When I speak with prospective clients or anyone within the multi-level marketing industry, I too often hear the common question along the lines of “Can we hide the fact that we’re an MLM so people don’t shun us”?

It’s quite the silly question with all due respect. You can call a dog a cat but that doesn’t change the fact that it will forever be a dog.

2025 needs to be the year of being unapologetically who you are, both as a company and as an individual.

Too often individuals and companies seek cuteness over reality. This is what causes the issues, not the underlying business model, industry, or otherwise. Cuteness inevitably leads to problems because the truth is being glossed over, and individuals inevitably feel duped later on.

My goal as an attorney is to assist companies in doing things right, from corporate structuring and taxation to compliance. But it’s also to be creative and assist entrepreneurs in fulfilling their goals based on their particular risk adversity.

For example, MLM is NOT illegal despite the countless YouTube videos or otherwise that love to tout for clicks. There will always be detractors whether they be your ordinary citizens, other industries, or government regulators. That's perfectly fine. There's beauty in diversity of opinion. But opposing views should never be the driver, or even an aspect, to decision making for management or distributors alike.

The moment the outside world does not matter and you focus on your core mission of serving customers and distributors, then everything else will fall into place. It’s when companies seek to adjust too frequently and please everyone that they end up doing the exact opposite.

This does not mean that you will succeed because many fail regardless of the industry. It's a fact of life. Just take a look at restaurants and the amount of turnover that one building down the block has experienced. But this potentiality of failure should never drive decisions either. The key factor is to do it right and go out or succeed on your OWN terms.

There will always be regulatory concerns, but these concerns cannot be used to create paralysis by analysis. Too often new companies walk themselves into a pretzel seeking to understand the nuanced, and frequently contradictory, guidelines and rules that exist, especially in theMLM space. Avoiding the weeds from the outset is critical to getting a company off the launch pad. The best thing a company can do is get started, surround yourself by knowledgeable individuals and counsel, and address items as they appear.

As we now embark into 2025, the landscape will remain as precarious as ever, but that’s when opportunities arise. There are many open-ended questions with the second Trump Administration quickly approaching, but this is what makes business fun and extremely opportunistic. 2024 welcomed many changes in the industry, and those who were swimming naked were exposed when the tide went down. But as the tide rises again, the opportunities come with it. So now it’s time to at least put on something and embark on the journey of 2025. The goal should be to not be caught naked when the tides inevitably subside once more. 

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