Our Job

Some people may wonder how we are able to just pick up and move in our line of work.  Well first let me explain what Cody and I do for a living.  We are manufacturers' representatives.  We specifically sell high voltage electrical equipment to energy companies for transmission and substation applications. 

The only reason we moved to Indianapolis was because many of my customers are in Indiana, most being in the Indianapolis area.  Cody quit his job in Illinois and completely changed careers to start doing the same line of work I do.  The reason we are able to move and keep our same jobs is because we work remotely.  It is not necessary to be in physical proximity of our customers however we do have to travel to go visit with them often. 

Originally when I got into this line of work Cody and I were not together so I was a single mom needing to go see my customers when the kids were at school so living closer to them was imperative.  Now that Cody is involved with my business he is able to do most of the traveling that is more than just during the day when the kids are in school.  Him coming aboard allows me to no longer need to live in Indianapolis because one of us can travel and one of us can stay with the kids, as long as him and I do not need to travel to see different customers at the same time.

Our business is all commissioned based.  If we sell a product the factory pays us a percentage of what we sell.  We represent four manufacturers as of now but we are always trying to pick up new product lines.

This line of work can be a bit unpredictable.  Some months we bring in only a few thousand dollars and other months we can bring in over $10,000 in commissions.  Sometimes we work really hard to make a sell and it falls through, while other times we just get an email from a customer saying they want to buy something and we didn't have to put in any work to make the sale.  Sometimes an energy company will order many products at once and then we won't hear from them in a few months.  We never know how much money we will make any particular month so we have to budget for the not-so-profitable months.

Many people have careers that allow them to work remotely so living a nomadic lifestyle is very doable now-a-days.  For us we do not need to have a job where we work remotely because we want to start planting roots in the town where we will be building a house after this adventure of living in a fifth wheel is over.  We are grateful that we do work remotely though because it allows us to spend more time together as a family and it allows us to travel extensively in the summer, like we did last summer, which you can read about here.