Adversity brings new trends and even gains to many companies in the channel
This year has truly taken a course none of us planned for or saw coming. And, the adventure appears to be continuing, as fall approaches with schools still scrambling and remote work the norm.
Yet, as creative people, it’s in our DNA to solve problems, create solutions, and carry on. Over the course of history, solutions born in times of need are often much better than what worked previously, and they replace what we knew before.
While no doubt presenting challenges to individual companies, it appears that overall the channel is doing well. We are hearing from readers that companies are growing in both sponsoring and product sales, supporting the long-held idea that direct selling companies do well in economic downturns.
Our stories this month overall reflect optimism—though supply chains have experienced some disruption, most companies are handling the bumps just fine, and many young companies are growing.
We are sharing an exciting new feature this month: mini-profiles of growing young companies and newly launched companies. You’ll see these in the pages after The Ranks, which also features them. If you know of any new companies that we did not include, please send them our way! We’d love to include them in future mini-profiles.
We are also bringing you another Voices article by Mona Ameli to complement her article last month on diversity and inclusion. This month, she tackles the sometimes uncomfortable topic of Unconscious Bias (basically, how we think in stereotypes), and offers several specific ways to address this topic in the workplace and in the field.
We’ve also highlighted the new Guidance on Earnings Claims issued by the DSSRC, and explore the evolution of payment methods in our Special Report.
We hope you enjoy this issue. Please let us know if there are any additional topics you’d like to see explored in our pages.