Small Business Coaching And Consulting Empowers the Self Employed to Succeed.

My Self Employment Story

The Child Entrepreneur Years

My self-employment journey began because of passion. Specifically, passion for horses.

When I was 11 years old, I was smitten with horses. We had just moved to the countryside and I wanted to own a horse more than anything in my life. I knew my parents couldn't afford to buy and keep a horse, so I did the only logical thing that an 11-year old can do: I wrote my first business plan.

I was convinced that if we built a two-stall barn, and rented out one stall to another horse owner, it would bring in enough income to pay for my horse's care and feeding. I researched the cost of grain, hay and straw, the cost of vet bills and shoeing. I did a careful profit/loss analysis to determine how much we'd have to charge the boarder in order to break even. I even sketched out a layout for the new barn.

The day was finally upon me: I had to present this proposal to my parents. If Power Point was available in those days, I probably would have used it. I was nervous as I made my pitch, but absolutely confident that I had a winning business idea. It was my first venture capital conference and I wanted the money so badly, I knew I couldn't fail.

It took five minutes to lay out my plan. It took one minute for my parents to tell me that our lake community didn't allow livestock on our property.

My first business failure! I was devastated.

Carnival!

My next business venture was a high school project, running a Carnival on our football field to raise money for the Senior Class. I was in my element! I organized the committee members into teams and assigned them tasks, keeping it all organized on loose-leaf paper in my denim-covered three-ring binder (okay, it was the 70s...denim binders where very cool back then).

With my team of trusty committee members, we called Carnival vendors to ask about rides and games, trying to sound more mature than just a 17 year old. We placed advertisements through the local paper, on bulletin boards, in the school newspaper, and all over town. We carefully stuck to the budget the Principal gave us, and knew how many tickets we had to sell to make a profit.

Early the morning of the Carnival, I was so nervous, that I was afraid to go out on the football field in case something terrible had happened with the setup. In the early dawn light, the volunteers met in the gym for a final briefing; everyone knew their role and were eager to open the gates.

I was never more proud than when I saw lines of cars backed up, waiting to get to the high school parking lot. School students brought their brothers and sisters, mothers and father, neighbors and anyone else they knew. Teachers volunteered to be dunked in the dunking booth, the Principal volunteered to sell tickets to the rides. It was a success!

From then on, I was hooked. Motivating people, organizing projects, and making money at it, was in my blood!

Avon Lady Turns Professional Photographer

It was natural, then, that I chose to go to college to get a Business degree. My first self-employed job was during my college years. With no training, but a lot of willpower and persuasive skills, I became an Avon Lady.

With my trusty 1968 Ford Falcon under me, I drove around my assigned area, gleefully selling makeup and perfume to the neighborhood. Avon was great about teaching its sales associates how to run their business, and their support and encouragement helped me through many rough spots. While I didn’t get rich doing it, it taught me a lot about marketing, selling and running my own business. It also taught me the importance of having mentors and teachers, as well as the support of others doing the same thing.

During college, I had fallen in love with photography, both studio work and nature photography. It was a simple decision to open my own photography business the first year out of college. My roommate at the time was also interested in photography, and together we cobbled up a business card and went looking for work. Our first wedding job scared us to death, but gradually we learned how to run our business. After my business partner moved to California, I ran the studio myself, and many years I was doing over 50 weddings and 25 studio sessions a year.

The Rise and Fall of Corporate America

I started to get burned out of photography work after doing it professionally for 20 years, especially since I was holding down a full-time corporate job at the same time. When I got both a new husband and a job offer as International Director of Training for a software company in the same year, I knew something had to give. I let go of my photography studio and sank gracefully into executive life. For about a month.

I itched to have "something on the side." I loved being self-employed and being my own boss, and even though I enjoyed my corporate work and my team, I wanted more. By this time, the Internet was just being born, and I married my love of technology with my love of conscious living and spirituality: I opened my first website, The Seeker's Circle. The website was a resounding success, but I kept feeling a need to work one-on-one with people, to help them reach their full potential and create the life of their dreams. I was doing this with my corporate staff, and I wanted to do it with more people. Not surprisingly, this is when I first heard about the concept of "coaching."

The more I learned about coaching, the more I knew it was right for me. I started to take classes at CoachU, to speak with other coaches about how they started their businesses. I recruited clients from my Seeker's Circle roster and began working with them part-time in the evenings and weekends while still holding my corporate job. It was like a miracle had fallen into my lap.

Miracles fade. My corporate job, once wonderful and inspiring, was becoming an extraordinarily difficult place to work. Where once we were an entrepreneurial company full of life and promise, we succumbed to the Internet bubble and "went public." Now all the upper management cared about was making money. A new President was hired; we were all pressured to work more hours towards high sales goals.

One day it all fell apart. My boss became verbally abusive. The strain was unbearable. On Friday, driving home from work, I called my husband from my cell phone, and asked, "Would it be alright if I quit my job and just did coaching full time?" Lovely man that he is, he said, "Of course!" On Monday, I handed in my resignation.

I sold The Seeker's Circle business, and devoted myself to small business coaching and consulting full time. I love it! Not only do I get to do coaching and teaching, but I get to work with the group of people I enjoy the most: self-employed small business owners. I can use all my business and marketing knowledge, all my education, all my spirituality, all my resources, and all my Internet savvy to help them grow their business. My experiences as a Carnival organizer, Avon Lady, professional photographer, and internet guru have melded into one, and allow me to share over 27 years of self-employment experience with my clients. I get to work from my home and run my business the way I see fit.

Can life get any better than this?

I think not!