Hi I’m Sharon Marie and in 2016 I quit my 9-5, corporate career in search of a better way of living.
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 not sure they ever 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 back then. I did what my parents had taught me was the right way. I went and got my first job. I worked 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. That was fine as a single young woman, but later as a single mother, 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. The market I’m in is just so saturated with new “copy cat” private label products. 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. I loved this model and I actually did really well with this business model as with my sales background 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, Facebook Ads, Sales Funnels etc.
The problem 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.
There are many different ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. Now more than ever I believe that people will be looking for new ways to live and work as I was in 2016.
Since discovering my love for Digital Marketing, I’ve tried many different models, but the one I have come back to is Coaching.
In my recruitment career I eventually ended up coaching and training new consultants and also people looking for help with starting up their own recruitment businesses.
These days I get to combine my love of Digital Marketing with my Coaching and work with business owners who want help creating a freedom business.
If you need help in your own business then you can join our Facebook community of business owners HERE
I go live every week in the group The 10k Month Club ~ For Heart Centred Coaches & Consultants, and share tips and tricks for making money online and creating your freedom business.