I thought it would be appropriate to start my very first blog here at families.com with an introduction. I am Traci and I have been an “official” work-at-home mom since 2003. Prior to my various work-at-home “gigs”, I was a youth counselor, victim’s advocate and child abuse investigator.
I am a self-proclaimed expert in the work-at-home world for a few reasons. First, I am fairly certain that I’ve tried just about everything under the sun to make a living from home (all legal and ethical, of course). Second, because I have have a severe aversion to pantyhose and the stereotypical 9-5 job so I’ve literally spent the last decade figuring out how I can avoid both at all costs.
I have bachelors’ degrees in Communications and Child and Family Studies and I am close to completing my Master’s Degree in Education. Despite spending almost seven years in college classrooms, from the moment I started thinking about having a family, I knew that I simply wanted to stay home and raise my children. My friends tease me that I should have pursued an “Mrs.” degree and if that were an option, I would have.
My husband and I had a difficult time getting pregnant with our first child which gave me plenty of time to delve into several different types of work-at-home jobs. My goal was to operate an established home-business by the time my first child was born. While it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped, I’ll never regret the time I spent in the “trial-and-error” process.
I had high expectations for my first “at-home” gig. I envisioned traveling throughout the region and making a great living selling my homemade craft items. I’ll never forget the day I excitedly returned home from a local craft fair with $600 cash in my waist-pack after nearly selling all of the products at my booth. My husband, who has always been the supportive, but realistic one, sat down on our computer and figured out my actual earnings. Even though I had tremendous success, I’d actually earned about $2.50 per hour when we factored in my time and expenses. Time for plan B.
We decided to declutter my home one spring afternoon so I tried Ebay for the first time. As soon as the bids started rolling in, I got Ebay fever. I was having so much fun, that I was even selling things that we were still using. “Honey, do you *really* like those shoes you are wearing”? I made great money, but once we ran out of our own “leftovers” I didn’t have the time to search for more bargains to sell while working a full-time job.
I became pregnant with my first child in 2002 while I was working full-time as a child abuse investigator. As I searched for daycare providers I became desperate again. I launched my first website called, DIY Planners where I was selling custom day-planners for moms. The only “mom” who bought one was my mother-in-law. With only $19.95 in my pocket, I decided it was time for plan C.
As I slipped on the dreaded pantyhose and packed my newborn’s belongings for her first day of daycare, I almost decided to throw in the towel on my work-at-home dreams. Later that week I needed to de-stress so I attended a direct sales party my sister-in-law was holding. As the woman was sharing her personal success story with the group I thought…”I can do that”. I signed up as a consultant within the week.
Ironically, while I loved the products I was selling, my friends laughed out loud when they heard I was going to be selling beauty products. Let’s just say that I am a bit “low-maintenance”. Ironically, even though I wasn’t your typical skincare saleswoman, I had tremendous success. Within a few months I became a sales leader and was earning a nice income. By the time my daughter was six-months old, I was able to quit my full-time job as a social worker and work from home in the direct sales industry. One more child, and two more “at-home” careers later, I have never looked back.
While I won’t bore you with the rest of my work-at-home journey (at least not in today’s post) I will tell you that I am absolutely passionate about helping fellow “wannabe” WAHMS (work-at-home-moms) find the same opportunities I have found. Trust me, I understand the desperation many mothers feel when they yearn to work from home, but can not seem to find an opportunity that suits them.
As a blogger for this site, it is my goal to help encourage you, teach you, and challenge you as you pursue, attempt, and improve your own work-at-home journeys.
Read my profile for more about me.