What's your number?

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In 2013, I started my first home based business. I started it fort he tax benefits only. I really wasn't looking to
be a full on entrepreneur. Let's face it. I have a cushy job as a supervisor. That comes easy to me. I re-direct, delegate, and solve problems. I get paid for what I know, not what I do. I take that back. I get paid to accomplish goals and meet deadlines, not to cover a work area for an allotted time. Which was all fine and dandy to me until I started hanging around people who were making monthly what I make yearly. I say, in the most humble way possible, I do well for myself. So, to see that kind of money in someone's income statements really got me thinking about my real "worth".

Most home based businesses are considered "direct sales". What is direct sales? The principal behind it is, the individual markets a product or service for an established company. As an individual, you get paid a commission for the sales you make and then you build a team to do the same thing. The company compensates you for adding member to your team. You help the people on your team sell the product and/or services and receive a portion of the commissions from your team's efforts as well. The great thing about this model is that it encourages team work. As a team leader, I want to sell and make money and I want my team to sell.

Not only do you get to help a gang of people earn the kind of income they dream of, you also open your mind. Prior to opening my mind to direct sales, I thought I would be set with a salary anywhere between $80,000-$100,000 per year. I'd earn that going into an office, working about 40-50 hours per week. I'd have to be on call, since I'm in the healthcare field, which meant my phone may ring in the evenings after I already left the office for the day, on the weekend, in the middle of the night, or even while I'm on vacation. I was fine with that until I saw that there were other ways to earn money, help people, like I enjoy doing in healthcare, and feel like I'm being compensated properly for the time that I spend "working".

I LOVE the technical aspect of my healthcare profession. The patient testing. Process improvement. Buying new equipment. Validating a new test method that will save my staff time and frustration. It's awesome. I don't like the managerial aspect of it. Personal issues. Disciplining staff. Terminating staff who don't correct their mistakes. It can be really stressful at times. Late nights. Coming in early to catch up with night shift staff. Staying late to be prepared for an early morning meeting. The thought often passed through my mind..."I don't get paid enough for this." I know I am not the only one who has had these thoughts.

What is enough though? Like, if they suggested they'd double your salary, would you still feel like you didn't get paid enough? Maybe I would take double to deal with the same stress. Maybe. But eventually, the feeling would come back. "I don't get paid enough for this crap."

What's your number? How much money will it take for you to deal with the "crap" of your job on a daily basis where you would feel like you get paid enough to deal with it? Everyone has a number. I'm curious. Being around entrepreneurs in all fields, not just direct sales, I've become more comfortable in naming my number with confidence. I am fine with walking away from the table if the numbers and conditions aren't satisfactory to me. Why? Because I know my number. I know what I bring to the table and the value I add. Truth is, the people I end up negotiating with know it too.

Remember, know your worth. When negotiating a salary, a recording contract, or a distribution deal, you have to know your worth and stand behind it. Otherwise, the person whom you're negotiating with is going to try to  low ball you. Nothing personal, it's just in their best interest to get the most value for the least amount of money.

Although I wholeheartedly believe in the power of direct sales and the benefits of a home based business, but I love my career. Direct sales has given me the confidence to venture out in to some other things while I build my team. It also gave me the confidence to negotiate terms with my employer that give me the flexibility to grow my own businesses and also continue to grow in my career. Those negotiations took over 3 months but I knew my number and I knew what I had to offer so I could advocate for myself.

If you don't know your number, figure it out. If you don't love your situation at work or in life, fight for change. You add value. It's highly likely that the people you are working with know that and will give you everything you want. That's how you live the "Fancy Life".

Never Let Them See You Sweat

What were thinking when we decided to become adults? No. Seriously. What were we thinking? Being a responsible adult is stressful. Between dealing with family, work, and relationships, you hardly have any time to yourself to wrap your head around everything that you are doing. Then it happens, some catastrophe comes along out of nowhere and you feel a nervous breakdown coming on. What do you do? Welp. It depends. I've seen stressful situations handled in many different ways. The shut down and can't move forward. Others just breakdown and cry. I've watched someone just act like nothing ever happen. I have dealt with these types of situations in several different ways. Well, two different ways.

1. I shut my office door or go in my closet or go to my car and have a good cry. Only for a little bit. I give myself 30 minutes.
   
   After that's done, I get myself together, touch up my face, and handle my business.
2. I handle my business without a glitch. When it is all done, if I'm still overwhelmed, I shut my office door or go in my closet or go to my car and have a good cry.

Notice how my business always get's handled. Emotions should never effect you getting your coin. Why? Because if you missed your money in the name of a feeling, that missed opportunity cannot be retrieved. You will never have a bad feeling when you're getting paid. Trust me.

Have you ever seen a duck or swan swimming? They look like they're just gliding along. However, under water, those feet are paddling as if their life depends on it. When you are facing adversity, everyone does not need to see you panic. If you are living the "Fancy Life", you know people are watching and taking notes. Your "Get it done" mindset can flow through you and drip on your colleagues, creating a winning team attitude. This is what living a Fancy Life is all about. Being a pilar of light in the darkness. You solve the problem with your head held high and when no ones looking, cry like a baby now that it's OVER. Notice, cry once it's over but it's ok to breakdown. Never let your emotions stall your productivity.

Until next time, never let anyone see you sweat. You're living a Fancy Life and you don't sweat....in public.

If you are would like to join our winning team. Click here. All are welcome. Open mind and heart are the only requirements.

No Mo' Creamy Crack

Women of African decent decide to go "natural" for various different reasons. I can't speak for anyone but The Fancy One herself. Yes, I refer to myself as The Fancy One. Anyway, my mother grew up very conservative, conforming to society while upholding morals taught to her by her family's matriarch.
"Don't cut your hair, men like long hair."
"Have your own before you get married."
"Never spend your last."
"No shacking up, it looks bad."
I could go on. I would not be surprised if my mother was a virgin when she got married at 26. But this advice is sound and most still hold true today.
Anyway, when I mentioned going natural back in 2000/2001 to my mother who came from a long line of cosmetologists, her response was "For what?". And, at 20 years old, I didn't have any legitimate reason other than "I like big hair." So I continued to submit my self to the application of harsh chemicals to my kinky locs for another 10 years. Under my mother's care, my hair grew to be very long and healthy. People always complimented and commented on it. Mainly because black girls didn't have long hair unless it was "good hair", which I did not.

As I matured and began to embrace myself for who I am, I felt like I was ALWAYS fussing with my hair. Pulling it back, fixing the part, combing it, spraying it, etc. I just wanted to "be". As I became more health and spiritually cautious, eating organic, establishing a regular exercise routine, applying principals I've learned in Bible study, I began to question why I was applying chemicals to my hair when I was avoiding putting chemicals in my body. Then I pondered, if God intended for my hair to be long and flowing tendrils, it would grow out of my scalp that way, right?


So, after a discussion with my husband, who has always been that "Lightskinned, long hair" man, I realized that he didn't care if my hair was straight or nappy, as long it was long. He had even noticed that people with locs have longer hair than those with with relaxers. We decided, together, that I would stop with the relaxers. I don't think he realized what a long, expensive journey this would become. I would have to visit the salon weekly, as I used to style my own hair. I would be experimenting the "natural" hair products, which are more expensive than what I had been using with my relaxed hair. The part he questioned the most, cutting the relaxer out as the natural hair grows in.



A year later, my hair is about 6 inches shorter than it was when I started as I've become more agressive with the "trimming" as my natural hair gets longer. BUT I LOVE my nappy, sometimes dry, Frederick Douglass looking bush. I get compliments on it all the time. No more fussing with my hair. I wake, shake, and put a flower in it. I straighten it about every 2 months for a trim. I like it when it's straight but after about 3 days, I yearn for my bush.



What I find interesting is people's response to my bush. People who thought they knew me seem surprised that I now wear a bush. Some are even intimidated. I guess it does take a lot of guts to walk into a corporate office rocking a business suit, pumps, and a bush with a flower in it. From less mature and, I hate to say it but, less educated women, I get the "Your hair is so pretty when it's straight" or "You should wear your hair straight more often". I hate that society has told them that straight hair is prettier than the cottony bush that God intended them to have. Obviously, they don't know that I have always been a free spirit and never really cared about conforming to society's standards. I feel like my bush empowers myself and others. Now most of the black women in my office are growing their relaxers out. I'm so proud of them. I say "Eff yo' straight hair!"



I have many flaws that I could have been insecure about and, I admit, I used to try to hide. As I grew into the woman I am today, I learned to embrace those flaws and when people ask me "What happened to your hands?" or say "You're so skinny." My response, as of late, has been "That's the way God made me."



The moral: Embrace who God intended you to be....nappy hair and all.