CONFESSIONS OF A SMALL TIME BUSINESS OWNER

Katie Laurie - happiness yoga

Are you thinking about launching into your new career, dream job or own small business in the near future? That was me 6 months ago. Since diving in I've had my share of triumphs, failures and a whole of a lot of learning. Here's the inside scoop from the life of this first time small business owner.

The thing that makes people take drastic action to change their circumstances is different in almost every case. Some people have a dream that they have been planning for years. These inspired souls are motivated by moving towards pleasure/positive outcomes in their lives. This is a great way to be! Since our WHY dictates so much of our WHAT in the present moment, fueling your actions on clearly defined big picture goals is a fantastic way to get yourself out of bed in the morning.

I'm not one of those people.

I'm one of the other kinds of people. My tribe and I are motivated by moving away from pain. In my particular case, I got sick. Not a cold or flu kind of sick and not the life threatening kind of sick either (thank goodness) My digestive tract rebelled. I had intense nausea, fatigue, debilitating stomach cramps and an intimate relationship with the porcelain thrones in my house (and everywhere else too) for months on end. While my job didn't directly cause my illness, it contributed. It got bad enough that I was willing to change my job, my lifestyle and my diet.

I walked away from what had seemed up to this point a rather linear career progression. I hadn't planned on making any, let alone ALL of the changes I did in my life. I was scared- launching out into uncharted territory was a far cry from the comfortable lifestyle I was used too. I was good at my job. I had money to pay my bills. I had lots of super people and hobbies in my life. But none of that was worth getting sick again. I was scared of the consequences and costs of changing but I was much MORE scared about what would happen if I didn't.

So I left my secure, well paying job in education and decided to open a small business. I knew next to nothing about what I was doing. I had to borrow money. I knew I would be putting my household (me, my husband, our 8 year old son) under financial pressure as I fumbled through it. I knew there would be stress, uncertainty and the very real danger of failure. So why was I doing this again?

Before I completely jumped ship on my life, I took 6 months off on long service leave. I was very lucky to have an accommodating boss and a supportive family and spouse. During this sabbatical from my normal life, I met a business coach through a workshop I took on a whim. I decided to work with him for a few months.

We held a Wellness Expo in a rural high school as a way of generating a small income. He assured me that I could do this with such raw confidence that it never occurred to me that I couldn’t. So I did. Did I make any money? No. Did the Expo succeed in all the other ways that were important? Yes. The experience was invaluable in a completely different way than I had anticipated.

For the first time in a long time, I realised that I was a person that could do things. I was the someone in the sentence... "Someone should do something about this." A simplistic concept on paper but it was like waking up to discover I had a super power. I watched other people work with this same coach and they held events, workshops and successful gala nights. Nothing was as perfect, polished or financially beneficial as the ideals we had constructed in our heads but that was irrelevant. Things had happened because a few people had a conversation, shared an idea and took action towards it. It was a game changer.

And so, buoyed up by a small slice of triumph and a large serve of hope and naivety, my husband and I decided on opening a yoga studio. It happened during a rare weekend away when the luxury of being in a new place and the delicious feeling of being away from the less glamorous realities of our everyday life intoxicated us. Suddenly it didn't seem like such a hard or unrealistic goal. There was no good venue to teach pop up yoga classes in our area. So we would make one. Just like that. We didn't know why we hadn't done it before.

BAM! The decision to change our lives made over the space of a cup of coffee in a Sunshine Coast AirBnB.

Then we came home and it seemed hard again. Except not too hard- there was too much excitement and hope in the air to let the difficulties or details faze us. With the sure conviction that we would, we forged ahead and jumped all the hurdles that rose up in our way. On December 27th 2017 we decided on a Hot Yoga Studio in the coastal suburb of Bargara, about 15 minutes drive from the city of Bundaberg. On the 17th of February 2018, the doors open to the aforementioned Happiness Hot Yoga and Pilates studio.

What happened in the month and a half that separated those two defining dates?

Stay tuned and I'll fill you in next month. So much can happen in the span of 31 days- that is a truth I've lived for sure.