About
About Angela Wills
angela-sparkleIn 1999 I was a college student enrolled in a Chemical Engineering – Environmental course with plans to get a decent job and build a life for myself like most people do. I was 19 at the time and it’s not that I really loved the idea of being a chemist, but rather I picked it because I had to pick something chemistry seemed OK.
So I got my diploma and got a job at an environmental consulting firm, then with the Government at the Ministry of the Environment. They were jobs. They weren’t fulfilling. They paid decent but in all honesty I hated the idea of going to work every day for the rest of my life (or most of it) and doing what other people told me to do.
In 2001 I had my son and my life goals changed drastically.
I had NO desire to continue to pursue any career because I just wanted to stay home and raise my son. I couldn’t imagine dropping him off every day to let someone spend precious 8-10 hours a day with MY baby! So while I was on maternity I made a plan to start a business and never have to go back to work.
jewelleryIt’s a long story so I won’t go into all the details but from 2001 until 2006 I tried to make many businesses work so I could achieve my ‘never work again’ goal. I started a bath and body business selling handmade soaps, bath bombs, etc. I started selling RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). I joined a networking marketing business that sold soy candles and tried to make a living from that. I also joined a jewellery company in hopes of good income from great wardrobe pieces.
I Struggled…
Look I know you go to some sites and people tell you all about how awesome it is to be in business and how you just have to be determined and you’ll make it….
Well let me tell you I WAS determined. I wanted it BAD. I knew it took work and I was willing to do it.
Yet I got myself into MAJOR debt trying businesses that didn’t work. I used credit cards to fund businesses and didn’t understand how to manage my money and it got me nowhere. I knew I needed to change so I worked hard to figure out how to manage my money and I watched a whole lot of episodes of ‘Till Debt Do Us Part’.
In 2006 I was working an afternoon shift at a stinky automotive factory so that I could work without paying for daycare (my mom watched my son) until I figured out this working for myself thing.
I remember so clearly desperately wanting a successful business. As I spent an evening at work cleaning out an extremely dirty and massive paint oven I cried (literally) to myself that I would NEVER do this again…
Then I discovered Virtual Assistance.