I really never enjoyed being the stay-at-home parent. When I was on maternity leave, I was ready to go back to work after my second week as a new mom. Being at home and only having a little human under the age of 1 and another 2 year old, not being able to go to the bathroom without someone calling your name or little eyes trying to peek underneath the door or fingers finding their way through the bathroom door, not being able to leave the house without being worried about a spontaneous screaming and tantrums – I couldn’t do it. Not just because I was done with stinky diapers, but because I wanted more than just being a mom. I wanted a career, to make my own money and to be able to do something besides stay home with my kids. But I also wanted flexibility and not miss out on them growing up. Today, we are not the typical family. I am the primary breadwinner and my husband is a stay-at-home dad. That’s considered non-traditional but I am very proud to say that he is loving his new job as the domesticated man, and I am thrilled to be able to replace his income with my not-so-little entrepreneurial venture.
When we were a household of 2 working parents, we were stressed — about everything…work, money, time. We tried to save every penny. I used to coupon and spent hours figuring out ways to save more, so much so that my husband would tease me and call me the “Coupon Lady”. I know there are people out there who love to coupon and save money even if they have an abundance of it. But that is not me. I did wish that one day, I didn’t have to keep looking to coupon anymore. It was a time suck and I didn’t enjoy one bit of it. More than that though, it was symbolic. It symbolized to me that I was living a life of scarcity, and THAT was not a life I wanted to live for the rest of my life. So, I knew I had to do something different but I never knew it was going to be what I am doing today.
2 YEARS AGO
I’ll take you back to to my life a couple of years ago. My husband worked for a large medical device company and I had my career as a nurse. Outside of that I was also mom, wife, cook, sunday school, mentor, and part-time taxi driver taking the kids to their activities. I also had my own catering business that I would run from my house. It brought in some extra cash, but took up so much time and resources. I was burnt out, desperate to find a middle ground. Spread too thin, I broke down almost every night as tears rolled down my face and onto my pillow wishing and praying for another way. My answer was not what I expected it to be. It was something I never ever considered. In fact, I totally rejected the idea of it when my friend offered it as a solution to my problems. I mean I was a nurse – a masters prepared nurse. That title was so important to me and I held on to it like my shiny first place trophy in life. But that title didn’t make me happy. In fact, it made me more in debt than I have ever been and that was just another thing for me to stress out about. When my friend shared about this project, I found out that it was a Direct Sales business. Immediately I thought oh boy, not one of those, please! And sales? No way! I hated retail, I hated the thought of asking anyone to buy anything and I refused to do anything besides nursing. I spent way too much money on my education than to waste it on direct sales?! Was that even a real job? But shame on me – I was so ignorant and closed minded to the non-traditional ways of making money that this was not even an option I considered. I dismissed what would become the answer to everything I wanted! However, when I saw that she closed down her nutrition business because her Direct Sales business had replaced her income, my spider senses went into turbo mode and I realized there was more to this. I mean, if she could do this, so could I. I could make REAL income that I could use to make significant changes in my life! We didn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck, penny pinching every single thing. We could wake up not thinking about the debt we were in and instead, be grateful for a beautiful, wonderful life. We could work this business whenever we wanted, wherever we wanted. After learning more about having my own part time online side business, I realized that I did have options and maybe I should be open to trying something new, because nothing that I have done in my life up to this point, that was considered the traditional sense of making income, delivered anything close to what I wanted my life to look like. Maybe I didn’t have to keep clipping coupons anymore. It took up hours in my week that I could devote to building my business. Suddenly I realized I wasn’t too busy to make extra income. It was a matter of priorities and creating a happy life was my top priority.
IS IT FOR YOU?
So you may be thinking as I did … no way, this isn’t for me. What IF following your heart and being an entrepreneur would provide you the income to do the things you have always wanted to do like go on a cruise with your family, or take a trip to Paris, or pay off your credit card bills without feeling stress or cut down your hours at work so that you can do what makes you happy with the people that you love. What if? Because it can happen. I am proof of it and so many other heart-centered people have done the same. I am so glad I took that chance and leap of faith because it has replaced an entire income in our family, but more importantly what my business has done for me is given us back our time together and continued to allow us to live the lifestyle we have been used to.
I am no longer the coupon lady. I’ve transformed into the sugar mama and I am loving every single minute.
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