asiaone:
The controversial sales system of multi-level marketing (MLM) has come up with what it hopes is a gem of an idea – flogging diamond jewellery through franchisees.
Mr Fred Ho, who heads the upscale Jewels Defred store at Grand Hyatt Singapore, has linked with MLM company LFI (Singapore) and Hong Kong businessman Ho Wing Kong to sell diamond jewellery.
‘Just Diamonds by DeFRED’ involves Jewels Defred’s Mr Ho bringing his collection to consumers here exclusively via franchise associates, who promote the collection to personal contacts.
Hinging on what he terms ‘robustness of the diamond market’, Mr Ho, who has more than 20 years of experience in the jewellery industry, believes in the collaboration’s potential to grow his business.
‘Branching out with the Just Diamonds brand is a natural extension of Defred’s core jewellery business to garner a higher market share,’ he said.
Photo by stephend9
Brantford Expositor:
She’s a consultant for Hamilton- based Steeped Tea and spends two or three nights a month hosting tea parties for people in and around Brantford.
“I’m a single-parent mom and I work full-time,” said Giosi, of Brantford. “This is a great way to supplement my income.
“It’ll help pay for renovation or help with my daughter’s college or university education.”
And, she added, there are a few other benefits.
It is a heck of a lot of fun, you get to meet a lot of different and interesting people. And, she added, there’s no pressure.
She can take on as much or as little work as she wants.
Right now, she’s hosting two or three parties a month, which suits her schedule just fine.
Giosi became a consultant for Steeped Tea after attending a tea party in Brantford last July. A friend had invited her to attend.
“I must say, back then, I was a bit more of coffee drinker than a tea drinker,” Giosi confessed. “But I really enjoyed my night out.
“We tasted a couple of different teas, but one really stood out. It was creme carmello and once I tried that, I was sold.”
Logo from Steeped Tea
examiner.com:
Approximately a year ago, [Lisa] Burnham decided to become a Tupperware® consultant so she could help raise money through fundraisers for her Mothers of Preschoolers group and to help contribute to the family finances.
She chose Tupperware® because the company “stands behind their products with a lifetime warranty” and she loves the products. She manages her time between being a mother and running a home based business by working around her children’s schedules and getting her oldest child involved by letting her sort the orders. She offers this advice to a stay at home mother who would like to start her own business, “make sure you love what you sell” and “do something that lets you give your family the time they need”.
[Shannon] Windsor has been an Usborne Books & More independent educational consultant since May of this year. Her appeal to Usborne Books & More was that she can work with schools and daycares in order to promote reading. Like Burnham, she manages her time between being a mother and running a home based business by working around her children’s schedules. She also has a calendar with her appointments on it and she checks her e-mail daily. She advises that before starting a home based business, do a lot of research on the time and money involved and make sure that the company sells products that interest you.
There are many companies that a stay at home mother can start a home based business through, but the key is to make sure that starting one is the right choice for her and her family.
Logo from Tupperware
Tri-City Herald:
When rising gas and food prices started pinching the finances of the Harpster family in Pasco last spring, longtime stay-at-home mom Londa Harpster decided it was time to find a part-time job.
She found three within six weeks, but also no longer had much time to spend with her seven children.
Then another opportunity came along: becoming an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay, a cosmetics company.
“I thought ‘If what they say is true, this is an answer to my prayers,’ ” said Harpster, who was initially skeptical.
But more than a year later, Harpster said owning her Mary Kay business has transformed her family’s lifestyle.
“We’re preparing to purchase a home, which wouldn’t have happened without Mary Kay,” she said.
Harpster’s story exemplifies the swell in the number of people working in direct sales as the national economy continues to struggle, said Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association.
Logo from Mary Kay
seMissourian.com:
Julie Martinez-Smith and Kelly Leondelapaz were each looking for a sign.
The two women didn’t know each other, but both found their prayer answered in the other person.
Martinez-Smith was moved to tears by an episode of the television show Extreme Home Makeover and wanted to help someone.
Leondelapaz was dreaming of owning a home, but said there was no way for the single mother of two to do it alone.
The two women met when Martinez-Smith headed up the Joplin-Area Habitat for Humanity project that built Leondelapaz’s new home.
Martinez-Smith said she didn’t know much about Habitat for Humanity, but a local representative of the organization called and asked if she would take the lead.
“I asked for it — I couldn’t say ‘no,”‘ she said.
For the next two and a half months, she worked as a banker by day and a builder by night along with a crew of more than 100 female volunteers. It was the first Joplin-Area Habitat for Humanity project built completely by women.
The idea, Martinez-Smith said, is to empower women to do things around the house and even tackle some construction projects. And to celebrate the feminine touch, much of the Joplin project was done with pink hammers from Tomboy Tools, a company that specializes in tools for women.
Logo from Tomboy Tools
SCNow:
Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, The Pampered Chef.
You’ve probably heard of those companies and their products.
More and more people are turning to direct sales companies as second jobs and a way to make extra money.
According to the Direct Selling Association, a trade group that represents about 200 direct sales companies, 15 million people across the county participated in direct sales and generated $30.8 billion, those numbers are from 2007 and continue to increase.
Sarah Kjosa is a single mother with two children and a full-time job. But she also has a second job as an independent consultant for The Pampered Chef. “I wouldn’t even classify it as work, I just have so much fun, I spend a little bit of time each night after the kids go to bed, if I need to make some calls or do some paperwork and then I have a show, try to do a show once a week on a Saturday and that takes me a couple hours.” Kjosa said the couple of hours she spent at a cooking show in Galivants Ferry will mean extra money for her family.
“It allows me to have a little bit of breathing room, I don’t quite feel the tightness on the purse strings that you can just working an average nine to five, it gives me the ability to enjoy time and do some extra fun stuff.“
Logo from The Pampered Chef
The Marion Star:
Leslie Ross has been promoted from adviser to unit manager with Lia Sophia, a fashion jewelry company, a news release states.
Ross earned the promotion through personal sales accomplishments and by motivating others to achieve success, the release states. The promotion offers the opportunity for benefits such as additional earnings, overrides, monthly bonuses and jewelry premiums.
Ross will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce, 205 W. Center St. Information about Lia Sophia jewelry will be made available at a 6:30 p.m. event also at the Chamber.
Logo from Lia Sophia
Business Lexington:
Lexington has landed nearly 100 new jobs as Scentsy – a company specializing in wickless candles sold by independent agents, often in “Tupperware Party” type settings – has announced plans to locate an 80,000 square foot distribution center at W.T. Young Storage at 2471 Palumbo Drive.
The 70 to 100 jobs come with a capital investment of $750,000 from the company.
“The recession has certainly affected our economy, but there are many indications that we are holding our own,” Mayor Jim Newberry said stated in a release regarding the Scentsy announcement.
Logo from Scentsy
FT.com:
The televised Super Bowl show earlier this year had chatrooms a-twitter not just because of the football teams’ performances but because of one eyebrow-raising advertisement:
it was not one of the usual pizza and beer spots but a pitch from Avon Cosmetics intended to recruit new representatives.
There are over 5m Avon representatives worldwide. Sales are up 10 per cent to $10bn (£6.1bn), pre-tax profits for 2008 were $875m and recruitment is soaring.
Avon is not the only such direct-sales success story. “We are doing well because of, not in spite of, the economic downturn, with our sales growing at 400 per cent,” says Carl le Souef, owner of Become, an Australian- and US-based direct selling service launched two years ago. Similarly, Vie at Home, formerly Virgin Vie, a UK direct-sales beauty brand introduced in 1997, has seen a 14 per cent increase in the number of “active consultants” since the beginning of 2009 to 9,287 (an active consultant being someone who has placed an order of £50 or more in the past two months). While the US company Arbonne launched in the UK last year.
Logo from Avon
eworldwire:
Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc.’s “Pyramid in Collapse” status – as characterized by nationally recognized and internationally known expert Robert Fitzpatrick – is re-confirmed in second quarter of 2009 figures, affirms Fraud Discovery Institute (FDI).
Since 2007, Fitzpatrick has characterized the current business cycle of Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. (NYSE:PPD) based on published data, as “pyramid in collapse.” The second quarter of 2009 data adds to this portrait and further confirms this status.
All key indicators for the second quarter compared to the same period one year ago show significant and continuing declines:
. Recruiting of salespeople (called Associates), which is the engine of the entire business model, were down nearly 4% from the same period last year.
. The total number of Associates is not reported quarterly but only at the end of each calendar year. At the end of 2008, Pre-Paid Legal Services claimed a total of 425,018 Associates which represented a 4% decline from 2007.
. Recruitment of Associates for the first two quarters of 2009 is down over 23 percent from the same period last year. Recruitment of new Associates for all of 2008 was down 18 percent from 2007.
. The number of new members (retail customers) dropped 9% from the same period last year and the Q-2 of a year ago was down 4% from the previous quarter. The total number of memberships is down 4% from a year ago. Total new memberships sold in all of 2008 was down 10% from the year before.
Declines Stand Out in Business Sector:
Though the recession has damaged sales of many companies, Pre-Paid Legal Services’s accelerating declines stand out within its business sector of “direct selling.” Pre-Paid’s steep decline conflicts with the trends of large companies also in direct selling.
Screenshot from Pre-Paid Legal
