Upline Times
News bytes in this edition of Upline Times:
- Positive Press
- Vacation Home Strategies
- Plastic Surgery
- The Commuting Nightmare
- Debtor's Cost
- College Costs
- Sleepy Heads
Positive Press For Networker in The Wall Street Journal
This one slipped by us back in July, so in case you missed it too, check out the WSJ's July 16th "The Front Lines." Pictured in a classic WSJ sketch is Enrich wonder-woman Mary Lou Wilson, next to the headline, "She Got the Last Laugh When Colleagues Bet She'd Fail in Japan." What follows is the story of how Mary Lou set a goal to open Japan for Enrich, the challenges she faced-- from company executives' skepticism, to the language barrier, to cultural differences-- and her ultimate success. After her colleagues warned her about government regulations and the difficulties she'd have as a woman in a male-dominated society, the article says, "Mrs. Wilson, 62 years old, now runs a Network of 75,000 individual distributors in Japan, which Enrich says produced sales of more than $7 million last month. Her story points to the gumption it takes to break into a foreign market." We should say so! What you'll love about the article as a fellow Networker is that throughout it the writer talks about her with respect appropriate for any businessperson of Mary Lou Wilson's caliber, no matter the industry.
Congratulations, Mary Lou, for capturing the WSJ's attention with your achievements!
(Source: "The Front Lines," The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 1999)
Vacation Home Strategies
Owning a vacation home is one of today's status-symbol luxuries which can double as a great investment. Many people look to their secondary properties to bring in rent, provide inexpensive vacations, increase in value, and offer retirement residence. To make sure you have an asset, not a liability, use the following:
Buy on facts, not fad.
A trendy area now may or may not be popular next year or ten years from now, and it may not be a place you want to live year `round. For long-term satisfaction, look for elements which are assets regardless of fashion: recreational access, especially beachfront or lakeside; single-family houses instead of hip little condos.
Do your research.
Check with the locals about recent trends in property taxes and laws which affect your potential property. See if there are new developments in the area which will increase the demand for real estate. If you are considering it for retirement, would you want to live in the area? Does it have the services you might need?
Stay close to home.
Vacation properties are most valuable when you can use them easily. Try to stay within a 300-mile radius of your primary residence, and make sure you have good transportation options. You won't get benefit out of a vacation property which is too difficult to use regularly.
Budget carefully.
Every property has ongoing costs, even if no one is living there. Don't forget to consider insurance, taxes, and maintenance. If it is easy to rent during certain seasons (not always a given), you may have extra upkeep costs as well as the income. Also consider that you may want to use your own property during the same season when it is easiest and most lucrative to rent it out.
(Source: Money magazine, August 1999)
Plastic Surgery
If you encounter one of the thousands who had plastic surgery last year (doctors performed two million cosmetic procedures in 1998), you might want to mention the benefits of Network Marketing. Don't forget that grinning delightedly over monthly bonus checks is a wonderful face lift, even if you aren't saving for an eyelid tuck.
(Source: Mirabella, August 1999)
The Commuting Nightmare
Here are a few raging-road statistics for any prospect who thinks Network Marketing has reached saturation in this country:
- 84,215,298 workers over the age of 16 drive to work alone. No wonder the roads are crowded!
- 15,377,634 take advantage of car pools.
- 7,894,911 either walk to work or work at home. Some of these folks are Networkers, but not all.
- 6,069,589 commute via public transportation.
- 1,512,842 use other means (bicycles, Leer jets, magic carpets, etc.).
If you do a quick calculation, not including any of the at-home working group, you'll see there are at least 107,175,363 people in this country who are trudging off to jobs instead of enjoying the freedoms of Network Marketing. Our freeway system is reaching saturation much faster than Networking!
(Source: USA Today, August 6-8 1999)
Debtor's Cost
Our instant-gratification society has turned to home-equity loans and credit cards to stretch the power of paychecks. What does that cost? Have a look at the various amounts of interest you would pay over a three-year period on $10,000 of debt:
| Interest Rate |
Amount Paid |
| 6.0% interest |
$952 |
| 9.9% interest |
$1,599 |
| 21.9% interest |
$3,730 |
Don't forget that you also have to come up with the principle in that same time, or else continue paying interest.
Now try calculating the savings if you paid off the debt early with extra income from your Networking business. Take it one step further and figure your earnings on extra income if you invested it, even at low interest. How much buying power would you have after three years of building your business and your portfolio? Makes waiting for gratification look pretty good, doesn't it?
(Source: US News & World Report, August 9, 1999)
College Costs
Exactly how much of your bonuses do you need to salt away toward Junior's college fund? The figures below are an average for this coming school year at a public university, assuming
in-state tuition and on-campus living arrangements.
Tuition:................$3,243
Room & Board:.......$4,530
Books:..................$662
Transportation:.........$612
Don't forget to consider clothing, supplies, miscellaneous fees, pizza (you can't eat cafeteria food all the time, Mom!), and whether or not you want to provide a credit or calling card for your little scholar.
(Source: Money magazine, August 1999)
Sleepy Heads
Were you aware that the average adult needs two hours of sleep for every waking hour? For many of those working traditional jobs-- complete with commuting-- there is simply no time to add sleep to the already-crowded "free time" which has to accommodate soccer practice and games, grocery shopping, and possibly a little quality time with family.
Unfortunately, the whole system backfires if you accumulate too much of what is called sleep debt, the hours of difference between a good night's sleep and what you actually got. If you need eight hours, but you sleep only six, you have a sleep debt of two hours. Keep that up without catching up and you increase your risks of getting ill, losing productivity, becoming frustrated or angry, and possibly even crashing your car.
Many Networkers gauge their success by their alarm clocks: When an alarm clock is no longer a morning necessity, success has arrived! If your prospects doze off during opportunity meetings or tell you they are too tired to talk with you, you might want to show them a way to pay off years of sleep debt.
(Source: Reader's Digest, September 1999)
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Reprinted with permission from Upline, Upline Times - October 1999, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com
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