When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Kelly Magne knows that as she watches the clock and sips on a soda. Every day at four o’clock, the president and chief executive officer of Jensen Audio Visual clears her late afternoon schedule for her most important appointment: visiting her husband.

Katie Lichtig has had to help cities walk the fine line of economic development before.

The new San Luis Obispo city manager, installed Jan. 19, comes to town after working in city management in Santa Monica, Malibu and most recently, Beverly Hills. The switch to much-smaller SLO means Lichtig will be managing more than 358 full-time equivalent municipal employees — compared to about 1,000 in Beverly Hills — and a $100 million budget.

Rosandra Heffefingers was a successful project leader at a Ventura insurance brokerage firm — until her job fell out from beneath her.

“They just decided it was no longer a lucrative project, so my position wasn’t necessary,” she said. Facing dim prospects in a difficult job market, she decided to look into entrepreneurship as an alternative.

Marilyn Lewis has seen a few recessions in her lifetime, but the Thousand Oaks resident has always had a back-up plan. Like almost 15 million other women in the U.S., Lewis is a direct seller — she sells cosmetics to other women from her home.

Although it may conjure up images of ’50s Tupperware parties, direct selling isn’t just for housewives with too much time on their hands anymore – anything but. When the going gets tough, women are often called upon to supplement their household incomes, and direct selling — whether it be cosmetics or kitchenware — lends itself as a practical way for many to do that.