Small Business Bliss - Direct Sales

Have you ever sat around and thought either fleetingly or long and hard about owning your own business? I wouldn't be surprised, since something like 70% of Americans do.  There's this dream of owning something that is romaticised and understood as the way to truly own one's life.  Having a J.O.B (or 'just over broke') will keep you perpetually, well, just over broke.  Being employed makes few people wealthy.  It keeps the majority downtrodden and living a life that is a paycheck to paycheck existence.

I don't think you sit around and fleetingly think (and definitely not think long and hard) about how you want to live a paycheck to paycheck life.  That's not exactly what most people dream about.

No, they dream about freedom, about ownership and earning themselves a life that gives them options.  That also means that most people have one of two options: they can open a business that is brick and mortar, or open a business that is electronic.  Obviously, if you're logical, you would instantly realize that the latter is more lucrative, as it takes the need for paying rent and electricity and  the other steadfast expenses associated with brick and mortar locations out of the equation.  Many of these options lie in Direct Sales.  Still, hundreds of people scoff at these businesses.  Instead, they believe franchises and brick and mortar are superior to their DS brothers.  How, they wonder, could you ever get involved in one of those?  Maybe a better question is, how is it you believe $100,000 investment for a store or franchise is a good bargain?  You'll be married to it 24/7 if you don't have the people to work for you, and you already start severely in the hole.  Direct Sales requires an investment, yes, and you need to be mindful of the company with whom you start...but wouldn't you want to do that same research if you bought a franchise?

So, if you're wishing to open your own business, and you haven't really taken a good, close, hard look at direct sales, I'm certain you should take the extra minute and do so.  Being personally involved in one, I can tell you it has blown all my expectations.  Treat it like a business, and you will be rewarded as such.  Treat it like a hobby, and, well, like any hobby brink and mortar you'll have to 'shut your doors', so to speak.  But with the same small business perks, if you incorporate yourself correctly, and tax season next year will give you some happy write offs for things you need in your everyday life anyway.

Make the investment in yourself.  It's worth it.

Rethinking Beauty

I want to revisit and earlier post I wrote about how the industry needs to start seeing beauty as something more than "perfect" curves and a size 0-2.  In that light, today I saw a post on Yahoo! about a plus size 16 model.  She was curvy and beautiful, but not unhealthy, and that's the best part.  I believe there is still this dichotomy in people's minds about size and health, that somehow a size 0-6 is healthy and a size above 10 is not.  That's not true.  Having been a size 12 since I was 18, whether I was dancing/working out 3-4 days a week, following a vegan diet, or just existing, I've always been within a 10 pound flux, and those 10 pounds always put be at a size 12.  Now, sometimes the size fit a little nicer than others, and aside from the temporary gain of 15-20 pounds after my mom died, I've really hovered in this 10 pound flux consistently.

And after battling myself for more than those 10 years, I'm finally getting it: that's JUST my body.  My husband can't believe it, often commenting "for someone who eats as well as you do, you should be so much thinner"...and the true part is he doesn't mean it maliciously, he means it in the way the rest of the world views sizes like mine: that we must be doing something wrong.

Now, if I get on a scale it says my BMI is 33...not going to lie, that's not a super awesome number.  Ever.  For anyone.  So I got a trainer for a while, and he even noted that after a certain point I stop losing and start bulking (not in a bad way, but in a way a really solid pit bull is stocky....and the way he'll never be as thin as a greyhound).

So I've learned to try loving myself more.  And it's freeing.  REALLY freeing!  And when I see this picture of this size 16 model on Yahoo!, my hope is that other people see what I see when they look at it...not the initial "omg, is that really beautiful?" or "her stomach is so not Jennifer Aniston's", but rather, "she is solid, and beautiful, and not fat and roll-y".  Because people like us aren't - we try and we work at it and we make the right choices, but we will never become the size 2s and 4s we have been taught to aspire to for so long.

AND THAT'S OK.  It's time to start teaching people that HEALTHY is BEAUTIFUL.  Choosing what's GOOD for your body is BEAUTIFUL, and whatever size that leads you to as an equilibrium, is YOUR beautiful.