Understanding MLM

A multi-level marketing opportunity (as opposed to a flat out pyramid scheme) offers participants two ways to make revenue. You can sell products directly to clients either out of your own pre-purchased inventory or by routing sales through the parent company. Or, you can recruit others to sell the products and get paid a cut from everything they sell. Some MLM opportunities pay you a percentage on everyone your recruits sign up to sell products as well. In most setups, the (theoretical) big money is on commissions from the products and opportunities the people downstream or “down line” from you sell. You are making money off other people’s sales efforts to a much larger pool of customers.

What It Really Takes

This type of business opportunity is most likely to work well for:

People who are born with a great deal of charisma. You know the ones – everyone is always clustered around them at a party, waiting for a little attention. This type of business opportunity is predicated on great social skills. MLM is not designed for people who want to work from home because they are naturally introverted. You’re stress level will be through the roof from all the schmoozing this job requires.

Individuals with a long, successful background in other forms of direct sales. You’ve got to have a great sales pitch and the ability to close a deal to convince anyone to buy the product or to sign up recruits in your down line. There’s no substitute for skill and experience – especially if you want to start making money before you run out of savings.

People with a substantial and highly active social media network. This is critical for today’s online MLM opportunities (they are called network marketing for a reason). If you are already a blogger with thousands of followers and hundreds of comments on each post, that’s a good start.

If you don’t fit into one of the categories above, you may not have what it takes to make it in the MLM game.

Like most studies of this kind, there’s still no actual evidence linking laptop use to lower fertility rates in men. Although the research makes for a great news story, fertility experts remain unconvinced about the significance of these findings – especially since the sperm wasn’t even in the subjects’ bodies any longer when it was exposed to the laptop. You can read more analysis over at MSN.

The truth is that using a laptop on your lap can contribute to problems from a heat-related rash called erythema ab igne to poor posture. So, you should probably be using a more ergonomically friendly computer anyway.

Let’s say you adore fashion and you enjoy shopping for clothes immensely. But maybe it’s not always possible to make time in your day to get it done. Think back to the last time you got an invitation to an event and realized you had nothing in your closet that’s suitable. If you are pressed for time, you may not be able to make the rounds of local boutiques to pick the right outfit. That’s when you can call on a trusted personal shopper who’s shown that she understands your tastes and sense of style. She can do the legwork and bring you only the choicest apparel items to try on.

What if you really don’t care for fashion and abhor shopping – but know you need to make a good impression anyway. There are personal stylists for both men and women who can take the stress of choosing your wardrobe off your hands completely. They can do more than just pick out clothes. They can put together entire outfits including accessories so you never have to wonder what to wear. With a little practice, you’ll look stylish all the time without hardly trying.

Are you too busy to revamp your wardrobe? Would you use a personal shopper to help you dress your best? Would you do it just for special events or for everyday business and casual wear also?

1. We want to see more of it flowing in (prosperity)
2. We want to see more of it sticking around (wealth)

If your main challenge is spending money faster than you make it (even when you are making a healthy income), it’s time to start looking at ways to keep the energy of money accumulating in your life. If you haven’t already done so, start a savings account today. Even if you don’t have much money, you can start a free ING Orange savings account with just $50 (there’s actually no minimum). Add an additional $25-50 automatically from your checking account per month to start. The important thing is to start the habit.

Give the account a nickname that states something positive. For example, don’t refer to it as your “Emergency Fund”. That’s inviting an emergency to deplete your savings. Instead, call it something like “My Financial Freedom Fund” or “My Wealth Building Dynamo”. This name states how you desire your life to be when it comes to money and increases your ability to hold onto more of the cash you make. To see more common sense tips on healthier finances, visit one of my favorite money blogs: Get Rich Slowly.

1. We really don’t know what effects these types of exposure have had on the population already or what problems these chemicals could cause over the long term
2. We undoubtedly do need stricter food quality controls – but dealing with these issues one “health scare” at a time is never going to do more than scratch the surface of the problem

To be perfectly honest, there’s probably no food that can be proven to be 100% “safe”. Your best bet to avoid health problems caused by food is still to:

• Eat a balanced diet consisting of a variety of nutritious foods
• Practice good food hygiene
• Pay attention to actual safety recalls for salmonella, E. coli, and other foodborne bacteria

Evaluate Availability

While you don’t necessarily want to join a gym that resembles a ghost town, you do want to make sure it isn’t so crowded that you can’t get the type of workout you desire. January is still the busiest time of the year for gyms, so you may actually want to wait until February rolls around before you start touring local gyms. This gives you an idea of how packed the establishment really is – and how long you can expect to wait for your favorite machines on an average day. Schedule your visit for the time of day when you usually expect to be at the gym (such as during the 6 PM “after work” rush hour). That way, you won’t be surprised by how busy it is when you actually start attending regularly.

What’s the Focus?

Different gyms cater to different clientele. One might be geared toward serious body builders. Another might be targeting the luxury/spa crowd. You should be comfortable and feel that you blend in reasonably well. It’s unlikely that other gym members will actually try to make you feel unwelcome. But you may shy away from working out even if the perception of not fitting in is just in your head. The focus of the gym will also determine what types of equipment and amenities are available. If you want to make swimming your main form of full body exercise, you wouldn’t want a gym that invests most of its money in great spinning equipment and doesn’t keep its pool in fantastic condition.

Meet the Trainers

There’s no rule saying you have to hire a personal trainer or fitness instructor to help you work out. But you should at least try a few classes to get a feel for how the gym is run. Ask questions about how long the various employees have been associated with the gym and how things have changed over the years. Gyms that have established long term relationships with instructors and trainers are most likely to care about your experience as well. If there are far fewer specialty classes available now than there were a few years ago, this may be a sign that the gym is cutting costs even at the expense of customer satisfaction.

Double Cloth Metro

This J. Crew piece is Italian wool – and it’s eggplant hued. It’s like someone dipped a sheep in purple dye! The cut is slimming even though the coat is fully lined. Even better, the knee length cut lets you show off your winter boots.

Pink Trench

Inspector Clouseau wore a pale khaki trench coat. But this revamped version from Banana Republic is the color of the Pink Panther. With a mid-thigh length it won’t overpower a petite figure, while the belted waist cinches any woman into an instant hourglass shape.

Cord Sherpa Trucker Jacket

This Levi jacket will still be comfy to wear in March. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the color isn’t actually light fawn. It’s blush…the very palest pink that belies the boyish cut and corduroy fabric. The fleecy lining at the color frames your face while the waist length cut lets you make a fashion statement with layered shirt tails underneath.

Food Allergy Rates Exploding!

Or are they? The data cited in this WebMD article was based on surveys of parents, not on actual clinical allergy testing. The fact is that delayed or mild but chronic allergic reactions to food (as opposed to immediate reactions such as hives) are very difficult for a layperson to accurately link to a specific food. There’s also no way to know if the rates of childhood allergies are increasing since this is the first study of its kind and scope ever done.

Parents who are desperate for answers to chronic childhood ailments are pointing the finger at food. It gives them a sense of control and hope. They think “If I can just cut this food out of my child’s diet, they will feel better”. It’s an understandable response that may have unintended consequences. Elimination diets are all the rage. Parents are cutting out whole food groups from their child’s diet in an attempt to curb any number of symptoms that are not necessarily linked to food allergies at all.

Why is This a Problem?

Today, many pediatricians are actually concerned that kids are suffering from malnutrition because parents fear food allergies that aren’t present. Since childhood nutrition is essential for good health throughout an individual’s life, parents may actually be doing more harm than good by taking extreme measures to restrict their child’s diet. This doesn’t mean elimination diets have no place in the diagnosis and treatment of allergies. However, this is an approach that should only be used under the guidance of a physician to ensure that appropriate nutrition is maintained.

If your business is in an industry that tends to experience cyclical downsizing, it might make more sense to plan for a fluctuating workforce size in advance. The use of contingent labor can be useful in this scenario. These workers go into the agreement knowing that they are on a contract for a limited period of time. They may get a renewal offer, or the contract may be allowed to expire if their services are no longer needed. This approach may allow you to avoid laying off your “permanent” or core workforce while giving you flexibility to cut payroll costs on short notice.

Photo courtesy of CC license by Alan Cleaver

Fat Might Be Contagious!

This is a particularly nefarious fluff piece. Say it with us, “Correlation does not equal causation”. The author of this piece even admits that the increase in body weight associated with this “fat virus” was limited to a 3 month period of weight gain. How that has any bearing on the supposed obesity crisis is a bit foggy, no?