{"id":1844,"date":"2012-08-02T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=1844"},"modified":"2012-08-02T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T15:30:09","slug":"scoring-economic-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2012\/08\/02\/scoring-economic-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Scoring Economic Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Watching the fanfare leading up to the Olympics, it\u2019s clear the famously acerbic Brits love to complain. In fact, one cheekily admitted that if there were a competition for grousing, the U.K. would almost certainly take home the gold.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcolympics.com\/video\/swimming\/michael-phelps-talks-with-bob-costas-about-record-19th-medal.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/phelps.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And, make no mistake, I love all of our British friends, including Alistair Mylchreest, CEO of Sourcing City and our new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.promoalliance.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">PromoAlliance<\/a> partner.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, despite all the worries over everything from sunshine to security, it\u2019s pretty clear the London games are going, well, swimmingly. (Yes, I did indeed watch in awe as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcolympics.com\/video\/swimming\/michael-phelps-talks-with-bob-costas-about-record-19th-medal.html\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Phelps<\/a> swam into Olympic history with his 19<sup>th<\/sup> medal.)<\/p>\n<p>It seems like optimism has fallen out of favor just about everywhere these days, which is why I am delighted to share more good news. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asicentral.com\/asp\/open\/Research\/IndustrySales\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">ASI research<\/a> shows a year-over-year increase in sales among ASI<sup>\u00ae<\/sup> distributor members of 4.8% for Q2 \u2013 making it the 10th consecutive quarterly year-over-year increase in sales.<\/p>\n<p>Who can possibly grouse about that?<\/p>\n<p>In addition, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/abrambrown\/2012\/08\/01\/u-s-sees-steady-gain-of-163000-new-private-jobs-last-month-adp\/\" target=\"_blank\">Forbes magazine<\/a> recently reported hiring at U.S. businesses continued at a modest pace last month, with June\u2019s gains indicating that the labor market is healthier than supposed. The U.S. added 163,000 new private jobs last month, with small and mid-size businesses (ones like many of ours) driving the growth, adding 86% of new jobs.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.asicentral.com\/asp\/open\/Research\/IndustrySales\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/2Q12.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We may not be climbing up on the medal stand quite yet, but things are looking up.<\/p>\n<p>ASI\u2019s 2Q 2012 Sales Study Report, prepared by our executive director of research services, Larry Basinait, included the following highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>During the second quarter of 2012, there was a      4.8% year-over-year increase in sales among ASI distributor members. Over one-half (59.7%) of      all distributors reported an increase in the second quarter, with the      largest distributorships reporting an increase in sales of 7.8%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The increase in sales reported results in      industry growth of $213 million over the second quarter of 2011. Sales for      the second quarter of 2012 were approximately $4.6 billion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Distributors largely remain optimistic about      sales for 2012, particularly the largest distributors. Seven in ten (70%)      of all distributors and 76% of large distributors feel sales for 2012 will      be higher than sales in 2011.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/listings\/comcast-3dtv\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/3D.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI\u2019d love to know how your company is faring \u2013 and if you\u2019re watching the Olympics \u2013 so post a comment or e-mail me <a href=\"mailto:tim.andrews@asicentral.com\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. I\u2019m also on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/Tim_Andrews_ASI\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/timothymandrews\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/timasitv\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So far, I\u2019ve especially enjoyed the thrilling performances of <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/olympics\/summer\/2012\/waterpolo\/story\/_\/id\/8220021\/2012-summer-olympics-us-rallies-stay-perfect-men-water-polo\" target=\"_blank\">men\u2019s water polo<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/beach-volleyball\/\" target=\"_blank\">beach volleyball<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcolympics.com\/video\/gymnastics\/nbc-replay-womens-gymnastics-team-final.html\" target=\"_blank\">gold-medal-winning women\u2019s gymnastics team<\/a> and the amazing swimmers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcolympics.com\/video\/swimming\/highlights-allison-schmitt-sets-or-wins-gold-in-200-free.html?chrcontext=record-performances\" target=\"_blank\">Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin<\/a>. Watching them, you can\u2019t help breaking into smiles \u2013 and feeling good about the good ole USA.<\/p>\n<p>P.S. If you haven\u2019t already, check out the Olympics in 3D. I joined my friend Elvin Montero in endorsing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/listings\/comcast-3dtv\" target=\"_blank\">Xfinity 3D<\/a> channel, and in the photo at right (credited to Elvin) you can see me enjoying the spectacle with friends \u2013 in our special 3D spectacles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watching the fanfare leading up to the Olympics, it\u2019s clear the famously acerbic Brits love to complain. In fact, one cheekily admitted that if there were a competition for grousing, the U.K. would almost certainly take home the gold. And, make no mistake, I love all of our British friends, including Alistair Mylchreest, CEO of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-about-asi","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1853,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions\/1853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}