There is a phase of Network marketing taobao 集運 most people at some point in time will go through that is recognised in the industry as Ship Jumping. To explain it for those who have not heard of it, Ship Jumping occurs when you are happily building a Network Marketing Business when someone invites you to look at their offer. Flashing lights, bells and whistles, streamers and confetti all flash in front of your eyes and you decide the business you have spent a couple of years building is all of a sudden pushed aside.

The excitement in you is too strong to avoid, you have been sold on another business idea and you decide to move from your current company to the new one. You have just Jumped Ship.

I had the opportunity several years ago to welcome an experienced Networker into my team. He said had built several Networks and was looking for a new challenge. He often talked about his time with this company and that company and all the different things he had learnt. After about 6 months of joining me, he had introduced 4 people to his business.

2 months later I received e-mail from him inviting me to look at another opportunity. I went to look, just for the sake of being polite. It was an opportunity I had seen before. I learnt that my team member had joined this new group around 3 months previously. I declined his offer to join. He did not renew his membership with my group and of the 4 people who joined under him 1 went to his new Business and 3 quit unimpressed by the whole experience from their upline.

Those 3 people now have a negative opinion of Network Marketing through no fault of the industry or structure, but because of an upline with itchy feet.

I am not a believer in Jumping Ship. I have however, changed my supply company on a couple of occasions due to a couple of reasons. Firstly, the company I was promoting went bust due to poor management. Secondly, although the company I was promoting proclaimed to be selling chemical free products, I later found many of the chemicals still in the products were worse for our health than the ones they left out. I explained this to my team and as a group all but a couple of people moved with me to a more ethical business.

For your own integrity, you should consider the following before making the decision to move to another company –

1. Is your decision to Jump Ship a quick decision. Don’t be sold on confetti and streamers. If you view another opportunity, take the time to evaluate it from where you are currently.
2. How will changing opportunities get you to your goals quicker than the business your currently doing. Remember the goal is the reason.
3. Recognise you will be starting a new business from scratch. If you have invested a year or two of time in your current group, is it worth leaving to do the same thing over again?
4. Do you want to be recognised as a ship jumper? People will talk about how this is the “xx” business you have been involved with in the past “xx” years. You may be doing more damage to your business by jumping even if you think its next best thing.
5. Your Business activities should be fun, but don’t treat it like a game. If you are professional in your approaches you will demonstrate professionalism in your team and they will duplicate what you do. If you are not professional in your approaches your team may also duplicate what you do. It doesn’t take long for an industry to get a bad reputation for reasons that were not the fault of the industry itself.

Eric J. Smith is a qualified Horticulturalist and Permaculturalist. Eric writes about his interest in many areas of Environmental concern and brings into focus Changing Economic paradigms. Eric has a passion for Organic Gardening and Permaculture with an emphasis on the sustainable use of environmental systems.