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…
Katrina commented:
Interesting. Good to see positive comments particularly from someone that I know is an exceptional rep.
Mike Root commented:
Thanks for your comments. There will be plenty of ideas I hope to bring over the course of my blog postings. I brought up the Rep Organization in my first post because for those that are members this is the best way we can connect to others like us across the country to hear what's working. A major way I have grown my business is through networking and the Rep Organization is a terrific place to meet successful reps from all over the country to see and hear how they are being successful. Other reps can provide leads for a new factory to represent. They also may give you a tip for a promotion that one of their retailers is using that works that you could take to your retailers and look like a hero because you are helping your retailer sell more furniture. So I think the vitality of the rep organization is a good place to start. But I promise I will not dwell on it.
I think it may be a good idea to survey reps and see what the state of repping is. This will provide postive feedback to go forward. I'll develop a rep survey for my next posting so you can let me know areas of interest and concern.
Thanks again for your initial comments.
furniturerocks commented:
Not a scam. I am so sick of people blamming others for idea. If you don't like it come up with your own ideas and create a blog to help. He is a rep trying to help not some paid reatil expert. I enjoyed the article and excited to see what is to come. I just wish the CEO's of all big companies would concentrate on how to help the little guy too.
cherry bittick commented:
There are lots of articles on how to improve sales. We could use a stronger club that continues to advocate for us. Keep promoting our industry by sharing what works for you instead of complaining.
milt emold commented:
what a scam ,your article should tell us how we can improve sales now.fresh ideas not join a club that does nothing .
