Strategic Partner Spotlight: Sarah Furuya Coaching- Celebrating 5 Years in Business

As I write this, it is 5 years to the day since I quit my job, hopped on a plane to NYC and went to a three-day event called ‘Rich, Happy and Hot Live’ with 500 entrepreneurs and the world’s finest soulful online entrepreneurs. It was a brilliant way to enter my entrepreneurial life and my words for that year had been ‘elegant change’ and ‘valuable stories’. ‘Elegant change’ because I wanted to exit the job I had long-since grown out of and ‘valuable stories’ because I had no idea what was coming next.

Fast forward 5 years and I have a thriving small business with three arms:

• First is one-to-one coaching done mostly by Skype where we work to be more truthful and have a better experience of life
• Second, I support and coach executive clients and consult HR on inclusion initiatives and culture change
• Finally, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility): I run workshops and speak for FEW, provide discounts and sponsored coaching spaces and run a seasonal clothes swap for 90 women

Small business is sometimes super smooth and business finds its way to you; other times you have to market your butt off and create and communicate new propositions. It’s tremendous fun being a small biz owner, you build community, and have freedom to choose your style, income and tribe.

Takeaways from 5 years are to have fun, get paid-for help a soon as you can, invest in yourself, create original strategy, seek support systems that suit you, rest and play, serve your people generously but do not people-please anyone else. Be well mannered and truthful. Neither play down nor overstate your value. Get over your money issues. Change direction and innovate. You’ll inevitably be thrown into grief, heartbreak, and self-doubt; all part of the human condition so know who’s who in your support system. Celebrate EVERYTHING.

Small biz life is fun and challenging and cycles just as we do and I love it. The goal; to become more truthful, more useful and more devoted to my people, my tribe and my delight.

Read on to learn more about Sarah Furuya’s “Escapiversary” on her blog at: https://sarahfuruya.com/2017/10/five-years-in-business-my-escapiversary/