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Contestant's Case to Win

Welcome Committee, Inc. is a home-based business (even the kids can help assemble welcome baskets) that personally greets newcomers and new homebuyers to the community. It's also an advertising and marketing service for local retail merchants and professionals. Welcome Committee's "word-of mouth" introductions pair up newcomers & new homebuyers with goods and services they need. New movers have no buying habits or shopping loyalties & are looking for information to help them establish long-term relationships. Even in an economic downturn, new homebuyers have discretionary income to spend. They are credit-worthy consumers (having just been approved for a loan), spending approximately $110 billion annually on home-related products & services. These consumers spend more in the first 6 months than their established neighbors spend in 5 years. Most of their household buying decisions are made within the first 90 days after move-in. Welcome Committee gets there first and in person to influence their buying decisions at a critical time in their decision-making process. People move for all sorts of reasons, i.e., corporate relocations, job transfers, divorce, newlyweds purchasing a first time home, empty nesters downsizing, etc. We live in a transient society, with approximately 40 million Americans moving each year, or one in five people. In 2007, 91,000 newcomers made the greater Charlotte area their new home (up from 88,000 in 2006 and 80,000 in 2005). As long as people continue relocating to my neck of the woods, the Welcome Committee will remain a recession-proof industry because there's always someone new to welcome.