GPT Vs MLM: What is the best business model?

There is quite a lively debate these days within the Home Business community as to which business model, GPT or MLM, offers the best chance for success and profitability. GPT stands for Get Paid Today or Get Paid To, depending on who you listen to. MLM, of course, stands for multi-level marketing, also known as network marketing. Disciples in each of these fields swear and declare, often with lots of graphs and charts, income disclaimers and, of course, a host of “expert” opinions, that their business model is superior. GPT practitioners even go as far as proclaiming the demise of MLM, with obituaries. So what is the truth in all this rhetoric, which business model is superior? In my opinion, neither. But the debate is fun nonetheless.

Business people, people in general, are as different as night and day. Personality traits like likes, dislikes, emotional and psychological makeup, strengths, weaknesses, and interpersonal skills differ from person to person. Therefore, the right business model for one entrepreneur is not necessarily the right one for another. There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to business opportunities. That would be like saying that everyone is cut out to be a doctor, a lawyer, a professional athlete. The personality traits and skills that make one likely to be successful in MLM do not necessarily lead to success in a GPT business and vice versa. To borrow an analogy from the sports world, MLM is more of a team sport, like baseball or basketball. GPT is more like golf. You don’t need to have a team mentality to play golf, but you certainly do if you want to play baseball.

MLM requires networking, team building, mentoring, growth, and downline work. GPT, on the other hand, is more like a “fee-for-service” business; read a survey, fill out some kind of form, mail an envelope, and get paid for doing it. Even if you have a GPT website where other people do the work and pay you, then you share a percentage with the workers, it is still a fee for service. You don’t need to form a team or interact with people at all. You really don’t need good people skills. In MLM you must have absolutely good interpersonal skills and good communication skills. You also need to have thick skin and be able to handle rejection because not everyone you show your business opportunity or product to will buy. With GPT you don’t have to depend on other people to be successful. In MLM, your success depends entirely on the success of others, the success of your team.

So to insist that one or the other, MLM or GPT, is superior is, in a word, absurd. As I said before, one size does not necessarily fit all. One business model is potentially as successful and profitable as the other in the hands of the right professional. The right professional is one who is properly equipped, properly trained, and possesses the appropriate personality traits and skill sets necessary to be successful in your particular business. Rather, one is potentially as disastrous as the other in the hands of the wrong practitioner, one who does not possess the necessary skills, personality, and training. In my opinion, therefore, neither business model is superior to the other and it is about time we put the whole GPT vs. MLM debate to rest.

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