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I'm Kelly - the founder of She Is Fierce! and your host on our blog featuring stories and wisdom from fierce women all over the world! 

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What It’s Like to Start Your Own Business

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When I first left my corporate job I used some stepping stone opportunities to lead me out. I was definitely not one of those cliff jumpers & see what happens kinda gals. I have a very annoying conservative side! Intuition reminded me that leaving a  tap that flowed money to a mirage situation… would be stressful not the actual freedom I was woed by online. Don’t get me wrong I fully admire someone who just leaves their job but GOSH it is NOT the best strategy to start with.

For me I would have built a business from fear and luck. Because even the best laid biz plans come unstuck. Especially in your first year. You actually don’t realize that your first business plan is born unnaturally… But via your corporate mentality, your limiting beliefs and your “shoulds.” You spend the next year desperately wanting people to like you, buy from you and to have your dreams come true. So you can wave your victory flag, not wait… wipe that smug smile from the nay-sayers. You just raised your baby via the ‘books’. Other authors who walked their own paths.

♥ The first year is biz can be totally like having a baby… You don’t know what the hell you are doing hahah. Sure you read the books, go to courses, get a sleep coach and ask the wise old elders. BUT you are still not calling the shots or following your intuition 100%. You and the biz are in full growth, sponge it up mode, let’s see what happens if I do this strategy. Even if you follow a proven model…You will still see it through your corporate eyes. The indoctrinated ideas, values and habits that come from being employed for so long.  Hell you have followed someone else’s vision, mission and strategy… Birthing your own can HURT!

The first few months are wonderful. People visit you, give you encouragement and it’s all you talk about. Then they stop calling, stop turning up and you are left on your own with the business that needs constant feeding, burping and changing!

♥Enter the 2nd year of biz. When you have found your feet, your message, your voice and your tribe. This is the year for substantial money growth & setting down bigger visions.

Be prepared to have sleepless nights, periods where you don’t know if you can do it, days of elation, then days of WTH! You do have to go on this steep learning curve though. To see what it takes to survive the first few years. And believe it or not it has more to do with your mindset than the viability.

 


Natalie Tolhopf

Natalie Tolhopf knows what it’s like to try and fit in where you don’t see how it could work. Working as a chef in male-dominated, hot, and pressurized kitchens, she kept focused on her passion and learned from the best in the UK and Europe.

She took these skills into the development of a new café in New Zealand which made her see how important business planning and systems were. There, she discovered a rewarding love of teaching others how to be their best and realized her own worth and that it is okay to highly value yourself, your skills and experience.

From working in small business, she moved into a hospitality and tourism school tutoring young people in the importance of their own efforts and attitudes in even a large organization. Despite having a two-year-old and another baby on the way, Natalie was given the opportunity to run the business where she was in her flow, pushing the limits.

Knowing some time before that she would take the leap into launching her own business, she waited until the time was right and then … went for it! Natalie stopped playing small. She stopped hiding, stepped up, built upon her own journey,  and started to inspire and uplift women to showcase themselves to catapult their career.

Meet Natalie here… http://www.catapultyourcareer.co.nz

  1. Chrissy Kirkman says:

    Natalie, you NAILED IT! I’m entering month 10 of my freedom from the corporate world, but constantly struggle to change 17 years of corporate mentality. You definitely spoke to many of the challenges I’ve faced. I believe my persistence is helping me move closer to where I SHOULD be, thanks to lessons learned the hard way. Thanks for sharing!

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