Let's talk Job Security & What are the Alternatives ?
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover." -
- H. Jackson Brown
What does your ultimate business look like ?
What is your perfect career list ?
When answering, typically people focus on negative experiences:
no boss, no commute, no alarm clock, no employee’s, no politics, no discrimination, no education requirements
and reach for the positives:
great product/ service, great income, unlimited income, personal growth, residual income, enjoyable people, more time-freedom, meaningful environment, perks, international opportunities, contribution to causes, low startup cost, low risk, tax benefits, fun and economy proof.
So is this possible ?
If we consider the roles and incomes that people traditionally follow having finished school, qualifications, potential short-term travel and then settled into the workplace, they include:
1. Working class or labourers : regulated by either a company or self-employed & limited by most of the positives
2. Professional, administrative or managerial workers
Office based employees of a company to perform a role
Formerly recognised as safe and secure, these roles are now known for the premise that whilst you might be loyal to the company, the company (leaders) are more focused on making ends meet.
“People don’t leave Companies, they leave People”
The Professional class attitudes fall into:
1. Achievers and 2. Hiders
1. Achievers are ambitious, wish to succeed, are motivated, energetic, full of ideas and seek advancement.
The downside is they become targets, they are seen as a threat to potentially advancing their position taking someone else’s and are a target for discrimination.
Peers see them as a threat to their own prowess, attitudes and inabilities or preventing them from promotion.
In both cases, the Achiever is undermined and held back in order to protect the ‘status-quo’.
To remain an Achiever, the person must has to “learn to play the game”, become good at politics, manipulate situations, diminish the prowess of colleagues and places to strengthen their position.
To move forward in a professional environment, a person must become a good politician in order to advance, they must learn to “play the game” irregardless of the values they once held for themselves and those values the company presents as it’s ‘vision, mission, goals’.
2. Hiders despise politics, and focus on retaining their position only.
They learn not to be ambitious, do not contribute, do not introduce new ideas, seldom communicate in meetings, lay low in the workplace, do not seek to achieve, support gossip circles and hide, they do ‘just enough’ so they are spoken of negatively and are ‘out of the firing line’. They avoid being targeted and survive.
In the traditional environment, professional jobs were secure; today, they are not as companies are forced to shift to support a goal beyond looking after their employees and customers. The profit margin.
3. Sales : typically paid on production
Success survives by the companies marketing, branding, marketshare, economic vitality and internal KPI’s. the sales lifestyle continues for as long as the company agrees to pay bonuses, retain customer territories & provide perks success stops with shifts in client allegiance, competitor marketshare, economic recession, industry impact periods, technological advances, compensation plan changes and many more
Success in Sales requires hours of productive profitable work to meet income and lifestyle needs/ demands. Change is a constant threat with social networking needing to increase taking more time away from personal life in order to compensate for work returns and job safety. If you do not meet company KPI’s, your role is redundant.
Irregardless how effective a salesperson is, the following day, they need to start all over again, hold the same conversations, have the same limitations and controls, present the same energy for long periods of time, years… and pray that it will provide a result. The salesperson is not being productive for their direct gain, rather they benefit the company and hope to remain employed.
4. Traditional business owner : are self-employed, self-regulated and self-serving; key issues include:
loan servicing beginning with using life-savings, borrowings from friends-family-financial institutions, office management requiring unlimited hours, staff issues, reliance on franchise limitations, overcompensated time ‘in the business not on’ it, attitude of knowing everything and not needing or accepting help & poor time - freedom practices major issues require perfection in negotiation, legal knowledge, financial knowledge, recruitment & HR knowledge, accounting collection, insurance, marketing, counselling, home management and general ‘rouseabout’. They need to perform every task after all tasks are performed, personal uncertainties are rampant with income arriving after all employee’s, debtors and creditors being paid first and the owner last.
The business owns the owner, not the owner owns the business. The owner succeeds or fails, star demonstrate the majority of SME’s fail within their first 18months and are not limited to those in operation for 40yrs or more.
5. Investment : requires money to gain a positive return on investment.
Success requires knowledge and skill and remains at the peril of industry changes or management practices. investing does not allow any form of control, only observation and response
Do any of these tick all the ‘perfect career’ or ‘ultimate business’ boxes ?
None of the aforementioned provide on the perfect career list nor the ultimate business model due to the stringent and controlled flexibility of traditional methods of salary and compensation payments. Here income is limited by responsibility, politics, risk and knowledge.
Why is that important ?
Because moving forward, companies are shifting the old models of compensation, salaries, bonus systems, promises, loyalty and payouts. The former mentality that a person could shift from school to work, remain loyal, be rewarded for service and retire has long ended. Unfortunately.
What has eventuated is that people are now finding a place of work and then switching for whatever reason serves their current purpose and desired outcome. They continue this process across their lifetime and discover they cannot retire efficiently due to inflation and need to continue working. Loyalty has ended. Compensation reduced. Bonuses are dwindling. Succession plans are seen as position threats and politics reigns. Enter the Achiever versus the Hider mindset.
In Australia we are experiencing 76% of people seeking a second or third income, 33% holding a second or third income, 74% disengaged workforce, 14% actively disengaged workforce (actively undermining company principles), 8% engaged (actually want to be there) and 4% with no comment. At the same time we are seeing a rise in mental health as a result of trading more time for less income, declines in marriages, increases in divorce (represents a significant increase in divorce) and and increase in EQ disconnection (emotion is being sought elsewhere eg. reality tv, online).
Formerly companies paid salaries ie: an hourly wage for a role irregardless of outcome; the current shift globally is that employee’s shall receive a performance payment only meaning they are paid for results not time eg. US waiters.
Now imagine sales executives, marketers, product managers, consultants, teachers, nurses, office workers….the list continues.
In the case of office workers at $70k pA
a company may reduce the salary to $50k as there will be competition willing to accept the role for less the base salary reduces to $25k with potential $35k available in KPI bonuses performance now works for the company, not the individual where KPI’s are met, the company increases the KPI and reduces the bonus payout
Office workers now operate on $25k base + potential KPI bonus pA to equal $50k, meet the KPI and KPI’s are increased, bonuses reduced.
Does this currently exist ? Absolutely. The travel industry amongst many is rife with such performance payouts measured and adjusted to increase time commitments for reduced salary and future considerations. Working harder, not smarter.
Ultimately this is a better model for the company, they receive greater results for less expense, an economy under these circumstances requires less people as the few compete against one another for ‘whatever they can receive’.
Technology has changed the world economy completely, customer service and documentation is automated, sales operate online, amendments are self-propelled, building leases are shared, home flexibility removes office requirements and location limitations, education is online and self-determined, education is systemised, location flexible and automated: complete one requirement before receiving the next before being ‘recognised’ for due diligence and receive an e-certificate/ degree/ MBA.
Technology and efficiency are accelerating year on year, employment is declining and specialisation is becoming a ‘norm’. Competition is increasing magnanimously with companies leveraging salaries for return and utilising KPI bonuses as recruitment attractions only to remove them during a probation period or ensure they are ‘out of reach’ or beyond the ‘norm’ for most employee’s.
Do KPI’s exist and are they legally binding ? absolutely, however their returns are not measured by inflation, nor considerate of residence eg. Sydney versus Adelaide. That is the responsibility of the individual, if they want the job, these are the parameters; accept and abide or not.
So what is the solution ?
Network Marketing is the best method of survival under these circumstances. It ticks every box of the ultimate business and perfect career path. Ask Eric Worre and a plethora of International Experts who measure the various economies, multi-national organisations and SME’s raising the standards, practices and profits as a result of network marketing.
Consumers shall always have a need to purchase, a need for material, a need for education and choice. Marketing shall always continue to tell a story and supports distributors who promote products/ services and are paid on a performance basis.
Word of Mouth advertising has always been considered one of the most impactful and cheapest means to ‘get ahead’, network marketing reinforces this mindset by one person identifying and providing to another, educating them, supporting them, supporting the person they distribute to and so on. All involved are paid equally for the performance efforts made. All learn equally, all benefit equally, all have the opportunity to succeed and expand, to live the lifestyle they choose and operate the times suitable to them, they are not limited by geography, management, competitors, customers, income.
Network Marketing has a stigma attached to ‘pyramid systems’ where a product or service is promoted and only those at the top succeed. Does that not sound like the traditional company structure ? Chief Management paid bonuses for the work of employee’s. Employee’s working long hours, not included in decision making and potentially occasionally falling short of KPI bonus payments ?
The traditional company is the epitome of pyramid system compensation plans. Network Marketing is the opposite and continues to work better than any other system available. It enables the business owner to run their own enterprise and take it as far they would like for whatever purpose they choose, family needs, travel, medical, safety, age, lifestyle. There is no cap.
The one catch is inner-circle social acceptance
There remains a gap in awareness between what people perceive network marketing may provide compared to the allure of uncertain traditional business and what is actually available to all people irregardless of education.
For most marketers, the outcome is social ostracising, rejection and needing to identify who is tired of not being considered, valued, paid equally or properly (think unpaid superannuation, unpaid commissions), limited by glass ceilings, politics, management practices, negative cultures: the focus remains at all times, that more and more companies are driving salaries down, reducing management teams, removing customer service and product bases and operating from an automated practice focused on leveraging performance results and advertising as a one-in-the-same-practice operation. Performance Payment. Enter Network Marketing into the 21st Century.
“Perception is not Reality. Reality is Reality”
“Circumstances do not make a person, they reveal them”
Supporting the growth and engagement of business owners, staff and forward vision is always a privilege.
If it matters to You : it matters to Me
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