the3rdi magazine for Working Women

RUNNING A NETWORK MARKETING BUSINESS FROM HOME

Arbonne is a network marketing business in the multi-million pound Health and Wellness sector.

Hazel explains, "One of the reasons the business opportunity appealed to me was that I am constantly being asked by friends for restaurant, cinema, plumber and car valet recommendations (to name a few), which I duly gave.....and didn't get any reward or thanks for. With Arbonne, I use and recommend great skincare which is pure, safe and beneficial....and get paid for it!"

" As a Mum, I have always been very conscious of the quality of the food I feed my children, but had no understanding of the effects of the products I was putting on their skin......16 seconds on the skin, and any chemicals in the products you use is in the bloodstream! I'm now passionate about the quality of the products that I use and love spreading the word.....and reaping the benefits."

"In the past, I have worked full-time, part-time and now I consider myself to be working smart-time....working from home."

As a Mum of two children, wife, domestic technician and dog walker, after an 8 year career break to have children, I realised that going back to work wasn't going to be that easy. Having worked in Sales Promotion in the past, the pace was fast, the deadlines tight and the hours often long....so with my other commitments I just didn't see going back to what I did before as an option.

I was therefore left with the dilemma of finding employment which would let me do the school run, walk the dog before work, leave at 5.30 to pick up the children from after-school care on time....and be able to leave at a moment's notice should matron give me the dreaded call that one of my children was sick. I quickly realised that there just weren't that many employers out there who could be flexible enough to accommodate me!

My career break which had started 8 years previously had come about as I could no longer stand doing the "walk of shame" as I left my desk before everyone else to pick up my then, only child, from school. When contemplating any potential employment, I could feel the same prick of unease about how I would feel trying to juggle it all again. I had come to the conclusion all those years ago that "having it all" was just a joke, and here I was trying again to "get it all".

When the Arbonne opportunity presented itself, I wasn't immediately excited as I had no idea about skincare and I thought that working from home wasn't really for me as one of the main benefits of working, for me, is the office camaraderie. I was unsure if I could motivate myself enough at home without the support of colleagues. I was also concerned that I would never get any work done for trying to tie up all the loose ends to be done around the house. However, after a shaky start, when I wasn't getting the balance right, I can now report that working from home really works!

The key to success is about being disciplined....and you have to make others understand that you are working from home to make sure that they are respectful of your time too.

My top tips are:

Set aside your workspace....chances are, if you are sitting in your children's playroom, you won't get anything done for tidying toys. Don't invite distraction and select a clearly defined work space to inhabit.

Set aside time each day. Working from home means that you are there to let the delivery man in with the washing machine....that's one of the perks of the job, but it only works if you leave it at that and don't then follow on with four loads of laundry in work time

Question yourself, "would this be acceptable in an office?" Chances are if the answer is "no" then you should be cutting this activity out. Don't have a coffee, make 3 personal phone calls and do a pile of ironing before you get started in the morning....you will have no time left for work.

Make sure others know you are working. That way you can avoid invitations for coffee which just create distractions.

Join a Networking Group.....these can often be either free or low cost and it's a great way to interact with others, share ideas and exchange expertise. It helps to surround yourself with people who are facing the same trials as you as you can learn from them. It a more basic level....this may be the route to your own office night out....otherwise working from home could be very lonely!

Now that I have the rules in place, running my Arbonne business works very smoothly from home. I do as much as I can during school hours and limit the extra required to evenings and these tend to be pre-arranged to enable me to slot them into my family's schedule.

I now can't imagine ever being back in a conventional office working situation again. I am so used to being in control of how I run my day that the constraints of regular office rules would seem far too restrictive. The best bit is that I no longer feel like a hamster on a wheel, I am able to participate in school trips, I'm at the school gates to pick up my children and, as a result of not feeling stressed about letting everyone down as I had before.....I get much more satisfaction from my job as I'm no longer loaded with guilt.

Hazel Anderson
Arbonne Independent Consultant
07740 944170
hazelanderson@myarbonne.co.uk

Photographs by Clare Erskine-Murray | Photography - 07810 445143 | erskinemurrayc@hotmail.com

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