Working from home selling a weight loss product allows Melissa Barrera to conduct business via smartphone, tablet and couch. An office attire of blue jeans and T-shirt doesn’t hurt either, says Barrera, who quit a full-time job in a law firm to start her own business. Staff photo
A move to help a diabetic friend at work turned Melissa Barrera into a small-business owner who can do most of her job from her cell phone while sitting on her couch. After 11 years at a big law firm doing a job from which she thought she would retire, Barrera resigned to sell an up-and-coming health-and-wellness product called Plexus.
"Plexus Slim is our most important product of a line of products," Barrera said. "You pour a powder packet in water, shake it up and drink it once a day."
That powder helped her friend lose 50 pounds in six weeks and improve her health, according to Barrera, who also took Plexus to show her support for her sick friend. She now swears by it and has sold it to most of her friends and relatives.
"People are interested, they are buying," she said. "Now, I need to get out there and really network to take it to the next stage."
Plexus was developed in 2007 to regulate type 2 diabetes by getting sugars under control.
"The side effect is losing weight," said Barerra about the product's biggest selling point. "Our organs were not made to handle our fast-food lifestyle and our coffee and soda addictions."
Since she began selling Plexus full time Aug. 1, she is on the verge of her second promotion and has won an iPad and a briefcase. She is aiming for a Lexus and a trip to Hawaii by this time next year.
"I don't even have a home office," she said. "I just work off my phone and the iPad."
She doesn't even have to warehouse product, since all the ordering for individual sales is done online. She also trained herself online from the company's website.
"I decided I couldn't do [an 8-to-5 job] another 15 years, not with a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old who are going to be going to all these activities and I won't be there for them," she said. "I prayed about it and decided to do this. And it's going great."
Barerra will be at the Nueces County Health Fair in February and has been advertising her product in local mailers. She prints up flyers and hands them out and networks everywhere she goes.
"Just a few years ago, Corpus Christi was designated as the fattest city in America," she said. "Plexus can really benefit Corpus Christi." Melissa Barrera Corpus Christi Plexus (361) 774-1605
