How I Quit My 9-5, Corporate Career & How You Can Too.

Hi I’m Sharon Marie and 3 years ago I quit my 9-5, corporate career in search of the perfect work from home business.

At the time I had worked in the recruitment industry for over 20 years and had worked my way up the corporate ladder. I’d even had my own IT recruitment business and was an established recruitment sales coach.

Despite having achieved success in “corporate land” as I now refer to it, I just felt that something was missing in my life. I wasn’t in control of my days and I was working towards someone else’s dream, not my own. I needed to reclaim my days and get my life back.

I’ve always been a driven person from a very young age. I grew up, the youngest of 7 kids in a catholic, Indian immigrant family. My parents had come to England in search of a better life. I’m sure they never really found it as I just remember them always working really long hours, often leaving us kids to fend for ourselves. Money was always tight and I learnt quite quickly that if I wanted more from life, I’d need to earn it myself.

So I did the only thing I knew how to do. What my parents had shown me was the right way. I worked hard. I got a job in the local post office when I was 14 and worked hard in various retail and sales jobs until I found my career in recruitment in my 20’s.

Recruitment is a tough industry, where you’re expected to “sell your soul” to the business in order to “make it”. Yes it’s lucrative and you can earn big money, but you earn every penny of it and pay for it with your time. As a single mum of two amazing kids, I just wasn’t prepared to continue to exchange my valuable time for money any more. I knew there had to be a better (and more family friendly) way.

I tried Amazon FBA (which I actually still do), but the problem with Amazon FBA is that you never own your customers and Amazon can shut you down in an instant. Also you only need one bad review and your sales plummet. There are so many new “copy cat” private label products coming onto the market that’s it become saturated. It was just too much work for too little return. Also I found that I just wasn’t passionate it.

Next I tried lead generation for small service based businesses, which I actually loved and did really well with. With my background is sales, I was able to pick up new clients pretty easily. I would recommend this model if you like a service based business where you need to deliver projects to clients. I still have some clients that I work with and I enjoy the work as it keeps my digital skills and knowledge fresh. I get to use Facebook Ads, Sales Funnels etc every day and those are all useful in my affiliate marketing business.

The problem for me with this business though was that pretty soon, I had more clients to manage and deliver to and my time just wasn’t my own yet again. I was still exchanging time for money.What I really wanted was a business that could give me complete flexibility around when I had to work and could eventually lead to “passive income” WITHOUT taking up all of my time.

Then I found it; THE perfect model; Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate Marketing is where you promote other people’s products, services and courses and you get paid a commission for every sale that you create.

The great thing about Affiliate Marketing is that you can work on your business any time, you don’t have to find clients, you don’t have to create your own product, hold any stock or deliver a service. You can set up automation to eventually create a “passive income” which can run on autopilot and quite literally make you money while you sleep.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am just getting started with it, but it’s working for me. I’m excited to see where I can take it as it is also one of the most scalable models out there.

Sharon Marie x

In the interest of transparency, I want to let you know that I occasionally include affiliate links in my posts. I will only include links to products that I have found interesting and useful in my journey and which I believe will be of interest to you on your journey towards a “passive income” lifestyle. If you purchase an item using my affiliate link, I will receive a commission.

Could Affiliate Marketing be your perfect work from home, business opportunity as well?I’d love to help you to find out.