If you are under or unemployed and you’ve considered a work-from-home business, make sure you go in with your eyes wide open. It will require hard work and sacrifice and the income won’t be immediate. But for my husband and me, and my friend Karen Beamish and her husband, it’s been the best solution.
Like Karen and I have, perhaps you can transfer the skills you’ve acquired in the jobs or career you’ve had to something that allows you direct control and an additional income stream. If you would like a complimentary copy of my “Transferrable Skills Evaluator” just email me with that written in the subject line. It’s a quiz that can help you identify what industries you’re suited for.
I invited Karen to share her story here to help you to step out of your comfort zone to explore your options. Whether you’re in your twenties or an empty-nester I think what Karen has to share will encourage you:
I am a Network Marketing Professional and I’m proud to be one. This might come as quite a surprise to most people who know me, because they probably think of me as a stay-at-home mom and wife of a successful business owner.
I am both of those things, but six years ago I became an empty-nester with some free time on my hands. At the same time my church was launching a campaign to raise money for missions and I wanted to be able to make a substantial contribution above and beyond my regular tithe. I needed an additional stream of income in order to realize this goal.
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in business and entrepreneurism. Thirty years ago I left my career in technology to start my family, and soon thereafter my husband and I started our own sub-contracting business.
We really started with nothing. Still in our twenties, we had drive and determination and a willingness to do whatever it took and work however hard we needed, to succeed. We both put in long hours. My husband was gone all day doing the manual labor and rustling up more jobs, while I raised our two young sons with all the work and long hours that requires. I also did all the administrative work for the business. One of our bedrooms was our office and our garage was our warehouse.
I loved every minute of those years. It was a busy time, but an exciting time, because we knew all our hard work was going to pay off in the long run. We were building something for our future, for our family, and we were in control. We never thought of failure, we never wanted to quit, we were in business for ourselves and failure was not an option. That doesn’t mean we didn’t experience hard times. Sometimes I had to drive to a contractor’s office to pick up a check in order to pay our single employee his wages for the week, but the Lord always provided our needs.
Those early years were lean, but MBW, Inc. has become one of the leading waterproofing and flooring sub-contractors in the country. Our company has provided a very comfortable lifestyle for my family and for over 150 employees and their families.
In 2007 I was praying that the Lord would show me how I could be a blessing to others while I earned money to further His kingdom. I knew the easiest way for me to earn extra cash flow was to go out and get a job. I also knew that trading my time for money was the direct way to limited earnings, and working on someone else’s schedule. I’m just not interested in working for someone else. I’m interested in working for myself and building a business.
At that time my friend called to tell me about a business that hadn’t been launched yet. She told me about an already established, recognizable product brand that was being taken out of high-end department stores to be sold exclusively through independent business owners. I knew this was the answer to my prayers. But…I had always run away from any direct sales business, because of the negative stigma that goes along with most of those companies. Did I really want to get involved in one of “those things?”
I decided to study the Direct Selling business model to really understand it. I quickly realized that it is exactly the same business model my husband and I used in building our sub-contracting company. It is exactly the same business model used by our friends who built a successful real estate brokerage. It is probably the same model as any company where you’ve been on payroll has used. The difference is that of being a business owner versus an employee. As a business owner you have the freedom to manage your own time. You also have no cap on your income unlike being an employee where you will never earn as much as the company’s CEO.
I decided to jump on board with this network marketing opportunity and have never regretted my decision. I’ve built a business before, so this is familiar territory to me. The income I’ve earned has already allowed me to make generous contributions to help those less fortunate. It’s also provided me an opportunity to help others take the same jump I did.
Finding myself in a new phase of life has opened my eyes to another busy, exciting phase that’s bringing with it new beginnings and new growth. If you have the focus and are willing to work hard, I’d be interested in talking with you about the prospect of joining my team. Contact me at karenbeamish@gmail.com. Karen Beamish – Beauty and Skin Care Consultant
Pam’s final note: Common to all business efforts are sales and marketing. If you can learn these two skills you will become even more valuable as an employee or confident as an entrepreneur. Joining a network marketing company may be the best way for you to enhance your abilities.
I know, Karen mentioned it and I shared the same aversion to network or multi-level marketing primarily because of the horrible business practices of many such organizations in the 1970-80’s. While there will always be unscrupulous businesses, there are some worthwhile networking marketing opportunities. Karen is involved with a beauty and skin care line and I am involved with a loyalty savings program–both are among the worthy network marketing companies.
Self employment is not for everyone. It requires focus, hard work and tenacity to press on when it seems you’re not making progress. However the potential pay-off is greater than the limitations of being an employee.
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