The new biz

I've done a lot of things for a living over the years. I started my working life mowing lawns and shoveling snow off sidewalks. I've also been (in no particular order) a US Marine, a boat builder, a forklift driver, a construction worker, a bookstore clerk, a mustard miller, a fry cook, an office furniture builder ... and that's just the start of the list. For the last nine years or so, I've worked mostly as a writer and editor in the freedom movement on both a freelance basis and as a "small businessman" in partnership with four others to produce Rational Review News Digest.

One thing I've found over time is that I enjoy working "for myself" more than I enjoy working "for a boss." It's riskier (one month a few years ago, I generated a net income of right at six dollars), but it's also more rewarding in many ways, even at times when I might have made more money punching someone else's clock.

Lately I've been looking at new opportunities to supplement my income, and one popped right out at me for (at first) nostalgic reasons.

When I was a kid, one of my relatives (it's kind of fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure it was a particular great-uncle) was a Fuller Brush man. I say it's kind of fuzzy because a lot of my male relatives on my dad's side were part-time entrepreneurs. They were part-time entrepreneurs because they were full-time preachers at small churches (mostly Pentecostal -- my uncle Bill, the black sheep of the family, went Freewill Baptist).

Arguments about religion aside, you'd be amazed at how hard rural small church pastors work. They don't just preach three sermons a week and the occasional revival. They do weddings. They do funerals. They visit sick church members in the hospital and troubled church families at home. They're probably the custodian and handyman at the church, too. And their pay? Whatever's left in the plate after the utilities are paid, after the Sunday school programs are printed, after the denomination's missionaries get some support, after the building fund is flush ... in other words, sometimes not very much. So, they take outside work, but it has to be work that accommodates their ministerial responsibilities, and commission sales fits that profile.

Anyway, when I came across some Fuller Brush promotions on the web thirty years later, that great-uncle came to mind and I decided to check the opportunity out. Having satisfied myself that Fuller's products are of still of stellar quality and great value for price, I've signed on as an independent distributor -- a "Fuller Brush man."

If you're interested in purchasing great household products, please visit my Fuller Direct site. If have any questions about the products, or if you're interested in becoming a distributor yourself, drop me a line.