You may be wondering, who in the WORLD is Mrs. Albee? She’s certainly not a household name. As a matter of fact I never heard of the name before her name popped up doing a little research yesterday. Before I divulge who this Albee woman is, I saw in interesting commercial yesterday afternoon, with a message similar to the one I was introduced to at the National Convention.

How to recession proof your income.

Take a quick look at the video found on the AVON web site (bottom right hand corner) and a solid argument why AVON is a great way to produce the extra income needed in these difficult times. With all the news about layoffs, bankruptcies, and the recession it’s difficult to find solutions to combat the worst economic condition this country has faced in 70 years. While there are a number of companies who were around 70 years ago, not many know that there were a couple of Network Marketing Companies around at that time, one of them being AVON. Although AVON was known as the California Perfume Company back then. The name was changed to AVON back in 1939.

While YTB has taken a considerable amount of flak for producing our “Recession Proof” DVD to offer a legitimate alternative to our economic times, this message was produced to help the members of the Director Selling Assoication. (An Association who’s been around since 1910.)

I know there are a lot of critics out there who spend a considerable amount of time posting and telling you that Network Marketing is nothing more than a pyramid scheme. If you find one of these critics, you might want to ask them about their personal experience in the industry. I find it interesting that I can’t be called a Travel Agent because I don’t have the proper experience or training, but these same individuals have no problem telling me that Network Marketing is a scam without one ounce of experience in my industry.

For some reason the same rules don’t apply to them. They’ve been given a pass, simply because they “researched” the industry. (From the likes of guys like Fitzpatrick or Taylor more than likely.) Trust me, I’ve had my share of experience with critics, and while I do enjoy a good debate, after you’ve been in this industry for as long as I have, critics start running out of excuses and start with personal attacks. Why because they can’t answer the tough questions.

Here’s a good example; Have you heard this story?

Network Marketing companies are doomed to fail, flawed, because the model will eventually run out of “suckers” to recruit.

If that’s the case than WHY has AVON, been around since 1886 and STILL not run out of people (sorry, suckers) who sell this product to consumers? I mean come on people, when does the statute of limitations run out on this type of baloney? The truth is, this notion of running out of people has never happened in the entire history of the MLM model, which is more than a century old. For a listing of some of the oldest and most prominent Network Marketing Companies in the industry, you can find a listing on the DSA web site. And none of them have “run out of suckers” even if they’ve been around for decades.

Yet this notion about the pyramid crumbling still abounds by those who choose to ignore the most prominent and respected companies in the industry today.

Another interesting note about these companies; I can’t seem to find any information about any of them laying off any of their representatives. Strange how that works. Why haven’t we seen stories like we have for Liberty Travel or the long list of layoffs connected to the traditional models popping up with Network Marketing Companies? It was my understanding, according to critics at least, that working for a traditional company was more secure, a better deal? Based on the list I posted last month, there were more than 200,000 jobs lost due to pink slips, (and that’s just a sampling of the total amount) yet, not one word about any Network Marketing Companies laying off its Independent Representatives. True, there are those that quit on their own, but not one was forced or pressured to do so to help the company remain solvent.

And as you’ve seen in this AVON commercial, like my agreement in YTB, I don’t have to worry about being laid off due to downsizing.

Which of course brings up the suits that are floating around right now that our critics would like you to believe will crush my tenure with YTB. My guess is that they choose to ignore the same stories said about Pre-Paid Legal back in 2002 when the company faced more than $750 Million in damages, far more than the $40 Million in assets it had. More recently, USANA faced the same type of suits from distributors in California. Funny how critics slammed both these companies at the time, but are not only still in business, but are profitable today.

Like much of the misinformation and spin out there on the internet from critics who have nothing better to do with their time but promote the doom and gloom, I’ll let those with the proper knowledge and experience, and time handle that mess. The simple filing of a lawsuit certainly doesn’t produce innocence or guilt, that’s what the legal process is for. While many didn’t give YTB a chance to make it this far, according to some, the company should have folded YEARS ago, it dosen’t seem to bother or stop the company from executing plans that have been in the works since its inception.

I’ve seen plenty of changes and advancements with YTB over my years. Like AVON, it’s a work in progress. We simply roll with the times.

I wonder what Mrs. Albee would think of AVON today? Wonder if she would even recognize the name or the products for that matter?

And just who is Mrs. Albee? AVON’s first Independent Representative of the California Perfume Company. The date, was 1886, and if she still survived, she’s have one heck of an organization under her.

I guess getting in early does have it’s advantages. ;-P

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Doug & Ronda Bauknight AKA: TravelPro Travel Agent / Networker Phone: 678.458.5812

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Tags: AVON, Direct Selling Association, DSA, Network Marketing, Recession Proof Your Income

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under AVON, Direct Selling Association, MLM, Network Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.