Multi-level marketing is the biggest growth industry in the 1980's. It is the industry that has made corporate giants of Amway, Shaklee, Mary Kay and Herbalife. It has been termed as the last true rags-to-riches opportunity left in North America, and its ability to bring enormous incomes to almost anyone is legend. In fact, it is expected to make more new millionaires by 1990 than any other industry, and soon after will be the single most popular method of bringing new products to the consumer.

The first multi-level companies sprung up in the 1930's, but they were dinosaurs compared to modern marketing strategies. It wasn't until the mid 60's that MLM gained international prominence. In 1985, it is estimated that $5 billion worth of new products will be sold by this method.

It is easy to focus on what remains outstanding and not see what you have accomplished or how you have grown over the past year. Even marketing experts have difficulty nailing down time to market. I too fritter away time at trivial tasks like organizing paper clips, shuffling paper from one stack to another, updating my computer and watering plants. On worse days, I prefer doing laundry and making my kitchen even cleaner.

Is that you? Procrastination does directly affect how much revenue you make and the bank account doesn't lie. Throughout the years, I've found ways to kindle excitement for tackling my marketing and funneling the procrastination bug. Let me share seven steps to help kick start your marketing for the new year.

Thirty percent of all the drinkable water that runs between the plant and your faucet is lost to leaky pipes. In marketing, thirty percent of our business is lost to leaky follow up. Even professional sales people have leaky follow up when they stop after one or two contact points.

How much business are you letting get lost to your leaky pipes. Here are some ways to tape them up or you may have to replace some fittings:

1. Do a check up of your follow-up system from the time of precontact to six months later. Since only 2% of sales occur after a first contact and does not go up until the fifth contact -- it goes to 80% then -- what is your follow- up plan of action between the first contact point and the fifth?

As a business owner, you know how valuable being good at marketing is. Yet, I have found working with business owners for the past 20 plus years that 99.9% of them have never defined what a good marketer is -- what it means in their terms.

Let’s take a moment right now and think about what you are measuring yourself against. Without a measurement, you can't possibly know what you are shooting for and this will lead to a misconstrued representation or always believing you are never good enough or doing enough.

Yes, the best measurement of good marketing is the revenue you are receiving. Yes, there’s nothing like the confirmation that people are opening their wallets to your business. There’s also feedback -- the testimonials -- they are good for pats on the back or to show other people that someone cares about what you offer. Is that it though? To most big companies it always the bottom line -- profit after taxes. It’s how much the stockholders make or some other reference to money.