My husband and I are 27 years old. Nearly ten years ago, I was more focused on hanging out with the wrong friends and having fun than anything else. Then, I found myself pregnant (oops). We decided to get married. We had no money, didn't even have a job at the time. Thankfully, we did have parents who were supportive, but they didn't rescue us from our adult like consequences at all.
I sat down with a professional life coach (from Pacia Life before it was named that) who asked me a ton of questions. He just took me through the Tatori questions.
"To transform your financial future, the whole basis of your thoughts, education and daily habits must change. Entrepreneurship is not a 9 to 5 job. It's a life style. Entrepreneurship is passion combined with grit" -- Randy Oakley
The questions didn't give me answers, but they did help me to think differently and to see the world full of opportunity. He had a way of teaching through the art of questions, challenging me when I said things that were childlike and holding up a mirror for me that I didn't always want to see. At the same time, our sessions together were empowering and left me feeling that I can do anything I am willing to work for.
One of my many questions was how to be a stay at home Mom and earn a living? Through a series of life coaching sessions that centered around opportunities and entrepreneurship, I started my own Pre-School. I didn't want to be a babysitting service. I wanted to make a difference. Again, my life coach taught me how to use tools like Linked In and other connections to search across the country for innovative curriculum and ideas. I didn't have a college education, but I did quickly learn how to tap into others who had gone through this process before. At one point, I flew to Dallas Texas to learn from another pre-school owner. With a lot of mentorship and personal study, I learned to write my own specialized pre-school curriculum.
Three years later, I had expanded my pre-school to three different locations. I learned a lot and made some much-needed money. My life coach ad mentors taught me simple things like, how to hire people smarter than myself, how to develop a curriculum and product that people valued, how to create price points that the market would accept, always operating a business with integrity, how to get and keep repeat customers, city and state regulations, etc.
I also learned how to find additional life coaches both in Salt Lake City and in Florida that helped me and my very young husband at the time how to start our second business. And, eventually, our third business.
After three years of running my pre-school, I called my life coach back up and asked, "How do you sell a business?" Again, he didn't tell me the answers but he helped me think differently once again so I could do differently. Six weeks later, I had an offer to buy my pre-school. I called my coach. He simply told me, "Take the offer" and then hung up. I sold Impressions Pre-School.
Today, my husband and I own two businesses and on average, we have been able to put $2,000 a month into our savings account over the past three years.
Our life coaches have taught us simple financial principals of how to live within our means, enjoy traveling and how important money in our bank accounts is to our overall health and happiness. But perhaps the most important thing I have learned is that the choices I make today will create my life tomorrow. I have learned that to run a successful business, I have to run a success home. I have learned that even simple things like healthy eating and how I treat my husband are directly tied to my business success.
We still meet or talk with our life coaches nearly every week. We read books, watch TED Talks, etc. every day. It used to be hard but now it's just a daily habit. We travel across the country every chance we get to attend conferences, workshops and meet with other entrepreneurs. And most of all, we enjoy our lives and our family.