Sunshine Family News - December 2004 - The Herbs Place
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Sunshine Family News
December 10, 2004 Edition
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The content of this newsletter is directed to members doing a Nature’s Sunshine business in The Herbs Place organization. Any benefits or offers in them are directed solely to this group of people.
Hi Sunshiners!
You may have new distributors that would like to plug into this mailing, so send me their email address and I’ll add them to it. Be sure to ask them first if they want to be on the mailing. 🙂
If you want an original brochure with your contact info on it, let me know. I’ve done one specifically for distributors so you can have your own contact information on it. I can get it to you in PDF format.
We’ve always used brochures instead of business cards because Randal always said it gave them a "wish list" of things to consider as they looked at various health problems and realized that there was an herbal solution available.
Please share your business building tips also. We have a special segment of this newsletter designated for that, but if you don’t send me any input, it won’t be telling you much of anything. 🙂
Lastly, you can scan the segments of this mailing each month to see what fits for you. Some of our Sunshine Family are doing business strictly online and others don’t even have a website, so there will be things that apply to you and things that don’t. Enjoy what fits.
Blessings to Each of You!
Randal and Donna Watkins
1-866-580-3226
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NSP News
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Protect Yourself Against Credit Card Fraud
Credit card fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in America. Recently we have seen cases where individuals have stolen credit card numbers and used them to place orders on websites operated by NSP Managers, Distributors or Members. Usually the orders include multiple quantities of the same product for a large dollar amount. The phone numbers included on the account are usually disconnected numbers. Sometimes the orders come through a telephone relay company.
The following tips should help you avoid fraudulent credit card orders and thereby protect your business:
1. Scrutinize orders from developing foreign countries. A large percentage of fraudulent Internet purchases are made from Indonesia, Russia, Nigeria and other eastern block or developing countries. Do not accept orders from a foreign country unless you know the person or are willing to take the loss if the order is placed using a stolen credit card.
2. Handle suspicious orders accordingly. If an order seems suspicious, you should either call or email the customer and attempt to verify that he or she placed the order. As a rule of thumb, when in doubt, check things out. If a customer makes an unusually large volume purchase from your site, you should follow up with a verification call to the card holder’s bank for name and address verification.
3. Watch out for suspicious orders by people using free email addresses. Be wary of accepting orders from people who use a free email address on their order (i.e., Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). Tracking such customers is almost impossible.
Remember, as an independent distributor, you will incur costs and liabilities for orders you place using stolen credit cards. NSP wants to take every effort to protect our Members from credit card fraud.
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NSP New Product Focus
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Natria Acne Treatment Gel
Do you know that 50% of all women and 25% of all men have a problem with acne and they’re buying all kinds of products to try to deal with it. Isn’t it great that NSP now offers a safe and natural solution for this prevalent concern for so many?
This product has a powerful combination of natural ingredients that treat the most common concerns associated with acne, helping to clear current blemishes while preventing future breakouts.
Salicylic acid encourages proper exfoliation to slough off dead skin cells and unclog pores. Licorice extract helps maintain a balanced moisture level while alpha-glucan oligosaccharides help create a beneficial skin environment. Algae and Artemisia extracts provide skin-soothing properties.
For best results, this can be used in conjunction with the Natria Balancing Skin Regimen.
Now get busy and find those people who are shopping some place else! You now have an inexpensive solution for them!
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Sharing Sunshine Tips – What’s Working for You?
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We don’t have all the answers, so this section is for all of us to share what we’re doing to build our NSP businesses. If you would take this moment to hit "reply" and let me know of something you’re doing that’s working for you. Whether you do your business online or face-to-face, we can all learn from each other.
Christina and Robin have new MyNSP sites and are now looking around town for places to put their brochures to drive traffic to the sites. Christina has placed some gyms and hair stylists. Places have been very agreeable to letting her do that.
Christina attended the Untold Truth Seminar a few weeks ago and has had sparks flying as she continues to learn with the CDs you get from the class. She’s been taking them to work and allowing co-workers to listen to one that relates to their own health issues. As she listens to the CDs, she remembers people who have mentioned health problems that are addressed on the CDs, so she’s approaching them to see if they would be interested in a natural health solution. Within a week she got her first member that was not a friend or family member. We’re excited for her.
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Growing Your Business
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Lots of people in our group would like to earn some extra income and would love to Share Sunshine to do it. However, most people don’t want to invest the dollars it takes to build a website nor do they have the "techy" type of brain to do it themselves.
Now you can actually sell product via email with the services of PayPal.com. People can pay you via email and you can have Nature’s Sunshine drop ship the products to them — that means no inventory! No credit card services.
There are no signup fees, no monthly fees, and no minimums. You pay as you go – with rates as low as 1.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction.
It’s really a cool way to begin a Nature’s Sunshine business with your family and friends online via email.
PayPal.com is a service that lets users send money to anyone with an email address. PayPal charges the money to an existing credit card or bank account. It’s faster, safer and easier than mailing a personal check. Great to use to transfer money between friends and family, or for an auction, or even to send "cash" as a gift.
When somebody wants to purchase from you, they can sign up and be ready to transfer money from their checking account or have the amount charged to their credit card. It will be their choice.
Signing up is quick, easy and you can download the money to your bank account at any time. More about PayPal
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Business Tax Tips
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One of the best things that has happened in the past couple of years is the
changing of tax laws concerning home-based businesses.
Sandy Botkin, a lecturer and author on cutting taxes, says this:
"It’s not how much you make, but how much you get to keep."
With a home-based business you really get to keep a lot more! We are in the process of moving our business back into the home and the tax deductions will be a nice perk. It’s exciting when you can make your money go further. We do not believe in cheating on taxes, but we do believe in being a good steward of what we have and knowing the tax options has been a big benefit.
If you have a home-based business, you need to know about the tax breaks it provides and you need to keep accurate records so you will have all that information handy at the end of the year.
Keeping a small Hallmark calendar in the car will provide you with enough space to write down mileage when you drive related to business. At .375 a mile, you can add up some $$$ in a year if you drop by somebody’s house and it turns out that you talked about health or Nature’s Sunshine, then you write that mileage down.
If you entertain people in your home that are part of your Sunshine Family (even if they’re friends), you can write off the cost of the food as Business Meeting expense — as long as you’ve talked about health.
Have you ever talked with anybody for very long before some health issue came up? Everybody likes to talk about their health problems. That means tax deductions for you!
When we travel we get to write off the trip because we combine it with business. With NSP you can do business anywhere in the US and in 22 other countries. It’s not hard to set up your own routine to take advantage of every area of savings.
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Who’s Qualified for the Baltic Cruise?
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Qualifications end on December 31. We’re almost there! Qualifications will soon begin for Rising Star/National Convention which will be in June 2005 in Salt Lake City. You need to be a manager to qualify. This will be a big event since they are combining the two conventions and because it will be Dale Lee’s last convention before he retires after it.
John and Roxanne Howlett
Nathan and Kelley Howlett
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Congratulations to You!
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It is so exciting for us to hear from our Sunshine Family when they break out new managers or have a special new distributor. I’ve been doing NSP since 1982 and it could be just routine for us if we couldn’t share in the excitement of all that’s going on in your business too! PLEASE don’t forget to let us know when you are excited about something. We want to rejoice with you!
John and Roxanne had a show-stopper month in November. On the last day of the month they had 8 new managers, mostly from promoting Thai-Go. Then before the month closed out somebody wanted to order $1100 worth of Thai-Go because it was the last day it was on sale. My goodness!
Another new surprise for all of you is to know that Roxanne is pregnant! It will be their first and they’re very excited. I think I heard they’re working on a Thai-Go formula for the baby [just kidding].
The down side for us? She is due around the time of the cruise, so that means they won’t be on it. 🙁
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