Work for 4 Years Get Paid for 40: A Woman’s Guide to Independence & Prosperity

By CAMILLA LOFRANCO and RAYMOND AARON

A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO INDEPENDENCE & PROSPERITY

With sensitivity, insight, and empathy, Camilla Lofranco delivers a unique and practical female spin on winning the MLM game while keeping all the balls in the air. From first-hand experience, Lofranco provides workable techniques for combining Multi-Level Marketing with Mom Life Management for healthy, balanced success. A must-read for all women in business, considering business, or simply wanting new ways to address personal and family priorities without sacrificing either.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781772770247

Book preview

Journey

Introduction

A Go-Geter Girl is someone who has a vision in her mind of where she wants to be and then goes after it.

– Debra Shigley, Author

This is the age of the entrepreneur. It is also the age of the flexible worker and the age of the just-in-time worker, sometimes referred to as the precarious or unsteady worker. It is the age when companies are increasingly switching to production- and results-based pay.

What does all this mean? It means the work landscape has changed. The social contract or the employment deal that the company will take care of the worker until he or she retires is no longer applicable. Wayne Lewchuk, a professor in the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University, says that corporations no longer focus on what he describes as the IBM model of employment, in which the company paid decent wages and benefits and invested in the worker in return for productivity and loyalty.¹ Instead, there has been a dramatic shift to a freelance or flexible economy where work is farmed out on an as-needed basis.

Today this transition is deeply entrenched in Canada, as it is in many parts of the world. Part-time work in Canada accounted for 80% of new job creation in 2013. The number of people in part-time jobs now accounts for 19.3% of the Canadian workforce, a percentage higher than it was before the recession hit in 2008. This means that one in five Canadians is self-employed, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, the latest figures from Statistics Canada show that in August 2014, the rise in the number of self-employed people nearly offset the drop in private sector jobs.

Companies that have squeaked by with a slimmer work force are reaping the benefits of lower costs and don’t seem inclined to change anytime soon. There has been a positive outcome, however, to this new corporate atitude. There is an emergent segment in the workforce that is, both by necessity and increasingly by choice, more entrepreneurial in nature.

Bad times offer opportunities, says Linda Rotenberg, CEO of the business network Endeavour and author of Crazy is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags. In her book she writes, Pretending your job is safe and your company is stable leaves you dangerously exposed. If you think risk-taking is risky, being risk averse is often riskier. I am a mother of two and I chose network marketing as my financial freedom vehicle. As an educated woman, my previous careers included Psychology and Law. While those careers were in and of themselves successful, they could not give me the time/money freedom I was looking for. I know for a fact that many people DO NOT understand the power of residual income because if they did, everyone would have some kind of residually-based income in their financial portfolio.

Network marketing offers time flexibility, a diverse and extensive community, and the opportunity to be responsible for your own success. There is no glass ceiling for women, unlike the tangible and intangible ones we encounter in the corporate world. Network marketing is far less risky than immediately meets the eye. There is a credible and reputable product or service, there is an extensive support network and mentoring from top leaders, and there is unlimited income potential. It pays based on results and it also pays on your investment – the more you invest in others and teach them how to become financially independent, the more you become financially independent yourself.

There is an oft-repeated statistic that says that women comprise 82% of the network marketing industry. Women recognize that direct selling is a great vehicle to help transform their lives, but at the same time, I see many women throwing in the towel. The percentage of women at the top ranks of direct selling is tiny compared to the fact that they dominate the industry in terms of numbers. There are few female mentors who understand the challenges pertinent to women and who can mentor aspiring women network marketers. I have observed women short-circuiting their own success because they worry that investing the time and energy to build the business means they will be abandoning their family. Mommy guilt is a big hurdle.

I decided to write this book because there isn’t one on the shelves that addresses the unique challenges of women in direct selling. There are many how-to books about network marketing, but they are writen by men, and therefore obviously from a man’s point of view.

If you’re a woman and a mother, you know that these how-to books don’t address the unique challenges we face. For example, if your son was flunking math, your priority would be to stay home and help him study instead of atending a training event.

What I am saying is that becoming a success in network marketing is not a win-lose proposition for a woman. It doesn’t mean that you have to choose between success and family. You can have both, but it does require reorganizing your priorities.

This book is my response to the many queries that I’ve received from women curious about my success in network marketing. As a woman, you have it within you to make it big in the world of direct selling. I did it while having a family so if I can do it, so can you.

Women have the emotional and cultural ability to negotiate and close deals; in fact, as many deals as you desire. Clinching the sale is not gender specific; it is a skill that can be learned and leveraged for your success. I developed a system that supported my needs and those of my family, and I hope that my sharing it with you it will inspire you to take action and create your own path to phenomenal success.

Linda Rotenberg hit the nail on the head when she said, What holds people back are not the financial or structural barriers. The biggest barriers are within you and they are constructed by you. By the same token, you have it within you to demolish the barriers to your success and strategically pave the way forward to untold prosperity.

Camilla Lofranco

1Sorenson, Chris, The end of the job, htp://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/the-end-of-the-job/, accessed October 1 2014

Chapter 1

You Were Born This Way

An entrepreneur is someone who