Getting Acquainted

Who Is Bill Reid


The Short Version

West Texas born, farm raised, and the eldest of five brothers, Bill acquired the skills of leadership and learned the value of hard work early in life. Back in those days everyone in a farm family had work and chores to do along with all the other responsibilities of a youngster growing up in the 50's. A lot of years, miles, experiences, have come and gone since then. The prime years of youth have come and gone and things and times have changed, and so has Bill Reid.

Today Bill is successfully retired from a succession of careers, and lives with his wife of 43+ years in their home in the countryside near Forney, Texas. But Bill is not your typical retiree. As a life long early riser, it didn't take much retirement to go a long way. Soon Bill found himself immersed in a variety of pursuits, not the least of which is an effort to "catch up" with everyone else on the Internet, and blaze a new trail with a new (and final) career as a Homebased Internet Marketing Entrepreneur and Consultant. Years of experience with people and a special gift of communication ability, understanding, and insight, has produced a strong tree that still has much fruit to yield.

Is This Really A Brave New World?

We live in a new and constantly changing world. It's a dangerous world where turmoil exists on a constant basis in just about every part of the Earth we live on, and there are forces that choose violent means to impose their will on anyone who does not believe as they do. These forces and other geopolitical events can change the direction of a well planned life at any point along the way. Governments, including our own, can be forced to make drastic changes in our laws and regulations, affecting our ability reach our life goals and objectives. The end result expected, from a life dedicated to the proposition that if you just do the right thing and follow the rules you will do just fine as the time arrives for retirement, can evaporate before our very eyes. It happened with Enron didn't it? How about the United Airlines Pilot's when their company declared bankruptcy? With the stroke of a pen, pensions, retirements, savings... all gone, along with the years of toil that brought the participants to that point in life. Now a realization that there is no time to recover. At least not by going the same route that got them to this point. So how should we deal with these new uncertainties that so clearly exist today?

The Best Is Yet To Come

Once the road is traveled it's much easier to look back and see where we could have missed a bump here and there. Another truth is, if you have hit a few of life's bumps along the way, it's easier to spot similar obstacles in the road ahead. That's where the experiences of those who are "well traveled" becomes so valuable to those who are still trying to negotiate their way to the "promised land". In many ways the younger generation is better prepared, with more tools, better educations, higher technological devices, and so on. However, the one thing that all this "technology" does, that is not good, is that it does not easily allow for the opportunity to develop relationships with real people, a fundamental that is frequently overlooked by those who have not evolved from a time when human relationships were everything, and machines and technology, if they existed at all, were only tools to be used. By combining hard lessons learned from the past with today's advanced technologies, we have the ability to accelerate the processes required to build a large, non-traditional business organization. That's what I do.

That's how I can help you.

Come visit me here and take a look at some of the tools that I use, both for my own homebased online Internet marketing business, and for the promotion of other online Internet businesses as well.

Till next time... Good marketing!!!

Tackling the "Pyramid" myth

For anyone who has ever been interested in, or associated with MLM, Networking, or Multi-Level marketing, there is always the question that comes up when you approach someone about your business opportunity, and that is, "Is this a pyramid?". What happens next is a deal killer before you ever even get the opportunity to tell your prospect about your business or product. and that is, you begin defending your Internet marketing or networking business against claims of illegality and not about the wonderful opportunity that you believe it is. Shortly after that, you get the "high eyebrow" look, and your done before you ever got going. Sad isn't it, that so many are so closed minded about the real potentials of networking and homebased businesses? So how do you cope with this particular issue? First off, you need to understand the law. And just what is the law? Check with your state officials to specifics about "pyramid or ponzi schemes" in your state, and if you do business in multi-states, then you should take the time to check in with the FTC for the federal position. But generally speaking, this is the loose definitions of these schemes of which you need to be aware.

Pyramid schemes are marketing and investment frauds which reward participants for inducing other people to join the program. In this type of scheme, products, if there are any, are secondary to the recruitment compensation, from which the "new person" is able to recover the cost of entry into the plan. In other words, the plan will reward the recruiter from funds required of the newly recruited, and in most cases there is no "earnings" from product sales. While products may be involved, they are generally used as a disguise for the recruiting scheme.

Ponzi schemes, on the other hand, operate strictly by paying earlier investors in the program, with money deposited by later investors, and without the emphasis on recruitment or awareness of a participation structure. Generally there is a promise of a high ROI, with the earlier investors being paid with deposits of the newcomers. Ultimately, the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" type schemes are headed for disaster with the scheme originators goal being to amass as many deposits as possible before abscounding with the principal deposits of all the unsuspecting investors.

With these explanations in mind, one should be able to differentiate between what is legal and what is illegal as it relates to the opportunity they are promoting. It pays to pay close attention to the company's compensation plan and be sure that it comes from earnings related to product sales or charges for real services rendered.

Now, with all that said, why should you allow the issue to arise at all, and if you know that the prospect that you are about to approach may have a dim or distorted understanding of MLM or network marketing methods of moving product to the general public, then deal with it from the very beginning, up front. Never let it be the focus of the conversation. Then, just be sure that you have done your homework, that the company's profits are based on real sales numbers of either the products or services offered, and not solely dependent on the recruitment fees. When you are convinced, it's much easier to make it clear to the naysayer.

Finally, there is always the possibility that the person you are dealing with has been "taken" in a real illegal scheme of some kind and your chance of convincing them that anything that even remotely resembles the "scheme" they were burned by, isn't illegal, is almost nil. Save yourself some time when you recognize this to be the case. Move on to the next prospect, politely, and let the person with the distorted view go on with their life as they see fit. It's a judgement call that you have to make from time to time, and you are the only one who can make the call, but unless your opportunity has a way for them to avoid recruiting, it's best to move on.

As for the way I handle it personally, which is also something that is different from person to person, I generally just return their question with a similar question, such as "What do you mean by "pyramid"? Give them a chance to tell you what they believe one to be, then you may have a chance to save your approach by just saying "no, it's not like that......and just go on into whatever your normal approach would have been without the question being asked.

Till next time... Good prospecting and good luck with your homebased business marketing program, whatever it might be, Internet or otherwise.