh but our products are much higher quality and that gives them an edge in the marketplace.” Subjective, debatable, and doubtful. And the bank loans officer doesn’t give a shit.
If you want to be considered a serious business owner, choose a legitimate business, create a business plan, present it to others, and get feedback on how likely success will be in this venture. Ambot never created an Amway business plan to show to other people - friends, family, business owners, and bankers to get objective third party opinions before slapping down the money for the Amway registration and starter kit. I’d say his experience is similar to most Amway IBO’s.
What do they say about the importance of having a business plan? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Likewise if you get involved with Amway no matter what you plan - you will fail.