Greetings from Omaha

I have a Recession Escape Plan for Any Furniture Rep. Better yet, this Recession Escape Plan can be used by anyone in the Industry like furniture factory personnel including sales managers, small retailers, designers, and other independent contractors.
What is this miraculous antidote to an otherwise barren economic picture you might ask? This Recession Escape Plan is not the whole cure for what ails the industry, but it is a very easy to use, proven return on investment proposition that could probably singlehandedly pull California out of bankruptcy — well maybe not quite.
Yes my first post is about the group that gave me a keyboard and told me to write this blog. The International Home Furnishings Representative’s Association (IHFRA) has to be the best deal in the entire universe. With over 1200 members it has acted as a voice for Reps in the industry. It’s a great group of people many of who I have just met over the last six months since I became involved on the Executive Committee.
But as I got to looking at the group what is amazing is what a great package of benefits and savings plans for such a low membership price. Times are tough and reps are particularly hard hit. So IHFRA went out to all sorts of vendors over the last 6 months and put together an incredibly compelling package of discounts and savings plans.
Let’s face it … all businesses are hit by this economic storm so the deals have been rolling in. If you are a current member of the Rep group you probably are not aware of the incredible amount of benefits and savings that have been put together over the last 90 days.
If you are not a member you need to go to www.FurnitureRep.org right now and sign up for an introductory membership for 2009 of only $60. That’s right if you join in July or August, your dues for 2009 will only be $60 for the national Association.
Here are a couple of examples of what things the Rep group offers:
• Insurance - Group Health with Aetna, Long Term Disability, Dental, Long Term Care - this is better than any government mandated health care plan
• Auto and Home Insurance discounted rates with Liberty Mutual - Even if you drive a Chrysler or GM product, they’ll still cover you
• Umbrella Business Comprehensive Liability Insurance at a very low rate
• Savings on Cell phone plans from AT&T, Sprint / Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon
• Big Savings on Office Depot, Kinkos, FedEX, UPS and many more vendors you use regularly
• Any kind of Travel benefit from discounts on hotel chains to rental car companies - the travel industry is hurting bad and they are giving us some great deals to travelAll these possible ways to save money for only $60 in 2009. It’s the steal of the century!!!!

For more information on any of these benefits please go to the IHFRA website at www.IHFRA.org and see what our Recession Escape Plan is all about.
Here’s the best part if you are not a rep — we’ll let you join us at www.FurnitureRep.org because we need to help each other out by cutting expenses wherever we can. Factory, Retailer, Designer, Trucker, Supplier - we’re all one big happy family in the furniture industry so pay your $60 and test out our benefits in 2009. We’ll save you money.
If there are some areas you would like me to develop on this blog that will help move the industry forward, please let me know. And since this is the rep’s blog, I am particularly partial to hearing about other furniture reps that are making an impact on the industry. If you have stories of a positive nature that can help others grow their business, I would love to hear them so I can share with all. You can email me at meroot@mikeroot.com.
Thanks for your interest…