From Corporate America to Work at home mom… who knew it would be a promotion?Written by Caryn FitzGerald
When my daughter was born, I had no second thoughts about going back into work place. After all, I had spent 6 years in college getting both a bachelors and masters degree in field I had wanted to make my career. I spent many years in prison system as a mental health counselor for medium security male inmates. I enjoyed what I did, but in back of my mind I was always thinking, is this really it for me? Is this really what I want to do with rest of my life? Do I really want to be working for someone else? When my daughter was about 18 months old, I started thinking more about leaving corporate America and branching out on my own. I jumped at first direct sales option that came along without doing research, what a mistake. In end, I think it cost me more than I had earned and I was still in same career I was trying to get out of. My husband, although very supportive of my desire to get out of workplace and be able to be home to raise our daughter, said this to me, “honey, you can do whatever you like as long as you are happy and you are earning money.” We have a lifestyle that we enjoy, so if I were to leave workplace and my salary was gone, we would have had serious financial issues and that scared me. What if I caused our family to be out on street because of my selfish desire to be an at home mommy? In end of 2002 I decided to make a serious effort to be home with my daughter and have my own company generating an income for our family. The only thing was, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had heard about different direct sale companies over years, but for some reason everyone I knew that was involved with them was still in corporate America in one way or another as they were only making enough to provide a little extra. I was seeing these people working 40 hours for someone else PLUS 10-20 hours for themselves giving them a small financial gain and less time to spend with their families. This was not what I was striving for. Then in early 2003 answer came to my door, literally. I received a jewelry catalog from a friend in another state. She was selling this jewelry and was passing catalog on so I could see what she was offering (and buy something of course). I glanced at catalog and realized I wanted a lot of jewelry that was in it. As I read through it, I saw a paragraph about earning money and immediately called my friend. I wanted to know more about it. She gave me information and it was great – 50% on my orders immediately, low start up cost, all items guaranteed and company was over 20 years old, I was sold! I talked to everyone I know and generated an order for my start-up costs. From there things went slowly but steadily upwards. I was still working in corporate America, but each month I was getting more and more customers and my confidence was growing. I was also able to take my daughter with me when I did my home shows, which made this even more appealing, plus it was nice to be able to get her that special something she wanted when we went to toy store. She and I were spending our weekends together as my company began to grow. In summer of 2003, my husband got word that he was being offered a promotion. However, this also meant we were going to be transferred. At first, thought frightened us, but then we realized that this was not only a great opportunity for him, but if all went well this could be answer to growing my business even larger as we were moving from a small rural area to a large city which would have an incredible client base. For next few months, I worked my fingers to bone, marketing my products and doing research on how to increase my visibility and income. My bookings increased as did my return customers, and I began to really hear what they were saying. As people can only buy so much jewelry for themselves, I heard my customers saying “I’m going to get this for my daughter…my friend…my boss.” I soon realized that many of them were buying these items as gifts. My mind started working overtime gifts need cards, why should my customers have to go to a store for their cards? I could offer those as well. The end of 2003 was fast approaching, and move was drawing near, I acted fast and decided to do research on expanding my offerings.
| | FemaleMatters/ChristmasMattersWritten by Lois Reeve
Christmas MattersEvery year I vow to make Christmas easier, simpler - less stressful. Have I ever? One year I tried forgetting Christmas here in UK and spent it in Canary Islands. It was quite extraordinary really. Christmas day was spent around pool. The staff brought round 'Christmas' cake at various intervals (not fruit stuff but madeira cake) and Santa Claus arrived on beach by parachute. The hotel was full of people trying to get away from stress of season. All regretted leaving families but felt need to just 'get away'. The guy in next room spent every Christmas away from his wife and family. His wife, children and grandchildren loved to do whole British Christmas experience - he just wanted time to chill out and spent a good deal of his time alone. He didn't feel this was extraordinary at all! One thing that did strike me was friendliness and service from hotel staff. How much holiday did they get? - they all seemed to be working so hard. I asked receptionist. He explained that they had no concept of a long Christmas holiday. In fact only time they did not work was Christmas Eve when they were given 24 hours leave from that afternoon to attend Christmas Mass with family and then to eat a celebratory meal with family and friends. No presents were exchanged - this happened on Feast of Epiphany 6 January when traditionally wise men had brought their gifts to Jesus - and even then presents to each other were single and modest. On Christmas day all staff had returned to work by late afternoon - as did all workers throughout island.
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