Lifestyle businesses, not unicorns

I used to be an equity salesman, working for various investment banks in the City for more than twenty years. It was a gruelling schedule: in the office each weekday by 6.30 am, the interminable business trips, entertaining clients, office politics, calling clients day in day out and meeting arbitrary targets. After the birth of my third child, I started to question the point of it all. I was working for others, a slave to my line manager, for my division, for my firm, for my CEO and for the shareholders. I started to hate the work, I had no choice as to who my clients were, zero flexibility, no real stake in my business and little time to see my children grow up and enjoy life. I then made a conscious decision to change career and set up my own financial planning business and work for myself. It wasn't the easiest shift at first. I had to learn the ropes, pass an awful lot of exams, motivate myself, network, prospect and create a client book from scratch. The first year, I earned very little. Despite all the difficulties, it was the best decision I ever made. I get to choose to work with clients who I really like, and who like me. I have no boss and I am finally in charge of my own destiny, and future. I can create time to spend with my wife and children and be there for the truly important moments in their lives. I can take holidays when I want, and work when I need to. Of course, there are plenty of challenges. You are constantly thinking about your business and yes, on average, it's less money. But you are remunerated directly for the work you do and rewarded for your successes. You are also building a business that has a reputation and a value. You create a close-knit community of clients and truly help make a difference in their lives. You are fully invested in their futures and they appreciate that. To me, that's priceless.

I set up Grey Parrot Financial Planning a couple of years ago with my business partner, and we initially thought we were creating a lifestyle business. But when we sat down and looked at it, we realised that to do that, the business would need to run itself. Our initial idea of a lifestyle business was a small operation with a support team, but that meant if we were not there, no one else would bring new business in. The business would fail quickly, so like many other small business owners, the idea of a lifestyle business turned out to be a myth. We realised that for the business to be a lifestyle business, it needs to be self-managing. It would attract new clients, look after existing ones and operate efficiently without us being there. For that to be possible, we realised we needed to focus on building a great team of people to help build, manage and grow the business. That's the path we are on now. We have an adviser academy for the next generation and career changers in the pipeline. Maybe one day, the business will be a lifestyle business, but there is a lot of hard work before we get there.

Following a successful fast-track career in banking and then running my own successful businesses in Asia, I finally felt like I was doing something of note. I stopped worrying about money and realised that work was my passion and threw myself into it. Then my father had a cardiac arrest, my world was thrown upside down and as an only child I decided to put my career on hold and returned to the UK to spend more time with my parents. Thankfully my father recovered. Having sold my interest in my overseas business and having rebased myself close to my parents, I realised that I was going to get bored quite quickly. Therefore, with there not being any local hedge funds or private equity firms to advise close by, I decided to reinvent myself as a mortgage broker in September last year. It's still finance, just a different calibre of client to what I was used to (and far smaller amounts involved). My goal was to make a comfortable £50k a year, enough to live nicely and not have to worry too much. The role came naturally to me and now randomly, one year later, the business has skyrocketed. We have expanded to seven other brokers and have a support team of six. We expect to end our first year with revenues of over £300k and next year predicted to be over £1m. The firm has also moved into other areas with business finance, technology development and education. I'm still shocked that the job I decided to do for fun and to help a few people get good advice when investing in property has taken off at such a pace. Clearly, the market was crying out for a broker that went the extra mile but at the same time, I find it quite stunning that it wasn't until I stopped looking for growth that it made it easy to achieve.

Having spent many years in the corporate world, in various financial advisory roles, there always seemed to be something missing for me. Don't get me wrong, I mostly enjoyed the work, but I could never quite get a true feeling of personal fulfilment. Even when I spent a few years earning good money as a self-employed contractor, something wasn't quite right. Work felt like a means to an end, rather than being a reason for living. The Japanese concept of Ikigai refers to enjoying a life of deep fulfilment and purpose. A reason for being. Crucially, there are four ingredients. You need to find work that you love, that you're good at, for which you get paid and, importantly, something that the world needs. I could not always convince myself that 'the world' needed what I was doing, even if the other three ingredients were present. I was satisfied, but felt a bit empty. A little bit useless. The magic of a lifestyle business is that you have the mandate to spend your time and work efforts in line with your values. Your business and your life become one. And without the pressure of external investors, it's possible to live your life in your own way. For me, there’s nothing quite like driving to my favourite beach and working from the back of my VW campervan. I help individuals and couples in their 40s and 50s to build financial confidence and create bold, exciting plans for the future. In doing so, I get to see more people nudge closer to that concept of Ikigai. It's the most rewarding work of my life. But a lifestyle business this must remain. Such empowering work cannot be commoditised for the sake of investor returns.

I set up my own mortgage brokerage firm at the peak of the pandemic and when we had the third lockdown. I was already working for another brokerage on a self-employed basis since December 2018. Currently, it is me in my company, but I want to have at least one admin staff and no more than four other brokers. This would then allow me to work on the business and not in the business. This will enable me to be more than happy, have at least four holidays per year, and have a very comfortable income coming in. So, basically, creating a lifestyle business. I have not looked back since starting my own firm, as it has allowed me to work around my children's needs, and allowed me to attend all their school events. This is something that was difficult when being employed.

Changing career just after turning 50 was my dream. I had always helped friends and family with their financial money management queries and loved it, so I set up as a money coach. Now, at 58, I love delivering talks, coaching individuals and couples, and also running online courses. It has been a big learning curve and I've also learned more about my own relationship with money. My aim was to make my life easier and a bit more profitable, but I was never looking to grow big. My first goal was to help people and still have my freedom to take days off when I wanted to. This works perfectly for me. No shame, just freedom.

In 2016, I was employed by a corporate national estate agent, working very long hours. I was, however, remunerated very well for my efforts. My focus was to drive my career forward as quickly as possible. That all changed when my first son was born. It became clear within the first six months of him being born that I had a choice to make: drive my career on, and miss out on seeing my son grow up, or risk it all and go it alone. I launched Mortgage Republic when my son was about eight-months old, he is now seven years old and has a 5-year-old brother. Mortgage Republic has been structured to allow me the time and flexibility to spend time experiencing my children grow up. My main goal is to ensure that the company is stable and provides for my family (and those families of our employees) but recreating the beast I left behind is of no interest to me nowadays. This balance has allowed my wife to also pursue her career in balance with my own endeavours. Like many two-parent working families, the balance of parenting and working is tricky to find, and having my own business makes this much easier for us to navigate.

To be the 'archetypal' unicorn these days, generally requires selling your dream (and possibly your soul) to venture capital firms. Having looked into this route, I realised fairly quickly that it wasn't for me or my business, Health Travel. Going down that route is like switching train tracks and once you are on that new track, you cannot get off. You are on it for the whole ride, even if it means crashing spectacularly. In following that route, you will likely be pushed to focus on growth at all costs, pumping up your headline figures to hit ever higher valuation multiples rather than focus on developing a sustainable profitable venture. That was not the path my business partner and I wanted to take for our business. As it turns out, this was the right decision for us, as we are now growing quickly but in a manageable and profitable way. At the same time, we are able to be obsessive about improving our client experience, constantly improving how we serve them. Having spent a long time in the consulting and corporate world, where you can spend months making PowerPoint decks to justify doing things, it is very liberating to be able to work on a business where you are free to make the decisions that you see fit on a daily basis.

I had enjoyed more than a decade of an exciting but demanding corporate career with long hours and a long commute before I set up by myself. I recall back then trying to fathom how I was possibly going to have children and a career that was so demanding of my time and energy. I also didn't see the point of giving birth to my babies and putting them straight into a nursery. It was just so counter-intuitive to me. So I embarked on self-employed freelance work, so that I could 'keep my hand in' in my industry. I worked the hours I could give around nap times whilst my children were small, then day nursery care hours, and then school hours as my children grew. In step with my growing children's independence, I eventually moved into running my digital marketing agency full-time. Although I am a lot poorer for it, and my pension prospects are virtually non-existent, I wouldn't change a thing if I had the choices to make again. I am comfortable with how my obituary will read when my time comes, and ultimately that's all we are on this earth for three score years and ten to achieve.

I'm a black autistic founder, who scaled up once then learned through serious illness to value life and lifestyle. I founded a workplace wellbeing and inclusion agency in 2020 and have decided to keep it bespoke, small and agile. We've won a variety of National Awards in that time and had some great recognition, and I've been lucky enough to be inducted into the Black Cultural Archives for services to Business. Why a small lifestyle business? Firstly, I scaled a videogame business from 2008, and went on the intense journey chasing success as a Black founder. In 2014, my immune system failed, and I had to learn to walk again, and this reframed my vision of success and the balance of my life. This was amplified by receiving an autism diagnosis, getting me clearer on creating a business that was much better for me to work within. Chasing revenue and Ebitda ended up with me trading my health, and now I'm building something that takes my experience and creates a legacy without burning myself out, and I get to spend a lot of time with my children, which I value now that I live with a chronic condition.

I'm not necessarily looking to be the next Elon Musk, however, I'm genuinely at my happiest when 'working'. Ultimately, that's because my business purpose aligns with my personal passion. There's no greater feeling I get than when my business is working according to plan, the team is thriving and we're making a positive impact on our society by building homes for those truly in need. I'm not money-motivated or materialistic, all I care about is that the business is working and we're able to do more and create more of an impact.

I hate the label 'lifestyle business'. It's seen as negative, typically attributed to women, and seems to suggest a lack of commercial acumen. I am a business owner. I contribute to the economy, through my taxes, my income and also in the £38m in contracts and funding I have helped my clients (small, medium and large) to secure in the past seven years. Every small business owner's "why" is unique to them. The sacrifices that they make to set out on their own need no label, but should be encouraged and celebrated. They are fearless, agile and 4.2m small businesses have no employees at all. We may be micro but we are mighty in number.

For me, the need to set up my business was more about creating a legacy than financial gain. I wanted to change the world of work. My goal is to set businesses and people up to thrive in a 'post-work' environment and I've never been particularly bothered about the financial side of what I do, which probably means that I will never be rich. As a woman coming up in a predominantly male game (media), I felt that I had to face challenges and behaviours that now, as a parent, I would never want my children to experience. So the only thing I felt left to do, was to walk away from my Fleet Street six figure salary and take the world of work on through establishing The Find Your Flex Group. Don't get me wrong, it's cost me more than we made in the first four years of business. But now, in year five, we're getting there and we're actually starting to make those changes in global, large and SME businesses, one step and one year at a time.

I set up my business in 2016 after being made redundant. Part of the reason for doing it was to work at my own pace. Having worked in central London for four years, the daily grind of commuting and never-ending meetings was something I didn't want to repeat. When I started my business, I thought long and hard about what I wanted it to be. I decided that I would be the only person in it, and I would work the hours needed to maintain my now, much simpler, lifestyle. This time next year, I won't be a millionaire. But what I do have is a happy, stress-free life. Any stress associated with my business feels worth it, because, in the end, it benefits me. I'm happier and healthier. It's also allowed me to approach peri-menopause in my way, taking all the time my body needs to adjust to the change without worrying about my job. It's the best decision I ever made.

At the age of 24 I set up my first recruitment agency. Now, at the age of 45, I am running my second. Over the years, I could have followed the path of many of my recruitment agency friends and colleagues and grown a substantial business, but the headaches and stresses that go along with that were not for me. I wanted financial freedom and running my own business allows me to send my children to the best schools, to afford to create life-long memories for my family and to be comfortable. I also enjoy the fact that I can achieve all of this whilst still taking time out during the day to take the dog for a walk or to be at the school hockey match without feeling tied down to a team and a board. It's a win-win.

Bores was originally set up back in 1988, and while there's been some transformation over time it's always been a family lifestyle business rather than aiming to be the next unicorn. That still applies today, as after a quiet period of semi-retirement by the original founders, I have taken it over and am bringing in more of the family to work within it. The purpose is to provide options and a comfortable lifestyle rather than pursue riches, and with our niche expertise it's been going well so far.

For me, starting my own business was never about taking over the world or dominating the industry. My company, T & Belle, was founded in 2019 with the aim of building a life for myself where I could work flexibly around my young children. I found myself increasingly unable to do this in my previous career as a web developer and having developed the business as a side hustle, I was finally able to take the leap to fully self-employed in March 2021. My mental health, my family and my customers will always come before any plans to grow the business.

I simply want to be able to freely enjoy being at my children's nativity, at every school pick-up with open arms, and spending each and every school holiday with them. The additional income from running my business is welcome and it keeps my mind active. I absolutely love inspiring other families to read together with my Storyboxes, but my children come first and I never want to get to the point where my children fit around the business. They are the inspiration behind my business and are what makes me happy, so I'll pick being with them every time over being the next Elon Musk. The income from the business currently allows us extra freedom to do things together as a family and whilst extra turnover and profits would allow us to do more lavish things, I'm not willing to seek this increase to the detriment of time with my children.

If you mean running a business that allows me to live the lifestyle I want, then I'm definitely running a 'lifestyle business'. To be honest, as an Aussie, I have never lived to work but rather worked to live, and love that building my business is allowing me that freedom. My main motivation isn't cash but to restore faith in the web design and SEO industry and help more women to get into the tech industry. The fact that I get to do that and be part of the small business economy is plenty for me. There is such a thing as wanting a balance between building a successful business and having a life outside of it. It just takes dedication on both fronts.

We set up For Me & For You from our garage in 2013. We had an 18-month-old daughter and I had just started a new job with an advertising agency in Manchester. My wife and I had been creating art and pieces for our home for a little while, selling locally at the Macclesfield Treacle Market. After a stressful few months, working hours that saw me not seeing our daughter from Sunday to Thursday, we decided that I should leave the advertising industry and we should try to carve out a living selling our work. In 2014 I started working full-time on our little business and I haven't looked back. We decided that being able to pick our hours and be there for our two children was more important than making lots of money. Over the past eight years, we've always been there to pick our kids up from school, we've not missed a performance and during the summer and Christmas we are always together as a family. Whilst we don't make huge amounts of money, we've been able to support ourselves financially, eventually buying our first home in 2022. We work hard to make the business a success, but if we want to step back from it for any reason, we can. We may be tired, but we feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do what we want.

I'm not a fan of the term 'lifestyle business', it removes a focus on the impact we make in our specialism. I'm technically in a 'lifestyle business' because I care more about supporting and taking control of myself, my family and my community than I am about contributing to systematic huge wealth divides through a shareholder-led business. I am an outsourced Operations Director. I help small business owners to reduce their wasteful business practices, allowing them to run a leaner business model leaning to improved staff happiness. Our impact goes beyond the money we make. It's the impression that we leave on people and the planet and that is my main driver.

When I stared my luxury wallpaper and fabrics business, The Monkey Puzzle Tree in 2016, I was accepted into a business accelerator. It was all pitching, investment, and (confusingly to me) exit strategy. ‘Lifestyle’ was a dirty word and the aggressive tech bros and girls were boom or bust and ‘Fake it till you make it’, none of which was what I wanted. In order to take the incredible financial and emotional risk of starting a business I felt that it had to stand for my values. Otherwise, I may as well go back to a reliable income accompanied by the niggling feeling that I should be doing something more worthwhile. I am used to being the breadwinner for our family so I need to make an income, but I am not in need of excessive wealth. In fact, I want my business to fund others’ modest lifestyles, too. So my business is built on what my husband calls the ‘Robin Hood’ model. I collaborate with unique and unknown artists to create multi-award-winning fabrics and wall coverings for those who are better off than us. I pay the artists a huge 20% royalty on the sale price of our designs. I have personal experience of the results of the decline in the manufacturing industry in the North of England, so we produce everything within 100 miles of our Leeds studio to help support those jobs and skills. The business has grown frustratingly slowly. I am still waiting to hit the revenue goals, which resulted in my being thrown out of the accelerator five years ago. But we are still here, winning awards and steadily gaining more high-profile customers. Eventually, I think it might pay off being the tortoise rather than the hare.

Having worked in TV and run a video production company for nearly 30 years, Covid had me putting my one-day smartphone video training course online and thus began a steep learning curve into how to market my services online. Being able to return to my childhood passion of horse riding has been a major career rethink motivator. The joy of going for a two-hour hack along the Cotswolds way and coming back to the yard to see someone has purchased my Smartphone Video Pro course is a great moment. I get huge satisfaction knowing I can really make a difference to small business owners who can't afford to outsource their video content. The days of big shoots, celebrity wrangling and travels away from home are not something I miss any more. Being able to grow my online course business and the freedom of going riding on a glorious winter morning albeit with less money in my account is, for me at 57, a perfectly happy trade-off in life.

What price can you put on low stress, high independence and complete control? CV Shed has generated enough money over the years that I can pay the bills, put family first and keep my chocolate habit supplied. I see no benefit in growing it further. It would take time away from what’s important to me and create stress I don’t need. I’d be losing rather than gaining. The pursuit of ever-increasing pots of money is baffling to me as I can’t imagine a greater luxury than being around for my kids, enjoying my social life and pursuing my studies. I consider myself extremely lucky to have found the perfect work-life balance and plan to continue long past the point that the kids become independent. That said, I love what I do and will happily put in more hours at work if I don’t feel that I’m compromising on the rest of life.

I never liked the title 'Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator" anyway. It's a job title that makes you live in dread that a comedian is going to pick you out and ask you what you do, and quite often I would be crying on the way to work. So, when redundancy was offered, I jumped at the opportunity and decided to see if I really could live the dream. I go under the name "TreeHuggery", as wherever I've worked I've been called a tree-hugging hippy, and I make quirky sculptures from found bits and pieces. I'm lucky enough not to have a mortgage and I'm not sure I would have the nerve to live this lifestyle otherwise. I live a modest lifestyle and I make enough to pay the bills. Without the redundancy offer, I would probably never have made the decision to leave a well-paid job. I'm pretty sure I would still be a hamster on a treadmill, but I love this lifestyle, I work from home, so now I have the time to have a dog, chat with people in the street and I make things that people want to buy, I feel like I have the nicest life. Whilst I don't have much money, my life really is rich in so many other ways. When I look at people working overtime to pay for expensive holidays that they're treating themselves to because they work so hard, I'm pretty sure that I appreciate my one week a year in Norfolk just as much, if not more.

I left corporate life eight years ago after a successful 26-year career with a FTSE 100 company. I thought long and hard about whether I was making the right decision as I was in a senior position, but I felt if I didn’t give running my own business a go, I’d look back and regret not taking the opportunity. I wanted to focus on the things I enjoyed doing and not the things I had to do. I also wanted to be out of the politics and bureaucracy that come with working as an employee of a large business. I now work with a wide variety of businesses of all sizes from sole traders to large international companies across many sectors. The past three years have been tough but things are picking up again. The pandemic provided me with the opportunity to review what I was doing, how I delivered it and where I focused my time and money. I now deliver about 80% of my training virtually and 20% face to face. This saves me travel time and costs and allows me to work globally. It’s just me in my business and that’s how I want it to stay. I value the autonomy, variety, flexibility and choice that I now have. Those things are much more important to me than building an empire.

La Zouch Soaps was a lockdown business, when I turned my hobby into a company, based on the premise that many more people would be washing their hands in future. This was a good move as I then lost my job later on in the pandemic. My aim isn't to rule the world, but to have the flexibility to do the school run, take time off when I like, and to enjoy work while being able to live my life the way I want to. Balance is everything, so I'm working flat out now in the run-up to Christmas, whilst knowing that January will be quiet. But that's ok, it means I can take stock, develop new products, and relax a bit more. I feel sorry for Elon and his ilk: there's much more to work than unicorns.

I spent a lifetime trying to be a unicorn, probably achieved it some of the time, but now I want contentment, joy, satisfaction and a sustainable income that allows me to literally balance work and pleasure. I chose my last two jobs due to my passions and they have bought immense joy. My catering business finished with a ridiculous amount of stress due to Covid and the cancellation of a whole business. So I chose wisely for what I hope will be an adventure into and beyond retirement as I plan to work until I drop. Offering bespoke travel experiences allows me to work with clients I like. This is extremely important, as life is literally too short to work with people who don't get you. I work alongside a huge organisation that support me, but can't tell me what to do. My life is my own, but I can choose to join in if I want. The perfect solution for a woman approaching 60 with bills to pay and holidays to take. My holidays are now my job. Literally, what could be better than that?

I started my crochet business approximately six years ago when I struggled to find a job that would fit around childcare and pets. I started selling in small independent shops and craft fairs, then Etsy and eventually on my own website. I now have three crochet ladies who do piece work for me and I’m now at the point where I have just enough to pay the bills and a bit more. I’ll never be rich but I love designing and making things. The best part is I can do what I want when I want without having to faff around with booking time off work for holidays or childcare issues etc.

While world domination would be nice, or maybe even not, ultimately, I want to be happy and have some decent quality time with my children. I'm not saying I've got that balance right just yet but we are working hard on putting solid foundations in place for the business and feel that putting that effort in now will hopefully pay off later down the line when we can be comfortable, independent and happy.

Having worked in advertising agencies for a large part of my career, I know what it's like to be in an 'always-on' environment. When you move to create a social change business, your idea of success changes, which is a big mindset shift from the corporate world where title and money are the drivers and this takes time to adapt to. As much as I loved my job I knew I wanted to drive change in the world, especially when I knew that the stereotypes I saw in the business world could be tracked to the stereotypes we learn in childhood. Now, my driver is creating meaningful change for future generations. So I now measure success on the impact I am having in the world, and with my purpose-led business, I also have flexibility in my life, which is invaluable.

I was a teacher for 17 years. It was supposed to be a fulfilling career helping children develop into the amazing adults I knew they could be. Instead it because a debilitating job where every last drop of energy was drawn from you by a broken system that expected staff to give all of themselves because they’d chosen to work in a caring profession. It damn near killed me and I’m in awe of the people who are making it work. A short time into running my art business full time, I am finding the fulfilment and joy that I was looking for. I am starting to pay myself a wage and grow the business. I have no desire to change the world, only to bring some colour and joy to people’s homes while paying my bills and being comfortable.

I used to look down my nose at lifestyle businesses. "They're not real businesses," I would tell myself, as I prepared to become the next Richard Branson or Alan Sugar. Then, one day while reading Lord Sugar's autobiography after becoming a new parent, one line made me stop in my tracks: "I never really saw my kids much when they were growing up." Damn! How had I got it so wrong? From that day, I've embraced an "ambitious, lifestyle business" ethos - whereby I still have drive and ambition, but not at the expense of my family or my health (I'd already had one nervous breakdown in my twenties). Fast forward thirteen years, and I've now written three bestselling books advocating for the ambitious, lifestyle business mindset. I also coach lifestyle business owners, encouraging them to spend as little time as possible actually working in their businesses, and, for the past six years have hosted the Ambitious, Lifestyle Business podcast, interviewing fellow lifestyle business owners, to see how they have designed their businesses to deliver their ideal lifestyle. My business exists for one reason only, ant that's to provide the lifestyle I want.

I started my business because I was unhappy with the ethics and quality of baby and kids products marketed to parents as 'essentials'. They're cheaply made by people who aren't paid fair wages and they break before they can be passed on. I wanted something different than you find in the high street baby and kids retailers, and ironically many of those businesses haven't survived. I've never aimed to replace them and become a huge chain. The term 'lifestyle business' is often attributed to brands that are driven by purpose not profit. It's viewed as a negative because those businesses aren't 'scalable' but not everyone associates success with wealth. A successful business for me would be one where I can replace my old (social work) salary, work flexibly around my family and be able to donate a good percentage of profits to organisations working in my local community. I've been so close to this but due to the current climate I've stopped paying myself a salary and have gone back to my 'day job' in Social Work part-time. A business coach recently advised me to 'loosen up on ethics' in order to become more profitable, a clear sign we were a bad fit. I can't lose sight of the values that led me to start Smallkind. I'll keep going because for me the 'unicorn' moment would be taking that 'just enough' salary for a job I love to do.

If you appreciate the simpler things life has to offer, namely time, the outdoors, friends and family, then I do think that’s possible with a small business where you’re not always chasing numbers. Certainly things are harder now with the current financial and economic woes, with most small businesses feeling it hard. But, Boho Silver, an artisan micro business that emerged from a difficult personal situation has so far allowed me to enjoy a lifestyle that I appreciate. That lifestyle is not one of new cars and exotic holidays, but instead the luxury of organising my weeks to suit my own schedule; to run on the trails and spend time with people that bring good energy. In my case, circumstances necessitated a change in career path, but maybe you’ve got to hit the buffers to slow right down and realise what’s important in life? Boho Silver came into being when my daughter experienced problems in her first year at University and had to return home for help and support. We spent a lot of time together, walking and collecting sea glass along the Scottish shoreline. In time, we started to create unique handmade pieces of jewellery with reclaimed sea glass and recycled sterling silver. The result has been a sustainable, planet-friendly micro business with a loyal band of return customers. Boho Silver has acted as a healing remedy through difficult times, including the pandemic, providing focus and giving an outlet for creative expression at a time when things had felt extremely bleak. Collecting sea glass and creating jewellery can be almost meditative. But more than that, it’s given me an opportunity to reappraise how I wish to be moving forward. Focusing on what brings me joy, and keeping unwanted pressure and negativity to a minimum, are key. It's not easy by a long shot, but being answerable only to yourself is a good feeling. Creating beautiful one-off pieces of jewellery that people love brings incredible joy, and it’s such a kick to see your work being appreciated and worn by others. Boho Silver has also meant meeting likeminded artists, connecting and collaborating in interesting ways. In many ways, this tiny business has helped me reacquaint with myself. It has brought happiness, but will it bring wealth? Hell no, but it allows flexibility each day and the opportunity to explore new ideas and directions, while putting a few coins in the coffers that allow the odd treat. A recent day trip to swim with basking sharks in the Hebrides was one recent experience my daughter saved to do. Having this little business is a passion, and it does give a feeling of being more in control of my own destiny, but perhaps that’s an illusion. If so, I’m happy to sit with it and enjoy the ride, and smell the roses as I do so.

If you’re happy in job, you’ll never work a day in your life. Cliche? Nope, fact. My business is my happy place, it has shaped me, fulfilled me and given me so much joy that it’s easy to give so much of myself to it. Money is great, we all need it, but what’s the point if you are stressed, anxious or miserable? Even if I won the lottery you’d still find me here doing what I do.

Creating a business that makes you happy is the key to building a good life. I have worked hard to build up our organic skincare company because working with natural ingredients is my passion. I teach basic foraging and take groups of young people out to learn about nature and the abundance that grows around us because I absolutely love it. To me, being in business for myself is about the happiness it brings, to myself and my family. As long as I can keep a roof over our heads and put food on the table, I will continue to do what I enjoy and genuinely love, over a high-paying job that leaves me miserable and stressed out.

After a successful career in IT and business development, I was reassessing my life and decided to turn my passion — alternative health — into my career. I am now facilitating Laughter Yoga classes (a great stress release and team building tool) and I teach TRE® (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) a somatic stress release tool that can alleviate (head) aches and (back) pains. I won't ever run a unicorn, but supporting my clients in this way and observing their transformation is not a fairy-tale unicorn scenario, but down-to-earth rewarding.

We set up Wildcat Law last year to enable lawyers to be able to practice law but enjoy a better lifestyle with a decent income. A legal career is traditionally long hours in city centre offices. I have never wanted to conform to that norm, and after having two children I saw the impact maternity leave could have on a woman's career in law. That drove me to want to change the rules and enable working parents and carers the option to practice law flexibly. We started the business as a lifestyle business allowing my husband to move away from city work involving significant travel and time away from home. We rapidly found a demand from other lawyers and we have far outstripped our expectations less than two years in, mainly because so many lawyers want the same dream. We now have lawyers dotted around the country able to practice law from home, working hours that suit their families and lifestyle. The dream is not to be multi-millionaires, instead we wanted to be able to see our eldest in school plays, football matches, even do homework together and to spend time with our youngest before she goes to school. Now we are getting to help others achieve the same dreams.

After the best part of 30 years in corporate life, I took redundancy and set up my marketing agency just as lockdown struck. No clients... No income... No problem, I kept telling myself. Working for multinationals took its toll. I don't think I was burnt out, but I gave the best years of my life to making shareholders richer and surrounding myself with expensive luxuries that I thought made me happy. Now my stress was centred around how I was going to replace the six-figure salary when I had to start back at square one. I had enough redundancy to see me through at least six months and although I did not see it at the time, lockdown was good timing as it gave me the space I needed to hone what I was going to offer as a marketing consultant. After a lot of networking and 'kissing a lot of frogs', I picked up a few clients for projects, I got paid, but the cycle is relentless and you have to keep filling the leaky bucket. Then I took on managing the marketing for a company as an outsourced marketing agency. I managed all of the marketing for them. This gave a regular monthly income and this is the model I have now applied. One turned to two turned to 5, turned to 7 and then the big question... how do I expand and, to use a buzzword, scale up? Do I bring in employees? Hire another me? Rent an expensive office? This must be the way, right? More people to manage clients, more income each month.... bigger house, better car... But after a lot of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I was just chasing the rainbow, that pot of gold, that you never really get to enjoy, as you just keep chasing more and more. Seven clients all paying a monthly amount is more than enough for me to maintain a decent lifestyle and not far off replacing my six figure salary, and the best bit is... I answer to no-one. Maybe it's my age? (over 50), maybe it's becoming a dad late in life, maybe it's the realisation that all of life's expensive chattels are really just... stuff, and frankly, I don't need another Rolex or the latest TV, as the ones I have work perfectly fine. So two years on and I have freedom, which is something that money can buy and you don't need to be a millionaire to do it. For me, it's about working to live, not the other way around. I can run my business from anywhere in the world and I am now lucky enough to be able to say 'no' to clients if I can't service them properly with my current resources. I wish I had taken this jump years ago, but you can't turn back time, I just need to make the most of it and be HAPPY with my newfound freedom.

Personally, I think if you don't push forward, you will fall back. Family, life and work balance is very very important, but being able to confidently push your business on is also part of doing business. Build and maintain, then build again. You don't need to be a peacock, just be able to gather your crowd and help new people to come onboard. Why be good at your job if you can't help as many people as possible?

Create a life you don't need a holiday from. That’s my mantra and has been for the past five years. I have built my franchise by design: a business that allows me to make the money I need to live the lifestyle I want. That choice, for me, is an old farmhouse on Dartmoor with two rescue ponies. That’s not to say for a second that I’m not ambitious, I am. Fiercely. But ambition to me is living my happiest, most fulfilled life. I don’t need a publicly-listed company to do that. The Passionate PA is a business with soul. It’s a business that helps our clients achieve momentum and results in their businesses. I hand-pick franchisees for their commercial background AND career awakening. There is absolutely a way to make £5k a month whilst working predominantly from home, with great clients and being surrounded by a team that are passionate about their own definition of success. Helping my franchisees live happy fulfilled lives is 100% my ‘unicorn’. Nobody runs a franchise like I do, and I’m proud of that. Life is too damn short to spend it living for the weekends or ruining your health and relationships in the pursuit of money alone.

I finally managed to get off the corporate merry-go-round in October 2021 so that I could focus completely on my new small business, not the best timing admittedly. After falling victim to ME due to the daily stresses of corporate life, I wanted to live stress-free and be happy, even if that meant not having the disposable income I'd been used to. With the pandemic and now the current cost of living crisis, I'm still working at getting my business to where it's giving me the steady but humble income I need to pay my monthly bills, but I wouldn't trade my life now for where I was three years ago. Plus, I now get to help people with what I do for a living and can truly make a difference. What's not to like?