Happy Birthday to us! The month marks our second year in operation providing the direct selling channel with the news and information you need in order to make the best decisions for your businesses.
It’s been a privilege to serve you in this way, and we look forward to many years to come. We certainly have had no lack of topics recently with the FTC’s aggressive stance on claims, and the COVID-19 virus disrupting all business.
It’s now been several weeks since most of us have been to our offices. For this May issue, we’ve decided to release the paper digitally to limit the number of subscriptions that may be languishing in mail rooms and unoccupied offices.
We are certainly in challenging times, but we’ll continue to bring you the news and information you need to effectively run your businesses. You’ll be reading this issue through our digital PDF reader, turning pages digitally instead of physically.
If you’d like to receive your paper at your home address instead of the office, go to socialsellingnews.com, click on the Subscribe tab and change your address by creating a new profile. Use the coupon code SSYMS and you can bypass the paywall. This will also allow you to access all of our content online.
If you’ve ever accessed the website before, simply login and edit your existing profile. This issue is packed full of COVID-19 information that will help you navigate this very strange time.
We’ve paid particular attention this month to the regulatory landmines that are out there. The FTC has set up a special task force specifically to monitor claims around COVID-19, and direct sellers can be particularly vulnerable due to field postings on social media. As we know, the FTC holds you responsible for any claims your field makes, even if they do so unknowingly. Our lead story covers the 10 warning letters sent to direct selling companies by the taskforce, all warning companies about posts their fields had made, and giving them only 48 hours to have the posts removed.
I am most interested in what the direct selling channel will look like after we emerge from this strangeness. We’ve been hearing anecdotal stories about some companies doing extremely well during this time. It seems like they are the ones who had already taken a strong digital stance and could pivot fairly easily to both remote work and e-commerce sales. I have been especially impressed with Neora’s ability to translate their culture into a remote setting. (See Getting Real, page 22).
Also take a look at Steve Jamieson’s Voices column (page 16) for a description at what our future might look like if we use this opportunity to re-evaluate how we operate amidst other alternative income opportunities. What will the future bring? We are anxious to find out.
Stay healthy and safe.
By: Steve Jamieson
While the rest of the world recently learned what “Alone Together” truly means, network marketing has been refining that socio-economic business model for many years.
One of the foundational principles of network marketing was based on the simple premise that you cannot be in two places at once. Hence, network marketing created a structure to leverage the time and efforts of potentially thousands of people to help individual entrepreneurs reach a financial success they could not achieve on their own.
