Knowing your passion!

Knowing your passion!

Talking with Angie Gange this week was an absolute pleasure! Her entrepreneurial spirit shines through in every piece of this interview.  Even through the hardest times, Angie was willing to take a risk and build a business that worked around the life she desired.

What is your business background?

I graduated The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, emphasizing in Entrepreneurship. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to own my own business.  I also wanted to be the first female US President. 🙂

But… a funny thing happened to me – I fell in love with my best friend, got married at 22 and had a baby at 24. Everything about how I was going to live my life changed. I fell in love with that little baby boy. Within six years, I had two more and my husband’s career was flourishing.

I had several businesses I started and ran from home – all so that I didn’t have to go “back to work” and leave my boys. For example, I did things like contractual marketing/advertising from other businesses. I was strong in mathematics, so I started a tutoring business for high school math classes. I am a “wanna be artist,” so I even started a personalized stationery business that my designs got picked up by Nordstrom and Hallmark. And I was fortunate enough to do all this from home.

When my third son was born, and my husband was making enough money for me to sell my business and stay at home, I did. Partly because I wanted to spend time with them and partly because I felt a huge responsibility to make sure I left his world with three really good men. I didn’t want to miss any part of their lives. When they got a little older, I did go back to school and obtained my Real Estate Brokers license. I started my own mortgage firm and was quickly recruited by one of the dads on my son’s baseball team to work for a major bank. It was a great job – four hours a day with a six-figure income, until the recession hit.

And I lost my job.

What happened then?

I was able to stay home until a year later when my husband was offered a dream come true opportunity to become the President/CEO and co-owner of a company. However, this meant that for at least two years he would make less income and would be in Los Angeles Monday-Friday. Our oldest son was a senior in high school and recently accepted to a 4-year university.  The college funds we had saved all our lives were 1/2 what they were when he started high school, due to the recession.

We were advised to pay cash for his education for the first two years, as our CPA said he thought the funds would regain their value (which they did).  So, I was given the challenge to bring in $2000/month – while raising three sons, alone, immediately. To top it off, leaning on my profession/experience in Real Estate wasn’t an option.

I looked at many other options – even considering stocking shelves in the grocery story in the middle of the night. Most “entrepreneurial options” required a huge startup fee, which I couldn’t afford, or travel, which I wasn’t willing to do. I looked at MLMs, but they all required me to invest $1000’s of dollars on inventory and I didn’t have any cash.

One night I remember my husband and I were both awake in the middle of the night stressing about money and I said to him, “do you ever just think that we did everything right and the economy just pulled the rug out from underneath us?”

In January of 2011, my friend, a retired naval surgeon, introduced me to Moms Making Six Figures. After talking with her, doing my due diligence, a little mini “focus group” with my friends and family, I decided that this was the best option!

Tell us about how it worked and what it has meant to your family?

That year, I had the fastest growing business in North America and I did it all from home. I was still the room mom, never missed a soccer, baseball, football game or music recital.

I was able to pay cash for my son to go to college. He is now 25 and college is also paid for now for both our other boys and – my husband’s company is thriving.

I’m proud that I have been able to help over 50 people start businesses, have generated 1.5 million dollars a year in sales, with 0 investment.  I have achieved financial security and my boys, well, they are awesome!