The chance to follow my passions is priceless!

The chance to follow my passions is priceless!

Meet Tamara! She left a corporate sales career to join her family’s business. Although Tamara loves working as a small business owner, she knew her income would take a hit. Fortunately, she found and partnered with Moms Making Six Figures. Read on to learn about how the residual income from Moms Making Six Figures has impacted Tamara’s life.

What is your professional background?

My passion in life has always been helping others. I love working and my job has been a major part of my identity. Throughout my twenties, I worked in the field of education and social work. I worked with troubled teens, initially. After receiving my master’s degree in Social Work, I taught in special education elementary classrooms. While I absolutely loved working with these kids and their families, the hours and low pay soon began to wear on me. I eventually was presented with an opportunity in food and wine distribution sales and I jumped at the opportunity to try something new. While I didn’t consider myself a “salesy” person, I excelled and began to climb into better positions and territories. I truly didn’t feel like I was selling anything. I was fortunate enough to represent some amazing wines that I believed in and I just wanted to share with my accounts. My enthusiasm and passion translated to sales, I also loved the financial and lifestyle benefits. There was enough flexibility that I could spend some time with my two kids in the mornings and I was making enough money to do the things we enjoyed as a family.

Nearly fifteen years later, the family owned distribution company I worked for was purchased by a larger corporate entity. As it normally goes in these sorts of buy outs, changes started happening and I began to feel despair at the direction the company was going and didn’t feel I had any viable options. The corporate way of life did not fit my personality and I was starting to feel desperate for a way out. My parents had started a small winery that I was very eager to be more involved with, however, they couldn’t pay me the salary I needed to support my family. I could not figure out a way to balance my goals and dreams with my financial needs. Then a friend introduced me to Moms Making Six Figures. I suddenly had hope that I could find a way to help others, financially support myself and my two sons and be in control of my life.

Was it a hard decision to leave your corporate sales career to work in the family business?

When the time came to make the decision to leave my well-paid job and jump into the risky world of small business ownership, I was extremely nervous.  My family and I had a long discussion about the direction we were going to take the vineyard and winery and we were able to carve out a small salary for me to help in that growth.  Truly, the only way I was able to consider taking such a huge pay cut was because of the potential of growth with my business with the Moms team. 

The sacrifices I was making working in the corporate world were significant. It was very difficult for me to take time away from my family. Under the new ownership, I had to change my perspective from one of helping my customers grow and work as a team with my suppliers to one of hitting the bottom line numbers, despite everything. The combination of growing a family business for my children’s future and working with the supportive team at Moms to help others was a winning combo for me.  Yes, I still make sacrifices and my budget is much tighter than it used to be, but the time freedom and the chance to follow my passions is priceless.

What is your long-term goal in partnering with Moms Making Six Figures?

When I first partnered with Moms, I wasn’t sure if it would be very part time or if I would push hard to replace my corporate, nearly six figure income.  One of the things I love most about my business with Moms is that I can structure it to fit in completely with my schedule and needs of my other small businesses. After 1 ½ years of part time work with Moms Making Six Figures, I was able to earn enough residual income to allow me to leave the corporate world. I was able to start working with my family’s business and find the balance that I so desperately wanted. I am not only working with my family winery, but also creating another small, local business that also focuses on helping others. I continue to have a steady residual stream of income that I can rely upon every month and when things are slow with my other businesses, I can spend more time growing with the Moms team to increase my income. It’s crazy how flexible it is!  I have never heard of another part time job that can adjust to meet all kinds of needs.

When I sit back and look at my story, I realize how significant it was that I was introduced to Heidi and the whole Moms team.  If I didn’t have this business, there is no way I would be able to pursue my other passions. The whole gig economy is so popular now because people want to have a chance to be flexible and still earn an income, but with those sorts of jobs you are trading hours for dollars.  We only have so much time in the day and when you are building a small business those hours slip away quickly.  My Moms income is building, and it is building as residual income that continues to grow even though I continue to work only part time.  If I carve out 10-15 hours per week consistently, my income continues to grow.  This has allowed me plenty of time to work on my other businesses, providing multiple streams of income.

My life is currently a complex puzzle of a lot of moving pieces, but each of those pieces are rich, beautiful parts of my life. I am surrounded by friends, family and business partners whom I love dearly.  Every day, regardless of the business that I am focusing on now, is a chance to make the world a better place.  I help people.  I focus on helping our environment, I make my community stronger and I am having fun doing it!  I count my blessings every day and focus on gratitude for the opportunities presented to me.  My family’s future is bright, and I am delighted that I have chosen this path.