Marshall and Christine Hughey are a Power Couple here in Las Vegas. As a team, they are awesome teachers and mentors. Along with much successful business experience building other business owner’s businesses and their own businesses, the Hughey’s are following a Multi-Level Marketing Business platform.

Q: Tell us a little bit about what types of businesses you’ve owned or operated to give us some perspective on your perspective.

A: We have been in financial services for over 20 years. Part of the time we were employed with different firms. We have started a couple of business over the years from scratch. We have also been involved in several MLMs, but we describe it more accurately as “referral compensation” business .

Q: What about owning an MLM business appeals to you? What’s your favorite thing about owning an MLM business?

A: Several things appeal to us about MLM businesses:

• The referral compensation: Everybody’s told someone they should see a movie or eat at a particular restaurant. Then those you’ve told could tell others, and before you know it, 50-60 people are watching a movie or eating at the restaurant because of your one referral.
• Time leverage: If you are a busy person and you feel like you don’t have the time for this sort of thing, then it is perfect for you. Your 3 hours a week and asking 3 other busy people with only 3 hours a week means you have 12 hours working now towards your business each week.
• Technology leverage: The internet with online store fronts and the parent company takes care of everything for you.

Our favorite thing about an MLM business is being a real service to others and truly helping them; we believe this is a life changing opportunity.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge of owning an MLM business?

A: We don’t look at things now as challenges but only as progression.

Q: How did you choose your specific MLM business?

A: We prayed and changed our life plan from the path we were on to the one God directed us to. And we were directed to FreeLife International as the company we should refer people to.

Q: Can you really make any money owning an MLM business, and does the money come as easily as many MLM’s say in their marketing?

A: Yes, you can make money! The company that we were directed to has an income statistic chart they put out each year. Some of the top earners earn over 2 million dollars a year. This kind of money comes with the amount of effort you want to put in to your business. It is a direct reflection on how many people you help.

Q: Tell me a bit about what makes a good training program in an MLM business?

A: We first start with our core principle of being a service to others and allowing people to be who they are and not requiring them to become someone different to be successful.

Q: How are you using online network marketing to expand your business?

A: We use online marketing mostly now for our training purpose, with audio and written messages for anyone to be inspired to continue with working their business.

The company also uses online ordering and store fronts that keep you well informed about all the products and meeting, etc.

Q: How do you approach goal-setting?

A: Our goal setting is a little different – 2 parts:

1. The people that choose to join with us, their goals become our goals. We make their goals our priority.
2. We teach that you should not set your goal so high that you become discouraged. We want people to set reasonable achievable goals each day. Little strokes fell great oaks – better to have little consistent activity then big inconsistent activity.

Q: Do you think systems are important in business? If so, what’s so important about systems?

A: The system is important because it is a way to help people set goals. The system that we have uses core principles of being open to new information and passing it on.

Q: Your main MLM business is Jule of the Orient. Why did you choose this business?

A: Jule of the Orient is a product of FreeLife, the company we chose because, quite literally, we were directed by God to join.

Q: Are you following a system created by Jule of the Orient, or have you combined it with your own successful system? What part of your system is your creation?

A: What came first was Plexus Gathering System. It was given to us as an answer to prayer. We refer to ourselves as co-founders of the Plexus Gathering System. Then what came after was the direction to join FreeLife which has the same principle of service to others.

Q: What personal attributes lead to success for a MLM business owner?

A: Just be who you are – nothing different than you were created by God to be.

Q: What is the Plexus Gathering System all about?

A: Plexus Gathering System is a way to transform what you want into what you have. It is transmutation from the unseen to our physical reality. In its broadest definition it is alchemy.

And our Bonus Question: Mac or PC?

A: PC but with resentment!

You can contact Marshall and Christine Hughey by email, and you can find them on Facebook, as well.

This post was to be another entrepreneur’s interview, but I felt compelled to write about some amazing things I’ve stumbled upon in the techie world.

I was looking for a better way to organize client files, business documents, and individual projects. I was also looking for a way to organize all of my computer resources and programs.

I needed a way to get all of my individual tools all humming along together like a well-tuned engine.

I’m a Newbie

At this point, I’d better explain to you that historically I’m not very proficient at techie stuff. I haven’t been using a computer or any gadgets at all until relatively recently. I didn’t even carry a cell phone until a few months ago.

As you might imagine, as a newbie I had some difficulties finding my way around the Internet looking for solutions.

It turns out that my being a newbie benefited me, as I didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas of what technology might be able to do for me. I just kept researching and trying things, and it all eventually came together for me.

Email Much?

Here’s a for instance: You can set up, for FREE, a Google Applications account. From your account, you can connect your domain name to your email. Instead of having the emails you send come from an address like “yourname@gmail.com”, you can have them come from one like “yourname@yourdomainname.com”. An email from your own domain looks way more professional.

The power of setting the whole thing up with Google Apps is the ease of use of this application. Not only is the actual setup pretty simple, but once you have it set up, you’re emailing with the ease and familiarity of Gmail, all with your own domain name on your email messages.

Along with the email capabilities on Google Apps, you get to use applications such as Google Docs, the Google Calendar, messaging, and so forth, all centered on your Google apps account.

The other really cool thing is that if you have more than one person in your organization, you can begin to streamline the processes among everybody. You can share calendars, documents, and contacts as needed.

The tough part of setting up the Google Apps account was moving all of my old Gmail emails over to the Google Apps account and keeping all of my contacts. While it was a bit rough in the beginning, remember that I’m such a technology newbie, that if I can figure it out, you can too!

The New Google Chrome

Once I jumped on the Google bandwagon, I decided to have a go at the new Google Chrome browser and operating system.

From the home page, you can customize the apps that are visible on that page. I even have an app for my business blog! The idea is that Google Chrome is an operating system in the Cloud, which means that you can login to your start page with all of your settings from any computer with Internet access. Everything lives on Google servers, not on your personal computer.

The Magic of Syncing

Now I have my home page and my iPhone and all of the applications I use all synced together.

For example, I use Salesforce.com as my CRM program. I have the app on my iPhone and on my Google Chrome page. I can easily access client files through my encrypted and password protected Salesforce account on my iPhone. If I am out and about, and I need to look up some client info, it’s right there on my iPhone!

From my home page on my Google Chrome, I can search for a client account within my Salesforce account without changing screens!

The really amazing syncing is among all the programs. I can add a calendar event to a client’s account on Salesforce and it adds the event to my Google Calendar, and that’s all synced with my Google Calendar on my iPhone.

An App for a To-Do List Person

Another great example is Toodledo.com. I use this list-making program to help me with all of the things that I need to remember to do. Instead of having countless post-it notes all over my desk and my briefcase and my car, I have all of my lists and to-do’s in my Toodledo program. Again, I have the Toodledo app on my Google Chrome start page, and from that page I can see my list of lists. I also have Toodledo on my iPhone, so I can view my lists from my phone no matter where I am.

And both of these applications are synced with my phone and my computer, so anything new I add is added at all of the contact points where I use the data.

I can add a task on my Toodledo app on my iPhone, and then it’s also added to my Google Calendar app on my iPhone and on my computer.

How About Facebook?

Do you use Facebook? There’s an app for that too!

On my iPhone I can add comments, pictures, and new posts or thoughts to my Facebook account. From my Google Chrome start page, I can see what my contacts are doing and leave feedback for them on Facebook without ever changing the page.

What Do You Want to Accomplish?

The exciting thing is that almost everything you need to organize has an app for your smart phone and for your computer, and you can sync them all so that they’re working synergistically. You just spend some time sorting out what it is you want to accomplish, and then go find the app!

Certainly this kind of set up takes some forethought and some planning, but in the end, the efficiency of the well-tuned engine is awesome. I now spend my time following up with clients and working to expand my business rather than hoping I don’t lose a note to myself or forget an upcoming phone call.

More to Come

As we hear more and learn more about the possibilities of “cloud computing” and how to apply the solutions, we’ll find more abundance of apps becoming available. You can save time and money by organizing your business in a way that utilizes the cloud rather than having to buy all of the expensive programs yourself.

Instead, you’re combining purchasing power with other businesses using the same programs hosted by the software company. You don’t run the risk of:

• losing your information if your system crashes
• your software becoming obsolete
• not having something you need
• missing a new opportunity, just because you’re not sitting in front of your own computer

Are you using cloud computing yet to help organize your business and life?

Eric Stephenson is an Intelligent Office franchisee. He has prior experience in a number of industries, including retail, financial services, sales, technology, and video game development. Eric moved to Las Vegas to pursue an opportunity in the financial services field before finding the opportunity to franchise with Intelligent Office.

Q: Why a franchise?

A: I wanted a business opportunity that I felt passionate about but that would also allow me the time and freedom I desire in life.

I then met a gentleman who was in the final stages of constructing an Intelligent Office. He told me about the company and shared the concept with me. I was immediately excited because I already worked with business owners every day in the financial sales world, and I immediately saw that the Intelligent Office product offered all of the traditional elements of a great office and a first class staff at a fraction of the usual cost. Intelligent Office makes it possible for any company, of any size, to benefit in ways not possible outside of Intelligent Office.

Q: So what did you do next in the process?

A: Intelligent Office has a lot of information they are prepared to share. Corporate owns four locations, and they are forthright with their own information. Also, as a prospective owner you are encouraged to contact other franchisees and discuss the business and growth realities with them.

I tracked the progress of another Intelligent Office from the end of its construction, through its first days, and ultimately through its first-year boom.

I had the added benefit of working very closely with a family who was opening an Intelligent Office in a neighboring community, so I got more than [just] a few conversations and spreadsheets. I got to see the day-to-day changes in that location and speak with the family in control of it frequently. I think this would be a rare opportunity for an interested investor.

The product made great sense to me, and the business model was impressive, so I took that as a sign to move forward!

Q: What about training?

A: Some franchises are very intensive with their training, like McDonald’s, and others have little or no training. Intelligent Office falls somewhere in the middle of the road.

You can get a strong benefit from spending time within another existing business or franchise, but to me it is much more beneficial to have a trained representative or fellow franchise owner come in and consult in the early days after opening…having this knowledge applied directly to your business/location is invaluable.

Also, a good training program must be honed and system-focused. The system is the backbone of a franchise; it is what you have truly purchased. The brand is more than the logo, or the visual aspects of the interior, it is the system and processes by which all of the everyday tasks are completed. Therefore, you must learn the system inside and out and that requires a good training program.

At a Taco Bell, for instance, it is not good enough to just put up a big sign with a purple bell on it and then make taco. Even if the same ingredients are used, they must be prepared and packaged to exacting standards, served in a certain way and within a certain time frame, etc. etc. To achieve this, you must follow a precise system in much the same way that an airport functions within an incredibly detailed, intricate, and defined system. Intelligent Office is the same.

Q: What is the best part of owning a franchise?

A: I get to be my own leader, while still finding educated support from both the franchiser and from the other franchise owners. We are all passionate and wholly committed to the product and the brand in a way that I could not experience in a corporate environment – and which would not be available if I had opened a separate/sovereign entity.

Q: What is the biggest challenge of owning a franchise?

A: Unlike in a corporate environment where there is clearly one path and one set of laws, in a franchise, you have a lot of ideas and many of them are not governed (or not enforced) by the franchiser. As a result, you run the risk of splintering your brand image.

Also, change can be slow because the franchise owners must come to a majority agreement before any changes can be affected. The bottom line is that it can take a long time to find the best or right answer. Then it takes even more time to effectively implement that answer in all locations – particularly where budgetary concerns play a role (considering that the budgets of one office are often dramatically different from another).

Q: So you think business systems are important?

A: Yes absolutely, systems are the most important piece of what you buy [when you buy a franchise]. They are more critical than the brand.

Q: Are you limited to the Intelligent Office system, or do you have room for creating your own pieces of the system?

A: Ultimately the franchiser makes the final call – it would be rare to find a franchise agreement that did not specify a wide reaching power from the franchiser to the franchisee.

However, how much that power is (or isn’t) enforced is of wide variance within the franchises of the world. Intelligent Office’s main focus is promoting our brand in a consistent and professional way. How exactly that is done from one location to the next is often at the discretion of that location’s management or ownership. So, yes, there is room to create our own ideas and even share them with others within our network. As long as it does not harm the franchise as a whole, we are pretty free.

Q: How do you most effectively market your business?

A: Internet marketing is our greatest success…whether being at the top of the search listings for topics in our industry, or by placing strategic paid ads throughout the ‘Net, this is our greatest new business generating tool.

Second to this is networking within our respective communities and promoting business incubation and support in those we meet.

Q: What personal attributes do you think lead to success for a franchise owner?

A: Commitment & Focus – or maybe I should call it an undying devotion?

You have to be willing to do anything within your business, and to learn every aspect of your company first hand.

I had many things I didn’t know how to do when I started. QuickBooks was on that list. However, billing and accounting had to be done. It would have been harmful to the business to outsource this work without knowing how to do it myself because of the unnecessary cost, and because I wouldn’t know what I was looking at if an accountant showed me the final numbers. I wouldn’t truly understand the financial and statistical trends.

I have long believed that you do not need to be the smartest person out of the gate, but if you are the most committed and you can keep your focus over the long term, you can excel.

Q: Do you think start-up cost is the most limiting factor for owning a franchise?

A: Not exactly.

The great limiters to any business are Time and Money. I do not think that owning a franchise exacerbates this reality in any way.

Time is finite, and many tasks must be completed within a short time period within any business. If there are too many tasks for one person to complete in the set time, then more people are needed. More people cost more money – and money is the other great limiter (although Money can be expanded and controlled in ways that Time cannot be).

Q: Would you consider purchasing another franchise within the same organization or from another franchise?

A: Yes, the product that Intelligent Office provides is ingenious and the company is the world leader within our field. If I were to remain focused on Virtual Offices and Remote Reception services, I would absolutely remain within the Intelligent Office system.

Q: Or will you look to other business opportunities to expand your business self?

A: Variety is the spice of life, right? I’ll definitely look into other business models in the future.

And our Bonus Question: Mac or PC?

A: PC all the way for me.

BusinessDictionary.com defines a business system as:

Methodical procedure or process, used as a delivery mechanism for providing goods or services to customers in a well defined market.

What does the definition really mean?

Let’s look at each part:

• Methodical procedure or process – A step-by-step sequence of actions.  You have a defined set of steps you follow each time you do something for a customer.
• Used as a deliver mechanism for providing goods or services – Simply, the way you do something so that you get paid.
• To customers in a well defined market – You know to whom you are trying to sell your goods or services.

Many of us first think of starting a business as a solution to some situation in our lives.  Maybe we lost a job or got re-located, or maybe we started a family and would like more time with our kids.  It could be that we just don’t like our boss anymore.  And some of us saw that we could fill a need for customers and take control of our own fortunes by not working for someone else’s business anymore.

There are as many reasons for starting businesses and many businesses types. However, there are few business systems.  I have seen and experienced lots of businesses, which lack a system, including some of my own.

How often have you heard something like, “Mr. Smith is the business; without him, the business would cease to exist”?

And how often have you thought or heard someone else saying, “I just can’t trust anyone else to get it all done the right way”?

If you went into business making some product or offering some service that you just happen to love or know lots about, you might not have thought at the beginning (or even now) that you also need to have a business system.

Plan for Success, Not Failure

The idea is to plan for success.  Too often, we worry about failure and what will happen if it doesn’t all work out.  The real problems begin when we have terrific success but we wear all of the hats in our business and can’t keep up with the demand for our product or service.

So, instead of worrying about failure, start planning for success.  It’s time to get the business out of your head and into a concrete system.

The Internet and the use of computers and other technology have brought unlimited resources for building some kind of system.  You don’t have to jump into anything too huge, but you do have to jump in.

Think about such things as:

• Do I have a concrete formula for pricing?
• Can someone else pick up where I’ve left off if suddenly I can’t work?
• Am I able to show someone else what I do in a way that they can understand?
• Is it possible to organize client information so that it is not just “floating around” in my head?
• Are my sources, such as vendors, organized with contact information, pricing, and the other necessary details so that someone else could see how to order what my business needs?
• Can I take some time off from my business and still keep the money coming in?  Or does the business stop and stagnate and possibly lose momentum if I don’t show up to work today?

Think as an Entrepreneur Thinks

Have you considered that it might be possible to set up your business in such a way that you can show other people how to run it, and then you can spend your time doing all of those things you thought you’d be able to do once you stopped working for someone else?

Have you considered that you can train someone else, if you have a solid system for fulfilling the demands of the business, and then spend your time building another business?

It is possible to think like an entrepreneur rather than someone who just created their own J.O.B.  It just takes a little planning.