Stay-At-Home Business with Michelle Williams

In 2007, Michelle was given the opportunity to help launch J. Hilburn Mens Clothier, a new direct sales company that provided a men’s luxury apparel to the way men shopped. She helped grow a team of 3000+ style consultants nationwide, which earned J. Hilburn the title of largest custom clothier in the world within six years.

As a mother of two busy teenage girls, Michelle values the freedom her J. Hilburn business has given her to never miss an important event in her daughters’ lives. Meanwhile, she has built a highly successful business. I interviewed Michelle to find out how all of this came about.

J. Michael: Michelle, tell us all about the challenges and benefits you face with a home-based business, how you got started, and the state of your business today.

Michelle: I’m a stay-at-home mom with two daughters who are 14 and 10. When I started my J. Hilburn business six years ago, I was looking for an opportunity to supplement our family income—maybe pay for some family vacations or help out with my daughters’ extracurricular activities. I wanted something that I wasn’t tied down to, something that didn’t take up my whole day; I still wanted to be available for my kids to volunteer at their school, pick them up and take them to school, and so on.

That’s really what attracted me to doing a home-based business. I had tried other home-based businesses in the past, but then I was approached by a good friend’s husband, Hil Davis, who was starting a new multi-level business in men’s luxury apparel. It really excited me because I thought this was the perfect business for me. It seemed different than anything else that was out there—it was a product marketed to men and I enjoy selling to men. This seemed like something I wanted to jump into. And I’m glad I did.

In the beginning, there were a lot of struggles. I was having a hard time fitting my new work into my day. When you work at home, you’re constantly putting family or house things first, whether it’s the laundry or the dishes or answering phones. I learned early that I had to plan my calendar and my day. I had to set time aside to invest in my business—because I didn’t really want a hobby, I wanted a business. I knew that if I wanted my business to grow, I had to treat it like a business. So I started mapping out my day, being intentional about the time I invested in my business.

This didn’t mean I had to map out eight hours a day, or a 40-hour work week. Whether or not it was one hour or three or four hours in a day, I found the time that I could invest in my business. I didn’t just expect it to happen. I think that’s really the biggest challenge for most people—becoming a self-starter and being intentional about the time that they invest in the business. As mothers, we want to be able to do it all, but you really have to divide up your time. That’s probably the biggest struggle with working at home.

J. Michael: What are some of the benefits that you derive from working from home?

Michelle: There are a lot of benefits. The first is the freedom to set my own work week: not having to answer to a boss, not having to punch a time clock, being able to attend special events for my children, and going on family vacations when I want to.

Then there’s the tax incentive. These days we’re able to write off so many things. I can write off my gas mileage for traveling to an appointment, for example. By having my own business I can invest more in my retirement account—I have a pension plan which allows me to invest up to five times more than I would be able to (and get tax incentives from that) if I were an employee for someone else.

J. Michael: What about benefits from the standpoint of your children?

Michelle: There are absolutely benefits for my children. As I said, my children come first over my business and any time they have special events, I’m there to see them. I can help volunteer for anything that’s going on at their school. I went to a cheer leading camp with my daughter a couple weeks ago and I was able to do a little bit of work while I was at that camp. I can take my business anywhere and that’s what I really enjoy about it.

J. Michael: One of the important things with a home-based business and starting one up is getting the support of a spouse. Tell me a little bit about when you started up your business and what your husband thought about it—the kind of support you were getting from him and what his thoughts and opinions were on that.

Michelle: In the beginning, my husband wasn’t 100% supportive of my business. He was like most who didn’t really believe that direct sales businesses could be successful. He thought they just took a lot of time with little return. As he watched me grow my business and treat it like a business, he started to understand that this was a true business and that it just took time. He started to see the fruits of my effort, and that the time I was investing was coming back to pay off down the road.

It’s hard for a lot of my consultants who do have spouses who don’t support it and don’t get it. I was just strong enough to keep going and not let that hold me back.

J. Michael: Any final comments that you’d like people to know?

Michelle: When you’re starting your own business, you need to be patient. I don’t know anyone who worked their business two years on a part-time basis and became successful in that short amount of time.

When I break it down for my consultants who have been in the business for six months and expect big returns on their investment, we talk about how much time they’re investing in their business. Say they give five hours a week—if we add up those hours over six months, it comes out to be just three weeks of full-time employment. But they’re expecting full-time paychecks. They start to see that they need to invest more time in their business if they want it to grow faster.

Attitude, belief, commitment, and duration are what we always profess at J. Hilburn. Be patient, keep a good attitude, and believe in what you’re doing, because people are attracted to that belief. Never come off like this is a side business or just something you’re trying. If you treat it like a big business, it will pay you like a big business.