Happy Birthday to Me and my Business! Exactly 6 years ago I started my entrepreneurial journey and what a ride it has been. So much learning, so much action, so many ups and downs and so many new friendships and people I have been blessed to help and work with over this time. Today I’d like to reflect upon the defining moments in my life and the last 6 years in my business… Lets look at the five critical ones that have changed the trajectory of my life and business forever…
1. Arriving in Australia at the age of 14 from Macedonia. My mum was very brave and entrepreneurial herself to that travelled to the other side of the world in the search for a better life and greater opportunities. Prior to bringing me across we were separated for two and half years while I got my permanent residency visa.
A time I learnt Independence and Resilience… My mum’s words ‘Every Beginning is Hard’ resonate with me in everything new that I undertake – its meant to be hard before it becomes easy. This has been a statement that has made me push through the initial stages of starting something new – a new country, new schools, becoming a parent, starting new in business. I follow the rule of 2 – that it takes 2 years of focussed effort and actions to make a go of something that you are complete novice at until you feel that it is part of you.
2. Becoming a parent for the first time 11/11/2008… This was a brand new experience, one that I wasn’t so fond of in the first few months. Every beginning in hard right? Well this sure was. Also what this did for me is it pushed me to be more, do more and get creative in being able to provide a lifestyle that is just as good if not better than before having children.
I learnt what a parent’s love truly feels like and what my mum went through to raise me on her own and bring me to this country. I take my hat off to all the single parents out there. I have my husband for support with our children and that is a huge help in being able to fulfil mine and our family’s goals.
3. Starting my business on 24 May 2010 after my husband Stuart lost another business we had. This was a complete surprise to me, a poor decision on his behalf and a key defining moment in what was to come. I felt unsafe, I took action, responsibility and pushed through the first 2 years until I started seeing results. Every beginning is hard! Had this moment not occurred, we would still have been employed in the optical industry and working the long crappy hours of retail.
Stuart has now been part of our business for three and a half years and our relationship is stronger than ever. We diverged slightly in the loss of the business as I took on a new mission. As I grew and learnt we had two options, split apart or grow together so we chose the latter and began converging again, educating ourselves on our beliefs, patterns and acceptance of who we are. We read books, went to seminars and had a relationship coach. Nowadays, we are the best team and family as a results of all that.
4. Writing me first book 7 months after I started my business. It was Jan 2011 and I decided that writing a book just might be the thing to move me from not having clients (by that stage I had only 2 clients on my books) to being more credible and respected. Could this act as my business card on steroids?
I had no idea what I was doing, how I was going to do it and make it a success. Every beginning is hard.
June 2011 as my book was coming out, so was baby number 2 Mika. Everything changed… As I had only five months of paid parental leave I had to make this work. I networked between breast feeds, I coached between breastfeeds, I ran the business every time the baby slept and I did this around my husbands then work roster as he was still employed full time for another 18 months from the time Mika was born.
I also re-branded from PRS Coaching (a brand that stood for nothing) to Ultimate Weight Loss – Lose the Last 10 Kilos. Another defining moment – the rest is history. Fully booked practice and moving towards a new problem. Not enough time…
Stuart quit his day job when we licensed Ultimate Weight Loss and we never looked back – we were now onto leveraged income for our time….
5. The Million Dollar idea came to me around April 2013 when I realised I could teach others how to write a book in Just 48 Hours. I had written my book Ninja Couch Marketing with Donna Brown on a weekend away and decided that if I could pull together all the resources and people and created a fail proof program in publishing a book – I’d be helping so many others the way I had helped myself back in 2011. So I did and we launched the Ultimate 48 Hour Author retreats in October 2013.
Every Beginning is Hard… Many doubted what I was proposing and asked if I had done this before, to which all I had to answer is that I had done it myself but not with anyone else. The first group consisted of those that knew me, liked me and trusted me. We proved this method and system worked and the rest was history.
When we had the proof in the pudding, the enquiries started coming and we grew with the program. Now 11 retreats completed over 2.5 years and over 120 new authors enrolled in our program. We had a 100% completion rate and are booked strong 4 retreats in advance. It wasn’t always this way… The first year with the retreats was touch and go and we had uncertainty almost until the week of retreat, but one thing we knew was that the right people were going to be there – and they were.
We have been blessed with wonderful clients, this is our third year now into running the retreats and our third year we will be turning over more than 7 figures.
So on this day, 24 May, not only do I celebrate my birthday and being another year wiser, I also celebrate all the things I am grateful for that I have achieved in this now my anniversary of starting my entrepreneurial journey. Who would have thought I’d be in business six years later. I have defied some odds and planning to defy even more… Bring it on!
Every Beginning is Hard!
Work Hard – Play Hard…
Love Nat x
P.S. A week ago I decided I would have my own sign off line which you may have noticed appear before the Love Nat x bit and as the Law of Attraction has it - I found it printed on a singlet here in Thailand a few days ago - How cool is that :) Here's the pic of me wearing it...
