MLM Convention Cost Savings Strategies

This week is my mlm convention so I figured that I will dedicate my posts this week to strategies and tips to help you get the most out of attending your mlm conventions.

I've been in the industry a few short years now and I've picked up a number of strategies, tips and tactics to make sure I get the biggest bang out of my distributor convention attendance.

Today, I'm going to talk about travel savings. One of the biggest excuses that I hear from distributors as to why they cannot attend their convention is because of a lack of money.

It's insane if you ask me. You joined the company to make money. The company has a convention where the people who have MADE the most money are going to be training you on how to make money. Yet you don't go because you don't have any money?

Doesn't that defeat the point? Didn't you join the business to learn how to make money? So why would you let your reason for doing the business be your excuse not to attend what will likely be the solution to your problem?

Anyway, I'm digressing now.

I recognize that money is tight for a lot of people especially in this down economy. However, there are a number of things you can do to save money as you go to your convention.

I'm personally am going to be attending the prepaid legal convention. However, it really doesn't matter what company you are with. Pretty much all mlm conventions require that you travel somewhere so you can use these strategies.

For example, I know that the USANA convention is coming up this summer in Salt Lake City, Utah. Therefore if you are in USANA, you can use these strategies to help you save money traveling to convention.

Also in Utah, the Xango convention is going to be taking place later this year as well. If you are in Xango, you want to make sure that you are in attendance and you want to save money doing so as well.

Usually the biggest convention expense for most distributors is travel. Plane tickets are expensive these days and since most airlines are losing money, they are trying to figure out every trick in the book to get more money out of us.

This includes their latest gimmick where they are charging you for each bag that you check into the flight.

If you don't have to fly...don't! You will generally save more money taking some other means of transportation than you will by flying. Driving is actually the least expense way to get to a convention if you car pool.

For instance, I know a distributor that attends the weekly training that I host in my local marketplace. She has four other people with her and she is going to be driving from New York to Oklahoma City.

They can each take turns driving so that there isn't too much load on any one person. The gas and tolls are going to be the same regardless of whether its one person in the car or 5 people. So by spliting gas and toll costs, they are going to save a lot of money.

I think she told me it's going to come out to like $50 a person both ways! 5 people in that car combined are going to pay less money than some people I know who paid $400 round trip to fly from New York to Oklahoma City.

Along the same lines, you can rent a van or if you have a big team in your local market, you can even rent a bus. For instance, I know a group in my local market that rented a bus that's going from New York to Oklahoma City. Each person is paying only $250 round trip.

I have two other friends in my business out in California that are both 6 figure earners in the company. Could they afford to fly on a plane? Absolutely! However, they are both renting a bus from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City and they have their team getting on the bus with them.

Besides making the convention more affordable, the van or bus option allows you and your team to build comrodery and relationships, two very important factors to building a long term successful business.

Greyhound buses are also an affordable option if you book early. If you book early enough, you can often travel very far for only $150 round trip on Greyhound. Ideally you will want to book your ticket 14 days in advance. Anything later than that, the price goes up.

Amtrak is expensive. I don't recommend it in most cases. You can often fly somewhere for cheaper than it would cost to take Amtrak to the same destination.

If you must fly, there are some tricks you can use as well to reduce the cost. Try to book an all in one package, which includes flight, hotel and car rental. Often you can save money by booking these things combined than separately.

One of my favorite web sites is Priceline. They have great deals and charge no booking fees, with the exception of their "Name Your Own Price" program.

By the way, the name your own price program is great if you have flexibility over what time you depart and what time you leave. You simply type how much you want to pay for your flight, where you want to leave out of and if they are able to book a flight for you for that price, you get it.

I recommend using that program if you are booking several months in advance. This way if they can't find a flight for you, there's always the option of booking a regular flight.

You should also consider flying in a few days before the convention and flying out a few days after the convention to see if the cost savings you can get make it worthwhile. Tuesday and Wednesday are usually the cheapest days to fly.

You should also check out different departure airports and even different departure cities. The same goes for different arrival cities.

For instance, in New York, I have a lot of options. There are two airports in New York City itself, JFK and Lagaudia. There's also McArthur airport in Long Island, Newark airport in New Jersey. Philadelphia is only 2 hours away and Boston and Washington DC are only 4 hours away.

You can also save a ton of money by sharing hotel rooms. I always share hotel rooms when I go to convention. I got 3 other guys in my room with me this year and I've had conventions where I've had as many as 6 people in my room.

If the hotel is $100 a night, if you got 4 people in a room combined, that brings the price down to $25 a night per person. You can often pay less for the full time of the convention than you would have if you booked one night of the room by yourself.

If you have a friend or family member that lives where you are having the convention, stay with them. This way you don't have to pay anything for hotel costs!

So these are some tips that will help you save money when traveling to convention. I leave for my convention tomorrow. However, before I go, I'll make sure I post tomorrow some things that you want to make sure you bring with you so you get the most out of convention.