I have never been one to believe anything should be handed to me freely. Coming from a background of poverty will do that to you or at least it did for me I should say. It just never occurred to me that there was any other way than to work for what I needed and wanted in life. I knew I didn’t want to live like I had grown up and I have made that a life goal ever since. If there was something I needed I knew I’d have to work for the money to get it. There wasn’t this safety net of others I could count on if things went bad or I found myself in a jam. Failure wasn’t an option for me when it came to making sure my needs were met and I could pay for them. It has occurred to me that some these days see money differently than me. I think I’m ok with that too.
See I think the nature of making money is where we find that little slice of what feels good to our soul and it pays us. Sadly most of us don’t get that in our jobs today. We put up with a lot that leaves us feeling uncertain about ourselves, questioning who we are or what we are capable of even. Over time we just do what we are told and trade our time for a paycheck focused on just getting through the week and looking forward to retirement. It can feel so deflating and demotivating to even think there could be a different way. Yet my own determination and grit to not live like I had grown up was always there nagging me to look at something else.
It is not easy to be in business for yourself, especially when you are working full time. In fact, it is at times insane to think about how to fit it all in a day. I do it because I understand about myself that I crave more than just working a job and then another job when that one goes away and another after that. I didn’t want a job I wanted a life. I wanted to live on my terms and do the things that I knew were smart business moves that lead to success. There was no better place to test those theories than in my own business.
The problem is and I firmly believe this is why more direct marketing representatives give up is we are taught to be employees not business owners. We are taught to expect instruction on how to do something and what that job pays. However, when you are in your own business it is free form experience where every decision, choice, instruction and guideline is your own. You also quickly realize what you are paid is directly representative of what you did. That number isn’t always what we expect and that can be disappointing to some.
I have now operated Dragonspit Apothecary for 3 1/2 years as a small business while I work full time in a corporate job. What I have learned is the nature of making money is so attractive to me through my small business it takes over many of my thoughts in the day. It is has become almost an obsession of how I can do it more often and grow it to the point to replace my corporate paycheck. That is simply crazy for me to say out loud because who can actually achieve that? How many people try and fail that I think I can succeed from that? Yet I push at it every day with that goal in mind, just like the original knowledge I had no one to count on for money making than myself.
It is not for everyone. This small business while you’re working situation that is. I went into it with some rules for myself that have served me well in this journey and allowed me to fully appreciate all that goes into building a true strong business. Here are my guiding principles that I use in my small business:
It was on me and only me to make it work or make it fail
It won’t grow overnight and without me working on it
What I earn is reinvested in my business each month until I’m able to replace my income (this one has been really hard but very worth it)
I’m doing this because I want to live freely doing what inspires me
That may not be much of a list but it is my guidance for the nature of making money in Dragonspit Apothecary. It is what is on my heart every time I sit down to write a blog or create social media posts at 5:30 AM before I go to my job. It is what fuels me to keep pushing at it until I make it or fail at it.
The nature of making money is different for each of us but the common thread is the desire to be ourselves. Too often I believe that is taken away from us in our jobs because it doesn’t fit the expectations of what we need to do for that paycheck. Settling for that is sometimes necessary but for me I dream of something more than that.
If you too are interested in finding a different way to the nature of making money in your own life, reach out to me to see if what I do is a fit for you. Use the chat at dragonspitapothecary.com