Get the waders and shovels. Mr. .68 is spewing garbage again!:
Fast Lane Entrepreneur From Phoenix.
Share Hello Fastlaners,
Ok...so...I'm really from Mesa, but Phoenix does sound a lot cooler.
I'll try to keep this to the point without creating a giant "wall of text".
I started my entrepreneurial spirit at the age of 18 with a buddy of mine, and we created our own "MLM company" known as "JR & Associates". We had a payplan, we had a flyer, and we had a black and white MacIntosh, ad an old dot matrix printer.
We thought we were set! Our legal advisor was my buddies Mom & Dad, who told us for sure that our "gifting payplan" was "OK" by the IRS tax codes as long as it was never more than 10,000 per year per person.
So we had this thing fired up and we actually started getting multiple new members per day.
Somewhere near the 1,000 members mark we got a letter from the Attorney Generals office in Missouri!
Well, never a shy person by nature, I ended up calling their office and asking them "Ok so why did you send us a cease and desist, can you tell me what we're doing wrong?"
He explained to me that in order to keep our MLM company going we needed some form of product for our $10 per month subscription fee. (70% of which we paid out in commissions "aka gifts" from one downline to the next.)
----
Instead of just "giving up", I ended up having an hour long conversation with the Attorney Generals office, and I knew ......that "we needed a product".
OK GREAT, I thought......I've got the road map now all we need is a cheapy product!
Turned out I had another buddy who was a great artist. And so I came up with the genius idea that each month we would come up with 1 page of a 12 part Calendar, and each month our members would get 1 "limited edition" calendar month artpiece.
I put together a sample packet immediately and mailed it to the Attorney Generals office and said "can we do this?"
The response....was a dumbfounded "Yes.....actually you can do this".
And we were off, and in business.....again.
-----------------
The downfall of JR & Associates as it turns out.....would not be any Legal Authority. It simply was our "youth" combined with our massive lack of hardware. (black and white dot matrix printers and a single black and white oldschool MacIntosh....it turns out.....cannot run a major business)
We quickly became overwhelmed, and underbudgeted, and while we had growth, we simply could not keep up with who kept paying and who didn't, our downline program was all "Manual input" and we had no real "programmed back office" no "credit card payments" It was all cash in mail envelopes every month.
Before it got too big and too out of control, we closed the doors. (Sadly).
----
I attempted College and the Corporate life or a while. Taught myself computers (MCSE stuff) and ended up working for a Engineering Corporation called Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Within several months I was promoted, and had my on office where I basically ran their computer networks.
Within a couple more months, I was promoted again and was transferred into downtown Phoenix where I helped design, install and implement a billion dollar computer network for the Light Rail Transit Project in Phoenix.
(It was not all that glorified...I was literally drilling holes in concrete and running Cat 5 cabling for what felt like miles upon miles of building space)
Once it was all set up it was actually a pretty cushy job.
I sat in my air conditioned server room, and played video games for about 5 hours out of every 8 hour workday.
I had alarms set up on my emails so if anyone needed anything, I immediately knew it....took care of it....and then got back to killing bad guys on whatever game I was playing at the time.
I was making about $55,000 per year with salary plus side jobs. Ended up meeting some really interesting people including one miss Peggy Myers who helped John McCain run for Senator.
But after several years....the corporate life...was just not for me.
---
So I tried college again. And I excel in academics and I'm blessed with a partially photographic memory (and cursed), but I found myself bored. I found myself thinking....Good Lord, I'm paying an arm and a leg for these people to give me "busy work".
I knew there had to be a better way.
I knew that I had more value that I could produce for the world if I just went "off and did it".
---
I knew the Internet was booming, and I wanted to become a part of it.
Initially I became a blogger, and I first started by helping people avoid scams, by using my Technological skills to do "research" on companies and people and I could easily track down through IP addresses and all of those goodies some interesting "connections" and "correlations" and I ended up saving people a lot of money.
As I continued to develop a rapidly growing readership I realized very fast that there was "money in such a 'list'" and I delved for the first time into Network Marketing.
Over the course of years I would break a few recruiting efforst in various MLM's, and I got to witness the good side.....the bad side.....the "inner circle side" and the downright ugly side of MLM.
Companies began flying me all over the country offering me up front cash bonuses to sign on and additional cash bonuses to perform.
Meanwhile I had begun developing my own company again.........
With the help of a few business partners and an extremely unique and valuable product we spent 2 years building our "pioneering" business model that everyone (and everyones mother, brother and sister) told us Could Not Be Done.
On October 1st of 2009, we launched our company amidst both fanfaire and turmoil. Our product was unique, our business model had never been done before, and we maintained constant vigilance on Authoritative and Legislative bodies in order to "keep our ship sailing" in the waters of "Compliance".
We had "trolls" all over the internet slinging mud at us, costing us a ton of business, yet through the storms we cultivated and managed to grow a core group of loyal membership.
Here in 2010, in our 16th month of operation, we are in over 30 countries around the globe. We have 7 figures in assets growing by the month. We have a product that has continued to perform absolutely phenomenally (top 5 in the world from what I can gather), and we have a backbone that is absolutely top tier.
We have several developers who keep our back offices smooth, we have multiple websites, several corporations, and many exciting products on the way.
We are NOT MLM!
But I have definitely found that one of the most valuable assets that I could have ever put together........has been my Network.
While I'm not a millionaire yet personally, the future is bright, and the opportunity for becoming a Billionaire....is very, very real.
We still have those who "hate/troll" us, but ultimately we are winning that battle. There's really not a whole lot left to say about us because we simply let our performance do the talking.
---
And there you have it.
From misguided (yet ambitious youth), to climbing the corporate ladder, and back to my Entrepreneurial Fast Lane Roots!
At the age of 33, I remain the master of my own ship, and I am very thankful, blessed and humbled by the great group of people around me.
With a little bit of God's grace and a lot of persistence, this ship will remain, sailing true.
~Free Your Life, Live Your Dreams~
Justin P. Jones
Where are all those happy Oceanside customers??? I certainly have yet to find even one!!!
Soapboxmom
