Happy New Year! It’s here!
As we start any new year there is always much to reflect on and many new goals and objectives to strive toward. Because of you, we know the stories we tell will continue to keep all informed of the realization that even in the most challenging of times our industry will continue to demonstrate, through the opportunities offered, that growth in its many forms is still the foundation upon which the direct selling channel is built.

The average response time of a company’s public relations department to a public situation used to be 48 hours, then 24 hours. Now, with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, responses that don’t come within a few hours of the incident are considered too late.

Blyth Inc., Neways, Avon Products Inc., Computer Vision Systems Laboratories Corp.

Budding Entrepreneurs, Fashionistas, Socialistas and Tastemakers. These are the women who inspired Chantel Waterbury to exit the corporate world and start her own direct sales jewelry company, Chloe + Isabel.

LifeVantage Corp., Mannatech Inc., Natural Health Trends Corp., Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., Blyth Inc., Primerica Inc., Relìv International Inc., Tupperware Brands Corp.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
—Zig Ziglar

The Direct Selling Association helped kick off the 19th Annual TODAY Show Holiday Toy and Gift Drive recently by presenting the direct selling industry’s donation live in Rockefeller Plaza.

What would it take to grow your company to 10 times its size? That’s the challenge British direct seller Kleeneze has given itself. And it aims to do it in the next 10 years.

From the presidential election to the now famous “fiscal cliff,” the last quarter of 2012 brought with it plenty of political positioning and fancy rhetoric. Amidst all of it, though, one thing remained certain: Small businesses, often seen as the “backbone” of the U.S. economy, would play an important role in a post-recession America.

On balance, it appears that the direct selling business model continues to hold up well despite the continued difficult global macroeconomic conditions. In a period where nominal GDP growth is stuck in the low- to mid-single digits in the U.S. and in the mid- to high-single digits globally, many of the larger, publicly traded direct sellers are continuing to post strong organic sales growth.

Oct. 19, 2012 marked a milestone for the Direct Sellers Association of Canada (DSA of Canada) as it held its’ inaugural “Celebrating Excellence in Direct Selling” Gala.

Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar, the man of a million motivational maxims who bucked up and cheered on three generations of American business strivers over a 40-year international speaking career, died near his home in Plano, Texas, on Wednesday after a brief battle with pneumonia. He was 86.