What I should have said is that calling Obama a socialist is meaningless without some context. There’s many versions of socialism. The Swedes and the old USSR fall under the huge umbrella of socialism, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that would claim those governments were cut from the same cloth. There’s totalitarian socialism, a.k.a. communism, democratic socialism, Marxism, mixed socialism, market socialism, libertarian socialism, Utopian socialism, scientific socialism. The list goes on.

So I came up with what is basically a one question quiz to find out if you have even a minimal amount of socialism flowing in your blood. Here’s the question: Removing any questions regarding fiscal solvency, is our Social Security system bad policy?  And again, it is not a question of whether we can afford it in its current configuration. From a philosophical standpoint, was the implementation of Social Security wrong? If you answer no to that question, then you have some socialism in your soul. Don’t worry though, 88% of your fellow citizens are on the same boat with you.

If you honestly believe that a Social Security system is bad policy, and you consider yourself a free market capitalist through and through, that’s ok. But you have to own it.  That means you don’t believe that government should ever regulate the private sector. That means you believe the government has no place regulating lead or arsenic levels in drinking water. You’re good with food producers not having to label the ingredients in their products. Credit card companies can charge whatever interest rates they want. The markets will work everything out. Financial institutions, corporations and manufacturers will always do the right thing – the marketplace will force them or they won’t survive. You agree with all those things, right? No?But government regulation has its roots in socialism, so if you see the need for at least some regulation, then you must have some socialism in you. Deal with it.

So does Obama hold socialist views? Hell, yes. The same could be said for every one of his predecessors dating back to at least Teddy Roosevelt in 1901, probably much further, but I’m too lazy to look. The reality is that the U.S. and every European country has a mish-mash of political ideologies, some having a higher mix of socialism than others. The U.S. falls on the lower end of the scale. Since the days of Reagan, Republicans have been very successful at scaling back regulation, saying it was bad for business. Sometimes that’s a true statement, but government regulation is not an all or nothing issue like many Republicans wish to frame it.  Republicans in the late 1990’s, along with the help of Bill Clinton, threw out the Glass-Steagall Act, which had been enacted following the Great Depression to regulate financial institutions.  Guess what? The repeal of that act was a significant contributing factor to our recent financial meltdown.

So I shouldn’t have called people who think Obama’s a socialist insane. But along the way to this conclusion, I realized that I’d fallen for the meme, hook, line and sinker. What do I mean? When I saw the word socialism in the poll, I immediately considered the extremes of socialism, which is exactly what Fox News and the McCain campaign wanted when they started pushing the notion of Obama being a socialist. Socialism in their world is basically a code for communism and totalitarianism. They couldn’t use those words to describe Obama because they are so easily disprovable, so they played on people’s ignorance and lack of curiosity. They made socialism a bad word, just like the right did with the word liberal in the 80’s. And I fell for it.

So friends, accept my apology for lambasting those who thought Obama has some socialism in him. He does. I do too. And I hope you do as well.

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At the present, the company offers two products.  The first is a juice called Koopuwa.  Like many other juices these days, Koopuwa has Açai Berry, Pomegranate and Blueberry.  But Maakoa is betting that what will set Koopuwa apart from the other juices is its inclusion of the latest Amazonian superfruit to make its way to the United States – Cupuaçu (pronounced “coo poo ahh sue”).  Cupuaçu is the most popular fruit in the Amazon and is used to make jams, cakes, ice creams and a number of other foods.  The indigenous people of the Amazon have used the fruit as a primary food source for centuries and believe that Cupuaçu had medicinal properties to relieve labor pains and abdominal problems.  The Cupuaçu tree grows about 60 feet high and the fruit resembles a coconut.  The plant is a distant relative of the cocoa plant, and while the sweet pulp is used in the Maakoa juice product, the seed of the Cupuaçu is used to make a chocolate like product called culpulate.

Cupuaçu also has a unique type of polyphenols called theograndins, which are a relatively new discovery. Theograndins have potent antioxidant activity and provide cardiovascular protective and immune supportive benefits.  It is also said to improve mental clarity, energy and stamina, libido, circulation and provide a host of other healthy benefits.

Maakoa’s second product is MXp3 – a performance protein powder – which comes in two formulations.  One formulation is for those who are focusing on building muscle mass while the second is designed to build lean muscle mass while also suppressing the appetite to support weight loss. The product documentation for MXp3 claims that it “is the complete drink that offers the necessary building blocks of health and nutrition, while building the muscle mass you desire.  The unique formula of MXp3 provides the essential protein and body building nutrients for those looking to build lean, strong muscle.”  The ingredient list very typical of many protein shake powders, and Maakoa is not claiming any unique proprietary formulation.

Maakoa’s compensation plan is based upon a binary system and promotes seven ways to earn income.  In addition to retail sales and autoship rebates, associates can earn bonuses for signing up new distributors.  There are two buy in plans at $229 and $499.  On the lower priced package, the associate will earn a bonus of $40, while a $499 package earns an associate $100.  You can earn higher bonuses of $80 and $200, respectively, if you sponsor 2 or more new IBOs every four weeks.  Once you have personally sponsored two IBOs, you are eligible to earn a weekly 10% commission on the total volume of your lesser binary leg.  There is no requirement to keep the volume of each binary leg within a certain ratio of the other leg, as is common with some binary systems.  Associates can also earn bonuses of $80 by helping their downline recruit new IBOs within the first four weeks of the IBO’s signup.  Maakoa also has a leadership matching bonus program that is completely separate from the binary plan.  Once you have achieved a certain rank, you can earn matching bonuses on your personal sponsors and their direct descendants down to six levels deep.

The brain trust behind Maakoa is Bruce Davis, who is the president and CEO.  Davis previously was an executive with a software company that provided infrastructure to other network marketing companies.  David Simpson is the vice president of operations for Maakoa.  For the previous 25 years, he owned a real estate development company.  The vice president of sales is Todd Kirkpatrick, who has a background in corporate recruiting, development and training.  Kimble Smith is the vice president of product development.  Smith is the founder of Kimac Industries, a supply chain and product distribution company.  In the first months of operation, Maakoa has attempted to increase its branding by sponsoring several sporting events near its home base in Utah and recently entered into a multi-year marketing partnership with the Utah Flash, a team in the NBA’s development league.

So is Maakoa the next big network marketing company or will it be a distant memory in a year or two?  I think it is hard to say.  Maakoa has stylish marketing materials and a well organized and designed website, although I believe it needs to increase its content.  Much will depend upon the juice craze and how long it continues.  Many have claimed that juice companies are over saturating the market place, yet they continue to emerge and many do well.  As with most companies, long term success will depend upon the management team, the capitalization of the company and how quickly and how well the company develops additional products.  Time will tell, but Maakoa seems to be off to a promising start, and I will be interested to see how the company develops over time.

Now I know that most people – unfortunately – don’t go through a systematic process like that when choosing a company. Usually they sign up because their Uncle Milton told them that he had the answer to their financial woes or Betty at work is about to quit her day job because she found a miracle juice that makes her feel 20 years younger, and if they sign up too they soon will be following Betty out the door. I say unfortunately because I believe that most people fail in network marketing primarily because they haven’t done their homework and have no clue what they are getting into.So how do you find a network marketing company that works best for you? My first suggestion is not to type “best network marketing companies” into Google.  That will give you over 160 million hits, and I’m fairly sure that there will be at least one hit for every MLM company in existence claiming it is the best.  Instead, I think everyone should look at 5 things when considering a company:

1. History of the Company:  Find out how long the company has been in business.  I tend to think that five years is sufficient time to evaluate whether a MLM company is here to stay.  See if you can determine the annual sales of a company for the past three years. I want a company to have a minimum of 10 million in annual sales with an increase of at least 5% per year.  Sometimes these numbers can be hard to determine with MLM companies because they are usually privately held.  See if the person recruiting you can get you an answer to the question directly from the company.  A good company will usually provide that information. You can find relatively unbiased information about most MLM companies from Npros.com, which is a comprehensive resource for information on network marketing companies. The network marketing industry is no different than other industries when it comes to failure rate.  A majority of MLM companies will fail within their first two years.  This year alone, more than 45 MLM companies have closed their doors.  Now that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking a peek at a new company, but it makes the answers to #2 all the more important.
2. Corporate Ownership and Structure: Has the ownership of the company remained stable?  If not, find out why.  Ask the person recruiting you if the management of the company is accessible and responsive.  If you get a boilerplate answer, dig deeper.  What is the management’s history in the network marketing industry?  I had someone tell me that I needed to get into a new MLM company because one of the owners was formerly a bigwig with a well known software company and the other had been with a large movie production company.  My answer, albeit given more diplomatically, was “So what?” Neither of these guys had a network marketing background, and regardless of how brilliant they might have been in their former lives, that is not they type of learning curve I want my management team to face in the infancy of a company.  Another suggestion is to actually read the company’s policies and procedures with regard to their independent business owners (IBO).  Most people never do this, yet you can glean much about how a company treats its IBOs by reading the fine print. Find out if the company is a member of the Direct Selling Association (DSA), which is the national trade association for the network marketing industry. Every member company  of the DSA goes through a rigorous one year application process and must abide by a the DSA’s Code of Ethics, which governs not only the company’s relationship with consumers but also with its IBOs.
3. Products: If there wasn’t a compensation plan attached, would you buy the company’s products? If you can’t honestly answer yes to that question, I suggest you take a pass. I got into my company by first being a customer. It sold a product that really solved a long term problem I had, and after using the product for a short time, I wanted to investigate the company further. A second question is whether the company has any unique products that provide a better marketing position over the competition? If the company only sells products readily available from other providers, evaluate whether there is anything else unique about the product that will give you a marketing edge. Another factor is whether the company sells products that fit a long term need, or if it is only marketing a fad that will soon be yesterday’s news. I am not picking on anyone in particular, but there’s a ton of companies living off the buzz of Açai Berry, the latest super fruit out of the Amazon. Don’t get me wrong, I love Açai Berry, but I suspect soon its popularity will falter upon the discovery of some other yet unheard of miracle fruit. So for those companies now only marketing Açai Berry products you have to wonder whether they will be ahead of the curve by having new miracle fruit products at the ready or will they be scrambling to find the next best thing? Personally, I don’t want that kind of drama in my company.
4. An Upline Organization: Who you go into business with is sometimes just as important as the business itself. That does not mean your direct upline has to be some MLM guru, but find out if they are part of an organization of IBOs within the company.  If your recruiter doesn’t know what you mean by that, take a pass until you find one that does. You want to have at least one experienced leader above you who is sufficiently invested in helping their downline succeed. You want a leader who has years in the business that you can reach on the phone. One that does training calls above and beyond the corporate training. A real pro recruits other leaders, so you’ll find in that type of organization you will have a number of people above you to give you needed guidance. All that being said, I want to stress that this is YOUR business – not your upline’s – so your success depends upon your efforts, but being part of a good organization makes it all the easier.
5. A System: Ask the person recruiting you what type of system they are using to develop their business. If all they talk about is their friends and family, then keep looking. Unless you are an incredibly gregarious person who meets at least 50 new people per week, you are going to have a tough time building a large organization through your friends, family and acquaintances. Find out if the organization has any type of lead developing system. Some teams have lead co-ops that you can buy into. Others may not have a lead generating system in place but will be able to guide you through some of the tools and resources that you can purchase to help develop your own leads. At the company level, you want a company that embraces the internet and provides multiple online marketing tools that help you harness the power of the web. You would be amazed at the number of companies that are stuck in the 1980’s from a technology standpoint.

Notice that the compensation plan is not a factor discussed here in choosing a company. Almost all compensation plans have strong points, but from my perspective, if you are not able to put a positive check next to all five of the above, the best compensation plan in the world will not matter. So conduct some due diligence and shop around. Finding a good network marketing company is not hard to do, but it takes some time and work. You not only have to search for the right company but also try to find an organization within a company that can contribute to your success. There are a ton of companies out there that are well organized, have great products and incredible compensation plans. Just keep searching – when you have found the right opportunity for you, you’ll know it.