Companies like “Pampered Chef” are considered direct-sell companies. The companies, and the spouses who work for them, focus on selling the products first and foremost. The workers will host cooking shows to showcase the products. As a military husband, I was pleased to be the benefactor for some of these shows with all the leftover food. As a secondary money-making venture, you can invite friends to become Pampered Chef consultants and earn money from recruiting. I personally know a spouse of an E-5 who is now known as an Advanced Director. We haven’t talked about annual income, but according to the Pampered Chef compensation plan, she could be making anywhere between $10K and $80K a year. (http://new.pamperedchef.com/make-money#)
Companies like “*Wake Up Now” are considered Multi-Level Marketing companies. These companies focus on recruiting people to become Independent Business Owners (IBO) first and foremost while a secondary emphasis is placed on their proprietary products. They require monthly subscription costs from each IBO and then your upline makes money, but the company ultimately makes the money on these subscription costs. Now, while they’re literally pyramid schemes, many spouses have done well and are making a lot of money with them. A military spouse I know is making $1K a month passively after recruiting several people under him (military spouses can be males too). (https://hub.wakeupnow.com/resources/cmsHubResources/286.compensation_guide.pdf)
Small businesses like photography, graphic design and
crafting are great. There are usually no start-up costs and the owner is in
full control. Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are great ways to advertise and
there are low barriers of entry, unless there are many spouses in your circle
operating the same type of business.
The downside to these businesses, and can also be found with
any small business, is when you’re starting out you usually depend on your
immediate friends and family to support you. As one of my friends eloquently
put it, it then becomes a Friend-2-Friend or Family-2-Family business and
you’ll quickly notice that no one will want to talk to you anymore. If the
business doesn’t start well, you’ll become desperate as the monthly costs go up
and you’re not earning the income you’d hoped you would. Most at-home
businesses fail because people jump in too quickly and have unreasonable
expectations. For every one success story there are three failures with some
spouses having hundreds of dollars of unused product they have to ship every
PCS, reminding them of their failure.Regardless, our military careers often uproot our military spouses and sometimes bring them to places where job opportunities are hard to find.
A lot of spouses have found wealth and success in starting at-home businesses. Do you have any success stories from your at-home business? Are you currently an MLM operator or want to use my blog to advertise? E-mail me at bjone6@gmail.com and we can discuss advertising space.
Here are some interesting Military Spouse success stories:
Spouse hosts “Trunk Shows” for artists:
http://www.military.com/spouse/career-advancement/military-spouse-jobs/spouse-owns-successful-home-based-business.html
A Spouse’s Article on Forbes about MLM success:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chicceo/2012/09/27/is-mlm-a-bad-word/
A Military Spouse’s Success Story about Rodan + Fields:
http://www.militaryspouse.com/articles/money-maker/
*FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve been researching and contemplating
running a Wake Up Now MLM.
Online business is really good not only for military spouses but for everyone. As parent, you can do multi-tasking while staying at home, taking care of the kids and doing business.
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