Why I Joined Kleeneze

I've had an interesting life so far and an interesting career path. Although I went to a junior school in a run-down area of an industrial city, I got into a girls' grammar school - and hated every minute of my 5 years there! My careers' mistress thought I'd make a good bi-lingual secretary, so of course I trained as a design engineer with a local telecoms company instead. I worked there for 12 years, until our entire division got made redundant and I re-invented myself as a database specialist. Since then, life has never been dull.

I've worked part-time, full-time, contracted and temped. Some of my temping jobs have been basic, such as cleaning sanitary facilities; some have been weird - ask me about bulling semi-conductors sometime. The best part-time job I ever had was being a postie; I have immense respect for the staff of Royal Mail because of that.

The one consistent factor amongst all of these jobs is that I would rather be employed than unemployed. I also discovered I prefered working to my own self-imposed boundaries, rather than those imposed by others. In common with many, I'm not a natural cog in the corporate machine.

Seven years ago, my ex walked away from me, the mortgage and 4 children. Through hard work and determination, I started clawing my way back up the professional pecking order, from data entry temp to senior business intelligence specialist. Along the way, my salary improved from £16,000 to £38,000. It had to - I have a large mortgage and bills to pay every month. My income does not stretch towards providing me with an adequate pension. I currently have a 58 mile round trip every day to and from work.

At the same time, I became the single point of reference for my children's wellbeing. I have never received maintenance from a man that my mother regards as feckless - I have other words for him. I have missed out on all of their sports days since 2003, most of their evening concerts and a fair few daytime "mentoring sessions", due to my inability to get a well-paid job in my specialisation within less than a 30 mile radius of our home.

My children have had very few holidays since 2003; for the last 2 years the eldest two have made their own holiday arrangements. I might get one or two more holidays with the two younger ones. There's no point in wishing things were different; I can't change what has already happened.

I can change what my future will be and I intend to make a better life for myself, my gorgeous fiancé and my children.

I knew that to have a better life, I needed extra income. I looked at starting my own database business and ran into a brick wall - there were too many negatives involved. I didn't have seed capital, I couldn't support my outgoings without a personal reserve of £60,000 if I was to resign and work on my own business full-time and I had no-one to drum up work for me if I tried to run a business part-time alongside the existing day job.

I needed another option. I'd previously been involved with a network marketing company in the nutritional supplements sector and I understood the concept of building a residual income. I started looking around for a company that fitted my requirements. I wanted to be associated with a strong brand that had marketable products, an established customer base and good growth potential. I chose Kleeneze.

In my first 3 weeks, I achieved my first bonus and received an extra 50 catalogues. I then had to take some time away from the business due to holidays and family crises, but in period 11 I hit my 10% bonus:


This month, I consolidated my position and was delighted to hit my 10% level in the third week:

Running my Kleeneze business is remarkably simple; it just requires a little discipline at times. I know there are cars and holidays as major incentives, but for me, a regular incentive is to improve on last month's Kleeneze bonus cheque.

This money is proof that I can build a better future for myself and my family - this income alone is allowing me to reach my immediate goals such as a new cooker, a decent family holiday and a better car.

I'm now actively looking to help others achieve their dreams, just as I am slowly and surely achieving mine. If you're interesting in finding out more, visit my Kleeneze website and leave me your contact details.

Base Camp - Living in the Foothills of Success

Building a successful business is often likened to climbing a very steep mountain. Both require foresight, advance planning and a continual review of both the goals and the best route to those goals.

My progress with my Kleeneze business is a case in point. Like most people who need an extra income, I had very specific short-term goals, including paying bills, replacing my cooker and fixing up my house and garden. Luckily, I wasn't in the position of having to survive on my retail profits, which meant I could happily invest those profits back into my business and thus generate more sales.

Last month, I got my first certificate of income. As a Kleeneze distributor, you get these once you reach your 10% bonus level; they're a physical reminder of the level you've reached. I've never been so happy to see a picture of a cheque in my life!


This month, I consolidated my position and hit my 10% level in the third week. From now on, it's my target to achieve the 10% level by no later than the third week in every period.

Running my Kleeneze business is remarkably simple; it just requires a little discipline at times. I know there are cars and holidays as major incentives, but for me, a regular incentive is to improve on last month's Kleeneze bonus cheque.

If you would like to join my team, or want more information about Kleeneze as a business opportunity, enter your details on my Kleeneze page and I'll get in touch as soon as possible.

Kleeneze Lady Misses 13 Percent Bonus Level - Don't Make This Mistake!

I got my Group Sales Analysis for Period 12 today and I hit my 10% bonus level with ease, as predicted.

Unfortunately, I missed out on my 13% bonus by 200 points and I know exactly what the reason is.

In period 11, I had one week where I mispaid my account by 50p. That, unfortunately, put my account into arrears for 24 hours, after which the cheques I had paid in to the bank 4 days earlier were credited to my account.

The ramifications of not paying that 50p are quite severe.

Firstly, I can't apply for an increase in my credit limit for another two periods, during which time, I have to keep my account payments up-to-date. Right now, as you might imagine, I'm double checking every online payment before I click send.

Secondly, I can't grow the retail side of my business as I would like. To make my 13% bonus level, I need to be selling £400 of products every week. That's not a lot of sales and I should be perfectly capable of doing that part-time.

However, I also have a full-time job in an out-of-town location and paying money in to any bank is a logistical nightmare in a 45 minute lunch-break. I rely on Saturday opening hours for that reason. To make life even more interesting, many of my customers will not answer the door after dark, or on Sundays. Many do not provide me with phone numbers, so it can take a couple of visits before I deliver their orders.

None of this is a major issue, but it does mean that at the moment, I can realistically only submit an order each week for the amount I have credited my account with. In other words, if I've collected £200 of payments by Saturday morning, that is the amount that will be credited to my Kleeneze account. When I place my order on the following Tuesday morning, I can order £200 of goods. If my account is in credit, say by £78, I can place an order for £278 on Tuesday morning.

To place an order for £400 of goods each week, I need £400 in either credit, payments or both. As I still have only the starting credit limit of £500 that all new distributors are provided with, I need to collect in all the payments for orders each week, as well as collecting and delivering catalogues so that I can place orders for the following week. It's an interesting exercise and one that I haven't quite solved to my satisfaction yet.

Essentially, I need to get organised.

It has to be said, I'm delighted to be achieving 10% bonuses with so little effort and I'm determined to hit 13% as soon as I can.

One of my goals is to achieve another bonus level every 3 periods, whilst sustaining the previous bonus level. I'll be posting on It's Not An Attitude about SMART goals soon.

Kleeneze's New Distributor Websites

I've been like a child on Christmas Eve today, waiting for the email that all active Kleeneze distributors have been expecting since last week's conference announcement.

It's finally here! My own landing page website, courtesy of Kleeneze. You'll spot a Join My Team link at the top right, which will take you straight to it, or you can always bookmark www.mykleeneze.com/annaellis for future reference.

Now all I need is a decent photo of myself...

Thanks to all at Kleeneze HQ for this, it's much appreciated.

Tithing for Profit

Tithing is an interesting concept. To many, especially devout Christians, it's a form of charitable activity that involves donating 10% of your income to help others. To mediaeval history buffs, it's a noun for a group of 10 men who were collectively financially and morally responsible for each others' actions.

I'd like to propose a new definition.

Many join Kleeneze, Avon, etc. because they need extra income to pay off debts, to pay bills, or to buy essentials for themselves or their family. They assume that their retail profit is equal to ready cash, that they can spend that money in perpetuity without reinvesting in their business. They then get upset when catalogues are not returned, or become unusable over time due to weather, wear and tear, etc. If they get upset enough, they are liable to decide not to carry on, which wastes not only their previous effort, but also wastes the time that their sponsor has invested in them.

That's where the concept of tithing comes in.

If you are running your own Kleeneze (or similar) business because you have an urgent and immediate need for regular cash, stop how you are treating that retail profit and change to this method:

Every week, when you've paid in what you owe to Kleeneze for the goods ordered and sold, take 10% of your retail profit, rounded up to the nearest pound, and stick it in a jar.

In other words, if your retail profit for a week's orders and sales is £61.26, your tithe would be £6.21. Round that up to £7 and put it somewhere safe. Remember, you still have £54.26 to spend on your own needs.

That £7 is your seed money towards reinvesting in your retail business. In 5 weeks, you could pay for a new set of catalogues to replace any which are lost or worn out. In 1 week, you could buy new bags for your catalogues, new carrier bags for your customers' orders or a branded hat/polo shirt.

When you're building your business, you should be tithing for profit.

Invest your retail profits in your business, invest your bonuses in your lifestyle. That way, you have two stories to tell, rather than one.

Students and Working Women Clobbered Again!

It's not a good time to be either an aspiring graduate or a woman of working age.

Two separate reports today push home the effects of pulling the UK out of its quagmire of debt.

The first points out that the salary threshold at which graduates will need to start paying 9% of their gross income might be quoted as £21,000, but it's actually closer to £18,500 at today's wages. That means, unless they deliberately choose to work for minimum wage once they get a job, they'll lose at least £157.50 every month out of their wages at the threshold level alone. Not to mention the need to cope with rising interest rates, inflation, rent etc.

Guess how many graduates will work out that earning £21,000 will make them worse off than earning £19,150? What sort of incentive is that to do well in life?

The second report flags the increasing effect of the recession on working women. Despite overall unemployment falling by 9,000 in the past quarter, 31,000 women lost their jobs. 1.02 million women are now officially out of work, and that doesn't include those married women who haven't accrued enough national interest credits in their own right to merit Job Seekers Allowance payments.

In times of recession, enterprising people reconsider starting their own businesses. Joining Kleeneze would provide many with a good income, improved quality of life and the potential of a great lifestyle, all for a small start-up cost.

I've been unemployed and it's not fun. My son gave up his university course because his fear of debt was greater than his desire to attend uni. He's been unemployed ever since and the depression he and his friends experience is painful to watch. It cripples the mind and stops them reaching out for opportunities. Don't fall into that trap, if you find yourself unemployed or with debts you don't know how to repay.

I'm building a better life for myself and I can help you do it, too.

Need Extra Income? Join My Team

Interested in knowing more? Click here for further details. Your distributor reference is 51240372.

90 Day Plan - Preparation

A 90 day plan has to be one of the simplest concepts in running your business. It's also one of the hardest to get right.

At first sight, there's no problem. You decide you want to run your own business. You start investigating options. You choose your preferred route to success. You attend some pre-business start up training, followed by some business training. And that's when the trouble starts.

As part of that business training, you get told that there are several key factors to your future success:

1. You need to be passionate. That's OK, I wouldn't be investing time and money in seed money and training if I wasn't passionate, you say.
2. You need to be organised. Not a problem, you assure yourself. It won't take long to tidy up a corner of the dining room/bedroom/attic. I've got my stapler, I've got my binders, I have a phone - how difficult can this be?
3. You need to have a plan. I've got a plan, you say, smiling to yourself. I'm going to do this business brilliantly, I'm going to make loads of money and I'm going to be a great success.

At that point, you've just joined Walter Mitty in WonderfulMe Land and killed off any chance of succeeding.

Let's face it, if achieving financial freedom was that easy, there would be no poverty in this world.

Success = commitment + focus + persistent action

You need all three parts to build a solid foundation. Focus gets you zeroed in on your target. Commitment binds you to a course of action that will enable you to achieve your goals. But without the persistent action, there will be no long-term achievement.

So, you need that plan, it needs to be simple, and you need to stick with it.

All too often, we come away from training meetings with our ears ringing with MLM mantra. The one I personally feel does the most damage is this classic:

Massive Action = Massive Results

Poorly applied (because nobody's thought to tell the poor noob how to do so), that mantra is responsible for more failed businesses than I care to think.

Let's break it down, shall we? Action = Results. We all know that. But who defines "Massive"? You? Your upline? Your family?

So the new distributor/representative/sacrificial lamb listens to the various speakers at the training meeting and decides they need to:

1. Buy into the business at the highest level possible, regardless of personal cost.
2. Buy huge amounts of lead generation material OR spend a fortune on leads.
3. Scattergun leaflets around the neighbourhood, spam their friends and family and fill up the garage with unsold products.

This leap into action usually means that on day 1, they do whatever they've been advised to do - say, deliver 500 leaflets, phone 10 relatives/friends, place 5 adverts in various papers.

By day 7, they're down to putting out 200 leaflets per night, there's no relatives left who'll answer the phone and the 5 adverts were obviously a waste of time because nobody called.

By day 14, they're not putting out leaflets any more, their friends are avoiding them at social events and they are scared they'll never shift that stock.

By day 28, it's meeting time again and they get encouraged to stick at it for another 4 weeks.

I know of people who've spent more than £15,000 trying to build their business like this. They all gave up, or the money gave out. Either way, it means the dream died.

So why on earth am I giving this whole Network Marketing concept another go? I must be mad, right?  

Wrong.

Just because there's a wrong way of following instructions, doesn't mean that those instructions don't have meaning and value. Just because some uplines seem more concerned with their own profits than helping you build a solid foundation for your business, does not mean all sponsors are corrupt, money-grabbing villains.

Each of us bears responsibility for our own actions. That includes the responsibility for performing a sanity check on what you've just planned for your business, buoyed as you are by the adrenalin rush of attending a really good business training. Your upline is not responsible for your business. You are.

Network Marketing is a People Business. As such, you are an ambassador for both your retail business and your team building. If you waste huge amounts of money on poorly targeted lead generation, don't follow up, don't build rapport with your customers by regularly calling/delivering catalogues/providing product - then that is what your team will copy, regardless of how many passionate members of their upline try to coach them differently.

To succeed in this sort of business, we all need to listen, learn, apply. We need to set SMART goals, not dreams. We need to plan and then stick to that plan. And we need to have an underlying mission statement for our business growth.

My business growth mantra is:

To build a Kleeneze team that is completely self-financing from retail sales.

In other words, after my initial investment of £171 for 200 catalogues, my distributor kit and a large Kleeneze-badged catapuller, all business growth will be funded by my retail profits.

Any lead-generation activity will be financed on that basis. I will start off with low-cost or no-cost promotions and move forward from there. I'll let you all know how it goes.