AVON this is Boss life – Hayley Austin 

I started my AVON business in 2013 when my son Jacob was just 18months old. We as a family had just moved to Huddersfield after spending over 10 years in Northamptonshire. The decision to move to Huddersfield was made for two reasons. We wanted to be closer to my family in the Lake District where I am from. Mark had decided that working at his head office in Bradford would justify the move. Within 2 weeks of moving to Huddersfield my AVON journey began…..

Now I’m not going to say this was easy, it was far from easy! I didn’t know anyone in Yorkshire, never mind Huddersfield. Joining AVON was the perfect excuse to go out and meet people with my son Jacob. I started by building a customer base and had just less than 2 weeks in the 3 weekly campaign to find customers! Thank god I did it. My upline Mandy Grace provided me with books and I went out in my car with Jacob and book dropped to local residents everywhere. I was determined to find customers. My first book drop didn’t go well but I didn’t let that stop me. I tried again and boom my customer base was born. How easy was that? Yes AVON does sell. My first order was due to be placed with AVON and Mandy came out to see me to show me how to process orders, which isn’t difficult! I asked Mandy is there any career progression with AVON? Louise Keye came out to see me and showed me her earnings and shared her story with me. Wow and wow I was inspired! Money talks! My leadership journey began…….

within my first campaign with AVON I retailed just over the £220 needed at the time. I also reached level 1 and had a team of 5 representatives. Wow that was easy, and I did this with my son Jacob. No childcare costs!

By the end of Year 1 I had grown a team and reached Level 5 of our earning opportunity – Advanced Leader. Average earnings £14,000 per year.

By the end of year 2 my team had grown in fact doubled. I ended Year 2 at Level 6 of our earning opportunity.                                                                                                                        – Senior Leader. Average earnings £30,000 per year

By the end of year 3 my foundations were in place and I nearly achieved Level 7. The structure was not quite strong enough but as a team we were doing over £50,000 turnover in a Christmas campaign, which are the sales needed for Level 7. I ended the year a strong level 6.                                                                                                                               – Executive Leader. Average earnings £60,000 per year (This was not acheived)

By the end of Year 4 I’d love to reach Level 7 Executive. My anniversary is September so watch this space.

You can run a business with children 👶 and I attracted many sales leaders also with babies, children and even pregnant. This is a people business and I have spent so much time with my team mentoring and coaching. We have had days out with the kids on those summer days, built friendships, all whilst building a beauty business.

Top Tips to running a business with children 

1. Learn how to say no

As a parent, there are always many calls on your time. As your business starts to grow, the number of people that want to talk with you (“grab coffee sometime?”) seems to grow exponentially. To keep your life manageable you need to learn to say no – both within your professional and personal life.

2. Have reliable childcare

There will be times when you need to attend a meeting or attend conferences and events and will need childcare for your children. For the majority of your time you can run your business with babies and toddlers  without the need for childcare. My Son Jacob started pre school when he was 3, before that I had no childcare and had him with me all the time.

3. Prepare to work between 6am and midnight

Forget about having a 9-5 working existence. There are times when you’ll love having the flexibility to put your family first, for example, attendance at school sports day. But, there are times when you find yourself e-mailing, advertising at midnight and wishing that you had a more normal working hours and patterns. We do not earn like a job. Our aim is to create residual income and this takes a lot of effort at the beginning! You need to build a team to earn.

4. Be focused and disciplined

As a business owner and parent, you have far more calls on your time than the average person. To be able to have it all, you will need to be very focused and disciplined.

5. Be very protective of your quality time

It’s so easy to put your own personal need for quality time after everything else. In fact, you may not even let yourself have any quality time. But to be able to be your best, you need to schedule in quality time for yourself. I must admit I struggle with my own time, I’m far to concerned about helping my team and being there for them.

 

6. Balance your business, family and “me time”

There will be times when your business will need more of your time and attention, and your family and “me time” will suffer. Similarly, in the school holidays, your family will demand more of your time. However, over time, you should look to balance the demands of the business, your family and make sure there is some time left over for yourself too. Having a network Marketing business allows us to have the time we want and need with family and still earn.

7. Richard Branson in the making?

There are some very high profile entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson, who have quickly built up a global empire from humble beginnings. Don’t compare yourself to these people – you need to grow your business at a pace that you and your family are comfortable with. In the early days of their businesses, the Martha Lane Fox’s and Richard Branson’s of this world didn’t have as many calls on their time as you do now.

8.  Don’t hide your children

People want to deal with people. The more open you are with your clients and customers about your family and how you juggle the two, the more understanding they will be when, for example, a phone call is interrupted with the immortal words “mummy, mummy I’ve done a poo”. (Believe me, that happens a lot in my house at the moment!) I’m proud I built my foundations of my business with my son.

9. Remember why you started your business in the first place

When times are tough and you wonder whether there’s anything more to life than the business, it’s worth remembering why you’re running your own business. There is nothing quite like having the flexibility to build your professional life around your family commitments. Remember, you can always go back to the 9-5 corporate existence…  your end goal needs to be strong enough to pull you through the bad days.

10. Be realistic with what you can achieve

There are only 24 hours in a day, and I’ve only ever met one person who needed less than six hours’ sleep a night. Your business will grow only as fast as you personally push it. If the pace is getting too fast, then take the foot off the accelerator pedal. Don’t fall into the trap of setting yourself unrealistic targets or unrealistic expectations. Unless you can afford a full time cleaner, a cook and a nanny, the house will not always be tidy and clean, and dinner may not always be freshly cooked and on the table on time.

This is a minimum of a 10 year plan in Network Marketing. My son is now nearly 5 and at school. It’s half term now and as I write this Jacob is in the games room playing. Our future is looking very bright and I can’t wait to see more business growth and continue to build this beast around my family.

“I can’t thank my team enough for helping me reach my goals”

“Together we learn, do and acheive more”

Lets do this! You CAN build a business with kids.

The business structure constantly changes and now we have £11.5k of bonuses on offer for all new leaders to acheive in their first year! wow I didnt have that! We are now online with our own FREE shop and we are giving away £300 worth of products FREE, for all new starters, T&Cs apply. Contact me for more information 07714669359 x

*Pictures below of Jacob when I first started.

Hails x

 

 

 

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