When people on here say they have their own business....

[CurlewKate]

.....do they always mean MLM? Or only usually....

@WomenShouldStillWinWomensSports yep, the coaching pyramid scheme is everywhere. Coaching is the perfect product; difficult to pin down, easy to hide the recruitment of victims behind an apparently altruistic cover.

The one to watch is Belief Coding which is the creation of an ex-The Apprentice runner up. Like all coaching scams it crossed over to therapy as that’s a rich hunting ground. Belief coding can treat complex trauma, depression, any anxiety disorder and can also make you “successful” using a mixture of sound bites from evidence-based therapy, woo, Law of Attraction bollocks and the sheer size of the ex-apprentice guru’s ego. I’ve seen some properly vulnerable people enquiring about whether it could help them, and of course the response is full of promises of “cure”. It’s a coaching cult.

Sorry @CurlewKate I don’t mean to take over your thread but these MLM type scams are still catching too many people, just not Mumsnetters!

I've founded 5 Ltd companies, and have two more businesses run as sole trader/partnership on a smaller scale, total scope around 20 staff and 7 figure turnover. I hate MLM with a passion, however your experience of the work culture is very different as someone self-employed/own business/company founder or whatever, we often work much longer hours, variable income, no cover, holiday/sick pay etc, but just putting 'work for myself' or 'own business' sums up this without having to go into what exactly I do in each business which is rarely relevant and probably very identifying on a forum.

It has never occurred to me that they mean MLM. Maybe because people usually refer to making an income from it? - and enough to pay mortgages, childcare, have savings etc etc - so a proper income / job.

My business is btl houses.

I am a clinical nutritionist with my own practice.

No I'm an accountant

Life coaching is invariably done by those who have done little else. It's quite exploitative imo of the coach and the customer

Nope I run a Ltd company in retail.

It really depends on the situation, on Mumsnet I wouldn't expect it to be MLM, but on Facebook I'm instantly wary of any 'help a small business' type post. The local facebook pages are rife with it, a lot of groups have to have a 'no MLM' rule.

I'm in the process of closing down a ltd co offering payroll and invoicing services, which I've been running very successfully (7 figure turnover) for 25+ years. Change of direction for me now - I'm a maths tutor.

Oh! It’s certainly not what I mean when I say it anyway 😂 ours is a partnership in agriculture, employees and whatnot. No mlm here!!

Nope - I’ve had my own events business for 17 years .

I run a small private practice and am the director of my Ltd company.

Not here, I make dogwear (collars/harnesses etc) and sell on my own website