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| To post or not to post, that is the Question (c) 2017 P.Lynne Designs |
Lately, I have been seeing on Pinterest boards pins like this: “How I made $250 ($1000, $4,000 whatever amount) in my first year (first month, first week) of blogging. At first, I thought it was a joke, but now I am sort of concerned.
We have all heard the phrase, “Never discuss your income with anyone at work”. Well, there is a good and valid reason for that quote. Companies do not want animosity among the minions (Oops, I mean employees). Let me give you an example of what could happen.
Two people are going for the same job. Both are hired and start on the same day. They are both given 90 days probation, which is the standard in the United States. Although, I had a preschool teacher’s job once, which the director gave me one week to take a deconstructed classroom, clear the junk, and turn it into a working classroom for me to teach in. She was going to bring in my potential students in the classroom that Friday. I started that Monday, had to ask the other teachers if any of their stuff was in my classroom, please remove it. Oops, off-track, you will have to read until the end of this post to find out the rest. No skipping ahead.
Anyway, back to the two new employees. If one employee finds out that the other is making more money than other, that could cause problems, and maybe a fight or two. This is one of the reasons you should never discuss your income with a co-worker unless you are looking for a fight.
So, back to why I will not share my blog income.
To not share my income with the world is something that was taught to me by my father. This was something you never do because you do not want to be one of the troublemakers in the workforce. Sharing is caring, but not in this case. Everything I learned about working a 9-5 job, I have carried over to my business. The second reason it is simply no one’s business. If someone asks me that question, I give estimates, not the real amount. If someone wants to know how much my business is making, I will tell them that too, but only certain people like bankers and my accountant need to know that.
The last reason is I do not like to discourage people. I do not like to see people upset, and well, in the African American community, some people do not like to hear that your business is successful. They do not like to hear that you are doing well and you do not need any financial help. I guess that is in every community.
I was at a community vendor fair. I was taking orders for Longaberger products. There were many African American vendors at this fair, and this was my second one. I had done one the previous year. People would come, look around, and leave. Of course, I would greet them, ask them if they were interested in purchasing an item, and they would kindly say “No”, and leave. This went on for several hours. Finally, one lady came up, and she asked me, “why do you sell these baskets?” “They are white man’s products” she would further explain herself in her line of questioning. Soon after, I received 5 more people who asked the same thing. I did not think that I was offending anyone with the product line, but I was. Why were 6 people so offended with the product line? I still ask myself to this day, since I still sell the products, as well as doing my own business. I got the same question when I came back the next year when I sold Tastefully Simply food products.
I am happy to discuss what I sell, my target audience, and again my income regarding the business itself, but not my personal income. I also will discuss my recommendations on how to make money and what I use to generate extra income. Everyone has their own way of generating income. There are billions of ways to do it.
Now, if you stuck to the end of the post, you know I started to talk about my 7-day probation period with that preschool. Where I left off was I asked the teachers if there was any stuff they had in my classroom, please remove it. No one came to get their stuff.
The second day, I asked if the extra light bulb box (the big florescent light bulbs) be removed from my classroom. They were too heavy for me to lift. The janitor did no move the box. The third day, I was almost done, when I heard a knock, and it was the director with the children. “Ugh”, I thought, “not now.” I had no bought my materials from the teacher supply store. I was going that afternoon. She said that she brought the kids in so they could meet their teacher. The official day was still Friday. I thought it was 5 minutes, it ended up being the rest of the afternoon. Again, I was not prepared. I had seen a box of stuff that no one claimed (meaning no teacher has claimed it), so I took out some windmills, and handed them to the children. I came up with a brief lesson on the wind. Second, that box of bulbs, they broke because one of the boys was trying to find out where his cubby was. Thank God, he was not hurt. I was mad at the inconvenience that was thrown at me. I was not driving at the time, so my mother picked me up. I cried in the car. Later, we went to get the materials I needed to teach these kids something for Thursday.
When I arrived the next day, the children were not arriving in my classroom. They had gone back to the previous class, which I thanked God for that. Now, I had an extra day to truly prepare. So, I put up my stuff, banged out a couple more lesson plans for the next week, and everything was smooth sailing, when all of sudden, one of the teachers came into my classroom. She wanted to know if I had seen the windmills in the box I looked at the day before. “Yes, I used them for my children,” I told her. “I did not have anything set up for them when the director brought them in. I used them for a lesson on the wind.” The teacher’s concern turned to anger, as she explained to me that they were for her kids to play with, and one of them was broken. Apparently, I owed her a windmill. I then explained to her that I asked Monday if there was anything in my classroom that was theirs, and to come get it. No one claimed the box, so I used it. I offered to pay for the windmill if it meant so much for her to have it. She said, “No”. After she left the room, I went back to planning the first real week with my kids. I left work that day thinking that is was a rough week, and the next week should be better. It was not. Sunday night, I received a call from the director to not come in. I was fired. 7-days in, and now I had no job. I went in the next day to gather my stuff. Mom went with me. When you are in your 20s, parents tend to stick up for you. So, when I got there, my stuff was neatly in a box, and the director saw us in. Before I could say two words, mom wanted to know why I was fired. I thought, “Mom, I think if I was old enough to get the job, I think I am old enough to ask why was I fired.” The director explained that I was not prepared to receive the kids. She then sighted the problems that I was having, which her staff caused in the first place. If anything, I should have quit before I was fired. I enjoyed setting up my classroom and my kids, the two days I had them, but I needed cooperation from her, the other teachers, and the janitor. If she did not want to hire me in the first place, she should have said it the day of my interview.
