Thursday, September 26, 2013

Looks like a duck but not a duck

If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it is a duck. This is an idiom which we use to mean that if something is what it seems to be then it must be that thing. I thought about this idiom after finding it hard to push a work-from-home business under the banner of the Supreme Wealth Alliance (SWA). You can see SWA ads in the Internet, particularly on Facebook.

I joined SWA almost a month ago, thinking that it could give my family a steady source of income in preparation for our final homecoming a year or two from now.nI am an OFW or overseas Filipino worker employed as an editor with the Saudi Gazette. I am based in Jeddah and my family - my wife and our daughter - is with me. My wife works as a nurse at the International Medical Center. Our daughter is in high school here. With my wife and I both working, we live quite above subsistence, meaning we are able to save for the rainy days. But while most OFWs can save if they want to, the problem for almost all of us is how to start life anew when you go home for good.

We have plans on how to do it like what business or businesses to go into. But life has taught me that we cannot count eggs as chicks until they are hatched. That's how I decided to join SWA when I saw an ad on Facebook. I wanted a safety net while starting life anew back home.

 SWA networkers are divided into teams. I was assigned to two teams - Team Global Millionaires and Team Infinity (for infinite income) - both headed by Baguio-based Mark Joven Bastillada, a former call center agent who quit his job when he started earning as much as his erstwhile salary.

 Having been involved in network marketing in the late 80s, I recognized at once while watching the video presentations in an ad posted on Facebook that it was network marketing. What makes it different from other traditional network marketing is that its products - ebooks - are not tied to what network marketers call the business plan, or earning system.

In traditional network marketing, also known as MLM or multilevel marketing, networkers have to meet a certain sales/consumption quota to get their commissions. The money from sales/consumption is the source of fund for the commissions. The bigger your network of sellers/consumers is, the bigger is your income. Since SWA products are not tied to the pay plan, it appears like an illegal pyramiding, the most common scam in the Philippines in which people are enticed to invest on a promise of big profits but the people behind it would later run away because it has no viable source of funds to pay the promised profits on a long-term basis. So how did I get involved in SWA when it appears like a scam or fraud?

As a journalist, I have been trained not to get smarter than the story. There are stories that appear small at first glance but a closer look may give you clues to a bigger story. It's a lesson I have put into practice - you have to analyze or dig below the surface. To make the story short, I did not dismiss SWA immediately and took a close look at its business plan and found it to be legit. I am not saying this because I am now part of it. It's the other way around. I joined it after finding that its pay plan can sustain paying the commissions however big the network becomes.

The problem with SWA is that it is hard to push precisely because it looks like a scam. My wife thought so and warned me when I first told her that I was joining it. I made a bet: If it were a scam and the company would run away with the P2,500 (US$55)registration fee, which gives its member access to a library of ebooks, I will treat her and our daughter to a dinner at Chile's. She lost. The company did not run away but gave me a website.

Many friends have also warned me about it and one Facebook reader posted a comment under one of my ads: "Can you believe a scam like this?" I assured her that it was not scam and that the pay plan was - and is - sustainable to enable the company to pay the promised commissions however big the network grows.
A scam is a fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit, in which the people behind it would run away with your money. In a nutshell, it's swindling. The company has no reason to flee with your small amount of membership fee. That would be foolishly killing a good business, a hen that lays golden eggs. Since its launch in the Philippines (this is a global business) one-and-a-half years ago, the company has grown with more than 30,000 members. If it were a scam, with that huge number of membership, if could have collapsed and those behind it could have disappeared with whatever small amount they had collected. It stood the test of time. Obviously, its pay plan proved effective and has made a good number of millionaires among its more than 30,000 members. But I may not be destined to become a millionaire - or even to create a steady source of income from it. As I said I find it difficult to push because it looks like a duck, although it is not.

NOTE: The book "The Gypsy Soul and Other Essays" is available at amazon.com

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