WHERE THERE'S

THERE'SFIOFIE

Bob and Brenda
Pangborn are
working to create
a high level of
financial security
through the
NuSkin business.

26

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1991

chestra and an assistant
principal timpanist. He
doesn't want to perform
music forever, however. And
with contract talks and
negotiations sometimes
making more noise than the
musical instruments, he's
looking for something that
offers more security.
NuSkin is that ticket for
the Pangborns.
"I see the potential for
creating security," Mrs.
Pangborn said. "Multi-level
is absolutely the wave of the
future."
There are some 12 million
multi-level marketing
distributors in the United
States and scores of foreign
countries. The Wall Street
Journal reported that some
50 to 65 percent of all goods
and services will soon be
marketed by multi-level
businesses.
Amway, which earns
better than $2 billion a year
in revenue, now has major
corporations coming to
them, trying to infuse their

product into Amway's
distributor network. Besides
the Ada, Mi.-based product
line of food supplements,
home care and personal care
items, Amway distributors
also market MCI long
distance telecommunica-
tions, Coca Cola products,
Big Three automobiles, in-
surance, home mortgages,
computers, real estate and
hundreds of other products.
Amway is known in the
multi-level marketing busi-
ness as the largest creator of
new millionaires in the
nation. Like NuSkin and
Shaklee, the potential distri-
butors are offered the
business through opportuni-
ty meetings held in various
hotel meeting rooms.
Once in the Amway busi-
ness, distributors have a
large-scale support system of
motivational books and
tapes as well as seminars,
and Coliseum-type functions
with names like Free Enter-
prise Weekend, Dream
Weekend or Family Reu-

nion. There, crowds number-
ing in the thousands listen
to stories of how big "pins"
in the business made it big.
When a distributor reaches a
certain level in the business,
he is awarded pins with
gemstones.
One of the raps against
Amway is that it has taken
on a fervor of religiosity that
espouses Christian theology
and nationalism. Indeed,
newcomers will see
thousands of people with
hands raised and singing
"God Bless America" at the
end of certain functions.
The Pangborns said that
multi-level marketing is still
relatively new to Jews. Most
of these businesses comprise
gentile distributors, but they
are open to anyone who
wants to join, the Pangborns
said. Editorials in Amway's
distributor magazine, the
Amagram, have words from
company founders Rich
DeVos and Jay Van Andel
making it clear that their
business is for everyone.

There was even once a
feature in the Amagram
about how an Orthodox Jew-
ish family in Brooklyn built
their business.
Still, at a recently held
Amway opportunity
meeting, distributors listen-
ed and shouted words such
as "hallelujah" and "praise
the Lord" while listening to
testimonials. Arid this was
at a meeting to bring in new
distributors.
"I don't think you see as
many Jews yet because Jew-
ish families have stressed
professions to their chil-
dren," Mr. Pangborn said.
"To them, something like
NuSkin or any multi-level
business is less than accep-
table. It's simply not a real
business to them. They
think you have to have a
building." Mr. Pangborn
added that the most difficult
aspect of multi-level is to
overcome rejection. He said
that when one joins a busi-
ness such as this and offers it
to his friends and family,
they'll turn their nose in the
air. Families, he said with a
wry smile, "know what's
best for you." The solution,
he said, is not to take rejec-
tion personally, because
family and friends are often
worried that you might suc-
ceed and leave them behind
financially.
Mel Niser checked into
many of these businesses
before he decided on Images,
which markets through a
distributor network personal
care lines and vitamins. The
personal care items are
manufactured by Images,
the vitamins are imported
from China.
"I was in my own business
for 16 years," said the Oak
Park product liabilities
manager. "My mind was
geared for business. What I
liked about Images is that it
offered what I felt was a
better opportunity to move
up and to expand."
There are home businesses
that enable the distributor
to expand without the heavy
emphasis on sponsoring.
These include Avon, Mary
Kay Cosmetics and Tupper-
ware.
When Susan Brohman
became a Mary Kay
Cosmetics consultant, she
wasn't thinking about long-