Thank you everyone for chipping in with your thoughts, experiences, and encouraging words for Chelsea....
I had already shared some of the following with Chelsea but I want to post more of my experiences here on her thread so that she can see from reading all of the supportive posts that she is not alone with business, money and personal issues that try to derail our transition plans and life goals.
For me, I have had my very successful career in the corporate world and I now am self employed in my own business..... but there were some unhappy and very tough financial times for me early on.
After studying very hard in college and graduating with a MBA and a Mathematics degree I had acquired my dream job, finally after about a year I had bought and moved to my new home, had just contracted for remodeling and then all of a sudden after working there for about a year, with no notice, my job was gone... the company went chapter 11 and had a mass lay-off . I immediately lost my company car and also my very good income.... my very first house payment was due in a few weeks among many other expenses...plus what was left of my college loans were coming due, about $30,000+... I immediately scrambled to find a job, any job, or any jobs. Even if they were low paying jobs they would at the very least offset some of my expenses and if lucky any job that I would get would provide health insurance benefits.
Temporarily I got a job at K-Mart... working at night stocking the shelves... low pay for sure but it was something. I then was seeking something more but first I had to buy a car to replace the now gone Company Car... so I bought a beater VW Bug so I could look for additional work.... I found a 2nd job as low pay clerk at Office Depot clear across town, it was a daytime job so I was able to keep my K-Mart night job. In any spare time that I had, which was not much with working 2 jobs, I put my feet to the pavement and I personally applied for every job I could think of that could utilize my hard earned and expensive college degrees.
The key aspect of my story so far is that at the Office Depot store when I was helping a customer finding accounting and finance supplies... he and I started a conversation about accounting and business... it turns out that he was the VP of Accounting at a large company that was expanding .... with that conversation I soon landed a great job with his company.... and a much better situation and more pay than my previous Corporate job...
Here is the point I want to get across... IF I had not taken that low pay 2nd job I may have never found my path to the much better and higher paying job with the new company. I held that job as an accounting and business development executive for 8 years and received promotions and pay upgrades during my time there.... that was the last job I had working for someone else before I became Full-time in my transition and then relocated to where I am now and started my own woman owned self-employed CPA business
Chelsea, the salient point of my preceding life experience is for you to take any opportunity or opportunities, low pay, temporary, more than one job, whatever... to offset your ongoing expenses while being diligent in seeking ways to save your business or to find a job that utilizes your hard earned skills and abilities, with a paycheck that is commensurate with your experience and expertise.
Blessings to you Chelsea, and as always I am wishing you well,
Hugs,
Danielle
