The M.O.M. (Moms On a Mission) Team is a group of folks (presumably moms) who seem to enjoy the freedom of working in their own home businesses without selling, without stocking any kind of inventory, without hiring employees, without creating a product or providing a service and, from all indications, without doing anything remotely resembling work of any kind.

Look into The M.O.M. Team and you might come away with this picture in your head of a slightly modernized Donna Reed, baking cupcakes, kissing boo-boos and leisurely pushing a tousle-haired toddler on a rope swing against a sunny backdrop of wildflower fields, rustled only occasionally by the warm breeze and maybe a kitten or puppy frolicking in the fresh, summer air.

Yes, that mom works for herself in her own home business. She uses environmentally safe products. She's home and available to her children. She makes money, yet she doesn't sell, stock, hire, type, file, do windows, or work at all!

So then, what exactly does she do and how does she make money doing it?

Everyone bathes, washes her hair and brushes her teeth, right? Shampoo, toothpaste, soap are some of the household purchases that must be made on a regular basis -- they're consumables, used and reused again and again. A person will purchase these things on a pretty predictable schedule throughout her entire life.

As a member of The M.O.M. Team you'll still be buying these goods, and other moms who join after you will still buy these goods, and guess what! That's how you'll make money! By simply washing your hair, and knowing that other people will wash theirs, too.

Still don't get it? The M.O.M. Team is affiliated with a company called Melaleuca(they can’t advertise their `business� using the Melaleuca name, however). Melaleuca produces about 300 different personal care and household products--the aforementioned consumables. Say I currently buy shampoo at Wal-Mart. When I become a member of The M.O.M. Team, I simply don't buy shampoo at Wal-Mart anymore. Instead, I buy my shampoo from Melaleuca. Voila! Home business extraordinaire.

Wait a minute -- where's the money? What's the 'home-business' in buying and using shampoo?

--THE SELLING-POINTS OF NOT SELLING

No selling is one of the M.O.M. Team battle cries, but is it accurate?

Joining The M.O.M. Team and merely using the products month after month won't make you one thin dime. To make money, you must introduce The M.O.M. Team to other moms who are interested in a `home business. You've got to convince other people to join beneath you and to start buying the Melaleuca products in order to make money. You must persuade others to do what you've done.

Whether you want to call it introducing, referring, advising, persuading or recommending, you're actually SELLING a spot on The M.O.M. Team. The more you recruit, the more money you make because each person must purchase a set amount of product each month, generally $40 - $45 worth, and you get a percentage of that amount.

Another MOM group promoting Melaleuca usage and 'referrals' as a home business is MomsWIN (Women In Net-marketing). Listen to their recording and you'll be told that their plan is NOT MLM, or Multi-Level Marketing.

But you make money the same way you make money with The M.O.M. Team -- you earn a very small percentage of each purchase made by the team members BELOW you. Folks, that's called a downline.

And that IS MLM.

No downline (meaning you haven't SOLD anyone on the idea of signing up below you), no money. No MOMS on YOUR team, no moolah.

A lovely picture graces M.O.M. Team websites: a mother's hand holding the small, delicate hand of a child, and an expectant mother, all soft light and fuzzy edges, caressing her growing and partially bare stomach. It's a nice image to which most moms can probably relate. What expecting woman hasn't touched her stomach in that same way and been overcome with joy and anticipation? What mother doesn't want the best for her children at all times? What mother would continue to use products in her home that were dangerous to her children's health1?

What mother hasn't felt some kind of worry or guilt about leaving her child with a sitter or at day-care center while she went off to work?

Pregnancy and motherhood are precious times in a woman's life. They're filled with powerful and instinctive emotions. And M.O.M. Team marketing cleverly plays upon each and every one of them.

If you've looked anywhere online for home business opportunities or home employment, surely you've seen the ads:

"Are you poisoning your family? Build your business while ridding your home of toxins!"

"No selling, no inventory, no paperwork, no employees! A real home business for Moms!"

"Moms, your kids need you! Join The M.O.M. Team today!"

If nothing else, Melaleuca certainly understands its target market.

You pay $29 + tax to get started (to join the 'team'), then pay $45 - $95 (depending on the level of commissions you’d like to receive) each month in exchange for a variety of Melaleuca products. Percentages of your monthly purchase are paid to your upline (your sponsor, your sponsor’s sponsor, etc.). You make commissions on the purchases of those you recruit into The M.O.M. Team, your downline. It's MLM, a pyramid, and therefore it must inevitably fail at some level -- pyramids only benefit those at the top levels for logical reasons. And the claims that M.O.M. Teamers can get tax breaks for owning a 'home business' sound questionable -- the taxman might be extremely interested once he finds out exactly what this 'business' entails.

In all fairness to Melaleuca, they do have a 60-day 'bottom of the bottle' guarantee and their products may be the greatest thing since Velcro-laced shoes. I don't know -- I've never used them.

And hey, many people may actually already spend the monthly $45 on shampoos, toothpastes and soaps required to stay a member of The M.O.M. Team . I don't. Many people may find the Melaleuca products worth the cost, and far superior to the products they now use. I'm happy with Suave and Dial, thanks very much. Many people may consider those pyramid plans, solely dependent on recruiting members instead of sales of a product or service, to be actual and legitimate businesses. They’re not.

No doubt, the early-joiners make some money, at least for a while, but how many M.O.M.s at the bottom of long lists of downlines are spending too much on these products each month in the hopes of making large commissions that never materialize? Melaleuca, however, has it made since each person is required to make that minimum $40-$45 monthly purchase.

[Click here to see the questions I posed to several M.O.M. Teamers and the interesting responses I received that helped form the opinions expressed in this article]

[NOTE: I don’t have any obligation to post PRO-Melaleucan views here -- they have their own websites, after all -- but this is too good to ignore. Here are some reactions from a real Pro--ProNetworker, that is.]

1Melaleuca may make claims that the products commonly used in average households are toxic and could contribute to a variety of medical conditions, particularly in children.

Shelley Ontis

c 2002

shelleyo@gtec.com

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