Home businesses on the upswing in tough economy

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Home businesses on the upswing in tough economy

by Scott Spjut

Mar 18, 2010 | 661 views

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- photography / Maegan Burr" title="Tim Smith points out areas on a bicycle that need new grip tape Monday afternoon. Smith runs a licensed bike repair shop out of his garage. So far in 2010, Tooele City has approved 78 home business licenses, up from previous years.
- photography / Maegan Burr" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; max-width: 250px; float: none; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; text-align: left; ">

Tim Smith points out areas on a bicycle that need new grip tape Monday afternoon. Smith runs a licensed bike repair shop out of his garage. So far in 2010, Tooele City has approved 78 home business licenses, up from previous years.
- photography / Maegan Burr

Chris and Rebecca Busico, of Tooele, both worked at Deseret Chemical Depot until 2008. When they were getting ready to have their second child and knew layoffs were on the horizon, they decided to re-evaluate their employment situation.

“We were both making pretty good money, but we didn’t want to both get laid off at the same time,” Chris said.

So with the help from his uncle, Chris started a lawn care company that focuses on fertilizing, weed control and pesticides. The business is now in its second year, and has doubled its customer base, he said.

“My uncle gave me a bunch of customers to get going,” he said. “We’re doing better than we expected.”

Busico’s story is more common today than even two years ago, when he launched the business. Tooele City has seen an increase in home-based business applications this year as more residents turn to self-employment as a way to weather a difficult economy. By mid-March of 2008 and 2009, the city had processed 56 and 59 applications, respectively. So far in 2010, the city has already seen 78.

“I think people who may have lost their job are going with a home business,” said Tooele City Deputy Recorder Lisa Carpenter. “They’re trying to come up with creative ways to bring in an income.”

But sometimes those creative ways run counter to established laws and codes — such as the need for a business license.

That’s why Carpenter scans the newspaper these days to make sure advertising home businesses have their city paperwork in order. She also occasionally pounds the pavement, as was the case last Friday when she noticed two men selling hand-made beaded bugs, coins, mugs and vinyl records at Vorwaller Homestead and RV Park. They didn’t have a license.

“I told them, ‘You should be grateful it was me who came by and not a cop,’” Carpenter said.

As part of Tooele City code, any resident offering a service for compensation needs a business license. This includes daycares, tutors, any sellers of merchandise, freelancers and home repair services. There are exceptions, including yard sales, kids’ lemonade stands and teenagers mowing lawns. Non-profits must also get licensed, but for them the city will waive the $40 fee.

“Anytime you’re making money, you should be licensed,” Carpenter said. “We’ll work with them, but it’s always good to be informed and ask regarding all types of businesses.

Tooele County also requires licensing for home businesses, although county officials haven’t noticed the same uptick in startups as city officials have.

The county approved 58 home occupation applications in all of 2009, and has approved eight so far in 2010. Most applications are for general home offices or various consulting ventures. But the county also receives applications for hair salons, flower shops, candle stores, dog treat productions and even belly casting for pregnant women.

The home occupation application is used to gauge how many deliveries or pickups will be made at the home, how many customers will be visiting the residence regularly, what type and how much product will be stored on site, and what the hours of operation will be, regardless of the type of business.

“It’s more about the impact on the property and the neighbors,” said Kent Page, Tooele County senior planner. “We don’t want to have the character of the residence or of the neighborhood changed. We don’t want unusual noise or traffic.”

For most entrepreneurs, licensing is a minor hurdle to overcome compared to the uncertainty of starting a home-based business.

Abe Patterson, of Stansbury Park, had been thinking of opening up a business in his home for a few years, and was recently approved for a property maintenance operation. His work will focus on repairing rental properties in between leases and tenants.

“I just saw a possible niche,” Patterson said. “I know a lot of unemployed contractors, and would like to get people working and get them a little extra money.”

His home would work as a central office where he could dispatch people for work and do general bookkeeping.

“I would like the added income,” he said. “But more so lately, I would like to help people out.”

Brenda Marquette of Lake Point took early retirement from Alliant Techsystems two months ago after 30 years of working for the aerospace and defense contractor. She started the paperwork for her own home business before she retired, and is in the process of finishing it. She plans to do part-time contract work in line with her expertise.

“Larger companies are looking for contract help, rather than hiring new employees they may have to train and then lay off,” Marquette said. “I see it as an opportunity to still utilize the skill set I have.”

For others, a home business is a chance to turn a hobby into a little extra spending money.

“I’m a cyclist, and there’s no shop available about here,” said Timothy Smith, who runs a bike repair shop out of his Stansbury Park garage in his spare time. He works full time as a radiologist at Mountain West Medical Center.

He’s considered opening his own bike store some day, but doesn’t anticipate being able to get a loan from the bank. In the meantime, he’s content with working on whatever bikes he can.

“I’m not as busy as I’d like to be,” Smith said. “It’s an interesting adventure. And it’s not an easy one.”

Page feels starting a home business is a good option for many county residents.

“It seems like that’s the first step. Try something at home, without investing a whole lot of money into it, and then build it from there,” he said. “We’re trying to be sensitive to the economy. We want to allow an individual to do what he wants with his property, as long as it doesn’t affect his neighbors.”

The county is currently considering different zoning options to help home businesses, Page said. They feel a new zoning category, something between residential and commercial, may help.

“The code is here to serve us — not us to serve the code,” he said. “But we haven’t put anything in writing yet. We’re just brainstorming.”

Scott Spjut: scottspjut@tooeletranscript.com

John Zogby: What American Dream?

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The Way We'll Be
What American Dream?

http://www.forbes.com/

John Zogby, 03.18.10, 12:01 AM ET
A year ago there was real concern that the U.S. economy might fall into what economists consider a depression. That type of depression did not happen, but our polling finds strong evidence of another kind of depression: a loss of faith in the American Dream.

Zogby International has been testing the public's beliefs and definitions of the American Dream for more than a decade. Our latest Zogby Interactive survey shows a significant decline in believers from a year ago and an even bigger drop from 10 years ago.

On the basic question of whether "it is possible for you and your family to achieve the American Dream," 57% said it is possible in a Feb. 17 Zogby Interactive poll of 2,031 likely voters. That is a 10-point drop from a similar survey conducted immediately after the 2008 elections. When we asked that question in July 2001, less than two months before the Sept. 11 attacks, 76% said they could achieve it.

As some readers may know, I've studied people's attitudes about the American Dream at length. It served as the subtitle of my book, The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report of the Transformation of the American Dream. I have found the American Dream evolving and enduring. In that book, I wrote:

"The American dream still exists; it's not going anywhere. But in so many ways, it's being refashioned and repackaged to reflect the new circumstances of so many of our lives ... The new American dream, I've found, is far more textured because the American experience at the start of the 21st century is so different from what it was just a half century ago. We still dream great things for our children, but today we do so within the context of the new limits in our own lives."
Our standard set of questions about the American Dream measures those "new circumstances" and "textured" ideals. From these questions, I've formulated four categories of American Dreamers: Traditional Materialists who define it as material success; Secular Spiritualists, who see it more through spiritual fulfillment; Deferred Dreamers, who believe their children are more likely to attain it than they are; and finally the Dreamless Dead, who say neither they nor most middle-class Americans can achieve it materially or spiritually.

Compared with November 2008, the first three categories remained stable. The percentage of Dreamless Dead jumped from 12% to 20%. We found this pessimism increasing across all demographic groups. Predictably, the jump was greatest among those earning the least (annual household income below $25,000), going from 19% to 44%. Other groups that also had higher increases of Dreamless Dead included women, political independents and those without college degrees.

Clearly, a very weak job market is the prime cause for this loss of hope. A poll released this week by ABC World News found 28% of middle-income Americans and 39% of lower-income earners say someone in their household has been laid off or lost a job in the last year. In a recent ABC/Washington Post survey, 57% of middle-income Americans and 68% of lower earners said the U.S. economy is in "long-term decline."

It certainly seems as though people see the current recession as more than just a down period in the normal business cycle. Last month I wrote here about the deep loss of confidence in our major institutions, especially in big business, banks and government. Actions taken by leaders in both the business and political realms have given people in the political center, left and right very good reason to lose faith. Each can cite their own litanies of what they see as failure and even contempt from the nation's most powerful people.

More alarming may be the self-fulfilling prophecies that this skepticism cultivates. For the economy, people are more likely to hunker down and diminish any chance that consumer spending will restart the economy. For government, cynicism moves people away from the process, pushing political discourse further to the extremes and making government even more dysfunctional and less responsive that it already is.

None of this can be separated from rapid and all-encompassing technological change that is altering both our personal and institutional relationships. Inevitably, our institutions must change to keep up.

I am an optimist; in this case about America and its dream, and about those who will sort through and find solutions, the under-30 generation I call First Globals. What Winston Churchill said in 1947 is still true: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." It may take some time, but the generation that has grown up wired, connected and open to the world will make our institutions responsive again, and perhaps create new ones.

They will also keep the American Dream, and continue the path that defines it not as material, but as personal and spiritual fulfillment. Carpe diem.

John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International and the author of The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.

Outlook for job market is grim

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Outlook for job market is grim
Updated 1/8/2010 8:13 PM

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By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY

As they scoured the job market and counted down the days to graduation last spring, most of Christopher Hutchens' friends at Johns Hopkins University decided the transition to real life could wait: They'd seek sanctuary in graduate school until the economic thunderclouds cleared.
Hutchens' prospects were sunnier. His coursework at Johns Hopkins had prepared him for one of the nation's hottest careers: biomedical engineering. He landed a good job at a Philadelphia maker of medical devices — though even he didn't get the offer he wanted until the last day of classes.

Hutchens is one of the lucky few. Prospects for most job seekers are expected to be grim for years, no matter what Friday's government report on payrolls and unemployment shows.

Barring dramatic changes in economic policy, "We're going to have high unemployment for the next few years," says former Labor secretary Robert Reich, now professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley. "Even when the jobs come back, they're not going to be very good jobs."

Even as economic growth recovers from the deepest recession since the 1930s, many U.S. jobs will continue to move overseas or be replaced by technology. And consumer spending, which fuels economic and job growth, is likely to remain weak as households continue to sober up from the credit card, home-equity loan binge-spending of the past decade, economists say.

"It's going to be a long slog," says Steven Cochrane, managing director of Moody's Economy.com.

Moody's expects the unemployment rate — 10% in November — to remain high. The past couple of decades, joblessness has hovered around 5%. In the next decade, Cochrane expects it to stay closer to 5.7%.

"All signs point to a rocky recovery," says economist Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute. "We will likely see elevated unemployment for at least the next five years." She reckons joblessness could still be stuck at 8% in 2014.

The economy must clear some imposing hurdles, Shierholz says:

•State governments, their tax revenues eroded by the recession, are slashing programs and jobs to meet balanced-budget requirements.

•The Federal Reserve, having pushed short-term interest rates close to zero, doesn't have many tools left in its economic fix-it kit.

•Consumers, whose spending accounts for 70% of economic activity, are exhausted after years of piling up debt and splurging on everything from iPods to vacation homes.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects consumer spending to grow 2.5% a year from 2008 to 2018, down from average annual growth of 3% in the previous two decades. Spending on durable goods, excluding autos, will grow 4.9% a year through 2018, down from 8.1% annual growth from 1998 to 2008. Sales of cars and light trucks won't reclaim the heights they reached in the mid-2000s, when they surpassed 16 million a year: Government forecasters expect auto sales to hit 14.4 million in 2018. Foreign competition and automation will continue to kill manufacturing jobs: The government expects factories to cut 1.2 million manufacturing jobs by 2018.

"If you work in a textile mill, the days of your job are numbered," Moody's Cochrane says.

Still, the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the overall economy to generate 15.3 million new jobs (not counting replacements) from 2008 to 2018 and forecasts 5.1% unemployment in 2018.

Where will the new jobs come from?

Depends on how you measure job growth. On a percentage basis, the fastest-growing occupations of the next decade tend to pay well and to demand highly skilled workers.

Computer network and data analysts (median wage: $71,100) will see their ranks surge 53% from 2008 to 2018, the government predicts. And financial examiners, who ensure that companies are complying with financial laws and regulations, will grow in number by 41%. Their median earnings: $70,930. (The median wage figures — half earn more, half less — are from May 2008.)

A 'cool' future for some

Seeing the fastest job growth at 72% through 2018 are biomedical engineers (median wage: $77,400). "I can see myself staying in the medical device industry," says Johns Hopkins grad Hutchens. "It's only growing. There are going to be a lot of cool projects to work on."

Johns Hopkins' undergraduate biomedical engineering program turns out about 100 graduates a year. They find a wide range of employers, says Julia Galeazzi, associate director of the university's career center: private companies seeking to design medical devices; the Pentagon looking for ways to counter bio-terrorism; the U.S. Patent Office hiring engineers who understand the latest medical gadgets. One recent graduate was dispatched to study whether cellphone frequencies pose any health risks. "The opportunities are so vast," she says.

The trouble is, the top-paying occupations are a minuscule component of the labor force: Biomedical engineers, for instance, will account for just 12,000 of the more than 15 million new jobs expected to emerge through 2018.

Measured by sheer numbers, the new jobs of the next decade don't look nearly as lucrative: The number of home health aides, for instance, is expected to expand by 461,000. But their median earnings come to just $20,460 — well below the median U.S. wage of $32,390.

Sonia Ortiz, 47, has been working in home health care for two decades in Los Angeles. She feeds the elderly and disabled, does their laundry, helps them take their pills, drives them to the doctor. She earns $9 an hour.

"It's very difficult to get by," she says. "You have to think twice about how to pay rent, buy gas, set aside a little money."

Spokane, Wash., home health aide Susie Young, 61, who's been in the business 22 years, says she sometimes thought: "I can go to McDonald's and make more money than I do now." She says wages and working conditions have improved since workers at her agency joined the Service Employees International Union in 2003.

Untransferable jobs

The economy will also demand 400,000 new customer service representatives, an occupation with median earnings of $29,860 a year; and 394,000 workers who prepare and serve food, including fast food, earning $16,430.

"These services have got to be done in person and so cannot be easily done, as so many manufacturing jobs can be done, by low-wage workers abroad," former Labor secretary Reich says. "They normally involve providing personal attention that can't easily be done by computers and software."

More than two-thirds of new jobs won't require any education past high school. For several decades after World War II, high school graduates could find decent-paying manufacturing jobs. But factories are shedding workers or closing altogether.

"It's much harder for someone who has a modest set of educational credentials to find the equivalent of an auto industry job," says Gary Burtless, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "You can't just have a diploma and six months of on-the-job training, and expect to get wages and benefits equivalent to $18 or $30 an hour. Those kinds of jobs are much harder to get than they were in the '60s and '70s."

One bright spot: nursing. The country is expected to need 582,000 new registered nurses — a profession that pays a median $62,450 a year. Hospitals and doctor's offices in southwestern Indiana, southern Illinois and western Kentucky snap up nurses as fast as the University of Southern Indiana can turn them out, usually at starting salaries in the mid-$30,000s, says Ann White, assistant dean of nursing. But nursing isn't for everyone, she says. The university exposes nursing students to real clinical conditions as early as possible to weed out the squeamish and uncommitted. "You've got to want to be a nurse," she says.

Overall, the jobs market is stuck in an awkward place, says Daniel Stelter, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group and co-author of the forthcoming book Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow-Growth Economy. Old industries such as auto and steel manufacturing are shedding jobs; and promising new industries such as solar energy and biotechnology aren't mature enough to make up the difference. "Old industries are under pressure, and new industries are not yet big and strong enough."

He expects the U.S. government will attempt to salvage manufacturing jobs by promoting new industries and by exploiting a weak dollar, which makes U.S. exports more competitive overseas. Already, he notes, Germany's Daimler, citing the weak dollar, last month announced plans to boost production of C-Class Mercedes cars at its plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

For all the forecasts, no one really knows what the labor market will look like in a few years. In 2003, a quarter of U.S. workers were in jobs that didn't show up in government occupational listings in 1967, a report by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers noted last year.

"We don't know what technologies will be developed or what is going to happen on a national or global level," says Galeazzi at the Johns Hopkins career center. "Nobody can really predict what the job market will look like in 10 years. ... What we're trying to do is prepare our students to go out and be flexible."

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February 18, 2010

Retirees Trade Work for Rent at Cash-Poor Parks

By KIRK JOHNSON

http://www.nytimes.com/

ROMA, Tex. — A cold wind whipped down the Texas plains on the night last month that Sharon Smith, 68, and her husband, Bill, 73, arrived here to be work-campers.

In the dark, they had trouble setting up their camper. But Ms. Smith, a former teacher’s aide from Sioux Falls, S.D., said she looked up at the starry sky, shook off a few of the burrs she had picked up lying on the ground working on their truck, and told herself it would get better.

It did.

The life of a work-camper, volunteering in places like Falcon State Park in deep South Texas in return for free rent, is not without its bumps. But as Ms. Smith also quickly discovered, the rewards can be deep as well — like making cinnamon rolls as part of her job at the camp recreation center, where she and Mr. Smith are working as hosts through the end of March.

“We’re here for three reasons,” she said, as she spread sugar on the dough. “No. 1, we like to travel. No. 2, we like people. And No. 3, we’re on a budget.”

An itinerant, footloose army of available and willing retirees in their 60s and 70s is marching through the American outback, looking to stretch retirement dollars by volunteering to work in parks, campgrounds and wildlife sanctuaries, usually in exchange for camping space.

Park and wildlife agencies say that retired volunteers have in turn become all the more crucial as budget cuts and new demands have made it harder to keep parks open.

Work-campers come together in one place — leading nature walks or staffing visitor centers, typically working 20 hours to 30 hours a week — then take off to their next assignments. As they move about, they keep in touch with one another through cellphone numbers, e-mail addresses and Facebook postings, creating virtual communities filled with the people they meet.

Camp life, especially in this bird-watching hotspot, revolves around the great outdoors: picking up trash, guiding visitors and, with luck, perhaps spotting the rare roadside hawk that has been reported in the Rio Grande Valley. Night brings a round of socializing: wine around the picnic tables out by the bird feeders, an open-mike sing-along at the recreation center, an evening walk through the South Texas scrubland.

Estimates of the number of work-campers nationally vary, but a spokesman for Kampgrounds of America Inc., a private company that franchises camps, said that 80,000 or so might be a good guess, based on KOA’s percentage of the camping market and the number of its work-campers.

“It attracts a certain kind of person,” said Wendy R. Forster, 70, a retired biologist who lives alone in her motor home and has been leading bird-watchers’ walks here since January. “There’s a lot of companionship and security.”

Recession has cut a fierce crosswind through the subculture, recreation experts and campers say. Some parks in California that once needed volunteers have closed, for example, as the state’s budget crisis has intensified. Many campers are also trying to stay longer in one place to cut travel expenses.

But other recreation managers say they have become more dependent than ever on a national network of volunteers, partly because of spending cuts and partly because remaining staff members have to prioritize what they can do.

“Basic trail maintenance, for example — picking up trash,” said Nancy C. Brown, who coordinates volunteers for the South Texas Refuge Complex, which includes three large wildlife areas. “It’s important for wildlife purposes, but when you’re faced with a choice of dealing with oil and gas permits or maintaining a trail, the trail is the first thing to go.”

In the last decade, Ms. Brown said, the number of campsites set aside for volunteers in the complex, including those at Falcon State Park, has risen twentyfold, to 65 from 3.

In some places, the retired volunteers are about the only staff members left.

“We did a state park in Arizona this year that had laid off so many people, we basically ran it,” said Carolyn Miller, 71, a former small-business owner from Colorado who has work-camped from Alaska to Maine with her husband, Warren, 73.

For many work-campers, the appeal of a nontraditional retirement was also linked to a life-changing event — the death of a spouse, a divorce, money trouble, a midlife reassessment of priorities. For whatever reasons, they said, staying put became an unappealing or unavailable option.

And for some, there is romance to be found. Sandra Noll, 65, a retired nurse who has been leading canoe trips for bird-watchers on the Rio Grande since early January, met her partner, Erv Nichols, 66, three years ago.

Mr. Nichols, a retired photographer from Big Bear Lake, Calif., had set out to downsize his life. With Social Security as his only income, and two previous marriages that ended in divorce, he was so sure of a solo life, he said, that he ripped out the front passenger seat of the little motor home that a friend had given him as a gift.

Ms. Noll, who was reassessing her own life after a divorce and a move back West, where she grew up, found Mr. Nichols’s zeal in tossing aside his possessions appealing. “You wanted to simplify your life,” she said, glancing across the table at him in their little trailer. “That drew you to me.”

Ms. Forster, the retired biologist, became a volunteer partly out of grief. When her husband died of cancer 17 years ago, in his 50s, she immediately set off, she said, continuing the motor-home life they had imagined together, but now on her own. She has led bird-watching trips all over the country and has already made plans to come back here next year.

“We’re nomadic,” she said. “But a lot of us are coming back next year, so that will be a reunion.”

Other campers are moving down the road. Ms. Noll and Mr. Nichols, for example, are headed next to Nebraska, to work as guides along the sandhill cranes’ migration route. Starting in June, the Smiths, from Sioux Falls, will work on an island in Puget Sound. Ellen Lawson, 66, of Evansville, Wyo., will head for a dulcimer festival in Mississippi. She said she was already dreading the goodbyes when she and her husband, Ron, 67, leave here in March.

“I cried when I left home to come here,” Ms. Lawson said while raking leaves at Falcon State Park’s Butterfly Garden, “and I’ll cry when I leave.”

College Grad Jobs Finding Opportunities in MLM and Direct Sales

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College Grad Jobs Finding Opportunities in MLM and Direct Sales

February 8th, 2010 | Author: admin

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Recent gollege grad students looking for a job this year don’t need a dismal report from the National Bureau of Economic Research to tell them the United States is officially suffering through a recession. They’re living it.

A recent report by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State paints an especially troubling picture for those who will graduate this school year.

As the job market gets worse, it affects a wider range of people as skilled workers push less-skilled workers out of the running for lower-level jobs.

The unemployment rate for college graduates is typically about half the rate of the overall population. But in October, it was up by more than half a percentage point — to 3.1 percent nationally for grads over age 25.

Where are recent college grads finding an abundance of opportunities?

“Starting a business in MLM and Direct Sales”, says Brent Vanderstelt of Fortune Hi Tech Marketing, a direct sales opportunity which offers products and services from Fortune 500 companies, such as Dish Network, Sprint, Verizon, Travelocity, GE Home Security and 20 other products.

There are many great reasons and real life experiences gained from starting any business, but MLM and direct sales offers the least expensive option. Choosing to start a business is a step that exudes confidence, planning and optimism and requires a certain amount of skill, including networking, management, sales, time-management, planning and money management.

Even if you start a business as a part time enterprise, the simple fact that you’ve taken that step speaks volumes about you as a person. Take a look at these benefits:

Small amount of risk: There is a certain amount of inherited risk involved when you become an entrepreneur, but with a MLM or direct sales business your loses can be limited to just a few hundred dollars.

The income potential: There is no cap on how much money you can generate. In my corporate jobs, my big limitation was that regardless how hard I worked for these companies; my income was tied to a “market standard” for someone with my skills.

Residual income: I am sure that you pay your gas, your electricity, and your phone bill every single month. These are the types of services that for the most part provide an ongoing stream of residual income for these companies.

Taxes: As a small business owner you can take advantage more than 12 tax reduction strategies to lower your tax liability. Don’t think of taxes as a burden, but an opportunity to partner with the government to help your business grow.

Enjoyment: You have immiadiately have a career in MLm and direct sales. You will not have to sit through dozens of interviews with countless number of job seekers. Your can climb the corporate ladder” with your own business and make more money working for yourself than working for “the man”.

Growth: Personal growth is an area that many small business owners don’t realize they have entered. Hardly anyone is an expert in their field from the get go, so starting a business allows you to grow your skills.

Skills that you grow don’t have to be limited to your business area. You’re going to pick up other skills like public speaking, decision-making and other soft skills.

Community/Networking: You found your way to this site, which is an extended community. You can also find your way to other communities whether they are online or offline. As a small business owner you have something in common with a larger group of people.

Direct selling is a growing industry.
Sales in the U.S. have more than doubled in the last decade to more than $30 billion and are now more than $100 billion worldwide.

People from literally all walks of life, of all ages, are successful in direct sales. About 75 percent of those working in direct sales are women, 10 percent are African American, six percent are Latino and three percent are Asian, Native American or other. Many people start part-time, and later leave their other careers when direct selling becomes more lucrative.

Anyone can do it.
There are no required levels of education, experience, financial resources or physical condition.
People of all ages and from all backgrounds have succeeded in direct selling.

Direct sellers are independent contractors. You’re your own boss, which means you can:

• Work part-time or full-time – you choose when and how much you want to work.
• Set your own goals and determine yourself how to reach them.
• Earn in proportion to your own efforts. The level of success you can achieve is limited only by your willingness to work hard.
• Own a business of your own with very little or no capital investment.
• Receive training and support from an established company.

Fortune Hi Tech Marketing is seeking recent college grads interested in becoming business builders and starting their own successful home based business. Visit the Fortune Hi Tech Marketing website or the Fortune recruiting websiteTime4Fortune.Com, or contact the Fortune Representative nearest you.

Brent Vanderstelt
http://www.articlesbase.com/recruitment-articles/college-grad-jobs-finding-opportunities-in-mlm-and-direct-sales-747634.html

Kids can't count on auto jobs anymore, mom says

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February 7, 2010

FIXING MICHIGAN'S SCHOOLS

Kids can't count on auto jobs anymore, mom says

BY LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

http://www.freep.com/article/20100207/NEWS05/2070508/1322/Kids-cant-count-on-auto-jobs-anymore-mom-says

Laura Cronyn constantly lectures her son Louis about the importance of doing well in school and being prepared for college.

"I talk to him every day and tell him it's going to be a real wake-up call. I tell him how difficult college will be."

Cronyn of Detroit had the auto industry to fall back on years ago, when she left college after three years "because I really didn't know what I wanted to do" and then spent 10 years waitressing.

"I knew it was a way to make a stable living," said Cronyn, 46, who works at Detroit Diesel.

That's not what she wants for her two sons. People entering the auto industry for similar jobs today aren't commanding the kind of salaries that were available years ago. She knows that her children -- ages 19 and 15 -- will need a different kind of skill set to succeed.

"Now you get hired in at $12 to $14 an hour. I don't think you can take care of a family on that," she said.

Her oldest son, Malcolm, graduated from Allen Academy in Detroit. He completed a program at Specs Howard School of Media Arts last July and is looking for a job. Her youngest, Louis, is a sophomore at Allen.

She has stressed to both that college -- or some kind of educational training after high school -- is necessary.

"High school is not enough for anything. You have to have something," she said.

College or educational training after high school is necessary these days, Laura Cronyn of Detroit stresses to her boys, 15-year-old Louis and 19-year-old Malcolm. She makes a living in the auto industry but knows her sons may not be able to. (RASHAUN RUCKER/Detroit Free Press)

Downturn leaves men in recession depression

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Downturn leaves men in recession depression

Inability to work and support family becomes a health issue

Published Thursday, January 7, 2010 7:02 am

by Michaela L. Duckett, For The Charlotte Post

http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=2282

FILE PHOTO

Urban League of Central Carolinas CEO Patrick Graham leads the organization’s job development program, which helps clients build competitive workforce skills.

Dontavious Clyburn said being without a job made him feel like less than a man. “I was a high school dropout with no skills. I was tired of struggling, begging for help and facing my children without feeling any pride about myself,” he said.

Clyburn’s experience isn’t uncommon among African American men. According to a study conducted by the Urban League, 30 percent of black men are unemployed, and for many the effects are emotionally devastating.

Urban League of Central Carolinas CEO Patrick Graham said being unable to provide for a family is “psychologically damaging” to a man.
“You begin to view yourself as less than human when you are not able to provide for your family,” he said.

For many men, the stress leads to depression. An estimated 6 million men are living with depression. Many experts believe those numbers are much higher because it is so underreported, especially in men. Men are less likely to talk about it or ask for help.

“There is a very strong aversion or apprehension for men to speak about depression,” said Dr. Steven Gilchrist of Blakeney Family Physicians Steelecroft.

Gilchrist said men often internalize their feelings, which is one reason why suicide rates for men are nearly three times higher than for women.

“With the African American population, particularly in Charlotte, there is a high rate of depression among men, and again most of it goes undiagnosed,” he said. “Sometimes there is even more of a stigmatism among African American men as far as going to the doctor’s office versus any other race. And they are typically more chronically and severely depressed by the time they reach our doors.” he said.

Gilchrist said extensive studies have linked unemployment to increased levels of stress and depression.

“If you break that down into communities certainly the African American men will rate pretty high on that totem poll,” he said. “Within the (black) community there is a strong stigmatism against not being able to provide for the family.”

Clyburn sought help through improving his situation. He enrolled in the Urban League’s Youth and Professional Empowerment Program, earned a GED, and became a certified technician with GTI Communications. He also married the mother of his two sons.

“I got my dignity back,” he said.

Men and women experience depression differently. Common symptoms include crying spells, feelings of hopelessness, change in mood, loss of interest in daily activities, weight loss or gain, or decreased communication between loved ones. Sometimes there are even physical ailments and pain.

“The number one symptom that you will probably see in men is insomnia or a lack of sleep or sleep disturbances, where they may go to sleep but there are frequent awakenings throughout the night,” Gilchrist said.

“Fatigue is another huge symptom, and sometimes instead of lack of appetite, you will see an increase in binging or overeating.”

“The things you have to recognize are a change in behavior. Especially if the change is long term, for four weeks or greater,” he said.

Gilchrist said that if a man experiences these symptoms he should talk to a doctor, but the misconception that depression has to be treated with prescription medication deters many from seeking help.

“That is not the only treatment,” he said. “Most of our job is therapeutic. One thing that is highly important is for the spouse or at least one member of the family to contact the physician and actually go in and talk with the physician to help facilitate what the real problems and issues are. That shows a strong sense of support. It also gives the person a confidence level that they can open up.

“Another thing I recommend for families is that exercise and diet are so important during a very stressful period of your life,” he said.

Gilchrist said there are a lot of resources online about depression.

“It is important to recognize the signs and symptoms, and once those signs are recognized, even if it’s not true depression, it’s probably a good idea to contact a physician at that point,” he said.

“Other things that I find to be helpful include talking to someone that you trust such a friend or a pastor to provide some type of support. It is important for people who are depressed to have a good support system. That is one of the ways that we initiate therapeutic treatment. The more people that show compassion, the better the outcomes are for most patients.”

Is it just stress?
Stress and depression have similar symptoms, but they have very clear distinctions. Knowing how to determine the difference is key in treating the problem successfully.

“Stress and depression sort of overlap many times. But you really want to make a distinction,” said Gilchrist. “Most of the time with stress, people are able to handle it and it does not affect their daily routine. This is typically a temporary situation. But with depression it is typically always going to be greater than four weeks. Typically it will affect the lifestyle of that individual whether it that’s the workplace environment, whether it’s the home environment or whether that’s the person’s health in general. So if that stressful situation or stress is present throughout an extended period of time and it starts to affect other facets of that person’s life, certainly this needs to be evaluated further for depression and I recommend that be done by a medical profession.”

America's Workforce Blues

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Off Shore
America's Workforce Blues
Robyn Meredith, 01.06.10, 12:01 AM ET

HONG KONG -
The good news is that the global economy seems to have stabilized, stock markets worldwide have been on a tear and the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped.

The bad news is that the jobless rate remains in double digits--one in 10 Americans is unemployed. Most of those who still have jobs have experienced years of sluggish income growth at best. And many people fear that the economic comeback won't bring back nearly as many jobs as America needs.

While the explosion of the Great Recession was set off by Wall Street, it came at a time when a number of powerful forces were in the midst of reshaping the global economy. Populous poor countries--India and China--embraced globalization. Technology connected low-paid Asian workers to the West even as globalization created demand in those nations for some highly skilled U.S. workers. Increased automation, immigration and the decline of America's unions weakened the hourly pay rates in the U.S. for lower-skilled workers.

All of those factors and more have produced widening income inequality.

McKinsey & Company's internal think tank, the McKinsey Global Institute, has delved into the question of why there is such a vast and growing gulf between America's top earners and its poor and middle-class earners, and the results are sobering--for all Americans.

"Seventy-one percent of U.S. workers are in jobs for which there is low demand from employers, an oversupply of eligible workers, or both," McKinsey warned in a June 2009 report, "Changing the fortunes of America's workforce: A human capital challenge."

In other words, nearly three-quarters of American workers could find themselves with stagnant or declining incomes going forward, unless they drastically improve their competitiveness. The root cause, McKinsey concluded, is that "too few have the skills for attractive jobs and, as a consequence, too many workers are employed in industries and occupations where demand has been falling, incomes have stood still, or both."

The silver lining, McKinsey found, is that globalization has helped many workers. Those at the top of the food chain thrived as the global economy transformed. "Incomes and employment for the top-earning 22% of workers grew fast, mostly because new technologies and new opportunities in global markets ramped up demand for advanced skills."

So how can the United States funnel more of its workers into the group that can hold its own in today's global labor market? With better education and training. Not just for Kindergarten through 12th grades--although that is deeply in need of improvement.

McKinsey said those already in the workforce need retraining. Companies and community colleges and other adult training programs will be crucial to building the skills of Americans who are no longer competitive. "U.S. labor market policy coming out of the recession would do well to focus on redeveloping America's human capital, not only for students in schools and colleges but across the current workforce."

Rather than fight to keep jobs at failing companies, or in sectors that are shrinking, the U.S. needs to focus on giving uncompetitive workers the skills they'll need in sectors with job growth.

As the U.S. economy pulls out of the recession, the nation's standard of living is at stake. American labor policy must "upgrade the skills of the U.S. workforce as rapidly as possible," McKinsey concludes.

Robyn Meredith is Hong Kong bureau chief for Forbes and the author of The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means for All of Us. She writes a biweekly column.

Detroit's youth look to the open road

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Detroit's youth look to the open road

By Jennifer Agiesta and Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 2, 2010; 9:01 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR2010010201983_pf.html

The weight of Detroit's economic downturn is particularly heavy on the area's young adults, with those under 30 suffering job losses, cuts in pay or hours and difficulties trying to find new jobs in greater numbers than their elders. More than four in 10 area residents aged 18 to 29 say they plan to seek their fortunes elsewhere, according to the new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard University Detroit poll.

Two-thirds of young adults in the area have been hit by the sagging job market, compared with less than half of older adults. About half say they or someone in their household has lost a job or had a cut in work hours or pay in the past year, and nearly three in 10 say they or someone they live with has given up looking for work because of a lack of good jobs. About one in five live in households experiencing all three setbacks.

Looking ahead, young Detroiters in the labor market express concern about their ability to succeed in the job market; more than four in 10 say they lack the skills or education to compete and more than six in 10 worry about finding a good job.

Brandy Murdoch, a 19-year-old Macomb County resident interviewed for the poll, said she's become more discouraged about her future in the region.

"You have to go to school for a long, long time if you want to find a decent career and stay in Michigan," she said. "There are no opportunities here."

While a broad majority of young adults, like those ages 30 and up, are optimistic about the future of the Detroit area, their take on Detroit's current state is less rosy. Just 6 percent of young Detroiters use a positive word when asked to describe the area, compared with 15 percent among older residents. And a scant one in eight says they are completely satisfied with their lives, a figure that stands at two in 10 among older Detroiters.

Murdoch and a friend plan to move to Georgia this fall in search of good jobs. She says her mother approves: "My mom says to me, 'Hey if I was 19, I would move in a heartbeat, too."

Jenae Chinn, a 26-year-old customer service representative who lives in Wayne County, has a similar outlook: "I just don't see things getting better here in metro Detroit. There aren't any real, good, long-term opportunities here that seem stable."

Overall, 43 percent of Detroit's younger residents say they plan to leave the area amid a widespread sense that the region is not a good place to raise a family and the area's neighborhoods are declining.

Just 39 percent of young Detroiters call the area a "very good" or "good" place to raise a family, with about a quarter calling it "not good at all." A third say their neighborhood has become a worse place to live in the past five years.

The region's economic difficulties strike the young more emotionally and in their wallets. Almost three-quarters say they are stressed by the economic situation, and many report having trouble keeping up with basic expenses in the past year; About a third had trouble paying credit card debt or medical bills; a quarter struggled with housing costs and two in 10 had a hard time affording food. All told, more than half of those under 30 have had financial difficulties in the past year, far outpacing the rate among those aged 30 and up.

Some, but not all, of these differences stem from the fact that young adults just starting out in careers typically have lower incomes than those with more years in the workforce.

Housing is a particular concern for the young in the Detroit area. About a quarter say they fell behind on their rent or mortgage, a similar proportion had to change their living arrangements as a result of the downturn and nearly half worry about being able to find or afford a decent place to live.

Despite these concerns, younger Detroiters are an optimistic group, especially when it comes to their own lives. Nearly all expect their personal standard of living to rise over the next decade, and nearly six in 10 say the best years for America's workers are yet to come.

Katrina Robinson, an 18-year-old college student from Macomb County who also responded to the survey, said she is "very, very frustrated" with the auto industry and Michigan economy after watching her parents struggle to make ends meet. "I'm a freshman in college now," the aspiring teacher said, "so I hope things are going to pick up by the time I graduate."

More than three-quarters of young adults say they think the auto industry will recover, but nearly a third say the region's economy can recover even if this doesn't happen.

Agiesta reported from Washington, Hedgpeth from Detroit. Polling director Jon Cohen in Washington contributed to this report.

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Recession proof businesses in rough economy

---

Photo by Tammy Proctor

By Tammy Proctor

Robin Shaheen Cazantzes of Private Spa, a business that has seen good business in these tough economic times.

By Tammy Proctor

The Suburbanite

Tue Dec 29, 2009, 10:40 AM EST

---

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/news/business/x664196174/Recession-proof-businesses-in-rough-economy

Jackson TWP, Ohio -

America’s jobless rate fell slightly less last month. Sales during Christmas weren’t aggressive, but OK. The nation’s financial experts say we’ve experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Yet, look no further than your backyard and see success stories.

There are businesses thriving in this economy.

Three local business owners credit their products, their service and networking with the local chamber of commerce as key factors to recession-proof businesses.

“In January, I’ll be awarded a car,” said Tijana Zelich, area manager for Arbonne International, a leader in natural skin care that’s safe for skin.

“I was never a girlie-girl,” said Zelich. “But I was concerned about my skin. I would have put lawn fertilizer on my face if I thought it would help my pores.”

A doctor told her about Arbonne. Skeptical, she tried the products and she was sold.

“In this changing economy, it’s competitive,” said Zelich. “We need to look good. We need bright faces. We can’t afford to look tired, aged. Attractive confident people attract success.”

Zelich said she networks and the Arbonne products sell themselves.

“I don’t believe in pushing the products. I let women try the products for themselves before they buy,” said Zelich. “It’s recession proof.”

“Women can’t afford $5,000 vacations to feel good, in this economy,” said Robin Shaheen Cazantzes, owner of Private Spa. “But they come in here and relax. We’re stress relievers.”

Cazantzes said at this time, women are looking for jobs. She agrees with Zelich. Women have to look good.

“Jobs are so competitive, especially during the interviewing process,” said Cazantzes. “We help ladies with make-up who are going into interviews. Some women are just entering the workforce. They must look professional.”

Cazantzes said she notices a trend. As the economy became tougher, women unite.

“Women are social,” she said. “We saw a rise in bacheorlette parties, divorce parties. Our spa is different in that we’re smaller and we offer a personal touch. We host these ladies. It rough times, we’re an oasis to relax.”

Creating an oasis of personal service has worked for Anne Marie’s Fine Jewelry.

“Everyone is important,” said Anne Marie. “The main reason we are doing well is personal service. We offer old fashioned service.”

“In business, you’ve got to have a servant’s heart,” said Zelich. “You have to know your clientele and know their needs.”

“We offer products that have meaning,” said Anne Marie. “Customers want to buy something that is worthwhile, of value.”

Anne Marie said by offering meaningful pieces and timeless elegance that give people the most for their money.

“Good people tell good people,” said Anne Marie. “We’ve networked through TIPS Clubs in the Jackson-Belden Chamber of Commerce and word of mouth.”

“My son is in college and he’s learning about network marketing,” said Zelich. “It’s something we use every day. It’s a viable way to become successful.”

Cazantzes is a member of the Jackson-Belden Chamber of Commerce and she too attends a Tips Club.

“When networking, you put a face with a business name,” said Cazantzes. “It builds clientele.”
“People do business with people they know,” said Zelich.

Auto jobs shake-up slams black middle class

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December 20, 2009

RON DZWONKOWSKI

Auto jobs shake-up slams black middle class

BY RON DZWONKOWSKI
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

http://www.freep.com/article/20091220/SPECIAL04/912200503/1318/

From 1910 into the 1930s, the black population of Detroit rose more than 600% -- double the rate of nearby Cleveland and four times faster than the increase in Chicago.

Nobody was moving here for the weather. The influx of people to Detroit -- the city tripled in size during the same period to a population of about 1.5 million -- was about jobs, mainly in the auto industry, after Henry Ford made his famous offer of $5 a day.

Among the many side effects of the assembly line was the rise of the American middle class and, in Detroit more than anywhere else, the creation of a black middle class. While segregation and racism were obstacles, Detroit became a place where good factory wages enabled African Americans to afford homes and cars; where black businesses could start up with ready customers and where succeeding generations had a measure of upward mobility. Hundreds of African-American professionals, businesspeople and academics owe their start to parents or grandparents who were able to make a decent living in Michigan's auto plants.

That avenue to the proverbial American dream has now been largely closed off by the disappearance of job opportunities at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and the many industry supplier firms.

"What is happening now to the black middle class is absolutely devastating," said Dr. Curtis Ivery, chancellor of Wayne County Community College District. "But it is also much needed. We needed to come out of our comfort zone, that sense of entitlement to those jobs."

Ivery and others said this massive economic shake-up should be a wake-up call for Detroit and indeed all Michigan to fix its schools and redirect young people toward higher education.

"The old paradigm was graduate from high school and get a good job," said Daniel Baxter, director of elections for the City of Detroit and the son of an assembly line worker. "Now, it's totally different. We have to shift the thought process, recognize the new dynamic."

Juliette Okotie-Eboh, senior vice president of public affairs for MGM Grand Detroit and the daughter of a Ford worker, recalled a time in the 1960s when the best-dressed among her classmates at Detroit Northern High School were the young men who had second-shift auto jobs.

"They had the cars, they had the clothes," she said. "The point is, I guess, they didn't need the education at that time to make the good money. But those doors have been closed for a while. Are blacks disproportionately affected? We're always disproportionately affected. ... But the lack of opportunity is more acute now."

Michael Porter, vice president for corporate communications at DTE Energy, is the son of an autoworker. His mother started out as a stenographer but worked her way up to computer systems analyst at the Army's Tank Automotive Command plant.

"I was exceedingly fortunate," Porter said. "My parents placed a high premium on education and sacrificed -- sending us to parochial schools to help prepare for college. ... But for those who couldn't or didn't want to go to college, the plants were a viable option.

"Today, those manufacturing jobs are gone. ... And even if the auto companies had the market share they enjoyed in the 1960s, the jobs our parents held would be gone. ... Today, computers and robots do many of the things that were formerly done by men and women with air wrenches and paint spray guns."

Hence the critical need, said Porter, Ivery and others, to address the ills of predominantly African-American school districts and the widespread applause for Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools, who's becoming a local folk hero as he reshapes the district with an emphasis on accountability. Bobb's trying to make changes that are at least a generation beyond overdue.

"The school systems have got to do a much better job now of meeting the needs of these students," said Bart Landry, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and author of a 1987 book, "The New Black Middle Class," plus a 2006 follow-up, "Black Working Wives."

"But first, students have to understand, the good dollars-for-hours jobs are gone. 'If I'm going to make it, I must go to college' ... and if they don't get into pre-college work, that road is extremely difficult."

At WCCCD, which now has upward of 80,000 people taking credit and noncredit courses, Chancellor Ivery is more blunt about the impact of all the closed factories in southeast Michigan.

"Unfortunately, we're exactly where we need to be, and it's a painful thing," he said. "But we've got to get something out of this. There's an opportunity if we take it over the next one or two years. And if we get it right here, we can get it right for the whole country.

"We have a chance," Ivery said, "to ... turn this around."

Ron Dzwonkowski is associate editor of the Free Press. Contact him at 313-222-6635 or rdzwonkwski@freepress.com.

Young women on brink of starting career advised to build around their passions

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December 13, 2009

Young women on brink of starting career advised to build around their passions

Kathy Porter

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20091213/BUSINESS01/912130361/1001/business

"If only I knew then what I know now." How often have you chastised yourself with that lament as you reviewed your career choices? Be honest. You'd have changed some things.

With this in mind, I asked a small group of my peers what advice they would offer to young women about to enter today's job market. What follows is a brief summary of what they said.

"Set goals to become financially independent so that you do not have to rely on anyone else," wrote Paula Rogala, a financial adviser with Waddell & Reed.

Consider jobs that incorporate residual income into your salary. The more traditional entry-level jobs in insurance, finance and real estate all have that very attractive, residual piece built into their career paths.

If none of these jobs excites you, develop a career around what you feel passionate about. Then get involved in direct sale network marketing part time for the long-term, residual income benefits. Choose a company that fits your lifestyle and stick with it.

Make deliberate choices, but don't be afraid to change direction. Network. Network. Network. Be patient. Take care of your physical health and your emotional well-being.

Never stop learning. Be a student of your profession and of self-development. Ultimately, you are your best investment.

What never changes are the practical considerations of becoming financially self-supporting. If you're not afraid to reach out to those who have been there before you, you'll get by with a little help from your friends.

Kathy Porter is the creator and owner of www.MrsBizWhiz.com and can be reached at Kathy@mrsbizwhiz.com.

Additional Facts Share a topic

This column is written by members of the Rochester Women's Network, whose focus is to help women connect, grow and succeed. For more information, go to www.rwn.org.

New career starts at home

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December 13, 2009

New career starts at home

Many wooed by direct selling during slow economy

Monica Torline
The Desert Sun

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20091213/BUSINESS/912120350/-1/newsfront/New-career-starts-at-home

Dave Barton needed to find supplemental income and a reason to get out of the house — and all it took was one lousy vegetable chopper.

Wooed by a device that could quarter an onion without breaking the peel, Barton bought a “piece of junk” off a television infomercial a few months back.

It was truth in advertising all right: The blades were so dull, they couldn't cut through much of anything.

After hearing about the bad chopper, a friend suggested Barton try a similar tool sold through The Pampered Chef, a direct seller of kitchen gadgets since 1980.

“The difference between that and what I bought was night and day,” Barton said.

The 62-year-old Rancho Mirage man became a Pampered Chef consultant a little more than a month ago, with 10 parties under his belt already.

With conventional means of finding a job drying up, many American workers like Barton are turning toward direct selling to make some money in this recession.

“It's turned into a good opportunity for me,” he said. “It's paying my mortgage.”

The Direct Selling Association, celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, tracks employment and growth of the direct sales industry. While average employment growth rates slowed 0.5 percent during previous recession years, direct sales employment rates grew an average of 8.4 percent.

“We definitely look at direct selling as an alternative to people when they've been laid off,” said Amy Robinson, vice president of communications and media relations.

The number of direct sellers nationally started increasing toward the end of 2008, Robinson said.

While 2009 figures won't be available for a few months, she said the group is optimistic about the number of new consultants joining the industry — and the selling they will do as they get started.

“We expect an increase in sales figures as these additional salespeople build their businesses,” she said.

Will they buy?

But aren't most Americans cutting back on discretionary spending?

“If there's a reason to buy, they'll buy,” Barton said, noting that a lot of his customers are interested in the added value of three- and five-year guarantees offered on most of his products.

“Women are still interested in sprucing up their wardrobes,” Keron Gustafson of Indio said.

She bought a starter kit from lia sophia and began selling jewelry through at-home parties in July.

Bonni Davis, vice president of sales, said lia sophia consultants are reporting fewer people attending at-home parties but that the average spending per customer is up.

“Friends still get together during these times,” she said. “And this business is all about women helping women.”

Often, a woman will host a party as a favor to a girlfriend getting started selling a product, Davis said. The business expands from there.

Gustafson's initial investment of $149 bought a jewelry case, two display trays, 24 pieces of jewelry, order forms and catalogs.

The additional $500 to $1,000 she earns every month makes “a huge difference” for the household income, she said.

“In essence, I feel like I'm part of a franchise, but with a very low franchise fee,” she said.

Most people who get involved with direct sales have a specific goal in mind — a way to pay for a family vacation or a new car, said Robinson of the Direct Selling Association. The median income for a direct seller is $2,400 annually.

It can become a full-time job

But with flexible hours and little risk to get started, there's potential to turn the opportunity into a full-time career, she said.

Patti Levenda made the transition from selling at house parties to opening a showroom in Palm Desert called Simply Divine.

While she started it with the idea of creating a space for people to host direct sales parties, she also sells handbags and accessories there like the traditional retail model.

Call it customer service or a throwback to her days in direct sales, Levenda is holding workshops for women to show them how to work with accessories they already own. If they buy a new item or two to supplement what they already have, even better.

“Spending a dollar is more of a conscious choice right now,” she said.

Her advice to those looking to start a new career in direct sales: “Start small, and be creative with the marketing. Provide extraordinary customer service.”

Additional Facts What are direct sales?

Direct selling is the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location. In 2008, sales in the United States totaled about $30 billion, with more than 74 percent of the American public buying goods or services through direct selling.
The history of direct selling started in the earliest days of commerce, as traders would go to marketplace to barter for goods and services in person.
The introduction of the home party in the 1950s added a new dimension to the direct selling industry. Hostesses would invite friends into their homes, setting the stage for product demonstrations.
Today, direct selling still takes place in living rooms and kitchens around the country. But some parties are going online, with hosts sending out e-invitations to come buy wares.
The Direct Selling Association

Interested in these businesses?

For more information on the local businesses included in this article:
Dave Barton, Pampered Chef consultant, at (760) 799-2499.
Keron Gustafson, lia sophia consultant, at (760) 289-8133.
Patti Levenda, owner of Simply Divine, at (760) 799-4425.