Starting a new job is always scary, or at least for me it’s always scary. It’s like the first day of school.
– Sean Maher
One thing I know is true.
Relying on one source of income is like being held by a noose – the moment the block holding your feet gets removed, you are done. Stuck there flailing, wondering what to do next and how you are going to get out of this mess.
Harsh?
Yeah, I know. But that’s the reality. If you are relying on one single income as your only lifeboat, you could find yourself in some trouble if that lifeboat sinks.
When I started this work at home journey 4 years ago, I had all my eggs in one basket. Not only was my husband making the majority income (by far), but I was only doing one thing. Of course, that doesn’t lend way to much security if something were to happen to my husband or his job.
I started looking into having other “side eggs” (as it’s called in the work from home world). I didn’t even know I could work from home as an assistant. I was floored at the thought – and so was my husband for that matter. When I stumbled upon Zirtual, I had never even heard of the company, let alone the opportunity. After a few weeks of interviews and waiting, I got the position as a Zirtual Assistant – wait, what? That’s right, now get to work!
I worked with Z for almost 2 years, and when I had to leave the country for a couple of months (to help my dad with his business in the Caribbean), I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal – hello, I’m working from home and I wasn’t changing my address. One of my clients mentioned to the CEO that I was leaving for a couple of months and one misunderstanding later, I was leaving but “welcome to return when my situation changed.” They also said that since I was working outside of the U.S. there was something about their payroll, taxes, blah, blah, blah.
Ha. Right.
So as the saying goes, when one door closes, another door opens. I closed that door and never looked back. You know why? Because I realized that I had the skills and experience necessary to do this on my own. I didn’t need them anymore. I’ll never say a bad thing about my experience with Z because they gave me the jumping point that I needed in this work from home world, but the experience also made me realize that I put too much faith in my relationship with them.
When push comes to shove, sometimes it doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked with a company, and you have to remember that ultimately, it’s their best interest they are concerned with, not yours.
[bctt tweet=”Don’t rely on one source of income, have some sideways plans in place.” username=”mirandamerten”]
Now circling back to my original point – Make sure you have a backup plan. Even better, you should have “sideways” plans working at the same time. In case one of those plans fall apart, it won’t rock your boat. Going forward, I’ll be talking about work from home opportunities that are available (including, of course, being an assistant) so that you can build up the eggs in your basket.
So, what’s your story? Are you relying on one source of income or do you have other things going all the time? If you don’t, let’s change that this year.