August 1, 2010 marked my 15th anniversary for being self-employed. To commemorate the occasion, I’ve taken a trip down Memory Lane and will share with you some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way.

It all started when I quit my last “job.” I remember it as if it happened just yesterday. It was November of 1993 and the non-profit organization I was working for was having financial challenges. The Finance Manager suggested the possibility of cutting my position as Director of Development in order to address a budget shortfall. If they did NOT cut my position, all 26 staff members were going to have to take a 2.5% pay cut. If they DID cut my position, the staff would be able to maintain their current salary. To my utter disbelief, the suggestion was made that we put these two options up for a vote of the entire staff.

In the event that the staff voted to keep my position, I could not imagine working in an environment where staff might blame me for their pay cut, so I quit.

I had been in non-profit work for 13 years, and I was so burned out that I decided not to seek future employment with a non-profit organization. (Today I donate my time and expertise to work as a volunteer with non-profit organizations of my choosing.)

I did not know what I would do next, but I knew I needed a change. Little did I know that quitting my job would be the beginning of a wonderful journey as an entrepreneur. After taking a few months off to regroup, I did some temporary part-time work for the University, managing an accreditation and organizing some events.  I was utilizing skills that I enjoyed and was good at. Then one day I read a magazine article about a Professional Organizer who had done some work with a client in New York City. As I read the article, I said to myself, “That’s what I do! I organize things! I didn’t know that people actually got paid to help others do that!”  Back in 1995, I had never heard of a Professional Organizer before reading the article.

Although I had never considered having my own business, after a couple months of market research, I decided to launch my business doing something I loved – helping people get organized. Paauwerfully Organized was born on August 1, 1995. Had I not gone through the painful exit of my last non-profit work, I could still be in Development work (fundraising) today.  Looking back on it, I was not that happy or fulfilled.

My first year in business, I got frustrated working with clients who “got organized” and within weeks or months of completion (and the client being very happy with the results), their piles of papers would often return. The office environment eventually went back to its original state, as if we had never worked together. That was frustrating.

After becoming aware that my clients needed more support to change lifelong habits, I decided to become a coach. By 1999 I was a Certified Personal and Professional Coach, and I before I knew it, I was doing more coaching than I was organizing. Finally, in 2003 my practice was completely full.

I remember feeling like a hypocrite, because the harder I worked to help my clients live a more balanced life, the more out-of-balance my life became.   Although I could not take on any more clients, my income was not where I wanted it to be. I was working so hard and my “take home” pay after business expenses was not what I thought it would be with a full practice.

This marked the beginning of a new journey to explore ways that I could leverage my time. I knew that colleagues in my industry did so by hiring others to work for them. But I did not want to manage people and I really did not want all the personal and financial responsibilities that came with having employees.

The Power of Leverage

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on
which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
-Archimedes
Greek Philosopher, Engineer of Ancient Greece

Learning about leverage was a huge turning point in my business. Up until now, I had capped what I could earn, and I had to show up to get paid. In other words, there was no paid vacation for me!  What I really wanted was to generate income all the time, even while I was sleeping and vacationing!

I’ve learned that we only have two things we can leverage: time and money. Many people don’t have much money to leverage these days, but we all get 168 hours a week and we can leverage our time however we choose.

Most people trade time for dollars when they go to work or when they work in a service profession (like I have as a coach and consultant) where they have to show up to get paid. Corporations leverage by hiring employees to do the work. But their employees trade time for dollars and have a limit on the number of hours in a week that they can trade.

Whether you like what you are doing or not, if you are trading time for dollars, you have set a cap on how much money you can earn.  As an employee, you only have 168 hours a week to work with, and some of that time is needed for sleep and other necessities.

Some people have been told that if they go to college and get a degree, that will secure them a good-paying job. How many of us bought into that way of thinking?  I have a college degree, and I am grateful to have it.  However, these days my degree does not guarantee that I’ll secure a great paying job.

I know plenty of people today who have advanced degrees and are unemployed, underemployed, or working hard and are barely scraping by.  Many who have jobs live in fear of losing them, regardless of how many years of loyalty they’ve shown to their employer or how high up they have climbed on the corporate ladder.  The loyalty no longer works both ways in most cases! 

Those looking for work are often over-qualified or their job has just been outsourced, where new overseas employees are paid a fraction of what an employer used to pay someone else to work in that same position.  It's tough to remain competitive in new global economy, especially when the cost of living is so much lower in countries such as India or the Philippines, where English is taught from an early age. Read Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, to learn more about what we're competing with.

Do you see the picture I am painting here?

Read any newspaper and it’s pretty depressing these days. Many sources report that it will get worse before it gets better.  I believe this is true, but only for those who are willing to accept their "fate" as something that is cast in cement.  The rest of us can make different choices and then take action!

There is an alternative!

“If you keep doing what you’re doing,
you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
One definition of insanity is to keep doing
the same thing and expecting different results!
-Stephen Covey

In order to make more, we have to do more. And I don’t mean working more hours on the job. We’ve been doing that for years and nothing has changed much.

I’m not saying that education is not good for you or that you should stop working. What I am saying is that people need to have a Plan B. You can have more out of life if you’re willing to do things to get more out of life. You have options available to you today that can change your life, if only you’d apply a fraction of the energy and time you put into going to college or working your current job.

I just returned from Phoenix, where I spent a week attending some real estate investment and retirement planning workshops.  Here's a key point that several instructors mentioned: EVERY citizen in North America needs to own a small business, regardless of how much time they devote to it.

Why?

Because small business owners have a significant economic leverage that comes on DAY ONE of your new business, in the form of tax savings that are not available to wage earners (employees).  A number of people I know have full-time jobs and run a home-based business on the side with as little as a five hour per week investment of time.  They still get the same tax savings that I get as a full-time small business owner. 
  
Here's an example of what I mean by tax savings.  Last year my husband and I vacationed in Sydney, Australia. While we were there, we went on a Blue Mountain tour.  Our tour bus host asked each guest to share their name, where they were from and what they did for a living. I mentioned my business and several people asked me about it during the tour.  Because I discussed business on the tour, I was legitimately able to write off the cost of the tour, my hotel for that night, all my meals for the day, plus my round-trip airfare to Australia.  I discussed business on several other occasions, so I was able to write off the cost of additional days during our vacation. 

If you’d like more examples of tax benefits available to small business owners, call me and I’ll share some with you. Of course, you always need to consult your own CPA or tax attorney, as I do not give legal advice. I simply share what I have learned and what I am doing.

The Power of Networks

My rich dad told me, “The richest people in the world

build networks.  Everyone else looks for work.”

-Robert Kiyosaki

The Business of the 21st Century

Several years ago I chose to leverage my time by getting involved in a network marketing company. This has provided me the ability to generate passive income. I still love the coaching and consulting I have done since 1995, so and I have incorporated this work in with my offerings as a mentor to those I work with. In other words, I now give away my services to support my growing team.

Within two years of starting my new venture, I was able to replace the income it took 10 years to generate with my coaching and consulting business (when I was trading time for dollars). Now I receive income on a monthly basis, and what I generate is far greater because I have learned how to leverage.

The key is to find a company you are passionate about working with and then share their offerings with your network. That’s what I’ve done. The company I have chosen to work with has a two-fold mission: to help millions of people act on their promptings to reach out in kindness to others, and to help others achieve financial freedom.  The company's mission is completely congruent with what I have already been doing for the past 15 years, so for me this was a perfect fit.

When a friend shared this business opportunity with me in the fall of 2005, it didn't take me long to sign up and start using the system, which enables me to send a real paper greeting card in the mail, without leaving my home or office. The results of using this great keep-in-touch system were so astounding that I decided that I had to tell others about it, whether or not I made a dime doing so. (Click here if you'd like to read the full story about how I got started.)

Once I started sharing with my friends and colleagues, they immediately signed up and started using the system, too. And many of them wanted to share it with others, too.

I knew I was on to something.

Fast forward to today – nearly 5 years later -- and I’m a top 10 income earner in the company, with 3300 entrepreneurs in my organization, plus their customers. Each month the company sends me a check.

Whenever one of the 3300 people in my organization or any of my own 200 customers pushes the "send" button to mail a card, I get paid a little money. A little money multiplied by thousands of card senders adds up very quickly!

Whether I work or not, every single month, without fail, the company sends me a hefty check. That’s the power of leverage at work. I’ve personally mentored about 150 of my team members, and through the power of leverage my team has grown to 3300 people, and it continues to grow daily...with or without me..

Now is a good time to take stock of your own situation and decide if you want to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Even for those who currently live comfortably and love their present work, most people need a Plan B in place, too.

If you have had past negative experiences with network marketing, or if you simply don’t know anything about it, I encourage you to read a recently published book by Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad). The book is called The Business of the 21st Century. After all the research Kiyosaki has done on the different business models out there today, he considers the network marketing model to be the best type of business structure to get involved in because of its leveraging power. 

Although I used to have a negative view of this business model due to a past experience I had 30 years ago, I have completely changed my perspective.  I'm glad that I was open to a different outcome this time around. Kiyosaki's book does a beautiful job of explaining why I love this business model today.

Your Turn !

"If it's meant to be, it's up to me."

-Terri Gulick

Do you want financial freedom to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and with whom you want to spend your time? Would you like the ability to buy the things you want to have, take the trips you've always dreamed about, send your kids to the colleges of their choice, and donate to the charities you wish to support?

Commit right now to the next step you will take TODAY to move you from where you are to where you want to be.

If I can be of assistance, give me a call at 425-881-6627. (I will be on a European vacation August 17-29 and will get back with you if you leave a message while I am away.)

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