For This Interview I Went to the Atrium of the E-Building at Laguardia Community College

For this interview I went to the Atrium of the E-building at LaGuardia Community College. This place was chosen because the business owner I am about to interview is not only a business owner, he is also a student at LaGuardia.

A. is an evening student of the Engineering program: in the rest of his time he manages his internet-based business about 10 hours a week, and he works 1 night a week in a restaurant as a waiter. I chose to interview A. because the fact that he can own a business with which he makes money and go to school on the side without too many problems interests me. He also told me that the earning possibilities in this business are almost endless; some people can even go on to become millionaires. And the best part is, that those people don’t even work full time hours. This is something I would like to know more about!

What is the name of your business?

My business is an internet-based business called MarketAmerica, and the Web site I am working from is www.marketamerica.com/empower.

What kind of business is it?

The core of the business is the use of internet as a marketing tool. As a business owner you choose the products you want to work with, learn about them so you know which customers could be interested in buying them, and then sell them to the right people. Every business owner has a customer base, preferably containing at least 10 to

15 customers. It is your job as a business owner to get to know your customers well, through personal and internet contact, and know what kind of products they would like to use. When you sell your products you get so called

MarketPoints, which are going to be worth money as soon as you reach a certain level. But the real big amount of

Market Points is in the points you make through referrals. All the business owners you team up with (business partners) will also make points when you sell something, and vice versa.

Furthermore, it is a so-called 'un-franchise', which means that it has a franchise structure, but the conditions are different. There is no start up money required, and the franchisees also don't have to pay any royalties.

1Stefanie Akkerman How did you get the idea to start up this business?

I was working at a restaurant as a waiter almost full time, and I always wanted to get out of this business. One of my co-workers at the restaurant I work at is involved with MarketAmerica as a business owner. He told me about it when I told him I was fed up with the way things were at the restaurant, and I was interested right away. I went with him to a meeting where they explained the idea of MarketAmerica, and that is where I decided that I wanted to get involved as well. I went to a couple of more meetings to learn more about the concept, as this is not an easy to understand concept. To be honest, at first it sounded too good to be true, but when I really got the idea I got very enthusiastic, and decided to go for it.

What did you have to do in order to get it going?

I basically had to do two things: build a customer base, and get distributors to work with me. The customer base I built consists of 5 people now, so I am still looking for more customers. Getting new customers sounds easier than it is, as I really want to build a good relationship with every single customer, getting to know them personally, and getting to know what they want.

As for the distributors, I looked at all the companies MarketAmerica does business with, and I chose the products I have most affinity with, as it is better and easier to sell something you believe in.

What is an important strength of the concept of MarketAmerica?

1 on 1 marketing is one of the things that keep customers coming back for more. In this way of marketing it is important to get to know your customers very well. First of all, you already know your customers personally before you take them on as customers, so you already have an idea of what they like. Once you start your business relationship, you will study their buying patterns carefully. This way, you will get a profile of your customers. You can keep track of what they are buying through their accounts, and you will follow up. This means that whenever there is a problem, you will hear about it and try to solve it. You listen well to them, and remember what they say.

2Stefanie Akkerman For example, if a woman bought mascara through MarketAmerica, and she gets back to you saying she doesn’t like the fact that it is hard to remove with just water, you make sure you will recommend her to buy mascara which is easily removable next time. In order to give good recommendations, you have to know your products well, too. In addition to this you have to make people feel special, and make sure they feel that you care about them. This way you will be able to match the right products with the right customers, and get more satisfied customers. People prefer to have personal contact with someone over being served by a computer, which is the case at for example

Amazon.com. I am their contact person for MarketAmerica, and they can always call me if they have problems or questions. It is vital to invest time in getting to know your customers and listening to their wishes, this way you will have them return to you again and again, generating profits for yourself as well as for your business partners.

How many people work in your business?

I work only by myself, from my computer at home. I do have my business contacts, my partners and of course my customers, but ‘a day at the office’ means a day by myself in my own home. Whether I find it easier or harder to be by myself? I definitely prefer this over working under a boss or with obnoxious co-workers. I have enough personal contacts, and meet people when I go to school and work my evening at the restaurant. It is actually a breeze to work by myself and figure out what to do by myself without anyone else’s interference. I believe in my own capacities, and if I do need help there are monthly conferences that cost only $20 that I occasionally attend. There

I can meet people who are in the same business, and we exchange advice and get lectures about what is the best way to thrive in this business. They are all MarketAmerica business owners, and it is not just interesting but also fun to see how they are doing it. I learn a lot from them, and I hope that one day I can give lectures on how to succeed in this business.

3Stefanie Akkerman What are the advantages and disadvantages in this kind of business?

As I said, I feel that one of the greatest advantages is that I can work by myself doing this. But I am not alone, as I have business partners who benefit when I benefit and vice versa. This makes for a very fertile cooperation between people. Next to this, I don’t need an inventory. The products are shipped directly from producers to the consumers, I don’t need to buy the products myself first and resell them, so I don’t need a warehouse to keep inventory and invest in products risking that I won’t be able to sell them, having to write them off.

Furthermore, there is very little overhead. Because almost everything is done online there is almost no paper involved, I don’t have to pay any salary to anyone, I can do it from home so there is no rent to be paid for office space and there are no complicated administrative processes that cost money. The startup cost of the business was also very low, as I didn’t need an office, new computer or administrative materials.

A disadvantage is that it is quite hard to start up: finding good and reliable customers, investing the time in getting to know them while earning little money. It takes quite some time to build the business, and it requires a lot of patience. I am still working in the restaurant one night a week because I really need the money. I have only made

$600 in the first 4 months, this just comes from selling the products, and it is not nearly enough to live off. I am still building my customer base because I only have 4 now, and my goal is to get around 15. I am also still looking to get business partners to work with me, so my network can grow and provide me with extra income.

Also, many people find it hard to believe it actually works, and is not some kind of scam. It takes time to explain what this business is about, and how it exactly works. Especially after the debacles with the pyramid schemes and Madoff’s illegal business, people became a bit wary of seemingly easy ways to make money. They don’t believe this is for real, and want to hear within 5 minutes how it works. It is impossible to explain this within

5 minutes, and thus I don’t even start when people don’t have the time to hear me out. I also needed a couple of hours of thorough explanation in order to understand precisely how this works, seeing the pictures and illustrations while someone experienced explained. If I have to say in a couple of words what I am doing, I would say that I am a marketing tool that producers of goods use in order to sell their wares effectively and efficiently.

Normally they would pay hefty advertising fees to magazines, TV stations or other media, now they pay me a part of their proceeds to bring their products to customers, and have them keep using the products.

4Stefanie Akkerman What are your monthly expenses?

I spend around $130. I pay $20 to go to the meetings, I buy some of the products I sell for myself in order to get to know my products better and because I need them anyway, and I pay about $30 for a messenger service, which is a kind of answering machine because it is important to get back at customers as soon as possible if they have a problem.

Who would you recommend getting into this business? Who would you not recommend it?

Anyone who feels like they could provide people with good customer service, and has the patience to build a business while still working on the side because their income will not be large enough to sustain them during the first months/year. It is important that you really care about people and want to get to know them, because otherwise it is very hard to build a business that mainly needs customer trust and loyalty. You have to understand what your customers want and need, and provide them with the right articles. Next to that, you need to be able to build relationships with business partners, so that your network becomes big and you can get more and more money from referrals from them. If you do this well, you can live of your residual income, which means that you only need to invest minimal time to get maximal income. But patience is needed for that, it might be many years before that happens. So, people who are impatient and want money right now, I would not recommend them getting into it.

What are your goals?

In the short term, I hope to make around $900 a week next year. That would be enough to live a nice life and never having to go to work again. As I said before, I am looking to get out of the restaurant business, and I will be able to quit altogether if I could reach that goal. And in the long term, I want to become a millionaire, like some others in this business have done. Then, I would even be able to own my own restaurant! Although I think I will just take it easy in my Manhattan penthouse by that time...

5Stefanie Akkerman