The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Ever wonder what the home business industry’s really like?  In this post, you’ll get to hear some of the good, bad, and ugly from my own journey when it comes to working from home…

Recently, I’ve been asked this question:

“How long since you first got introduced to networking and all this started?”

I thought I’d answer that here for the first official week of Work At Home Wednesday!

The Good:

When I was in San Luis Obispo working as a Christian ministry field staff, I was invited to a church craft event, I believe in 2002.  I LOVE arts and crafts and was already making cards with rubber stamps.  At this event was where I was introduced to scrapbooking through the company Creative Memories.

Through networking with Creative Memories consultants, I discovered the world of direct sales and later on, network marketing.  I was pregnant with my first, and knew I would be a stay at home mother.  So the idea of a home-based business sounded great – I could make some extra income at home doing something I love!

So I embarked on researching different companies, and in the process found a few whose products absolutely amaze me.  Very high caliber ingredients, results, and even packaging.  I wondered, why aren’t these products sold in stores like other products?

I since learned that these companies cut out a lot of the middle men and advertising costs, so they can pay on-the-field marketers to spread the word via what’s commonly known as word-of-mouth advertising.  They can also make their products extremely high quality as a result of this method of marketing.

After contracting in a few of these companies and much valuable training, I realized a person’s business must reflect WHO THEY ARE.  As networking businesspeople, we must not separate who we are from our business.  Our deepest values in life express themselves through our business, and so we must find a way to integrate the two.  Who we are IS our biggest business.

The absolute coolest thing that I love about the home business industry is the personal growth opportunities.  It can get intense; however I welcome it because through this kind of personal growth, I’m overcoming a lot of the obstacles in my life that I otherwise would not face head on and grow from.  I’m all for harnessing my hindrances and weaknesses to go the distance and be better equipped to impact others’ lives forever!

I’ve only scratched the surface in terms of the good of this industry.  There’s so much more that I can get into here!  But let’s move on…

The Bad…well, the intensity of the personal growth.  As good as it is, it can also feel like a fire has been lit under you and you’re either gonna let it burn away the stuff in your life that gets in your way…or not.  The beauty of it is, it’s your choice.  Another bad is…a higher probability of felt rejection and failure.  You’ll feel like you’re hitting brick walls quite often, and so there’s ample opportunity for developing “thicker skin”!

The last bad I’ll address is getting over the belief many of us may have regarding marketing, especially as Christians, and that’s “marketing is evil.”  I don’t know about you, but when I first started, I had this belief.  I won’t go into full-blown detail here in this post (which is meant as an overview).  I can do that in future posts if you want to know more about it.  So let me know if you do, ok?

The Ugly…well, in-fighting.  Leaders stealing other leaders’ organizations.  Companies and marketers that aren’t honest and end up giving our industry a bad name…an ugly name.  There’s a higher potential for gossip as teams grow in size.  Leaders being jealous of other leaders.  I think I’ll stop with the ugly.  You get the idea.  This kind of stuff can happen anywhere, don’t you agree?  As long as we live on this planet, we’ll have these kinds of problems and conflicts.  What counts is the maturity and skill to handle these conflicts gracefully.

That’s why personal character growth is so important!  One of my mentors, Dani Johnson, puts it best, “Your income follows your personal growth.”  So even with the Bad and the Ugly, the home business industry comes back around to equip and empower us to be the kind of people who live passionate, purposeful lives.  The kind of people who make a difference for future generations.  Who are equipped to engage with people, celebrate life and bless those in need.

What about you?  What are some of the good, bad, and ugly from your own journey in the home business industry?

Tags: success, Work At Home Wednesday