The Conservative’s Guide to Becoming a Risk Taker

As Nancy Reagan might have said, “Just Do It.” But we offer a money-back guarantee! So, what’s the risk in that?

I turn 65 in less than four months.  Any regrets?  Yes.  I only became a risk taker four years ago.  And I was forced into it.  After four decades of a "safe" career, answering to a boss and collecting a steady paycheck, I found myself unemployed.  Scary?  You bet.

But I was very fortunate.  Someone much braver than myself, but a person I trusted very much, suggested I join him in launching a home-based business – in the middle of the recession!  It was so very much against all the principles I had been taught in those many economics and business courses.  But where did that undergraduate  and advanced degree -- plus 35 years of continued management experience -- get me? Well, a pink slip because I was overqualified and overpaid for a position that could be assumed by a college graduate willing to accept minimum wage just for the experience needed to build a resume.

Now, four years later, my only regret is that I didn’t get that “push” much sooner. Today, our Watkins home-based business is thriving, thanks to the Watkins name – a household word known for quality by some three generations – and the Internet, the perfect medium for my generation of baby-boomers intent on staying in touch with our children and grandchildren, who were playing online games at the same time they were mastering their multiplication tables. Besides, the bugs are out of online shopping, so why not save all that gas and frustration fighting the mall crowds on busy weekends?

Not only was the Watkins company founded on a pain liniment, of all things, (oh, that aching back from arthritis, bursitis, a bad mattress – you name it, I have it), but they offer four product lines, all of them reformulated over the last 100 years to be considered 95% all-natural or better. In addition, some 350 products are extremely cost-competitive with many of the household brands Americans have been blindly grabbing off grocery and drug store shelves for years, without even reading the labels showing the harmful chemicals they were drinking, rubbing on their bodies, or using to clean their homes.

Enough of preaching to the choir. Many of you are already sold on the all-natural concept, or you wouldn’t have clicked on a link that took you to the Watkins All Natural Country Store. I know you will love the products. That’s a given. But if you are unemployed, under-employed, wanting some type of part-time income in this economy to pay bills, or just would like to save 25% off the all-natural Watkins products you purchase through this site, consider investing the $39.95 in yourself, before you are approaching 65 and sorry you waited so long to become a risk taker!

Actually, there’s not much a risk in this venture. Your Watkins Associate membership, just like every product you buy, comes with a 30-day, no-risk guarantee that you will be completely satisfied, or your $39.95 purchase price will be fully refunded. That’s why J.R. Watkins has been around for some 144 years. It’s the only direct-marketing company that can make such a claim.

Not much of a risk, but so much to gain. Call Alan at 888-881-7372, or David at 888-424-5211, the co-managers of the Watkins All Natural Country Store. Either one of us can answer any questions you have about how you can use this proven formula to start your own all-natural home-based business.

From Face to Feet, Watkins Has You Covered

You Can Look and Feel Your Best this Month

With our Online Special Bargains

First of all, let’s get something straight. Just because we’re guys doesn’t mean we don’t know a thing or two about Watkins super body care products. We, too, have to be concerned about those "laugh" lines that appear at the corners of our eyes, and those "frown" lines that can start forming between the eyebrows after hours of countless, difficult, smart phone games!

After all, we are no spring chickens. One of the Big Bear Country Store managers just celebrated his 57th birthday, the other one is speeding toward his 65th birthday bash (the daughters and grandsons better not forget this milestone)! Thank goodness there is big savings on Watkins Day and Night Face Care products this month.

Both of these 100% natural, age-erasing formulas are on sale. Normally, $15.99, add either one to your online shopping cart for just $13.99.

We could go on and on about the pampering body care products that also are available this month at great savings, such as the Natural Peppermint Foot Scrub and rejuvenating Foot Cream guaranteed to tingle and revive dry, aching feet. Both are now available at a buck off their normal $10.99 price. Sure, ladies will love how they work together to make feet smoother, but we dig how they can remove the aches caused by running through large hotel shopping malls on the way to a business meeting, or manning a Watkins booth all morning, always on our toes greeting customers eager to hear about our bargains.

Having trouble getting your discounted prices to appear on your Big Bear Country Store check-out total? Just call Alan at 888-881-7372, and he can speed you through the process before any of those frown lines start forming!

Major Study Finds More

Dangers in Many Home Care Products

Watkins All-Natural Home Care Products are a Safe Alternative to chemicals that are dangerous to you, your family and the environment.

What's lurking in your household products? According to a recent study of more than 200 cleaning and personal care products, researchers have discovered estrogen-mimicking chemicals that can cause hormone disruption.

“These endocrine disruptors may disturb the way hormones work by mimicking estrogen, androgen or thyroid hormones, thereby stimulating or blocking production of these hormones when absorbed into the body,” according to Robin Dodson, a researcher at the Silent Spring Institute, who led the study. "This is the first large, peer-reviewed study that looked at hormone-disrupting and asthma-related chemicals in a wide range of consumer products," said Dodson. The results were published in a recent issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Some industry groups, such as the American Cleaning Institute, have raise issues with such reports, stating that they just “alarm consumers unnecessarily. " The study's authors, however, argue that they aren't instilling fear but raising awareness. “Something as simple as better labeling on products allow consumers to be more informed and make their own decisions,” believes Dodson.

J.R. Watkins is a shining example of such a practice. Way back in 2009, J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care product line received certification from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Designed for the Environment (DfE) program. Products meeting the DfE’s high standards are granted approval to display the seal on packaging. The DfE seal ensures consumers that cleaning products displaying the seal have been formulated using the safest ingredients for human and environmental health. By working closely with cleaning product manufactures, the DfE has diverted the use of more than a billion pounds of harmful “chemicals of concern.” in the last five years. Look for the DfE seal on J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care packaging.

Why are natural home care products important?

• Cleaning products are released into the environment inside your home and down the drain to the outdoors.

• 37% of Americans suffer from chemical sensitivities, skin rashes and allergies, many of them provoked by chemicals in cleaning products.

• Reactions can include; eyes watering, breakouts, skin rashes, coughing or sneezing uncontrollably.

• Asthma is the leading cause of emergency room visits and absenteeism in schools.

• Children breathe faster in proportion to their body weight than adults, making them more vulnerable to chemical exposure.

• Warm baths and showers open pores so that what we have cleaned with is more readily absorbed.

Clean out those harmful chemicals lurking in products under your kitchen and bathroom sink

For further information about all of Watkins All Natural Cleaning Products and how to order them in time for your spring cleaning ritual, click on the following link. It will take you into that section on the online catalog:

http://www.watkinsonline.com/productsgroup.cfm?Parent=6&family=250&gCatalogLocale=USA&ECredit=383372&group=616

Business Opportunity (expires 3/15/12)

Beware the Ides of March

It was a bad day for Julius Caesar. It could be for you, too, if you don’t heed the March 15 deadline to receive more than $145 to start your own Watkins part-time business.

If you didn’t sleep through that session of English Literature when Shakespeare's Julius Caesar tragedy was being discussed, you would know that on the Ides of March, in 44 B.C, Julius Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Roman Senate.

Before Caesar went to attend the meeting, he had been given advice by a soothsayer not to go, with the words, “Beware the ides of March.”

But Caesar didn't listen. Will you do the same? No, this is not a life and death decision, but it could very well be a decision that might determine whether you have an okay life or the life you really want.

March 15 is important if you ever considered starting a home business to help your family make ends meet. If you have lamented year after year, “I just don’t have the start-up capital necessary to launch a business,” that all might change this year. But you must heed the warning, “Beware the ides of March!”

That’s the deadline to invest just $39.95 to become a Watkins Associate. In return, you will receive your Welcome to Watkins start-up package, a free personalized web site setup, as well as three months of free web hosting.  That’s a $125 value. In addition, the men behind the Big Bear Country Store will toss in a $20 Watkins gift certificate that you can use to purchase some of Watkins best-selling products at wholesale prices. Turn around and offer them to friends and associates at the current retail price, and that $20 gift certificate will grow by 25%. In fact, you will earn 25% from every sale that comes through your own Watkins website.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by all this Internet marketing chatter when there seems to be hundreds of new sites going up every day with something to sell? Relax. We don’t have all the answers, but we are in the Watkins Success line with up-line managers who do.

We just jumped on this Watkins bandwagon a four, short years ago. We became managers just a few months later, and were named the 6^th top new Associates in our first year, earning an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii. in the process. Today, together with our growing Associate team, we average more than $2,000 a month in sales, and with our additional bonus override every month, now collect some 40% of generated sales. That’s put us in the elite group known as the Watkins All-Star Team.

While the majority of our sales have come from local farmers’ markets and street fairs, that approach is evolving this year as we venture into online marketing of our website: www.BigBearCountryStore.com  With customers – and Associates – from coast-to-coast, we are slowly transitioning ourselves to become the All Natural (online) Country Store!

Please consider joining us before March 15 to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to start your own part-time Watkins business. (We still spend part of our days in the business of Big Bear vacation rental cabins). Give a call to our toll-free number 888-881-7372, and Alan can answer any questions you might have about taking this first, easy step to your own part-time Watkins business. It might just lead to marking more of those bills with your “PAID” stamp, and a lot less with “Overdue!”

Ladies Who Linger in Our Hearts Long After Valentine’s Day

Jo Handwerk and Ruth Wright are the type of women everyone needs in their life.

As Valentine’s Day rolls around, there are so many magnificent ladies in our lives that we can’t let the holiday slip by without mentioning just a few of them. In the last year, both of these special women experienced major health challenges that required hospitalization, causing all of us who love them dearly (and there are literally hundreds who do) much concern.

But as the new year began, both of them experienced major comebacks, making significant strides in their health, as well as their involvement with Watkins. Jo Handwerk is one of the top leaders of our Watkins team, having started with the organization when there was no Internet, no national conference calls, and – believe it or not – no cell phones!

How did this tiny women (she couldn’t be more than five feet max) become one of the top salespeople in Watkins, with thousands of managers and customers who have signed up under her? “I love people. I love talking to them every day, asking them about their life, and how I can make it better. It’s that simple,” says Jo, with that lovely twinkle in her eye.

Now a spry 83 years young, Jo began her home business in the small community of Lillooet, BC, Canada, many years ago. The population in the town proper still hovers around the 2,400 mark. She just wasn’t going to let such obstacles get in her way. Instead, Jo used her special charm to win people over, turn them into customers -- and eventually – new Associates. She became active in her local Chamber of Commerce, making sure she could name everyone on sight. Jo also provided all Chamber members a 10% discount on all Watkins products they purchased.

Even though she had to attend the 2011 Watkins International Conference in a wheel chair due to recuperation from surgery, Jo was named the 4^th Top Bronze Manager in the entire company based on the sales of her downline team. She was also named the 1^st Place Bronze Manager based on the number of new consultants she brought into her downline during the year. Jo is an inspiration to anyone starting a second career in a small town. “I just tell them, ‘Honey, the only way from here is up!’”

And then there’s Ruth Wright, another little lady with a big heart we met through our local church in Big Bear some five years ago. Ruth officially retired as the church organist at the age of 90, but still fills in when she’s needed.

Ruth was one of the first locals, who signed up as a member of our Watkins Wholesale Shoppers Club when we were just launching our Watkins business back in 2009. She invited us over one day to see her Watkins spice collection, many of the glass bottles purchased from a relative back in the 40s, who was an early Watkins door-to-door salesman. Ruth said we could have her collection for our historical display at public events on one condition – that we sell her brand new replacement tins of every spice Watkins has added to its product line over the years.

2011 was a difficult year for Ruth. The only damage from a minor fender bender was the impact on Ruth’s fierce independence since she had to give up her driver’s license. But Alan and her many friends have developed quite a taxi service that is always there when she has to pick up groceries or check her PO box.

We had planned a 95^th birthday party for Ruth following church services on Sunday, Dec 19^th. But Ruth was rushed to the hospital just days before with a rapid heartbeat. Doctors had her confined to a wheel chair for weeks, doubting if her frail body could even handle physical therapy. Today, she’s walking again on her own, but chuckles, “I can walk much faster with a strong man by my side.”  

When asked what her favorite Watkins product is, Ruth is quick to respond, “the Ultra-Rich HandCream, of course,” which she uses daily. She manages to go through a jar at least once a month, saying she practically “baths in it.” When she tells people she just turned 95, many claim she doesn’t look a day over 75. Ruth credits her longevity to a few cups of coffee every morning, and her young-looking skin to her Watkins moisturizing cream!

Ruth tells everyone she knows about Watkins, and that includes pretty much everyone in town. We credit Ruth with the latest Associate to join our local Big Bear Country Store Power Team, who happens to be Ruth’s housekeeper. Kim Briones is having her Watkins business grand opening party later this month, and you can bet who wants to be one of the first people to be there to show her support. That’s our Ruthie!