Most health and wellness companies offer at least one, "Health Pack," which they've stocked with items they feel that most people would always want to purchase every month. Again, these packages may also be designed to qualify the representative for a particular level in the company's compensation plan.

The problem with this approach is that, especially if it is a pack that contains many varied products, it is highly unlikely that you will consume all of its contents equally over the entire month. So, at the end of the month it is very possible that you'll end up with too much, or too little, of some of the products included in any given package.

If you just keep ordering that same package then before long you'll end up with a whole surplus of some items, and perhaps run short on others. That's what I mean by a "slow" month. Slow months for me are those months where the previous months' AutoShips have caused me to be overstocked on certain items. If I end up getting overstocked on many if not most items, then I may only spend as little as $100 to $150 that month buying just the few items that I'm running out of. On the other hand, if it is a month during which I've almost run out of everything, or soon will be, then I can easily spend as much as $400 to $600 purchasing all of the health and nutritional products that I might typically buy in any given month.

Do I continue to keep receiving products on AutoShip every month even when I already have too many, or don't need them? Absolutely not! If I see that I'm getting too stocked up on certain items then I'll remove those items from my AutoShip order for that month. Some companies let you put AutoShip on "pause" and then resume it again when you are ready for exactly this reason. However, if no such options are provided I am not at all shy about simply canceling my AutoShip order for a particular month altogether. Then, when I see that I'm going to be running low on those items, I'll go back on AutoShip.

AUTO SHIP DEADLINES

Especially if you are new to receiving products on AutoShip, be sure to familiarize yourself with your company's policy for submitting changes or cancellations to your order. Some companies will allow you to literally change your order almost at the last minute. More commonly, however, they will have a policy that states that you must do so well prior to the actual AutoShip date, sometimes by as much as 10 days in advance! If your company has such a policy and you wait until after the deadline you may be unable to stop your AutoShip for that month, even if you don't need any more of the product!


To summarize:

1. Emphasize the value of your products and services so that both you and your customers are purchasing because they need and want your products, and not just to meet some compensation plan requirement. Ask yourself, "if I weren't personally involved in this company, would I still be buying this product?"

Almost all of the products and services that I mentioned above that I buy, sometimes to the tune of as much as $400 to $600 a month, are for my personal consumption only and not at all because I'm trying to qualify for a spot somewhere in a company's compensation plan. In fact, in most cases, I do not push the opportunity at all, and in most have never signed up even a single rep. (Though I'm a huge fan of health and wellness and practice it daily, it just so happens that my primary focus is on building organizations outside of the strictly heath and wellness area.). So, I can definitely answer with a resounding, "yes," the question, "would I buy these products anyway even if no opportunity were involved."

If you can answer, "yes," to that question and you happen to be in the health and wellness area, awesome! You'll be much better off and build a stronger organization and customer base as a result.

2. Do not buy and certainly do not continue to receive on monthly AutoShip anything that you do not really want or need. Buy products because you actually intend to use them, and not just to qualify for a certain level of compensation.

3. Monitor your AutoShips and your usage of the products and be ready to adjust as needed, ordering more, or less, whenever necessary.

4. Finally, remember that YOU ultimately are in control and are the one who determines what you need, and in what quantity, and when. So, if you are simply getting too stocked up on certain items, or you simply don't need them during a certain month, don't be shy about canceling your AutoShip order if your company doesn't give you more flexible options. You can always resume your AutoShip order when you are ready.


And, lastly, let me point out that, all things considered, as long as you actually need and want whatever products you are buying, then by all means DO take advantage of any specials, bonuses, and/or compensation plan benefits that you will enjoy by ordering on AutoShip. In other words, if your company offers advantages to placing your order on AutoShip, as opposed to placing a "regular" order, there is nothing wrong with that. Very few companies have a policy that states that you won't get those same advantages just because you don't stay on AutoShip every single month. If you cancel your AutoShip this month for instance, naturally you probably won't enjoy for that month any of the perks that are offered for being on AutoShip. However, when you DO decide to order again, if you place your order back on AutoShip, you'll probably enjoy the same benefits as if you had been on AutoShip the entire time.

Some people like to shop at sales just because items are on sale. Hence the old saying, "no sale is a good sale if you don't need the item that's on sale!" Likewise, AutoShip does have it's place, but no benefit is likely to worth it if you are spending money each month buying products on AutoShip that you don't really need or want.
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So, while it is possible to retain some customers longer simply because it's easy for them to signup for AutoShip but not so easy to cancel, again, do you really want your customer to feel like he or she is being held hostage?

Ideally, you should have high quality products and services that are well understood and in demand by your customers. Customers should continue ordering because they WANT or NEED your product or service, and not simply because it's on AutoShip.

In the majority of cases, companies, and their representatives, want people on AutoShip for ONE reason and one reason only, to attempt to extract ongoing consistent revenue from that customer. At least from the company's standpoint, that's the real bottom line. And, from both the company's standpoint and that of the representative, that AutoShip may very well be tied to that representative achieving or maintaining a certain compensation level, often with names like Silver, Bronze, Gold, Platinum, Executive, etc. The more money you spend each month (especially on AutoShip) the more money you qualify for in the compensation plan. Often this results in inflated and/or artificial consumption. In other words, people either buying things they don't really need, and/or buying more than they really need.

Rule #1 For Keeping AutoShip Under Control: For your own long term financial success and in the best interests of your customers, is to make sure that you buy only what you need! If you need a particular product or service delivered every month and in that quantity, great. If not, don't agree to have it continue to be auto-shipped to you.

Rule #2 is to remember that, whether as a representative or a customer, YOU are the ultimate consumer and purchaser. It's your money! Therefore, it should be up to you as to when and how much of it you spend. Don't be intimidated by your company or upline into buying more than you need, or fall into the trap of trying to make your representatives and customers to do the same (buy more than they need on AutoShip).

In the short run you may make less money than if your numbers are artificially inflated by people buying more on AutoShip than they really want to. But, in the long run, you'll have a stronger customer and rep base, and your representatives and customers will respect you far more for keeping their best interests in mind by encouraging them to buy your products and services because they want and need them, and in the quantities they need them in.

At the very beginning of this article "Customer Convenience" was mentioned as one of the reasons that companies claim to offer AutoShip.

However, after decades of experience ordering a multitude of products worth tens of thousands of dollars, and watching others do the same, I'm absolutely convinced that AutoShip can be just as much an inconvenience as it is a convenience.

And please let me be quick to point out that, yes, I absolutely DO have products and services that to this very day are delivered to me each and every month on AutoShip. I'll go even further by sharing with you that in just one category, nutritional products, I order as much as $400 to $600 PER MONTH worth of those kinds of products.

HOWEVER, in a "slow" month I might order as little as $100 to $150 worth of product. So, you might be wondering, why the difference, and what do I mean by a "slow" month?

Just one example: Health Packs (or Paks). Keep in mind that this is most commonly applicable to health and nutritional products, but it can apply to many other products and services as well.
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AutoShip, or the automatic delivery of products or services on a monthly basis primarily serves two functions: 1) To create consistent consumption and repeat purchases of that product or service by the consumer; 2) Customer convenience, by eliminating the need for the customer to have to repeatedly reorder the same products or services over and over again.

Unfortunately, the benefits of AutoShip for either of the above purposes are vastly overrated. It is true that network marketing companies would love to see their customers continue to come back month after month to make repeat purchases. However, in reality, it simply doesn't work that way. Unless you have a product or service that by nature is generally delivered via ongoing subscription, i.e., newspapers and magazines, utilities (including communications and Internet), insurance, loans, financial services, etc., just getting the customer to agree to go on AutoShip is no guarantee that they won't cancel it.

Many companies and their representatives like to rely on the fact that a certain percentage of customers will indeed stay on AutoShip for extended periods for no other reason than habit, and/or because they simply don't know how to cancel it. Is that really the position that you want your customers to be in, though? People who are buying your product simply because they forgot or don't know how to cancel the recurring AutoShip order?

Most friends and associates tend to view me as a well organized person. And certainly I'm not one to waste money. Yet, despite that, I will admit that in any given year it is not uncommon for me to spend anywhere from several hundred to over one thousand dollars on products and services that I simply didn't have time (or didn't know how) to cancel. It is not by accident that many companies make it easy to sign up for the automatic delivery of their products or services, but provide no easy way to cancel.

In the case of one MLM related service that I decided to try out, not only was there no way to cancel online, but their Contact form didn't work, so there was, seemingly, no way to send them an email either! At first, they provided only a Contact form and no email address. When eventually I found an email address and sent an email asking them to cancel my account there was no reply! Finally I found a phone number and called them, and even then they often had problems with their voicemail box being full or not taking messages, etc.
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Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said Monday that "while we have not shared an exact size of the small format ... we continue to evaluate a wide range of stores sizes across the country and will consider any format that puts us closer to our customers."

Bill Simon, the new president and CEO of Wal-Mart's U.S. business, told investors last week at a Goldman Sachs retail conference, said that "we will have a healthy mix of supercenters and small formats, including our grocery format, Neighborhood Market and smaller formats," he continued. He added that in particular, Wal-Mart is looking to open stores that are similar to the formats in Mexico, Central America, and Latin America.

"We are going to beg, borrow, steal and learn from them as quickly as we can, because it is important for our urban strategy," he added.

Wal-Mart, which now has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. has hit a wall in the U.S. The company just reported its fifth straight quarterly decline in revenue at stores opened at least a year, considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

Wal-Mart benefited during the recession as affluent shoppers traded down to cheaper stores. But stubbornly high unemployment and tight credit are still squeezing its main U.S. customers, lower-income workers who are having even more trouble stretching dollars to the next payday because of tight credit and an unemployment rate stuck at almost 10 percent. The discounter's own merchandising gaffes have also contributed to the company's revenue figure's decline.

Wal-Mart's rival Target Corp. is set to spell out more details of its urban strategy on Friday to the media at its headquarters in Minneapolis. Target had told analysts in January that it plans to open in the next few years smaller stores of 60,000 to 100,000 square feet. That compares with its current average of 125,000 square feet. But real estate executives including John Bemis, head of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.'s retail leasing team, say Target also is looking at 20,000-square-foot locations.

"I think 20,000 makes more sense than 80,000 square feet," Sozzi said.

1. Stop the energy leaks from your home. Just over a fifth of U.S. energy consumption happens at people's homes, says the Department of Energy. That costs the average homeowner $2,400 a year. Half of that goes to heating and cooling, much of which is pure waste. Insulate ceilings and walls. Seal cracks and gaps. "Often people have so many small leaks around the home that it's the equivalent of having a three-foot by three-foot window wide open," says Kateri Callahan, president of the Washington-based nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy.

2. Change your light bulbs. The typical household has 46, says the Department of Energy. But only five of them are energy-efficient compact fluorescents. These can cut light bills by 75%. Don't like CFs? Matt Patsky, veteran green investor and the CEO of Trillium Asset Management, says new LEDs are much better still. They cut energy use by 95% and emit a much softer light. They're more expensive, but prices are coming down pretty quickly.

3. Stop heating an empty house. Or a house when everyone is asleep. Get programmable thermostats. They can cost as little as $50. "They typically pay for themselves in three months," says ASE's Ms. Callahan. They can cut your heating and cooling bills by 10%, she says, without any effect on your comfort at all. Turning down the thermostat in winter (and up in summer) a little helps too: Experts say each degree can trim 2%-3% from your heating bill.

4. Rethink your appliances. Replace any old ones with new, energy-efficient models. The older your current fridge or washing machine, the faster the payback. The more efficient models today have an EnergyStar seal from the Department of Energy. They typically use about 30% less power than a model without the seal, experts say (more details at wwww.energystar.gov). As for your TV: The bigger the screen, the more power it's using. How big do you need? Do you really want to see, say, a life-size Snooki when you're watching "Jersey Shore"?

5. Stop leaving your computers and home entertainment systems on standby overnight. The screen's black but they're still sucking power, needlessly. Power strips make it easier to switch everything off at once, and new smart strips make it easier, for example, to power down the TV while leaving the TiVo connected.

6. Make the most of your green taxpayer incentives. For example, Uncle Sam is offering to pay up to $1,500 of your costs on things like insulation or better-insulated windows, although the program expires at the end of this year. Your state government may provide additional incentives. The best overall guide to these deals is available at DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.

7. Tackle your hot water heater. It's one of your biggest energy users. Put insulation around the heater and the pipes. And dial down the thermostat. They are often set at 140 degrees. That's way too high: The Energy Department suggests turning it down to 115 to 120 degrees instead.

8. Drive a more-efficient car. How wasteful are we on the roads? I once watched a young woman drive through the cobbled streets of Boston's historic North End in a monstrous, gas-guzzling Hummer. She looked sillier than Michael Dukakis in that tank. What are we thinking? Super-efficient hybrids can be pricey, but Jessica Caldwell, director of pricing and analysis at car experts Edmunds, says there are a lot of deals around at the moment that can bring the price down. And you don't have to go hybrid: Ms. Caldwell notes the small Nissan Versa gets 29 miles to the gallon and only costs $16,000.

9. Get a home energy audit. The price of these has come down. For a few hundred dollars, experts using high-tech gadgetry, infrared scanners and computer models will analyze your home, work out in detail all the ways it's wasting energy and tell you what you can do to stop it. As the average home uses about $2,400 worth of energy per year, the payback is often impressive. Matt Golden, chief executive of San Francisco-based specialists Recurve, says he often finds he can cut bills by 20% to 40% just by eliminating waste. An audit can also help you rethink your heating and water systems, and identify possible sources of renewable energy, from solar paneling to a geothermal heat pump, that can help the environment and may save you money over time. Check for firms accredited by the trade body, the Building Performance Institute.

10. Buy an e-book reader. If you read a lot, they are very green. Traditional books, newspapers and magazines aren't: They do a lot of environmental damage, from cutting down trees to manufacturing and distribution. Emma Ritch, senior research analyst at the CleanTech Group, an environmental consulting firm, has done the numbers. Bottom line: A device like the Kindle has about the same impact on the environment as 23 books, or 280 newspapers, or 177 magazines, or some mixture thereof. So if you're going to use it to read more than that, you're helping the environment. By my reckoning, someone who buys a newspaper a day, a magazine a week and three books a month will break even by the fifth month.

Nurses

The number of registered nurses is expected to swell to 3.2 million by 2018, accounting for approximately 581,500 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's up from 2.6 million today, and it represents the largest overall growth projection out of all occupations in the U.S. economy, for good reason.

Network Systems and Data Analysts

This occupation's full title is "network systems and data communication analysts." And while it's a mouthful, it is worth remembering as it's the second-fastest growing occupation in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In simpler terms, these analysts are the folks who design and build the systems that we use to connect to the web, from work or home.

Software Engineers

What would all that planning and design by network and data analysts be worth without software? Not a whole lot, which explains why the BLS expects the cadre of software engineers and application developers to swell to 689,900 by 2018 (up from 514,800 in 2008). Whether they are building business software, constructing an operating system, developing games, or designing mobile apps, software engineers have a wide array of career avenues to consider.

Biomedical Engineers

Biomedical engineering is expected to be the fastest growing occupation, with a whopping growth project of 72% between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's not much of a surprise, given that this field lies at the nexus of technology and health care, two ballooning industries within the U.S. economy.

Accountants and Auditors

While number crunching and bean counting has certainly not fallen out of style in recent memory, the economic fallout of the past few years has placed renewed focus on financial regulation. And with the passage of the federal financial reform bill in June, companies will need an even larger cohort of auditors and accountants to parse through new regulations to make sure they are in compliance.

Veterinarians

Our love for the dogs, cats, and fish in our lives truly knows no bounds. Pet care was one of the only sectors of the retail industry that grew during the recession.

According to the 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey, 62% of U.S. households owned at least one pet in 2008, accounting for approximately 71 million households. And the American Pet Products Association estimates that pet owners will spend almost $48 billion on their pets. Just under $24 billion of that will be spent on medicine and veterinary care, as more Americans than ever before open their wallets to spring for treatments for an ailing animal family member.

1. Keep Your Home Simple
Billionaires can afford to live in the most exclusive mansions imaginable -- and many do, including Bill Gates' sprawling 66,000 square foot, $147.5 million dollar mansion in Medina, Wash. -- yet frugal billionaires like Warren Buffett choose to keep it simple. Buffett still lives in the five-bedroom house in Omaha that he purchased in 1957 for $31,500. Likewise, Carlos Slim has lived in the same house for more than 40 years.

2. Use Self-Powered or Public Transportation
Thrifty billionaires including John Caudwell, David Cheriton and Chuck Feeney prefer to walk, bike or use public transportation when getting around town. Certainly these wealthy individuals could afford to take a helicopter to their lunch meetings, or ride in chauffeur-driven Bentleys, but they choose to get a little exercise and take advantage of public transportation instead. Good for the bank account and great for the environment.

3. Buy Your Clothes off the Rack
While some people, regardless of their net value, place a huge emphasis on wearing designer clothes and shoes, some frugal billionaires decide it's simply not worth the effort, or expense. You can find David Cheriton, the Stanford professor who matched Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the venture capitalists at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (resulting in a large reward of Google stock), wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the furniture company Ikea, avoids wearing suits, and John Caudwell, mobile phone mogul, buys his clothes off the rack instead of spending his wealth on designer clothes.

4. Keep your Scissors Sharp
The average haircut costs about $45, but people can and do spend up to $800 per cut and style. Multiply that by 8.6 (to account for a cut every six weeks) and it adds up to $7,200 per year, not including tips. These billionaires can certainly afford the most stylish haircuts, buy many cannot be bothered by the time it takes or the high price tag for the posh salons. Billionaires like John Caudwell and David Cheriton opt for cutting their own hair at home.

5. Drive a Regular Car
While billionaires like Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation) enjoy spending millions on cars, boats and planes, others remain low key with their vehicles of choice. Jim Walton (of the Wal-Mart clan) drives a 15-year-old pickup truck. Azim Premji, an Indian business tycoon, reportedly drives a Toyota Corolla. And Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea drives a 10-year-old Volvo. The idea is to buy a dependable car, and drive it into the ground. No need for a different car each day of the week for these frugal billionaires.

6. Skip Luxury Items
It may surprise some of us, but the world's wealthiest person, Carlos Slim (the one who could spend more than a thousand dollars a minute and not run out of money for one hundred years) does not own a yacht or a plane. (Reducing the amount you spend is the easiest way to make your money grow.)

The World's Highest Gas Prices:

1. Asmara, Eritrea — $9.59/gallon
2. Oslo, Norway — $7.41/gallon
3. Copenhagen, Denmark — $6.89/gallon
4. Hong Kong — $6.87/gallon
5. Monaco, Monte Carlo — $6.82/gallon

The World's Lowest Gas Prices:

1. Caracas, Venezuela — 6 cents/gallon
2. Tehran, Iran — 32 cents/gallon
3. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — 45 cents/gallon
4. Kuwait, City, Kuwait — 85 cents/gallon
5. Cairo, Egypt — $1.17/gallon

Gassing up isn't cheap: According to AAA, we're now paying a nationwide average of $2.73 for a gallon of regular. That's about 25 cents a gallon more than last year. But it's certainly better than the year before, when prices shot up to over $4/gallon.

But if the cost of gas bothers you, be happy you don't live in Asmara, Eritrea. This African nation boasts the highest gas prices in the world — nearly $10/gallon. On the other hand, you could be living in Venezuela, where prices are as low as 6 cents.