Why Guru Bob’s Spillover Is Not Helping You

Looked for a home based business recently? If you have, then you have seen the ads that promised Guru Bob will “fill your matrix” for you, out of his own efforts and spillover and with no work on your part. All you have to do is enroll now, before it’s too late. Sounds great, doesn’t it? You just sign up, pay your hard earned money, and ride Guru Bob’s magic carpet off to Successville. Houston, we have a problem. With nearly all matrix-type pay plans, this helps them, and hurts you.

A matrix pay plan limits how many first line enrollments you can have, thereby shaping how your business grows. (Some compensation plans allow unlimited width, which is even worse. Your enroller has no incentive to help you even a little bit by putting people in under you with spillover. In any scenario, they would be better putting people on their own first line.) With a matrix, you might see a plan that has, say, a 3 by 6 matrix. That means in the basic part of the compensation plan, (where you will probably start and end) you would earn a commission on up to three members on your first level and six levels deep, for a total of 1092 in a perfectly filled matrix.

So, it possible that spillover can negatively affect you instead of help you? It’s not only possible, it’s what actually happens. Say that Guru Bob fills your first two levels for you before you finally sign up Aunt Mary. In fact, Guru Bob is so helpful, he fills up your first three rows. That means Aunt Mary who really only signed up because she felt sorry for you, would be placed down on your fourth level. Being conscientious and wanting to help her, you put your next person below her, down on your fifth level. For everyone above there, you will get a few cents each. What you have under you is Guru Bob’s matrix, not yours. In fact, you don’t have a matrix of your own.

You, then, end up with a massive looking organization that is paying you less than your monthly dues. Thirty or sixty or ninety days later, you drop out and try to find out what’s hot now. To your surprise, you find that Guru Bob is now promoting another program. You think, “maybe if I get in earlier, I will get in on the big money.” Wishful, but not accurate, thinking. You can sign up as close to Guru Bob as you want to, and you aren’t going to make the money he’s making, or anything close to it, until you have your own personal sign ups. If it worked for the long term, Guru Bob wouldn’t have a list of ten programs where he has been the top guy (or girl.) He gets in, runs it through his list, makes money for a couple of months, and goes off to another.

Building a fully filled matrix requires some sacrifice by each person in the group, including Bob. If everyone agreed to have a maximum of three personals, all on their front line, everybody would make way more money (except Bob, who might make $25k a month instead of $50k). Additionally, if no one cared who those enrollments came from, everyone’s matrix would fill completely, and everyone would get to the top of the pay plan, where the larger money is. Now, the only obstacle is finding a group of people and a company that will do that. If there were, maybe they could call it something like Unselfish Wealth.