The inception of "Not Going Back to Work"

"Not Going Back to Work" has been born of the love I have for my son, and my obsession with finding a way to make "Not Going Back to Work" not only a possibility, but my reality.

To give you the back story, before my son, I was the #1 Sales Executive in a publicly traded company. I made well over six figures, won trips and accolades, and was living the dream.  Not bad for a woman under 30, who didn't finish University and who generally worked less than 40 hours per week.

People often assumed that I worked very hard and for very long hours, and I sure as hell was not going to correct them.  The fact of the matter was however, that I worked smart.  Early on I found my niche in my industry, and I set to work on creating a name for myself, as the very best in my field.  Instead of spending countless hours prospecting, I spent countless hours working with the clients that I did have.  The credibility I built in doing so, and the resulting referrals were much more fruitful than the pointless knocking on doors that I was encouraged and often even threatened to do.

In Sales you will often hear people talk about the 80/20 rule.  Spend 80% of your time with the 20% of your accounts that will generate 80% of your volume.  This rule however is intrinsically flawed.  I deducted that if 80% of my sales volume was coming from 20% of my accounts, why bother with the other 80% of my accounts?  It was often the other 80% that proved the most time consuming, and which would eat up countless hours of my time only to decide in the end that my product just wasn't for them.  They would only come to this conclusion however after taking full advantage of my consulting services.

The way I achieved my success was by ignoring the other 80% of my accounts that only accounted for 20% of my volume.  Not to say that they were not worthy of service, but rather, I was happy to allow my competitors to service them.  Instead I spent ALL of my time with the 20% of my accounts that typically would have made up 80% of my volume, and instead built them up to constitute my entire sales volume.  Hence the shorter work weeks and higher income than my counterparts.

My life today is a very broad departure from that before my son.  Breastfeeding, changing diapers, and playing with the little man who stole my heart, and constantly brainstorming ways in which to stay home with him forever, or at least avoid putting him in daycare.

I have postulated opening a day home, however this was quickly squashed when I remembered that I don't really like kids.  I LOVE my own child infinitely more than anything in this world, however I can do without other people's kids.

Now I know you are likely wondering why I don't just go back to my job.  Well it was a fairly easy decision.  After said publicly traded company decided not to pay me for the most momentous deal of my career due to it's implementation being after my son was born, I am now embroiled in a legal battle and something about suing my employer just makes me a little uneasy about returning to them.

I could certainly start with another company in the corporate world, however any positions I would be offered, would most certainly involve a great deal of overnight travel, something that I am no longer willing to do.

Hence, I have arrived at "Not Going Back to Work", and have decided to chronicle this journey.

At the moment I am looking into becoming a consultant for three different direct sales companies.  I am in the discovery phase and am deliberating between them.  At the current moment I am considering starting up businesses with two of them, that sell completely unrelated products.

The method to my madness in blogging about this journey is to give other moms an honest look at my journey, and to perhaps inspire some other moms to follow their own dreams.

Now before anyone thinks that my dream is to become a direct seller, it is not.  My dream is to be around for my son, to take him to and from school and to be able to pick him up for lunch.  At the same time, I dream of showing him the world, as so much more can be learned through the living than through the sometimes comatose existence in the classroom.  So in order to be there, and still have the financial means to provide exceptional experiences,  I have determined that direct selling will be the method to my madness.