I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but one of the main reasons I love being an Avon Rep is that this career allows me to put my family first. Where else can you set your own income, set your own hours, and work your business without a boss to report to? I love the freedom that it provides me to work this business alongside my family schedule, without having to substitute work time for my family time according to somebody else’s demands or schedule.
Put Your Family First
Our family has had a lot of health problems over the past few years. My Mom had congestive heart failure, atrial fib with a pacemaker, arthritis, and then she got sick with Alzheimer’s Disease. My Avon business was going really well at the time — I had 235 Avon Representatives on my team, and I was selling close to $50,000 each year. I was making big money with my Avon business!
But when my Mom got sick ten years ago, I was able to take as much time off as I needed to stay home and take care of her. The last 3-4 months of her life, I was with her full-time — no working at all — and I kept getting a leadership bonus check every two weeks, and my loyal customers kept ordering their Avon products from me and were willing to come pick them up, as opposed to my having to deliver to them. In other words, without having to report to “work” each day, my income kept coming in. Now, could you have that happen with a “real” job? I sure didn’t with my previous job as a System Test Engineer!
Set Your Own Income
When you are an Avon Representative, you can set your own income. I set goals for every six-week period (90 days), every month, every two week period, which is called a “Campaign,” and every week, and then for every day, five days a week, with my Avon business.
I break each goal down into separate tasks, and then break each separate task down into individual steps, in order to make the income level I want to have for that campaign. If you have your end goal (or desired income) in sight, you can do this down to a very fine detail!
I make a checklist for each day of what steps I need to accomplish that day, and check them off as I complete them. Once I get the steps finished, I have completed a task that I must do to hit my goal. Once I have completed each task, it puts me on a tight track to meet my goal. Then, with this style of working, I need to review my progress at the end of each day. If all the steps and/or tasks have been accomplished, I feel like I had an awesome day! If not, then the steps/tasks must be added to the beginning of the next day’s list. Then I review my progress at the end of each week, at the end of each campaign, and at the end of each month. I track how each day, each week, each campaign, and each month went. I keep a notebook, and record my successes and my failures, and then try to learn from them. I am a firm believer that you can do anything you put your mind to, if you want it bad enough!
Because of this tracking, I can also compare it to my good campaigns (a specific sales period of two weeks with Avon), and see how my income compares with the tasks I was able to accomplish. It’s very motivating to keep on the right path, when I can see how everything I do (or don’t do) directly affects the income that I do or don’t make!
Set Your Own Hours
Being an Avon Rep allows me to set up the hours I want to work, to to fit my own work hours into my family’s calendar, and to keep these hours flexible around whatever may occur during each day.
During times when my family has many doctor’s appointments, medical tests, grandson’s preschool times, and family time, I can schedule my business hours on my calendar to fit our hectic schedule. I don’t have to work a set schedule each week — I just have to remember that if I don’t put the effort in, I’m not going to build my growing business or make any money if the actual steps & tasks aren’t getting completed. But, if they don’t get done one day, I can make up for it the next; and as long as the invidual steps and tasks get completed in a timely manner, I will still hit my goals.
No Boss
The best part of this business is not having to have a boss to report to. I totally love being an independent representative, being able to set my own goals, to set my own income, and to set my own schedule, without having to clock in and out on a daily basis.
But, this is also the toughest part of this business as well. I have to always remember that I do have to have discipline to get up at a certain time (give or take) each work day, get dressed completely (down to the shoes even), get ready each morning, and face each day like it’s the single most important day for my business. I tend to procrastinate — a lot — but am trying to break, or at least improve, these habits. It takes a lot of willpower, and keeping my end goal in sight, to not sit all day in my pajamas on my couch and read or surf the internet. This is so fun, isn’t it? But, it wastes a ton of time, and social media, especially, can suck me in for a long time, and then the day seems to fly by without having accomplished anything. How many of you tend to do this?
Freedom
That’s what this country is all about, isn’t it? We have the freedom to live where we want, travel where we want, say what we want (sortof, lately); why shouldn’t we have the freedom, also, to work when & how we want?
What kind of job can give you the kind of freedom that I have as an Avon Representative? I have worked many different jobs over the years, and have seemed to have had many different lives because of it. (Kats have 9 lives, right?)
Being an independent sales representative — and that’s the main word there — independent — has given me the satisfaction of being with my family when they needed me, the ability to set my own income and my own hours, and made me the “Boss Lady” that I am today.
I totally love helping other people develop this same freedom with their lives, helping them improve their financial status, and teaching them how to achieve the extra sense of satisfaction they can get when they can see how their work actually can affect their lives in a major way. I also love seeing them light up when they start achieving promotions through their own work, getting more income coming into their homes, and improviing both their self-esteem and their lives when this happens.
Won’t you join me and try it out for yourself?