I just finished listening to an interview with Marlo Quinn’s founder, Marcee Townsend on WAHM Talk Radio. It’s a very candid and insightful look into how a small home candle making business ballooned into a direct sales company that was forced to close within a year of opening.

The interview offers many lessons to be learned, not just for work at home moms who are thinking of starting their own direct sales company, but for anyone considering joining a young start-up.

Among the mistakes Ms Townsend admits making she sites lack of planning and allowing the momentum to carry her and the company to places she didn’t set out to go.

I hope moms who are considering joining new companies can find some useful information in the interview as well. Take note of the factors that led to the company downfall and form those issues into questions you can ask of company leaders before you join.

For example, one major issue was that the company wasn’t prepared for the large number of consultants that signed up early on. When considering a new company, ask them whether they are limiting the number of pre-launch or early consultant sign-ups and if they’re not, find out how they are prepared to deal with the possibility of gaining more consultants than expected.

As Marcee admits, many mistakes were made by the company, but I think we also all need to understand how we might have participated in any problem and how we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Find the show here.