Upline Times
Coy Barefoot
News bytes in this edition of Upline Times:
- What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
- A Mother's Work
- Know Your Vitamins
- Caught In The Act
- E-Commerce Stats
- On the Job
What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
Not too long ago, kids were told that growing up to become a doctor was one of the highest aspirations they could shoot for. Besides helping people, you'd make a ton of money and have a great quality of life.
Well, times have indeed changed. With managed care, HMOs, PPOs, and insurance companies cracking down, the ol' docs just don't live quite like they used to. Truth be told, being a doctor is one of the most time-consuming, stressful jobs anyone could have. Now comes word that they're making even less money for all their hard work. According to a recent study by the American Medical Association, the median income of doctors in America has gone down for the second time in four years.
In 1997, the median income for a physician in the United States was $164,000. Since 1988, the overall income of doctors has stayed pretty flat, despite increased hours on the job.
"Physicians worked an average of 55 hours a week; self-employed doctors averaged 57-hour weeks."
It's time for kids to consider a new role model: the successful Network Marketer. You get to really help people and improve their lives; you don't have to spend ten-plus years in school; you can make as much money as you want to; and you set your own schedule. Besides, you won't be on call every six nights!
So, what do you want to be when you grow up?
(Source: AMA, May 24, 1999)
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A Mother's Work
According to Edelman Financial Services of Fairfax, Virginia, American full-time mothers should be making about half a million dollars a year for all the work they do for their families.
"As a cook, financial manager, psychologist, and bus driver, American mothers should pull in $508,700 per year based on average U.S. salaries.
"Since a mother wears many hats and is on duty 24-hours a day, we decided a typical mother deserves a full-time yearly salary for 17 key occupational position," said financial analyst Ric Edelman.
Did they factor in the full-time pay of a successful Networker to their list?
(Source: Reuters, May 7, 1999)
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Know Your Vitamins
Here's the latest from the Vitamin Supplement Files:
- Americans spend $14.8 billion every year on vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements.
- Only 18% of consumers can identify the brand names of any major vitamin manufacturers.
- The key factor that compels us to choose one brand over another is an endorsement by our physicians, friends, or family members-- not advertising.
(Source: Health Focus, Inc and Hartman & New Hope, as reported in Network Marketing Lifestyles)
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85% of physicians currently use the Internet to improve the services they offer to patients. That's a jump of 875% since 1997! Now that they understand the power of leverage, maybe you can show them how to use it to improve their own lives....
(Source: Healtheon Corporation, May 1999)
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Caught In The Act
In what promises to be the largest settlement ever in a Federal antitrust case, two of the world's largest drug and chemical manufacturers, Roche Holding of Switzerland and BASF of Germany, agreed to pay upwards of $700 million for illegally price-fixing the vitamin market.
"The lawsuits contend that in the last decade, executives of those companies met secretly with representatives of several smaller manufacturers and vitamin blenders to fix prices and carve up territories in the United States and elsewhere."
What are these corporate suits so afraid of that they have to resort to backroom deals and illegal tactics to sell vitamin supplements? Could it be that there is honest-to-goodness competition out there in the form of Network Marketing that has them on the run?
(Source: New York Times, May 26, 1999)
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E-Commerce Stats
Here are the latest numbers on how electronic commerce is shaping up in America. By the year 2025, experts are predicting that most retailing will be taking place over the Internet, with quick home delivery. Where does your Network Marketing company fit into the virtual future of business?
- Just over half-- 50.3%-- of all households in the U.S. have personal computers.
- By August 1998, an estimated 72 million Americans had Internet access.
- There are an estimated 17 million Americans who shop regularly over the Net-- that figure is expected to climb to 58 million by 2002.
- On-line shopping in the United States totaled about $7 billion in 1998. It is expected to rise to $41 billion in 2002.
- In the United States, corporate spending and investment in the Internet is forecasted to surpass $203 billion by 2002
- By the year 2002, the on-line auction industry is expected to generate $3.2 billion annually.
- The automobile sales industry is rapidly moving into the e-commerce realm. By 2003, 470,00 households are expected to purchase new cars entirely over the Internet, to the tune of $12 billion.
(Source: InfoBeads, Mediamark Research, IDC Research, Forrester Research, Jupiter Communications)
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On the Job
From this month's Job File comes word of more unhappy workers. No matter what you call it-- restructuring, downsizing, re-engineering-- it means loyal, hard-working employees are getting fired, usually so the company can show greater profits.
In a recent survey of American workers, more than one-third said their company had experienced some form of job cuts in the last three years. And that equates to a cut in morale as well. The same workers "gave their employers dismal performance ratings on everything from management to honesty and ethics." Who can blame them?
(Source: Wirthlin Worldwide)
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"As of December 1998, consumers had borrowed almost $559 billion on their credit cards. In the meantime, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the rate of personal savings in the fourth quarter of 1998 fell to a big fat zero. It is not surprising, then, that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reported 1.39 million filings for personal bankruptcy last year."
-- Debra Goldman, American Demographics, May 1999
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Reprinted with permission from Upline, Upline Times - July/August 1999, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com
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