Hi Brooke.

My husband and I have our own business that is mainly horticulture — we live in PA which means it’s seasonal: my husband makes headstones for winter income. We were planning to use SCS to develop our business but I also have a dream of becoming a coach eventually. My husband will definitely continue in the existing business. I am reluctant to pull myself out of it entirely because I want to continue to have a say and because I love working with my husband. On the other hand, I want the business to grow in such a way that I can have minimal involvement year round yet the net profit continues to increase, leaving me free to have my own business.

This winter we are going to begin the adoption process and we would like to have me be a part-time stay-at-home mom and work part-time for the next 5 years or so. This winter I have no work lined up aside from a few hours of bookkeeping weekly. I’m thinking about where to put my biz development energy. I could put zero energy into developing our existing business and we would probably still continue our slow word-of-mouth growth and be entirely fine financially. I’ve thought about blogging my way through the adoption process while being a homemaker & biz co-owner with my husband as a way of finding my voice (and my niche) before I become a coach a year or two down the road. One of the reasons I’m thinking of taking it slow with the idea of starting a coaching business is that the training program seems out of reach right now: our income is already allocated elsewhere and we choose to live debt-free. On the other hand, what if I could start a new side biz this winter on a shoestring and earn a few hundred dollars (or a few thousand!) before our horticulture spring busy season?

Would you suggest starting coaching as a side business prior to formal coach training? I’ve only been in Scholars since September so I know I have a ton to learn in the coming year.

Here are two models I did.
C: Dec-Feb
T: I want to earn money and start a new business and grow our current business and plan an adoption this winter. I want to have everything figured out now but I don’t have it figured out yet.
F: overwhelmed, indecisive, anxious
A: inaction
R: no result

C: Dec-Feb
T: I have an open schedule for 3 months.
F: anxiety (oops, that’s because another T sneaked in: “there is only 1 best way to use my time”)
Trying again…
T: I have an open schedule for 3 months and I get to create what I want
F: excited, abundant
A: write on Ask Brooke, schedule a tutoring session, schedule a planning meeting with my husband, brainstorm for 10 min on what I could create this winter
R: 4 steps accomplished towards creating what I want

I am adoring my SCS experience and thank you so much for providing recordings of the coaching calls so I can listen and learn when the call time doesn’t match my schedule. There is so much goodness here!!!

Anastasia