MLM Business Opportunities Blog

New York Times:

Roughly 28,000 young women crowded into the Dragon Sports Arena here for a three-day gathering in September hosted by Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The goal was to pump up the crowd, and the song-and-dance troupe, the video testimonials about transformed lives and the awarding of the signature pink Cadillac to a top earner had the desired effect.

“I love the corporate culture of Mary Kay,” said Zhang Xiaoying, a 19-year-old woman from Guizhou, one of the country’s poorest regions, as she and several colleagues dabbed on makeup during a break in the event. “This company teaches you to aspire to a higher level.”

Ms. Zhang earns very little in her new job. But the promise of future rewards is what has persuaded her and about 200,000 other women to become “beauty consultants,” or independent sales agents, for Mary Kay in China.

But that growth has not come without controversy. Many direct sellers in China have been accused of operating sophisticated pyramid schemes and other sales swindles.

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EarthTimes:

While piling on the layers is one way to keep the winter chill away, certain foods can help warm us from the inside. Warm soups and hot beverages are a natural, but some foods actually stimulate heat production more than others.

As temperatures drop, appetites perk up. The cold, dark days of winter often bring on cravings for hearty comfort foods, warm beverages, and spicier dishes that held less appeal during the warm summer months. Our biology drives us to consume more calories in case food should become scarce, and to add a little extra padding to help us stay warm. But unlike our ancient ancestors, we live in heated homes and food is readily available – so we don’t need to pack away those extra calories.

“Whenever we eat and digest a meal, the body temperature rises – in a process called diet-induced thermogenesis, or DIT for short,” said Dr. Luigi Gratton, vice president of medical affairs at Herbalife. “But some foods stimulate heat production more than others. High protein foods, for example, increase DIT more than starchy or fatty foods, so they are more ‘warming,’” adds Gratton.

Pungent ingredients – like spicy ginger, chili, pepper and garlic – can aid circulation and generate warmth.

We’re more inclined to drink fluids when the weather is hot but we need plenty of fluids in the winter to warm and humidify cold, dry winter air.

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Charlotte Florida Weekly:

Direct sales people market various product lines to co-workers, family, friends and acquaintances. Many rely on the industry’s most well-known sales and networking model: social gatherings that combine a casual party setting with a low-pressure marketing pitch. “Basically you just invite a few friends over come to your house,” said Punta and I Gorda consultant a resident Mona Chupein, a consulor Pampered Chef, a line of cookquipment for cooking and other products equipment products.

Products like cosmetics, food and jewelry have performed well in an economic downturn because of their affordability, consultants say. And the social sales model has also played in the industry’s favor during the recession, allowing consultants to meet and greet a steady stream of potential clients.

“The party is the best way to network and get your bookings,” said Fort Myers resident Lynn Anklam, a direct sales consultant for Tastefully Simple, a line of easy-to-prepare, gourmet foods and gifts. “If you just show up for work, whether making phone calls, throwing a party or an exposure event (like setting up a booth at a mall), that helps you get new leads and referrals.”

Since 2004, the Pampered Chef’s Ms. Chupein has traveled to nearly 200 households in Southwest Florida, performing cooking demonstrations for groups that range from a few 20-somethings at private Christmas parties to a few dozen at retirement homes. She also has a booth at the Punta Gorda Farmers Market on Saturdays.

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EarthTimes:

Usanais proud to announce its partnership with the Utah Grizzlies as the team’s official nutritional supplement provider.

“USANA products are recognized as the best and safest in the world, and I am truly excited about our association with such an outstanding organization,” said Utah Grizzlies CEO Kevin Bruder. “Not only will USANA vitamins and supplements permit our players to perform at maximum levels and put us closer to achieving our goal of winning the Kelly Cup championship, but the company’s strict adherence to the purity requirements established by the World Anti-Doping Agency means they will be safe for our players.”

USANA manufactures a wide variety of nutritional products that are trusted by some of the world’s best athletes, including U.S. Speedskating, Speed Skating Canada, Biathlon Canada, the elite athletes of the WTA Sony Ericsson Tour and a myriad of other professional athletes worldwide. Athletes know they can trust their health to USANA because the company voluntarily follows current Good Manufacturing Practices based on pharmaceutical models for its quality assurance program, meaning its nutritional supplements are treated with the same care that goes into manufacturing pharmaceutical products.

“We understand how important it is for athletes to know they can trust the products they use. USANA is committed to providing athletes and consumers alike with safe, high-quality nutritional supplements,” said Dan Macuga, USANA Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations. “We are thrilled to partner with such a tremendous team and are happy to provide the elite athletes of The Utah Grizzlies with our nutritional products. We wish them all the best in their games this season.”

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the star online:

Multi-level marketing (MLM) firm Hai-O Marketing Sdn Bhd aims to sell 30,000 units of various products worth RM40mil monthly before the end of next year.

Hai-O Enterprise Bhd managing director Tan Kai Hee said the company presently sold about 20,000 products worth RM30mil monthly.

Tan is confident that sales will continue to increase because the products are good, of high quality and offer many benefits to users.

Hai-O Marketing, a Hai-O Enterprise subsidiary, distributes about 100 products.

He said the products marketed were made in Malaysia using technology from overseas including South Korea, China and Japan.

“Our prices are considered moderate and reasonable. That’s why they are saleable and easily well accepted by users,” Tan told Bernama.

He said the company, which had been in operation for 17 years, now had 100,000 distributors nationwide and aimed to add 4,000 new distributors monthly.

“We now have 300 millionaire entrepreneurs, whose title is Crown Diamond Manager (CDM), and more than 50 stockists throughout Malaysia,” he said.

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TransWorldNews:

Healthy Coffee International, Inc. is poised for global growth as the company initiates expansion into European markets. Recently, Healthy Coffee announced plans to open a new business unit, Healthy Coffee Germany, as well as the hosting of a Founders Meeting in London, UK.

Healthy Coffee USA strategically positioned themselves at the crossroads of the three billion dollar coffee, wellness and energy drinks industries. Healthy Coffee rapidly penetrated international markets through establishing preliminary marketing offices in more than a dozen countries.

Following the company’s successful pre-launch throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Samoa, Healthy Coffee expanded distribution outlets to its current supplier base of approximately 8,000 independent distributors generating revenues of nearly $1 Million USD.

Rick Aguiluz, founder of the Healthy Coffee concept and CEO of Healthy Coffee International, stated, “The potential of Healthy Coffee in Europe is huge, and with our entry into the UK, Ireland and now Germany, we expect to get a good share of the European market.”

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canada.com:

At Stella & Dot, sales are up — way up. The U.S.-based firm is enjoying an increase in business of 700 per cent over this time last year, according to Blythe Harris, creative director and a partner in the company.

Stella & Dot was founded by Jessica Herrin, who like Harris is just 36 years old. Herrin co-founded the world’s leading wedding site, WeddingChannel.com, while still a student at Stanford business school in California.

The company designs and sells mid-priced fashion jewelry inspired by the contents of Herrin’s grandmother Dot’s jewelry box and by modern trends on the international fashion runways. Prices start below $20 for a simple charm and run into the hundreds for elaborate necklaces (a favourite of Harris’s is the Natasha bib necklace, $198, handcrafted in an embroidery house that supplies Roberto Cavalli and other high-end designers).

Stella & Dot calls itself a “dream fulfilment company” where independent sales consultants are known as “stylists” and a home party is a “trunk show.”

E-tailing, social networking and viral marketing have allowed for a new ease in communication and sales.

Women in direct sales are not earning a little “dress money” over a cup of tea like their mothers may have. Top sellers are pulling in six-figure incomes, says Harris, on the phone from her design studio in New York City.

“We’ve tapped into a fundamental need here, which is for women to have great work-life balance. There’s this whole untapped workforce of stay-at-home moms who want an entrepreneurial opportunity that’s really modern and speaks to them.”

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Salt Lake Tribune:

Utah-based Zrii LLC, a marketer of nutritional fruit drinks endorsed by popular doctor Deepak Chopra, has agreed to settle a flurry of lawsuits filed after a senior-management rebellion against its owner and CEO lead to a mass exodus.

Competitor LifeVantage Corp. of San Diego paid $400,000 to Zrii. The California company is where several former Zrii managers went to work after leaving the Draper company in February.

Zrii sued LifeVantage, claiming it had conspired with the executives to either take over the Utah company on the cheap or ruin it.

A federal judge in California signed an order this week dismissing the case. Zrii also agreed to settle lawsuits filed in Delaware and Utah against the managers, top independent distributors and employees who were fired or quit after an attempt to buy the company from CEO William F. Farley failed.

LifeVantage CEO David Brown said Wednesday that in the settlement, his company did not admit to any interference with Zrii. “We continue to maintain that, while the circumstances were unfortunate, we didn’t do anything wrong. We understand that maybe there were some hurt feelings, but I think all sides thought it was the best thing to move forward and get it behind us.”

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Crain’s Detriot Business:

Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor Spark awarded RealKidz $50,000 — the fund’s maximum award — toward operating expenses, including the hiring of a director of sales.

“That was the missing piece,” said Merrill Guerra, founder and CEO of RealKidz, a direct-sales company that makes clothes for plus-size girls age 5-12. “We have the product and the quality, now we have someone to lead our team to sales.”

The fund provides loans from $10,000-$50,000 to Ypsilanti-based startups with growth potential, national or international market opportunities and some or close-to-some sales revenue, said Skip Simms, Ann Arbor Spark’s managing director of business acceleration.

RealKidz has “pent up demand paired with an innovative idea,” said Tony VanDerworp, Washtenaw County’s director of economic development and the fund’s project manager.

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Reuters:

More US workers, hoping to make ends meet in the recession, have turned to direct selling, but revenues are not keeping pace with growth in the sales force.

The ranks of people selling wares out of their homes, at parties and door-to-door grew by 100,000 last year to 15.1 million in the United States, but sales dropped some 4%, according to the most recent figures available.

“We’re seeing a lot of people turning to direct selling, either to replace an income or to supplement an income,” said Amy Robinson, spokeswoman for the Direct Selling Association, the industry’s trade association based in Washington.

However, she said: “We haven’t yet see a bump in sales which we generally see.”

In economic downturns of 1990-91 and in 2001, a jump in direct sellers was followed by a jump in direct sales, she said.

But this recession resembles the mid-1980s downturn that saw a dip in direct sales, the DSA said. Figures are not yet available for 2009, when the economy remained in a slump and the number of Americans losing their jobs continued to grow.

“We anticipate we’re going to see that jump in sales either to bear out this year or in the early part of next year,” she said.

Direct sales were USD 29.6 billion last year, the DSA said, down from USD 30.8 billion in 2007 and USD 32.18 billion in 2006.

That doesn’t mean direct sales aren’t worthwhile in tough times, said Dave Gardner, a San Francisco Bay area resident who has turned to direct selling, from vitamins to legal services, when his jobs have dried up or been downsized.

“It gets you out of the house, and it gives you training on how to talk to people as well as it keeps you from being depressed about the fact that you just got laid off,” he said.

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