Yesterday’s Financial Times featured this article (registration required to view in full) about Cecilia Qing Tang, one distributor who has made her way in a new country by leading and growing her Amway business.

Amway United Kingdom General Manager Andy Smith is also interviewed about the growing trend of migrants exercising their entrepreneurial spirit through direct selling.

In four years, Cecilia has defined her own success. We applaud her, along with the millions of other Amway distributors worldwide who focus their time, talents and energy on their Amway businesses.

Aside from living on the same continent, what do one Thai restaurant server; a bank employee; a choir director; and a veterinarian all have in common?

All are Amway Business Owners featured in the section of Amway Europe’s web site that promotes its new Start Kit.

The kit, dubbed “a mini journey of discovery into Amway,” holds stories of how these distributors work their businesses; an improved catalog of Amway-exclusive products they can sell; and support guides and access to free web-based training.

It’s a comprehensive effort to make starting an Amway business in Europe easier. Other benefits include a new, lower registration fee; new promotional and training videos; and a simple, step-by-step guide to early profitability.

All of kit’s contents – and the support given behind the scenes – are things that Amway prospects have asked for. And they’ll be used by our current business owners to focus on what they have in common: a desire to give others the extra income and flexibility that they’ve found by representing Amway.

Can entrepreneurship be a weapon against a poor economy? Amway Italy and the Chamber of Commerce of Rome examined that question at a roundtable discussion last month titled: “Youth and Entrepreneurship: A Challenge Against the Crisis.”

The event was held in Rome’s Temple of Hadrian, not far from the Pantheon.

The discussion kicked off with a presentation of the 2012 Amway Entrepreneurship report and panelists included Amway Italy General Manager Fabrizio Suaria and representatives from business and government.  Each person spoke about their role in promoting entrepreneurship among young generations and how they would leverage that untapped potential against the current economic challenges.

The event received a great deal of positive feedback, including the positioning of Amway as an entrepreneurial incubator that can play a key role in encouraging the young generation.

The discussion also received a fair amount of media coverage, which was supplemented by interviews with three young Amway business owners who attended the event: Mattia Paternostro, Renato Iacopini and Anna Glapiak.

Paternostro, 21, was pleased with the event because it taught young people about their entrepreneurship options, including Amway. All three agreed that the Amway business opportunity provides wonderful experience no matter what they do in the future.

Paternostro said Amway teaches skills useful in any workplace. Glapiak called it “a real training ground for life.” And Iacopini said the business has improved his organizational skills and changed his outlook.

“Certainly the work that I am doing right now is greatly helping me for my future,” he said.

(Thank you to Ricardo Gastoni of Amway Italy for helping with this story.)

According to the 2012 Amway Entrepreneurship Report, women in Britain are less afraid to fail at business than their male counterparts and a  full 74% of them believe they have already have the skills to succeed as entrepreneurs.

We know that lack of courage/fear of failure is a barrier to starting a business for many, but when it comes to what motivates people, this year’s study held a surprise – showing that fitting work around family life is an equally important inspiration for women and men.

This article explores other gender-specific differences discovered in the study, which includes interview with nearly 18,000 people from 16 European countries. It was done in partnership with Entrepreneurship Centre at Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians University and GfK in Nuremberg, Germany.

We believe the Entrepreneurship Centre Director Andy Goldstein best summarized the findings on females. He said, ”We have already seen women breaking down the barriers that existed in business and making a huge contribution in terms of ideas and the drive to make them work. The research shows that if they have an idea, they are prepared to run with it and this is something the UK and the rest of Europe must harness.”

The distributors who won Amway Europe’s Home Demo Contest this year had an experience they won’t soon forget – including being treated like movie stars while they filmed their winning demonstrations.

But they’re not the only ones: Our research scientists at our World Headquarters won’t forget the Home Demo Contest, either.

“What we saw in the distributor Demo Contest was innovation of applications,” Amway Senior Research Scientist Bob Faber said. “And those innovative applications and innovative uses of product shed new light on what we need to be … in the R&D environment, concentrating on in the future.”

Faber and other researchers praised distributors creativity, imagination and innovation. Watch the video to see the story behind the contest and how much fun – and educational — it was for our researchers.

Congratulations, again, to our winners!

YouTube DirektAmway Home Demo Contest Video

Last month marked the 4th annual Women’s Congress of Poland, the country’s premier event focusing on the empowerment of women.

In fact, Women’s Congress is more of a movement than an event. The movement is non-political and growing both in strength and significance with more than 200 prominent and active women including politicians, entrepreneurs, civil activists, ministers, culture activists and feminists serving on its Council.

This year’s gathering attracted 9,500 participants including Poland’s First Lady and was sponsored by Amway Poland.  Themed “Activeness, Entrepreneurship and Independence,” it was the perfect stage from which to present the results of the 2011 Amway European Entrepreneurship Report showing that 68 percent (up slightly from 2010) of Polish people see self-employment positively.

Milan, Italy is home to some of the world’s most well known entrepreneurs in fashion and food.

And it is there, last week, that Amway Europe Corporate Affairs Vice President Michael Meissner was on stage at the SELDIA (European Direct Selling Association) Annual Roundtable on the Future of Direct Selling.

His topic? The European entrepreneurial culture and outlook, fed by data from the 2011 Amway European Entrepreneurship Report titled “The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs.”

The study, in partnership with GfK Market Research and the LMU Entrepreneurship Center, surveyed nearly 14,000 people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Key findings included:

• Half of 14-29 year olds can see themselves as entrepreneurs in the future.
• Positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship are growing throughout Europe, but most significantly in Great Britian, Austria and Ukraine.
• To encourage entrepreneurship, we must remove the stigma of failure and increase mentoring and education.
• Denmark is the country that sees self employment the most positively.
• Non materialistic reasons, such as work-family balance, are gaining ground as top reasons for becoming an entrepreneur.

Then, Meissner participated in a panel discussion with Italian academicians, consumer advocates and government officials on actions that could be taken across the European Union to foster more entrepreneurship. Participant Maria Ida Germontani, a member of the Italian Senate Finance Committee, said something we really liked: that “vision, farsightedness and determination” would help people translate their talents and creativity into real, viable businesses that would drive the worldwide economy.

As an incubator of the entrepreneurial spirit, Amway – and we’re sure our distributors feel the same- could not agree more.

Here’s a bright note that doesn’t often make reports on employment conditions in the UK: self-employment is at an all-time high of 4.16 million.

Direct selling is part of that growth, with nearly 400,000 people working in the industry – and contributing £390 million annually to the UK economy. Just this year, Amway UK has seen 26 percent more people signing up to start an Amway business.

Direct selling often is called recession-proof, offering an income opportunity even in tough economic times. It also appeals to budding entrepreneurs, and to those looking for a flexible second income option that works around other commitments.

New shopping concepts are attracting more people to direct selling as a convenient shopping solution, too. Amway UK is pioneering a new kind of sophisticated retail experience at its refurbished London Flagship Experience Centre, where consumers can try products before they buy.

Such innovations help Amway business owners grow their businesses…a bright note all its own.

Our guest blogger is Pam Hunt.

Earlier this summer, Amway Poland participated in the Federation of Consumers Conference along with representatives of Poland’s Parliament, the European Parliament, consumer advocates, employers’ organizations and several business associations.

The conference was held to discuss new regulations proposed by the European Commission that would change methods of settling consumer disputes with companies selling goods and services inside Poland and via online, cross-border transactions.

What made Amway an ideal panelist? Our Code of Conduct; existing consumer and distributor satisfaction guarantees; and commitment to our industry’s Codes of Ethics prove that sufficient protective measures can – and do – exist when companies commit to self regulation.

Our partnership with the Polish Direct Selling Association (PSSB) and its other member companies was also lauded as an example of how entrepreneurs, working together, can positively impact consumers’ rights when they actively set and follow standards for ethical behavior, resolve disputes in a timely fashion, and tackle potential ethical issues head on.

We’re serious about the work we do - and the policies we keep in place - to protect consumers from Poland to India, Thailand and the world over. Being invited on stage to discuss these efforts is just the icing on the cake.

What is your #1 business resource?

For 90 percent of the Amway Europe distributors we surveyed, the company’s online AMAGRAM magazine is that essential, “must have” business tool.

It’s so useful, in fact, that nearly 95 percent of European distributors keep it on file as a handy source of product facts, figures and benefits. AMAGRAM is published in 29 European countries and in 20 languages.

Our European AMAGRAM isn’t just a winner with distributors. It was recently honored with a Silver Award in the prestigious “Best of Corporate Publishing” competition, according to Yvonne Hug, publications chief editor for Amway Europe.

Congratulations to our Amway Europe colleagues who produce AMAGRAM, a winner in any language!