Month: March 2017

Create a Multi-Level Marketing Company in Ten Easy Steps

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Hundreds of thousands of Americans get sucked into Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) companies each year. From Mary Kay to Amway to Herbalife to PrePaid Legal, the list is seemingly endless. Each offers its own special spin on the products it sells, but the main focus of an MLM is on recruiting new members.

MLMs live and die by the recruitment of new members, who make the bulk of the product purchases from the company. Little of the product is resold to an actual end user, but the MLM company doesn’t care. The sale has been made to the distributor (or associate or representative or member or consultant or whatever term you like).

It’s widely known that those in MLMs make little money. In fact, almost everyone in the pyramid loses money. The real money makers in the scheme are those who own the MLM company. So in the spirit of giving, I’m offering you ten simple steps toward creating your very own MLM. Start yours now and cash in on all those people who are dying to hear about your “opportunity”!

1. Come up with a product or service that you can make sound revolutionary. Funky berry juice, groundbreaking face cream, or unusual financial services will be fine. The only caveat is that you must be able to make it sound like something that’s never been done quite this way before. This adds to the mystique.

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Using Bank Statements in Child Support and Divorce Cases

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Bank statements can be a very valuable tool in child support and divorce cases, particularly when one party has not been forthcoming about income and expenses. We can look at deposits to draw conclusions about income, and the level of expenditures may also give us clues about the level of income. Tracy talks about some … Read more Using Bank Statements in Child Support and Divorce Cases

Big Name Tax Prep Services Are a Waste of Money

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You need your personal taxes done and they’re not that complex, so you think you’ll just run right over to H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax Service, or some other tax preparation franchise. It’s easy and they must be good or they wouldn’t have so many locations and be in business so long, right?

Wrong. The fact of the matter is that you’re taking a big risk if you have your taxes done at one of the large tax return sweatshops or a similar smaller service. These companies have a few major drawbacks that most consumers are unaware of:

The prices they charge are generally too high. Even the simplest of tax returns can cost you well over $100, and that type of fee is just too much. Add in some things like a rental property or an in-home business, and watch your tab for the tax return run up fast.

The name of the game at the tax return franchises is turning out as many tax returns as fast as they can, at the lowest possible cost. This means that most of the employees are inexperienced data entry clerks who really know next to nothing about the tax law. They couldn’t spot an opportunity or a problem with your tax situation if their life depended on it. Do you really want to risk having your taxes prepared by someone who took a day-long class to learn how to enter data into a computer program?

Read moreBig Name Tax Prep Services Are a Waste of Money

West Allis School District Will Steal Your Money… Twice

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Years ago, I wrote regularly about Milwaukee Public Schools and their penchant for wasting taxpayer money. The district portrays itself as poor, with an annual budget of more than $1 billion and spending that exceeds $14,00 per child with horrible outcomes.  (In case you’re wondering, “rich” districts in Wisconsin spend much less per child, and have dramatically better outcomes.)

The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District is the focus of this article. The district has been overspending for years, and is now holding a referendum. The dishonesty surrounding the whole issue is astounding. But I can break it down easily for you: For years the district has been stealing from taxpayers by spending money foolishly. Now they are crying that they are broke, and they want to steal from taxpayers again. The message is “approve our referendum or else.”

Dan O’Donnell breaks it down nicely in this article. I’ll give you the highlights:

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LuLaRoe Fraud Complaints

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A recent article at CBS MoneyWatch exposes multi-level marketing company LuLaRoe and the alleged fraud being perpetrated on its consultants. You may remember that I criticized LuLaRoe and its MLM model a few months ago based on the false narrative that lots of women are getting rich by selling the leggings. One of my main criticisms:

Business Insider promoted the idea that LuLaRoe is making women rich. While there ARE a handful of women who are making a ton of money from the company, only an incredibly tiny fraction of participants can make this type of money. Why? Simple math. If you’re making a 3% to 5% commission on your downline (as you’ll see below), it takes $700,000 of wholesale purchases by your downline to earn $35,000 in a month. (I realize that various bonuses change the math, but I’m using these numbers to simplify things.)

Other problems that I have with this “business model”:

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Techniques to Reduce Employee Theft

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It might be hard to believe, but each and every day companies are losing money because they not only give employees opportunities to steal, they encourage it.

How? By not providing adequate oversight. A clerk, for example, sees that an error in an account wasn’t caught by anyone. A purchasing manager notices that no one is watching over his vendor relationships, and won’t know it if he establishes a fake account. Employees are not stupid. They know when they are being monitored and when their work is being checked. They know when they are working in an environment ripe for fraud.

But you have honest employees, you say? You’re probably right. If we thought job applicants were criminals, we wouldn’t hire them. But situations occur where the temptation to steal simply becomes too much. Imagine owing money to a hospital or having an expensive (and necessary) car repair that you can’t afford. What if your child needs clothing or food? There may come a day in your life when your morals are challenged because you have a financial need and an opportunity at the workplace that seems too good to pass up.

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