What is Your Plan B?

I've just been thinking about something..."JOB STABILITY." USA Today reports that nearly 300,000 couples, who both used to have jobs, now both find themselves unemployed.
I wonder if they had a "Plan B" in place.

I've had so many close personal friends and family members who have lost jobs over the past couple of years and it's been just devastating to their families. Their job was the only source of income for them and when it was gone, they had nothing to fall back on. So with this in mind, I'm wondering, why more people don't take personal responsibility for their financial situation, instead of solely depending on job stability? Because if we know anything, we know there's no such thing as "job stability." Have you ever read the paperwork before you signed your name on the dotted line before taking that job? Every one I've ever read says, "...this position may be terminated at any time or for any reason, without explanation." YEAH, IT REALLY DOES SAY THAT...DID YOU FORGET OR SOMETHING? With that in mind, knowing your job could be gone at any time. And having seen proof of that all around us, why aren't more of us doing something about the "just in case" that happens to me, what do we have in place to keep us afloat?

I've been reading a lot lately about people who are very proactive in how they save their money...

Resourceful in how they bring in different streams of income...

and most importantly, how they've learned that sticking to a plan over time, whatever it may be and not expecting "instant gratification" pays off in the end.

Let's take my friend Heather over at Want What You Have for example. She and her family went from close to $500,000 in debt (I believe that's correct), to completely DEBT FREE! Heather is an EXPERT at managing her families' finances and has learned that a frugal lifestyle and being happy with what you have brings peace, financial stability and more joy to her families' lives. But one thing Heather does, that I find fascinating, is she has made THOUSANDS of dollars selling items on ebay, and this is how she (among many other things) contributes to bringing in income to the household and paying off debt. Her husband works for himself and according to Heather, makes a modest income, but they were still able to pay off all of their debts (including their home) and live a very comfortable life with savings in the bank to boot! There's no reason why any one of us couldn't have the same if we were just better stewards of what we have.

I also think about the MANY people I know who have gotten a clue and started their own business that they work on a very part time basis from home, in addition to their full time job. This is a great choice for busy families, busy stay-at-home moms and those who want to earn extra income to pay for vacations, for their child's after school activities, for family "fun money," for the "date night" fund, to help pay off debt, student loans, or to help with household expenses. I have an aunt who sells cosmetics in addition to working full time in a school cafeteria. She works on her cosmetics business very part time, and solely to help pay their car and homeowners insurance. She does all this from home. What other part time job has THAT perk?


Take for example some good friends of mine (and my business partners) who were very successful in corporate America, but gave it all up to start their own insurance agency. They soon built it up to the same 6 figure income they were enjoying at the corporate job. Then, they purchased SendOutCards (my business) to use as a tool to send cards of appreciation more easily to their insurance customers, because they hated hand writing cards every week! They soon began to see the income potential available through SendOutCards and decided to start building it full time. In about 2 years time, they built SendOutCards to a 6 figure yearly income for themselves. Now they only work their insurance business on a referral basis and ONLY do SendOutCards. It took some time and some hard work, but they built and incredible, always growing team of thousands in just a few years. That residual income will always be there whether they go to work or not! Now that's a PLAN B!

I also have a long time friend from high school who has been with AVON for close to 15 years. She has steadily built up a client base over the years and sells around $20,000 a year! Again, she does this from home on a very part time basis as she works her full time job as a hair dresser. She said that she averages around $400-500 a month in commission, which equals to close to $6,000 a year!

What could you do with an extra $6K a year? Pay off a credit card? Take some classes to finish up your degree? Take an AWESOME vacation without thinking twice about how much it will cost? Remodel a bathroom or the kitchen? There's a lot I can think of that I could do! And she was telling me that the two or three top sellers in her district do $40,000-$50,000 in sales a month and are receiving close to half of those sales in commission...EACH MONTH!!! Did they do that in a year, or even 2 or 3? Probably not. It takes TIME and CONSISTENT EFFORT to make good money and be successful in the direct sales or network marketing industry.

Another good friend of mine, Missy, a wife, mother of 4, stay-at-home mom and Pampered Chef consultant can attest to that! Last year (2009...I'm anxious to hear the stats for 2010!), her income from her Pampered Chef business was over $32,000!!! That's how much I made a year as a teacher for crying out loud!!! But she did it, on a part time basis, working from home, around HER and HER family's schedule, doing a few parties and catalog shows a week! Did this happen overnight? No way! Her income grew steadily every year, for 8 years. Again, it took building a customer base, staying in contact with those people and TIME and CONSISTENT EFFORT! And do you know what? If her husband lost his job tomorrow, they would have her incredible business to fall back on...THEIR PLAN B!



So why don't more people do this? I think a lot of people try it out, but they don't stick to it. They don't see instant results, instant sales, the BIG BUCKS right away and then think it doesn't work or that it's flawed in some way. This business model is not flawed, it's the people who have given up who have given it a bad name. But honestly, I don't know of ANYONE who has stuck to a business like this, whether it be AVON, or Mary Kay or Pampered Chef or SendOutCards who have not been successful if they just stuck to it.

My first introduction to this was a lady I worked for when I was about 20 years old. She ran a hair salon, tanning bed (I worked in her tanning bed business) and a well stocked Mary Kay counter all from her home (additions to the house to accommodate all the businesses...not from her actual living space! LOL). But she told me that when she did her income taxes, that she made more money from her Mary Kay business than from the hair salon and tanning beds combined! I was amazed! But she had been selling it for many years and had built it up...she had even earned the coveted pink car!

So what am I trying to say here? I'm trying to provide you with real life examples of people who have taken charge of their situations and are actually making money. I've told you about all types of incomes that range from those making 10's of thousands a month, to those who are making a few thousand, to those who just want a few hundred dollars extra a month. It doesn't matter what your goals are, building your own business, in addition to your full time job is just a good idea. Because if you lost that job tomorrow (which is very possible in this economy), what income would you have coming in to help with your living expenses? Not trying to worry anyone, just asking.....

What is your PLAN B?

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