Shopping with Together In Life

While Together In Life is a business and this is a commercial website, our program has been developed specifically to ensure the highest return to the community.

We have developed our program specifically as a "low energy, good return, no strings attached" funding source for community-based and not-for-profit organisations of all sizes.

At Together In Life we see ourselves as “self-funding fundraisers”; our business model gives us an innovative win-win relationship with our Beneficiaries and customers, returning our Beneficiaries a strong income stream, and giving our customers access to high quality, ethically produced products at affordable prices while allowing them to nominate which worthwhile cause the profits will go to.

To facilitate this process Together In Life offer the entire retail profit on goods sold through our website, (www.togetherinlife.net) to participating Beneficiaries.

In today's world, where "spare money" is fast becoming a thing of the past, wise investment has become a catch-phrase; at Together In Life we can see no wiser investment than to put money into those very groups and organisations that make our society a more whole and caring place to live. Unfortunately, with the constant fiscal belt tightening that comes with todays economic uncertainty, it is those very organisations who are usually the first to suffer.

What Together In Life is now able to provide is a way that people can continue to put money into their community as they buy the products we all buy regularly anyway.

Each month the average family spends about $100 on the type of products we sell; by buying through the Together In Life website $28.50 of that $100 goes directly to their favourite charity or community group.

Our Customers get high quality, ethically produced products at affordable prices delivered right to their door and their favourite cause gets almost a third of the money they would have spent anyway - Everybody Wins!

Together In Life is in independent partnership with:

LR Health & Beauty Systems (LR).

Together In Life's ABN is 25468749033.

The Together In Life management team come from a long history of involvement in the peace, environmental and social justice movements, looking for an ethical, productive business opportunity. When we looked at network marketing we realised that there was a huge potential for a business that would allow us to act as "self-funding fundraisers" for those many charities and and community groups, both large and small, who do so much for our world with so little acnowledgement or resources.

By diverting the retail profit that normally goes to the private sector into the community we have developed a significant new income stream for the community.

In return for the mark-up, participating organisations are encouraged to spread the word about our program out through their network, thereby increasing their own return; in this way Together In Life is able to provide a strong income stream for its Beneficiaries and earn enough through the commissions from the company supplying the products to continue in business.

At Together In Life we consider our business to be a significant responsibility; we have a responsibility to our Beneficiaries, our customers, our staff, the company who supplies our products, the community as a whole and the environment

Business is the development of relationships and successful business builds relationships where everybody wins:

• Our Beneficiaries get a high return enabling them to continue and expand their work.
• Our customers get good quality, ethically produced products at good prices with the knowledge that a significant amount of the money they spend will go to their favourite charity.
• The community gets an increase in funding for charities at no extra cost to itself by purchasing good quality products with high ethical and environmental standards.
• We receive an income that allows us to stay in business.

Firstly, the fundraising opportunity we offer our Beneficiaries

Secondly, the delivery of high quality, ethically produced, reasonably priced products into the community.

We have been able to achieve these goals through the productive relationship we have developed with the company who provide the products.

• Cruelty Free Makeup,
• Organic Aloe Vera products with a much higher amount of Aloe Vera than most other products.
• Perfumes created through the exclusive cooperation between LR and international stars like Christina Aguilera, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Moeller, Boris Becker and Heidi Klum.
• Exclusive skin, hair & body care products ...and so much more.

To the groups who become Beneficiaries, we give over 28.5% of the sale price simply for telling people about our site. There is no obligation or expectation on Beneficiaries beyond registering with us, which is free, and having a Paypal account so that we can give them the money; of course if Beneficiaries will get a much higher return if they let their supporters know about our program and give them the opportunity to give the money they normally give to some faceless corporation to their favourite charity – what could be better!!

Unlike a “normal” business, we don’t have the expense of a shopfront; like many of the new businesses today our shopfront is the internet which both reduces costs and massively increases the community exposure of our shop so that your supporters can support you from anywhere in Australia.

Naturally, the more it costs us to make the money the less there is to go to our Beneficiaries, and so we have systematically cut our costs to the bone.

First, we have reduced costs with our unique payment system; the 28.5% goes directly to our Beneficiaries at the time of purchase instead of going into our bank account and then being paid out monthly or quarterly. This system of delivering our Beneficiaries' return has completely negated the need for us to charge "accounting fees" or "administrative costs", and at the same time the money gets to our Beneficiaries, where it’s needed, a lot faster.

Secondly, to further reduce costs and increase the return to our Beneficiaries, we do not engage in expensive, untargeted advertising; at Together In Life we recognise that the people who support our Beneficiaries by buying from our site are people who are already supporters of that organisation. With this in mind, it’s common sense that the best way to contact an organisation's supporters, is through the organisation itself so we give the money that would normally be spent on expensive advertising campaigns to our Beneficiaries and we encourage and support them in targeted, low cost advertising.

Thirdly, we consider ourselves to be “self-funded fundraisers” and our business philosophy clearly puts our Beneficiaries' success as the benchmark of our business success; to this end we are always happy to work with, and support our Beneficiaries in improving their income.

Some of the ways we do this are by providing completely free of charge:

• Product Presentation Seminars for staff, supporters, etc. at the Beneficiary's premises so that people can see the quality of our product range.
• Flyers explaining how supporters can access Together In Life to benefit their favourite charity.
• Product Presentation Seminars and Information Stalls at functions attended or hosted by the Beneficiary.
• Advice and assistance where ever possible.
• Regular updates of methods other Beneficiaries have found effective.
• From time to time we offer Special extra bonuses for turnover.

Potentially yes, firstly the LR range changes from time to time when LR either adds or withdraws products from sale. When this occurs these products are either added or removed from the website as a matter of course. If at any time a product was added which we felt might not be acceptable to our Beneficiaries we would either not add it or consult before adding it.

We are always investigating new products for possible addition to the website, however we have quite strict quality and ethical standards for these and if we choose to add any range in it will be done as a "side site" and Beneficiaries will be given to option of signing up for this product range or not. We decided on this course because quality and ethics are important to our Beneficiaries, customers and the Together In Life; however it is also possible that a Beneficiary may have a reason not to be involved with a particular supplier who meets our criteria.

If, at any time, one of our Beneficiaries or customers put forward concern regarding a product or product range Together In Life would investigate and take action as a matter of urgency. However, it is doubtful that this would occur because of the depth of investigation we go into before we consider a product range (so far from four product ranges investigated we’ve only accepted LR and we consider them as setting a high benchmark in both quality and ethics).

When we investigate products, firstly we look at product quality, followed by company ethics and lastly return to Beneficiaries, if all these criteria are reached to our satisfaction we will put the product range on a side site and invite our Beneficiaries to have a look and decide if they would like to participate on it.

The main aim of Together In Life is to redirect the commercial return from as many good quality, ethically produced products as possible into the community sector and so, over time, we would like to add as many products as we can; but this will always be done in a way that allows Beneficiaries to have the option not to participate if they wish.

There are many network marketing companies operating today and so our first task was to develop a selection criteria for products we would list and companies we would deal with.

The product range must:

• Be well made, with good quality raw materials.
• Have a low environmental impact in production and delivery.
• Give a good return for our Beneficiaries.

The supplying company must:

• Show pride in their production standards and products.
• Have good business ethics.
• Be manufactured in a way that ensures fair labour conditions for their workers.

We have to be able to stand behind the products we offer to the community, and these criteria give us a good basis to achieve that.

If you look at any culture there is a core belief in fairness. “Karma”, “what goes around comes around”, “You reap what you sow”, “You get what you give”; are truths that we all grow up with. At Together In Life we see these beliefs as being as real in business as they are in our day-to-day lives; with this in mind, giving everyone a fair go in business is good business practice.

At Together In Life, as with any business, we need to make money; however, we also believe that the cornerstone of successful business is that everybody wins.

We purposefully calculate the maximum, not the minimum amount that we can give our Beneficiaries - not because we are wildly philanthropic, but because if everybody gets a good deal they will keep dealing with us.

• Our Beneficiaries get a high return.
• Our customers get good quality products at a fair price delivered to their door.
• The company supplying the products get sales.
• We get to continue in business.

If you're a purchaser, simply follow the “Go Shopping” link on the left and shop as you normally would on the Web.

You know, at the time of purchase and before you make payment, the exact amount that you will go to your designated Beneficiary.

Community groups, charities, schools and other community based organizations can participate in our program via the Website by registering with Together In Life as Beneficiaries (feel free to contact us to register your group).

Note: None of the 28.5% that goes to our Beneficiaries is taken, or charged by Together In Life; we are completely funded from commissions paid by our suppliers.

You will pay for your products through Paypal. There is no requirement for you to obtain a Paypal account - just follow the simple instructions during checkout. Paypal also allows you to pay by credit card if you wish.

As you pay for you products you will need to make 2 seperate payments:

• One for the wholesale price of the product/s and the postage and handling costs, which is paid directly to LR Health & Beauty Systems
• One for the gross trade markup of the product/s which is paid directly into their nominated Beneficiary's account - as soon as this payment is made the money will go directly into your Beneficiary's Paypal account.

Note: Small Paypal fees will also be added automatically for these payments. They are comparable to normal credit card transaction fees.

We provide our Beneficiaries with:

• Your own internet shop front; with all the profits but none of the costs, limitations of location or drains on your time associated with running their own store.
• The equivalent of your supporters being able to walk into their local store and say that they want all the profit from what they buy to go to you – their favourite charity.
• Ethically produced, high quality, environmentally friendly products of a standard that many people don’t have access to in their daily lives – and it’s all delivered right to their door.
• The right for your supporters to help you by buying the sort of products they purchase and use every day anyway; there aren’t many households where skin care, beauty and health products aren’t used regularly if not daily.

The average family spends about $100 a month on this type of products; that’s $28.50 a month to help you carry on your valuable work from every family who support you.

Through this service Together In Life is able to help Not-For-Profit groups increase their income without costing their supporters a cent; the money your supporters spend on our site is money they would have spent anyway, all we’re doing is redirecting the profit margin on their purchases to you.

Not many businesses get anywhere near 28.5% profit on sales, even before deducting all their overheads, but through this innovative new program Together In Life is able to offer over 28.5% clear profit to its Beneficiaries – without the overheads or drain on their time and energy of a business to run day-to-day.