Reasons why moving to Las Vegas is better for our network marketing business Pt. I

In 2017, Cassy and I decided to move away from Honolulu, Hawaii, our home for over 20 years. We considered how moving to a new city could benefit our business, our personal life, and our mission in life. Moving to a new city was a new adventure that challenges us to get out of our comfort zone and grow. After considering many different factors and praying about it, we decided that Las Vegas was the best place to move to.

We first considered a city that is easy to travel back and forth to Honolulu in the event we needed to be back. We have friends, family, and a significant portion of our business in Hawaii. In our first couple years moving to Las Vegas, we visited Honolulu more than eight times.

Las Vegas is one of the top destinations from Honolulu and is one of the cities that Hawaiian Airlines and Southwest Airlines have direct flights to. Flights between Honolulu and Las Vegas are affordable because of the number of flights. A round trip ticket between Las Vegas and Honolulu can be as low as $400 in the low season (as of 2021).

Location and Travel

While a significant part of our business is in Hawaii, the rest is spread out throughout the United States and world. Before I moved to Las Vegas, 18.25% of our business was in western United States (Pacific Time Zone states): California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington while 10.8% of our business was in the eastern part of the United states with majority of activity in Pennsylvania. 4.8% of our business was in the Mountain and Central region with a significant amount of activity in Texas. After spending seven years of building our business primarily in Hawaii, we shifted our focus to other states and strategized how we could grow and expand out business. Las Vegas is a strategic location to accomplish these goals.

These numbers are based on 2017 before we moved to Las Vegas. The top states for our network marketing business are: 1. Hawaii 2. California 3. Pennsylvania. Five of the top seven states are in the Pacific Region: Hawaii, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Moving to Las Vegas was a strategic decision to achieve our goal to grow markets outside of Hawaii.

Las Vegas is a 3-4 hour drive away from Los Angeles and a 4.5 hours away from Phoenix. As of 2021, Las Vegas (metro) has over 2 million people. LA county has over 10 million people, Phoenix-Mesa Metro has around 4.8 million. Together these cities make a region with over 15 million people. It is a lot easier to support, grow and market this region from Las Vegas than from Honolulu. This region is also our second largest market behind Hawaii and are focus markets for dōTERRA. dōTERRA supports these markets by hosting major events which further support the growth of these markets.

 

dōTERRA’s corporate headquarters is in Pleasant Grove Utah part of the Provo-Orem metropolitan area south of Salt Lake City. It is a 6 hour drive or an hour flight to Salt Lake City from Las Vegas.

It’s good to be close to your network marketing headquarters for several reasons.

  • Events
  • Personal meetings with leaders, account managers, corporate executives
  • Corporate Headquarters Tour
  • Supporting businesses

In our business, there are a lot of events at the corporate headquarters and its surrounding area throughout the year. It’s no surprise that the state where dōTERRA started is home to many of the top dōTERRA distributors This means lots of support and community. The corporate headquarters also provides the latest research, education, and updates regarding business and products. It’s great to be able to get in the car and drive up whenever there is an event. It allows us to grow and develop faster. This is true for international offices as well. In the Philippines, more events happen near dōTERRA’s office in Manila. In Japan, more events happen near dōTERRA’s office in Tokyo. dōTERRA’s convention takes place in Salt Lake City every year.

I learned from network marketing guru Eric Worre, that you should physically visit the corporate headquarters at least twice a year if you are a major leader in your company. You connect with people better meeting in person. Familiarity develops bonds and you are supported better. Business is about relationships and being able to visit certainly helps our business. Talking to leaders, account managers, and corporate executives keeps us in the loop and let them know what’s going on in the field. Even though we can do this over the phone or online, there’s something different about meeting in person, having lunch, or going to the cafe. When I was in Hawaii, I was 3,000 miles away and felt isolated. Physically being closer to the main office helped me feel more connected. Visiting the office more frequently helps me stay focused and helps convey messages from corporate headquarters to the team. I no longer had to wait for major events in the Spring or Fall to get the latest updates. I can travel to the office whoever I want.

Corporate headquarters is the embodiment of your company. It’s not just the building, it’s the people and the corporate culture. I’ve been fortunate to visiting Googleplex in Mountainview and Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. You can tell a lot about a company just visiting there and talking to the employees. Headquarters represents who they are, their values, and their culture. It’s also physical proof that the company is operating and thriving.

I remember dōTERRA’s humble beginnings in an office that was shared by other companies in a building. I remember when dōTERRA broke ground to a $60 million headquarters in 2013 on 60 acres of land, five years after they started. It was a milestone and it showed that dōTERRA is growing and built a headquarters to accommodate future growth. dōTERRA has built several more buildings since then and it shows that dōTERRA is accomplishing what they set out to do. When I bring prospects, customers, and members to tour the headquarters, it helps there build belief and confidence in the company. Just like most destinations, being there in person is more impactful than seeing pictures or watching videos. I also visit dōTERRA’s headquarters to visit my primary physician at Prime Meridian Healthcare.

One of the major advantages of being near corporate headquarters is not the headquarters but related businesses that support the industry and profession. Just like cities that have the best schools to support their top industries, network marketing company cities have best supporting businesses. Utah has some of the best tax consultants that specialize in network marketing because of market demands. There are virtual assistant firms, sales coaches, brand strategists, all who specialize in network marketing. While you don’t have to live near these cities to be a client, it certainly helps to be physically near and in the same time zone to work better together.

While my focus region is western United States, I also travel to other parts of the United States and world.

Las Vegas is ranked one of the best cities for frequent flyers. It’s #3 for lowest average domestic flight prices. It is a focus city for several airlines including Southwest Airlines. Most neighborhoods in in Las Vegas are less than 30 minutes from the airport.

This is a Southwest Airlines flight map from Las Vegas. There are over 30 US city destinations including a direct flight to Honolulu (not pictured)

It is easier, more affordable, and convenient to travel from Las Vegas than from Honolulu. Take traveling to Nashville, for example.

  • Ease – From Honolulu, it would take one or more layovers and time zone changes. There are direct flights from Las Vegas.
  • Cost – The difference in cost is hundreds of dollars more per person traveling from Honolulu instead of Las Vegas. Multiple times a year, this costs additional thousands of dollars. In our case, it was costing tens of thousands of dollars more.
  • Convenience – There are more routes to choose from Las Vegas, so it’s a lot more flexible and takes less effort to plan a trip.

We travel for several reasons.

  • Speak at events and personally connect with business builders
  • Conferences and Events
  • Retreats

We speak at small events. In our business, inviting a guest speaker is an effective way to promote an event. It provides additional value and urgency for people to attend. It’s great to give a different perspective on topics. Have you attended an event because an out of town guest speaker was talking about a topic you were interested in? We speak for our members and we invite them to speak at our events as well.

When we travel to events, we take the time to connect with prospects, customers, and members building their network marketing business. There’s something about meeting people face to face with a deeper connection. A lot of people don’t realize that most of the magic happens outside of the event. Spending hours of downtime really going over how to overcome challenges or just the excitement of sharing a common interest.

Conferences and events are important in network marketing. It’s where you recharge, connect with like minded people, and learn in a way that’s impactful and life changing. Most of these events are easier to travel to and from Las Vegas. Some of the events are in Las Vegas. Las Vegas gives me more freedom to say yes to invitations to events that were sometimes hindered by logistical challenges living in Honolulu. (This was a major issue during the pandemic when Hawaii increased their travel restrictions)

Retreats are a time to unwind and take self care. The word retreat in itself is to take time to take a step back , and by doing so it gives time to regroup and recuperate. This is important for business. While there are many ways to retreat like a personal vacation, coordinated business retreats can be more effective because you can bond and connect with like minded people even if you are taking a break from business. Again,Las Vegas gives me more freedom to say yes to invitations to events that were sometimes hindered by logistical challenges living in Honolulu.

Time Zone

Besides being a strategic city for travel, Las Vegas is situated in a beneficial Time Zone: Pacific Time Zone. For my business it helps a lot, not only am I in the same time zone as California, one of my biggest markets, I am only a 1 hour time difference from Utah, dōTERRA’s headquarters. It allows me to take advantage of more support from Utah without compromising my sleep schedule or working unconventional hours. While some parts of the business can be handled through email, messaging, and pre recorded videos at our earliest convenience, some of our business is done live and living in a beneficial time zone certainly helps make business easier and life more enjoyable. After moving to Las Vegas, we’ve greatly increased our support to our members in Eastern United States without compromising our support to members in Hawaii and Asia. It still is challenging to work with South Africa and European markets, but for our business it is the best location we can choose to cover most of our members.

Las Vegas is better for our network marketing business than Honolulu because it is a more logistically strategic location for operating our business, but that’s not the only reason why Las Vegas is better for our network marketing business. In my next article, I write about other reasons why we chose to move to Las Vegas.

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