"Functional beverages are becoming a multi-billion dollar industry." CBSNews.com, July 30, 2002

Cafe and restaurant owners are finding a new way to keep their customers happy by offering them "functional beverages" that are sold exclusively through a direct sales / network marketing system. These beverages offer the customer an energy boost which, when taken daily, may have a significant effect on health and wellbeing.

Since 1996 the functional foods industry has experienced incredible growth. Leading analysts expect it to continue at a growth rate of at least 15% per year as we become more and more health conscious, while baby boomers look for ways to halt the aging process.

Without opening another physical caf? or restaurant, business people can leverage the power of network marketing to expand their client base nationally and internationally. Cafes are sources of information as well as food and drinks. They are meeting places and waiting rooms, refuges from the hustle of the street or workplace; a place to take time out to read the paper or a magazine. A good network marketer understands that consumers are hungry for information too. It may be that they are looking for better health or a way to earn more income. Maybe they are one of the thousands of people each day who actively go looking for an opportunity to supplement or replace their job income with something home-based. If so, a network marketing opportunity based on a high demand product backed by a solid company with a proven track record and support structure is one way to go.

Such companies or their independent affiliates may offer high quality, independently researched and entertaining publications that are very appealing, ranging from brochures to newspapers, magazines, books and websites.

It's in the wholesale / networking market that the caf? owner can reap the biggest long term financial rewards once the system is understood and integrated into the normal caf? operations. But let me pause here for a moment?

Some people, especially members of the baby boomer generation, may have had a negative experience with network marketing or MLM and it's invariably because they've been lied to. Well let's just say that they've received information that's unhelpful when it comes to sales, marketing and building a business; information that led them to believe, for example, that they could achieve success by simply sharing the products with their friends and family. We have a 35 page e-book which examines these lies - see below. "The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing" is available to download - free of charge or obligation - from our site below.

Business owners and restaurateurs on the other hand already understand business, sales and marketing. And when it comes to adding the element of direct sales via functional beverages they are in a unique position compared to the average ?MLMer'. Their business is a focal point for the community, they attract a particular clientele, and they are in a position of trust and respect. They can offer a sample of the product. They can put it on the menu in various forms: in cocktails, on ice, as neat shots, an ingredient in smoothies or as a mixer. They can include quality wellness magazines on their newspaper stand. Keeping some wholesale / preferred customer sign-up forms handy for their regular consumers who request it means that a customer can have the product shipped to their door at wholesale prices while the caf? owner is paid a monthly bonus by the manufacturing company. Internet cafes can bookmark the website sign-up page.

These measures put the networking, business building side of the new business on auto-pilot, allowing the restaurateur to do what they do best while providing a valuable new service, a high demand product and building multiple streams of extra income.

"The market for functional foods has been estimated at $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone, according to the reports. It is expected to grow at some 15 percent each year." CNNmoney", February 10, 2000