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My sister sent me this list.  She was worried about gift cards at the holidays…

BUT it got me thinking… Look at all these people out of work.

Not just retail employees but also the managers and people who run the stores, run the districts, buy the products, create the artwork and sales materials, etc.

1. Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
2. Ann Taylor 117 stores nationwide closing
3. Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
4. Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
5. Cache will close all stores
6. Talbots closing down specialty stores
7. J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned
by Talbots)
8. GAP closing 85 stores
9. Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
10.Wickes Furniture closing down
11. Levitz closing down remaining stores
12. Bombay closing remaining stores
13. Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
14. Whitehall closing all stores
15. Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
16. Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
17. Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
18. Macys to close 9 stores after January
19. Linens and Things closing all stores
20. Movie Galley Closing all stores
21. Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
22. Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
23. JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
24. Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
25. Wilson Leather closing down all stores
26. Sharper Image closing down all stores
27. K B Toys closing 356 stores
28. Lowes to close down some stores
29. Dillard’s to close some stores

I just heard today that Bitten is also closing all stores.

How could you reach out to these people? Could you advertise for them?  Could you go to facebook or other social networking sites and look for disenfranchised employees?

How can you use the economic downturn to help you grow your business AND help these people who need to replace their income?

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > recession

With a bad economy in the US some families won’t have Christmas this year.

We as network marketers, especially those of us making a good income from our business need to realize how fortunate we are.

Some families won’t have enough money to buy Christmas gifts this year.  Their behind on their credit cards and mortgage.  They may have recently gotten laid off from their job.  They’re struggling to survive and they can’t afford the simple things like Christmas gifts for their kids.

When I was young my family had several bad years. I remember one year in high school where we were so broke that we wouldn’t have had Christmas at all if some people from our church hadn’t helped us out.  I remember being poor enough that our electricity was cut off and we slept in the den around the fire. I know what it’s like to live without.

This year if you’re fortunate to be making a decent income from your business remember to give to others.  Some organizations you might want to donate to include:

• Toys for Tots
• Goodwill
• The Salvation Army
• Your local foodbank
• Your local church may also have fundraisers for lower income families and shut-ins

Don’t forget those that are less fortunate than you!

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > recession

In the last few weeks I’ve occasionally written about ideas on how to market in a down economy.

A friend of mine (Jack) who is not currently doing MLM has been telling me about his successes. You see he started a podcast about the economy.  He calls it the Survival Podcast – Helping you live the life you want if times get tough or even if they don’t.  He has been having tremendous success with this podcast.  He has hundreds of listeners and is closing in on a thousand listeners.  He has a popular discussion board with thousands of posts.  He has people voluntering to help promote his site.

You see Jack has a few things going for him.

1. He picked a hot topic.  He’s writing about what to do if times get tough and they actually did get tough.
2. He has personality.  You might not always agree with the guy but he’s fun to listen to.
3. People are desperate for help.
4. He marketed it a little bit to help get it going.
5. He consistently posts new shows.  He tries to post a new show 5 days a week.

Now let’s think about this from a MLM point of view.  You could go out and create your own blog or podcast (a podcast is basically an audio blog in MP3 format and can be downloaded from sites like Apple iTunes.) You can pick a hot topic like the economy.  Or you can go out and find blogs and podcasts on these topics and simply buy advertising on them.

I’ve considered setting up my own podcast since I hear how successful my buddy Jack is. My concern is this is my busy time of year.  I don’t have a lot of spare time.  So I could instead perhaps buy advertising on other sites.

I have both money and leads already coming into my business.  So I don’t neccessarily need to start my own web site on the economy to get more leads.  Since I have some money to invest in advertising I can go out and buy some ads.  That way I can focus more on following up with the leads I have and less on making a web site to get new leads.

If however you are new to MLM or Network Marketing or aren’t making a lot of money yet, you might want to take the cheaper route of creating your own blog or podcast about the economy.

- Ben Fitts
The Custom Greeting Card Guy

MLM Training > recession

Hi readers,

Are you guys taking advantage of the down economy to recruit for your MLM?

One question I have for you is… Are you using more coupons?  Are you reading through the coupons like the “Valpak” coupons that come in the mail?  How about the cheap little newspapers like the Thrity Nickel, PennySaver, or ClipperMagazine?

I normally don’t advertise in these kind of newspapers and coupon guides.  I usually find them to be a bad source because the people who respond to the ads are usually looking for a job or don’t have money to sart a business… But I wonder… Are more people looking at these newspapers for ways to save money?  Might we find better prospects here than in the past?

What do you think? Have you found any tricks that are working for you to market in this down economy?

- Ben Fitts

MLM Training > recession

I wanted to share some good news about our economic crisis.

The good news is we all have an opportunity that we can share with people to help them get out of the financial doldrums.

My friends and business associates are all making more money than ever.

Think about it.  Think about the retired person.  Their pension just shrank overnight.  Their stocks sank 40%.   Their are no dividends to speak of any more.

So what do they do?  They go back to work.  I was shopping the other day and all the people working the checkout stands in the department store were older people.  Many of them probably were retirement age already but couldn’t afford to retire! That stinks! I’d hate to be that person.

Yet in network marketing we make RESIDUAL income.  We get paid over and over again for the work we do.  So when we get a customer we get paid on that customer each and every month that they purchase more products.  If you have customemrs on auto-order then you know you’re going to get paid on them every month.

It’s not quite a guaranteed paycheck but it’s pretty close! It’s certainly better than depending on a check from your stock broker! Yuck!

Don’t get me wrong… I’m looking at the horrible USA stock market and recession as a way to make extra money.  I’m considering BUYING stock right now in good companies because I see some great deals out there.

Isn’t it great to be a network marketer right now?

- Ben Fitts
The custom greeting card guy

MLM Training > recession