Well, after spending a few thousand dollars whilst attending numerous "Home Based Business Seminars" and buying all the "experts" information, I finally started my first official  home based business venture back in 1994. I took a few ideas I found interesting at the time (Long Distance Service, College Scholarship Research Service, and Mortgage Equity Exceleration Service) and combined them  into one conglomeration of endeavors I called Sapphire Sky Enterprises. I was truly an Entrepreneur... Woo Hoo! LOL!

But doing business back then was definitely a lot more expensive, time consuming and difficult than it is now.The internet was not so big back then, so I had to do things mostly by way of personal meetings, phone calls and snail mail. I admit I had less than stellar success,  but one thing I did have was determination; I never gave up on the idea of being an Entrepreneur.

So I started a search of other entrepreneurs in my area to see how they were doing. Eventually I found some people who had just moved into the area. They appeared to be very knowledgeable and successful in the Network Marketing genre, so we agreed to set up shop together.

We leased space in an upscale office building with access to a boardroom, conference rooms and secretarial services.  Since "they" had all of the experience and I was "the new gal" I was asked to invest a significant amount of money (I guess it's all relative, but to me it was everything at the time: $50,000) to make this venture work.

Basically what we did was make your  basic Network Marketing opportunities look more like a "job". I know it may sound odd,  but at the end of the day, everyone knew exactly what they were getting into. And  the fact of the matter is most people would rather find a J.O.B than an opportunity.  We definitely attracted a lot of people with this tactic. Anyway, once they were on board,  we then offered company sponsored  training and support as well.  We eventually opened 2 more offices (which I paid for) of the same caliber across the US. All was going well, until.....late 1996 when....

Much to our surprise, one of the Network marketing companies went out of business. Yikes, now there was no income to support our office and travel expenses. Plus,  as it turned out one of my partners embezzled a bunch of the money I put in up front and he up and left town one day.  

Hmmmph.. I have to say I didn't see that ONE coming.

Well,  because of my bad business decisions and investments I made, I got in way over my head with DEBT and I eventually found myself in Bankruptcy court. How humbling and humiliating! But I learned a lot. Perhaps I learned more about what NOT to do. Either way.... it was a lesson I will never forget.