Marketing in the 21st Century
The world is currently going through a marketing revolution although most people probably haven't yet realised it. The days of regularly going to the supermarket to do your routine shopping are numbered. The advent of broad banding on the Internet gives people the opportunity to shop from home. You can stroll down the aisles of a supermarket inspecting goods and asking the shop attendant questions about them from the comfort of your lounge chair, place your order and await delivery.

On the other hand the modern network marketing industry is expanding rapidly. This is happening for several reasons:

• It is relationship based. People still like to relate to other people and will always enjoy doing so. They can build a relationship with another person and share stories and experiences about specialised products that they will find it difficult to do with more routine products. People also get much more personalised attention dealing with someone that they have established a relationship with than in a shop situation where they are not known. Shop owners realise this of course and try to foster relationships with their regular customers for that reason.
• It can be done from home. You can have your own business turning over thousands or even millions of dollars a year operating from your home with no shop front overhead costs and no employees to worry about. Many people who are already in their own businesses are changing over to network marketing for this reason alone.
• You need no capital other than a couple of hundred dollars to get started, so you are not risking your life savings as is the case with many businesses.
• You do not have to be a salesperson. You need never "sell" any products at all. You merely tell people about the opportunity available and they decide whether they want to become involved or not. If they do, they then deal direct with the company for the purchase of goods, exactly the same as for any mail order business. You subsequently receive your commission cheques in the mail.
• It provides residual income, the same as it does for an author or inventor. Long after you have stopped working the commission cheques continue to flow in.
• You earn in proportion to the effort you put in. Initially network marketing is like the situation that the author and the inventor are in - you have to invest a ceitain amount of time with no monetary reward for a while at the start. It's been compared to pushing a car uphill at the start, but once you get over the crest the sky is the limit. 1t is the people with a passion who keep pushing that car until it goes over the crest. Network marketers usually feel underpaid for the time they spend at the beginning, but later on are overpaid by comparison. It's the amount of effort you put in that determines how quickly you get over that hill.

Bill Gates has forecasted that the two main ways of doing business in the 21st century will be:

• Purchasing goods direct from the supplier over the Internet.
• Relationship (network) marketing.

How often have Bill Gates' forecasts been wrong?

Read on to find out how to select a network marketing company.