GLOSS Issue 12 MAY 2014 | Page 31

No Longer a Slave - Why Selling Time for Money was NOT Smart for Me. Jo Muirhead Like many women who start their own business the concept of FREEDOM was very important to me. This word FREEDOM has so many elements to it but when it boils down to the nitty gritty of my definition, it means freedom to choose. That includes financial freedom, freedom to be myself, lifestyle flexibility, and the experience that I am FREE. busyness that selling time for money creates. I was trapped with a sense that I was working so damned hard for very little return. For me the sense of “burnout” was very close all the time. If felt trapped as an employee, then in the beginning I felt enslaved by being selfemployed. The freedom and joy I had so I fell into being self-employed. In the beginning strongly desired continued to allude me. it wasn’t the thing I was going to do. You see, For so long I blamed this all on being a I returned to consulting to generate cash Rehabilitation Counsellor. I (wrongly) believed while I worked out what I really wanted to do. that I was not a good enough Rehabilitation It was never going to be the thing I always Counsellor because I couldn’t do the “work” did. However I have now grown a successful without feeling so enslaved. So like so many practice, and by successful I mean – a minimum health professionals (and other types of revenue increase of 30% each year for the past professionals) I thought the answer was to 4 years; grown from being a single practioner to choose a different set of skills and practice having 10 dedicated consultants; being a highly those. That was wrong! It was the business sought after team of consultants who are flown model that was wrong, the selling time for all over the country to do what we do, because money time trap that was so wrong. we are darned good at what we do; and impac