So, in the last episode of my work-at-home mom story, I shared a little about Greg and I’s experience with multi-level marketing and direct selling. And how even though we chose not to continue that business, we learned a lot – about business, about people, and about ourselves.

So, today, here’s my top 3 business lessons learned from our Multi-Level Marketing & Direct Selling stint.

#1 – The Dream, The Plan, and then the Reality

You dream of starting a business, of earning extra income, of getting out debt, of staying home with your kids and still earning money, of working on your own schedule, in your own way.  And that is good.

To dream is  necessary. The Dream, the why, will sustain you through the ups and downs of your business. In fact, without the dream, without the why, it’s hard to stay with and in your business.

But to make it happen, you need a plan – and more importantly, and actionable plan. 

Dreaming and planning is FUN….

But for any real results to happen you have to get out and work your plan!

I know, crazy.

But the reality is to get any business going, to keep any business going, you have to do the work.

It’s easy to get sucked into the dream, and the plan, and the best intentions. But when push comes to shove… even part-time and at-home businesses need to be taken as seriously as a JOB. And while BOSS isn’t going to fire you if you don’t show up and do the work, the results are the same – no income.

The dream will keep you going, the plan will keep you on track, and the reality – doing the work – will keep you moving forward and produce the Results.

#2 – Relationships Matter – But Not in the Way You Think

The phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” always makes me cringe – mostly because it feels a little elitest to me. But the reality is that relationships do matter in business.

Now, in multi-level marketing and some direct selling, newbies often think that they will get their friends and family on board, and life will be all cherries and roses. But it’s just doesn’t work that way.  Close friends and family often take a “wait and see” approach, to see if you are going to make the opportunity work. 

But relationships do matter – the relationships you build with customers, with prospects, with others in complementary businesses and industries, even competitiors.

You never know where a referral will come from. And quite frankly you want those referrals. And you never know what you’ll learn.

Don’t worry about selling someone who isn’t interested. Help them out, build a relationship with them, send business their way if the opportunity comes up. Over time, that relationship may grow into more business, either directly or through referrals.

And,  if nothing else you’ll know another interesting person who enriches your world and adds to your perspective – or even your story

#3- Business is Often Just a Numbers Game

People will refer their friends to you if they know, like, and trust you – and they’ll even buy from you if that relationship is there and they have a need or desire for what you are selling.

But, the bottom line is that not everyone has a need or desire at the same time. To have consistency, it’s often simply a numbers game.

And knowing your industry’s average numbers allows you to step away from that emotional feeling when things are not happening as fast as you’d like, and check to see where you are at numbers wise - with leads, with calls, with follow-ups, with your traffic, whatever it is in your business.

Are you reaching the numbers necessary so that word can spread about you and your product or service?

For whatever reason, making that realization that it wasn’t “me”, it was that I wasn’t doing the work to reach the “number” of people I needed, was freeing.

Knowing that if I do the work, work the plan, build authentic relationships with people, give great customer service, and simply put in the numbers, it will eventually all come together - I like that.

And it’s a concept that I’ve found true in every business opportunity I’ve pursued. Bottomline, if you reach enough people, you’ll find those that are in need of what you are offering or they’ll be referred to you (which is the best thing ever!)

So that’s that. My top 3 business lessons learned from our multilevel marketing experience. There are more, but that’s a book, not a post

Next up in this series… My first real ”Work-at-Home Mom” experience once K was born.

Until then… remember, I believe in you!

…Shannon

Other Related Posts You May Enjoy:

• Perseverance: Choosing to Not Give Up

• Insights on How to Make Money Working From Home While Homeschooling Your Kids (podcast)

• My Work-at-Home Mom Story- Part 1: Before Kids

• My Work-at-Home Mom Story – Part 2: MultiLevel Marketing & Direct Selling

Homeschool record keeping is my least favorite thing about homeschooling. I’m just not great with repetitive day-t0-day processes, so I tend to gravitate towards the easiest homeschool record keeping techniques that work for me, and still satisify any potential homeschool requirements we might run into.

Here’s one tip on how K keeps her own daily homeschool log and what I do that makes record keeping easier for her.

Enjoy!
…Shannon

P.S. Do you have any quick and easy tips for for homeschool record keeping? Please share!

This week I found myself wiped out from a recurring back injury and after a very effective deep tissue massage, my massage therapist recommended that I follow it up with some Emergen-C as well as the bucket load of water I already was going to drink.

Supposedly the extra nutrition from the Emergen-C combined with drinking the extra water helps with the soreness that sometimes follows a deep tissue massage. I knew about the water, but hadn’t heard the nutritional recommendation before, but I was willing to give it a try.

I happen to have some Emergen-C left over from our road trip first aid kit, but needed another way to drink it – cuz the only way I like it is mixed with really cold bottled water, which I didn’t have.

So I thought I’d do an experiment – how would it taste in a banana orange smoothie recipe?

Oh my goodness – you’ve got to try this! It’s like drinking a Dreamcicle. Yum!

It even passed the kid test (I didn’t tell them I boosted it).

So here it is, my new Banana Orange Smoothie Recipe, with the optional nutritional boost:

1 banana

1 -2 cups vanilla almond milk, depending on how thick you like your smoothies

a heaping large spoonful of frozen concentrated orange juice or 1 whole, peeled orange

a handful of ice cubes

1 packet of Emergen-C, orange flavored (tangarine might work as well)

Dump it all into your favorite blender, and blend to taste (but be sure to use a setting that can handle ice cubes, cuz I’ve burned out more blenders on ice cubes and frozen bananas, and it’s not fun going without smoothies!)

Drink cold, hopefully with all those little yummy ice chips in there …yum!

Now if I can only find a way to keep J from drinking my smoothies… just kidding – just don’t tell him they are healthy for him

For more of my favorite smoothie recipes, check out my post on healthy smoothies, and here’s site full of healthy smoothie recipes worth trying.

Continuing my work-at-home mom story …

While I had done transcription and freelance writing on the side before kids, my first solution to make that transition from a more-than-fulltime job  to being an at-home mom was like many other wanna-be work-at-home moms - through multilevel marketing and direct selling.  

I was first approached with the idea of building a business with a well-known multilevel marketing company by a co-worker, in the Fall of 1996 when I was first pregnant with K.   We were looking for a solution to help deal with our debt so that I could be an at-home mom, and the idea of  part-time income was appealing.

Greg and I investigated the opportunity, met the people involved (a very important thing in any business, but especially in MultiLevel Marketing), and after some serious discussions on whether it was a good fit, decided to have a go at it.

Now Greg and I are both introverts – he even more than I. So the idea of approaching people we didn’t know and “selling” was not comfortable and took a lot of energy.  And that phone – wow… it’s amazing how scary a little everyday device can be when you are facing your fears and putting yourself out there.

Legitimate, ethical multilevel marketing opportunities and direct selling are very viable ways to earn an income, and there are some wonderful opportunities out there, including the one we were part of. 

If you believe in a product, believe in yourself, have a great support system and training, and are willing to put in the work, it is very possible to earn more than a decent living at it. I’ve seen this prove true for multiple people in my life, across a variety of opportunities.

But to build a business, any business, it takes energy and effort. For some - those who truly succeed at it – that energy and effort is fun and enjoyable, and it feeds them.

But for Greg and I, while it had its fun moments, and we learned a LOT about business and about ourselves, multilevel marketing was not a good fit. It took more energy than we had to give it, and it didn’t capture our hearts, our passion, and more importantly, our commitment.

Don’t get me wrong – we loved the products and the people. Greg grew as a leader and as an individual hugely during that period of time because of the  business and leadership training, and the association with other like-mind people. In fact, because of that training and personal growth, he nearly doubled his income at work.

But the multilevel marketing business and the direct selling piece of it  just wasn’t a good fit for us.  We gave it a go for over two years, and then decided to let it go and embrace the other, more comfortable, opportunities that  also came up during that time.

And, even though we decided not to “build” the business side of the opportunity after the second year, we have kept our distributorship active, even after all these years, simply because it makes sense to continue to buy the products at distributor cost. 

And hey, maybe one day, we’ll be able to use internet marketing to sell the products online and then I’ll be in my element again.

Coming up next… the business lessons we learned from MultiLevel Marketing & Direct Selling,  followed by the other opportunties I explored during that same time period.

I promised you two more heart-healthy cookbooks, and today’s is heart-healthy Southern recipes. I know that sounds like a misnomer, but it’s true. Southern cooking can be healthy.

Today’s free cookbook is called Heart Healthy Home Cooking African American Style, but it is full of down home southern cooking – with a healthy twist. This is yet another free cookbook from the National Heart Lung Blood Institute.

Inside you’ll find 26 healthy southern recipes like:

• Good for you corn bread
• Homestyle biscuits
• Smothered greens
• Spicy Okra
• Crispy Oven Fried Chicken
• Jambalaya
• Spicy Southern Barbecued Chicken
• Mock- Southern Sweet Potato Pie
• Peach Cobbler

Makes my mouth water just reading through it.

You can download the free PDF version  or you can order a print version from the National Heart Blood Lung Institute website. (There may be a charge for the print version)

Enjoy!

…Shannon

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