From USA Today:

Not long ago, Craig Lapp made his living
driving a truck that helped carve Southern California's soil into new
developments. But then housing sales slumped, and in November 2007
Lapp's construction company let him go.

While he searched for another job, Lapp began
working alongside his wife, Lynne, in a business based in their
Temecula home, selling nutritional supplements made by the direct-sales
company Isagenix. Nearly two years later and with no construction job
in sight, Lapp says a one-time sideline has become the couple's bread
and butter.

"It's paying our mortgage, our car payments …
putting food on the table," says Lapp, 55, who adds that he and his
wife are earning a six-figure income. "It was our 'Plan B' that turned
into our 'Plan A.' "

Direct-sales businesses that rely on home-based
representatives to peddle their wares are seeing their sales forces
rapidly expand as the nation's unemployment rate soars to nearly 9% and
those who lost jobs and nest eggs look for new ways to make money.

"We're recession-resistant in the sense that
more people come to us during economic hard times for supplemental
income or replacement of a lost job," says Neil Offen, president of the
Direct Selling Association, the trade group that represents the largest
U.S. direct sales companies.