Ok, let me give you a little background on me to begin with. During high school I began developing this entrepreneurial spirit. I was a standout in DECA and even went to the nationals with a business plan I wrote during my senior year of high school. After graduating high school I spent time in the sales profession (shoes, cars, encyclopedias, water softeners, etc...). It didn't take long before I got thoroughly disgusted with sales and left to begin a new career as a police officer. The years have gone by now, police work is long since in the rearview mirror and I've discovered my real role in life is planting house churches.  I left my final salary secure pastorate in October, and launched out on my church planting journey. With this transition came the dilemma of how to support my family and yet still have ownership of my time. A few days ago I was praying and "poof" the lightbulb in my head went on. Establishing house churches is all about your relationships with others. It is the intimacy and trust that are developed in those relationships that make the house church a powerful thing. The principles for direct marketing aren't much different. Relationships drive the business, not product. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I have been abused by many "friends" who had an "opportunity" to discuss with my wife and I over our 20 years of marriage. So much so, that I quit accepting those invitations about 19 years 11 months and 2 days ago. So for me to even be writing to you about MLM is almost heretical.

I am choosing to play with this MLM idea for a couple of reasons at this point in my life:

1. I am looking for a means to establish businesses for church planters, so that when they are ready to plant their churches, we already have an established business up and running for their financial support

2. I believe that the greatest place faith can make a difference is in the market place. I have done more counseling and praying with hurting people in my commercial interactions than I ever have in my "church" office.

3. Commerce allows me to multiply the resources available to touch the lives of hurting people. I don't want to flinch if money is needed drill a water well in a 3rd world country. I want to contribute towards finding a solution for AIDS. I want to fund those who are working to eradicate disease and malnutrition.

4. Everyday I encounter people who need to get on their feet. I want to teach them a business and then turn that business over to them, as they prove themselves faithful and trustworthy.

So with those principles in mind I set out on my journey. With the exception of two companies I chose only companies that would allow me to sign up without any upfront purchases. I only made two exceptions to this rule, because I felt the companies brought some products or marketing pieces to the table that were worth some inital start-up costs.

The companies chosen are listed below:

Seabiotics

New Vision

Forever Green

The Good Life

Heartland Select

ProMedXHealth

Advantage Nutritionals

CommissionRiver

River Eniva

**In the full interest of disclosure, each of these links goes to my distributor homepage. If you like the products or the business model, then please sign up under me and let's do this experiment together.

Most of these companies carry similar types of things. The two that stood out were Seabiotics and Commission River. Seabiotics makes only a few products that are derived from shark liver oil. Commission River offers a bundle of telecom, wireless, VOIP and hosting products that you can delve into. I actually think their model shows some of the greatest promise from simply a sales perspective.

My thought process is this. I have been using the internet to effectively promote my ministry work around the world for a number of years. I believe that with some hard work, dumb luck and a whole lot of guided prayer, I can harness the internet for the "selling" end of the equation. For me the greatest work of this business model will be the networking and relationship building. Stated simply, "I don't care if you buy my vitamins, but because we are friends would you put a link on your emails to the website where I sell vitamins?" (By the way, feel free to do just that for anything I post here).

In the coming days I will be playing with PPC, banner exchanges, article marketing, blog marketing, flyers, posters, house parties, etc....

Stay tuned as I'll be updating on a regular basis....

Ok, so I finally broke down and did it. I contacted the Amway Global/Quixtar website and indicated I would like to sign up.

Amway Global has a very efficient system and I was contacted 48 hours later by a Diamond in Austin, TX. A few evenings ago, he and I spent an hour on the phone as he took me through the "opportunity" powerpoint presentation. He seemed somewhat taken back that I could readily spout the mantra "relationships are the key to making this work." So 60 minutes and $145 later I joined the Amway Global/Quixtar family.

I'm a child of the 70's so for me I have lots of bad Amway induced psychosis. Friends with boxes of soap lining the walls of their garage. Couples on the fringe of our personal relationship matrix who wanted us to come over and hear about a business opportunity where "a guy could really make some money."

I will have to say, in my mind at least, Amway Global has picked up its game. I have been seeing their commercials quite a bit on television over the past few weeks and they are becoming much more internet savvy. The downline I'm associated with has honed the relationship marketing side of this down to a science and is very efficient in the management and development of their sales organization. Most of all out of all of the companies I have been dealing with thus far they have provided the most hands on contact. In my first two days I have already been contacted by 3 different people above me to welcome me and offer assistance.

The other thing that sets Amway Global/Quixtar apart is the wide array of products and services offered. For the most part MLM, comes down to choosing your vitamin/nutritional supplement provider, with a few exceptions of specialty items. Amway Global/Quixtar is one of the exceptions I am making to the "no-cost" rule of this endeavor, but I believe their organization may also be one of the best teachers of the business to someone starting from scratch.

For me the relationships are the most important part of this journey anyway. I see where the principles of multiplication that I use in planting house churches and developing people of faith are in many ways similar to the principles that are used to build businesses and develop leaders. So in a few weeks I will be hosting my first meeting to "share an opportunity with some friends."

After looking at everyone's programs, the quality of products offered, name recognition, etc... I decided to land on 4 MLM companies that I will be working to promote in my business model.  As much as I wanted to stick with a "no start up cost" model, I was only able to really identify one company that offered an easily deployed product line with no start up cost. The companies identified require what I would consider to be a minimal starting investment.  The companies I will be representing are listed as follows with their primary business lines and my reasons for choosing them:  Amsoil - manufactures synthetic oil and performance products for both personal and commercial equipment applications. Wide range of markets that the average MLM business owner would not normally tap into. Opportunity for large volume commercial clients. Downside: The average Joe doesn't know he needs synthetic oils and lubricants. My starting cost - $97  Amway Global - the company has moved beyond soap and toothpaste. Their product line allows for an MLM business owner to specialize in an area of interest (ie: jewelry, cosmetics, nutritional products, etc...). Amway has entered into partnership agreements with a number of mainline retailers such as Office Depot. When it comes to learning the basics of MLM, nobody is better at teaching a newbie the ropes. Downside: The stigma of Amway horror stories and predators. My Starting Cost - $143  Commission River - affiliate markets a wide range of telecom and technology services and products. The MLM business owner can tailor their business to their area of interest. This is a no start up cost program that can be marketed solely online or through traditional sales avenues. This is more of a sales focused organization than an MLM focused organization. Downside: Some of the vendors support and reporting could use some tweaking. My starting cost - $0  Fuller Brush Company - I became familiar with Fuller Brush when I worked in Great Bend, KS. Fuller Brush Company has been in existence for 108 years, manufacturing and distributing cleaning and household care items. Fuller was a door to door sales company until the early 1990s when they became a MLM company. Fuller has great name recognition and their electrostatic sweeper has been a QVC hit for years. Fuller's startup costs are very minimal - ranging from $4.95 to $39.95. Fuller is geared to be a highly effective retail sales enterprise, offering generous volume discounts to their distributors. Downside: Not a very glamorous product. My startup cost - $39.95  I will be discussing these companies and their product lines in more detail in other hubpages.