It was at this point in my life where I had planned to go back into the workforce. Or, the workforce as I traditionally thought of it when I was a kid. You know...8 to 5, sitting in a cube waiting for lunch, then sitting back down for a few hours more till it was time to go. Answering some calls...writing some copy. At least that was my "workforce" experience.
Instead, I made a commitment a year ago to give Team Beachbody a go and try to bring home a decent income while working from home.
Goal #5: Earn $800-$1,000/month through BB
Zach and I agreed that considering his busy schedule and my ability to keep our family on track, if I could earn just $1,000 per month with Beachbody that it would be worth it for me to stay home and not get a "day job."
I looked at the goal every day.
Last month through Team Beachbody we brought in $1,960. Plus a few hundred extra through my contract job.
But this is not a post about setting and attaining goals, and it's not a post about joining my team (although I think both are fabulous things to do).
This is a post to question my commitment to this business.
I have almost doubled my anticipated monthly income with Team Beachbody. Thanks to my own contacts and through the customer lead program I have several hundred customers on my customer list. So why is it, then, when people ask me what I'm doing now that my kids are in school, my response is inevitably:
"Oh, I do some contract work for a company I used to work for. And also Zach and I have a fitness coaching business on the side, so I do that, too."
My contract work makes up less than half of my income. I don't particularly enjoy the contract work, while I absolutely love my Team Beachbody business and talking to people about being healthy and fit.
Why am I belittling my own business by not giving it top billing?
Is it because of the stigma of network marketing? Is it because I'm "selling something"? Is it because I have a college degree that isn't in business, and now I'm off trying to run my own little business? Is it because some people wouldn't even call this a business?
I don't know, but it bothers me. Because you can't tell me that $2,000 a month isn't a business. Is it buying me a Ferrari next month? No. But I'm not shaking a stick at two grand a month. And find somebody who's NOT selling something, right?
Maybe it's because I can't believe that we are turning something that we like to do into a home business. It sounds so cliched, or something.
And the funny thing is I'm not alone in being coy when it comes to talking about home businesses. A few weeks ago we met with some friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Since we'd last met, the wife, who was a teacher, had gone back home to stay with her kids, and didn't go back when they went to school. When we asked what she was doing, she said she was just staying at home. But later I found out she's working their small network marketing business from home. Why wouldn't she just tell us about it? Why didn't I tell her what I was doing?
So in the final quarter of 2012 I am adding a bonus goal to my list:
OWN this business. Talk about it, give it top billing. Make people understand that I make money by selling them fitness products and then coaching them through incorporating those products into their life. That is my job. When my kids are at school, I talk to people about how to live fit and healthy lives. I encourage them. I offer them recipes and tips. I read. I become a better leader so that I can show other people how to lead their own fitness and financial transformations.
My guess is when I start taking this business as seriously in public as I do at my desk every day, then other people will take it seriously, too.
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Workout of the Day
Insanity: Pure Cardio
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