I was not even 25 years old when my then-husband and I bought our first business way back in 1980. We had 4 young children, the youngest just 6 months old.
The story of how we even came to be buying a business, let alone a health food shop is a good story.
Buying a health store
We were poor. Like struggling to feed our family poor, but we did own a house.
My husband had bought a very run down, and I mean very run-down house several years before he met me, and we had sold that and bought a not quite as run down house.
He had what should have been a good job, but the pay was very poor and the work very stressful. He had dreamed of owning a business and we had been looking for one for a couple of years.
And then an accident at work (actually playing cricket at lunchtime – but still technically at work) meant that he got a worker’s compensation payout. So now we had a bit more money.
We had tried two other times to buy a business and had been unable to sell our house and so the contracts had fallen through.
This time I saw the ad for a small, run down health food shop and all the pieces fell into place so quickly it was head spinning.
We had seen the ad at Easter in April, gone back to Adelaide where we lived and quickly cleaned up the house and sold it that weekend, and moved into our new business on the 1st July.
We knew little about running a business
We knew very little about health foods, and not much more about business, but this shop had been a successful business that had been run down.
So just ordering some new stock meant the business was as success from day 1.
We learnt and grew with the business.
We had two more children, grew our business through some major ups and downs. The business was highly successful and we loved it.
Our children are our big success, and the business supported us very well. Unfortunately, our marriage did not survive some of the downs.
Fast forward to the year 2018.
I had remarried an amazing man in 1994, had two more children and had lived a good life.
We had both worked hard but had been successful in business and were looking forward to a retirement with lots of travel and adventure which we both loved.
Then we got devastating news
And then my husband got cancer. He had done everything he could to fight it, but as the year of 2018 moved forward, he became sicker and sicker.
I had been working as a personal trainer and as a life coach and supporting our growing property business. A lovely balance of working with people in person and online.
I loved my business and was very successful. (some of you are possibly my clients from that time)
I loved my work and wanted to keep working even though he was sick, but as he got worse, I found that I couldn’t cope with holding space for others and supporting my husband (and the youngest child in year 12 too)
So, I stopped all work.
Geoff died 1st November 2018. Even thought it was obvious that it was coming it was still a big shock. Our baby girl graduated from school a week later!!
It was a hard time, very hard.
And then coping with my grief, my children’s grief, and ALLLLL the paperwork. – No one tells you about the amount of paperwork.
He had still been working up, and we had not done very much in the way of transition of assets or even information. Luckily, we had updated the will.
I spent the next year drowning in everything.
And then I thought it would be good to get back to life. And just as I thought that, along came COVID.
I was back sitting at home with only paperwork and a depressed teenager for company.
So, I did what everyone else was doing. I bought a puppy, and a motorhome. (at least I didn’t get pregnant)
The puppy was supposed to be the teenagers, but she discovered that you had to take it out at night to go to the toilet and spend time cleaning up after it all day.
She just wanted the cuddle bits – how had she talked me into this!!
But the motorhome was my decision.
Years before, in our first year of marriage, we had travelled Australia in a motorhome and loved it. A friend reminded me of this and encouraged me to think about it doing it again.
And in my typical maverick style I researched motorhomes over the weekend, and went in on Monday, and bought one.
It took a few months to arrive (this is early covid when things only took a few months rather than years). I joined the CMCA and went to some of their gatherings and got my motorhome legs.
Met a person who wanted to travel to the Gulf country and joined her. Booked a trip to Tasmania and spend 2 months over there. Visited friends in NSW and NT.
I was enjoying myself, but I was also missing work and didn’t think that full time travel was what I wanted.
Time for some decisions.
I had enough money to retire. I own 6 investment houses and some super and getting close to retirement age. Maybe I didn’t need to do anything.
But I would like some more money for more extensive travel, and I missed being a coach and loved helping people.
Getting back into coaching
I decided it was time to get back to work as a coach, and surely that isn’t too hard while travelling?
I had heard about people who were digital nomads and really liked the idea.
All you need is a computer and internet – right???
Well, it turns out to be much harder than that.
I have been umming and ahhing ever since. Should I get a business happening, maybe a job is all I need. Maybe more travel.
I had never imagined life as a retired person.
I had worked part time for most of my life and loved it. I had done so many different things, but I especially loved working for myself and doing the coaching.
Who am I now that I am no longer a full time mother, or a wife? The two big roles of my life.
I had lost my work, my husband and my child turned 18 and left school all within a few months of each other.
I have been really lost.
I asked myself
Who am I now?
What is my life purpose now?
And then it hit me.
I am reading the Facebook posts from others in the same position. Life has taken a major turn – divorce, or death of a partner. Illness. Children leaving home. Redundancy.
Lots of changes are happening that we have not fully prepared for. Lots of decisions to be made.
Travelling solo. Doing part time work. How much grandparenting do we want to do?
Now for some people they have a hobby or sport that takes their time. Others want to be the full time grandmother or carer. And that is fantastic.
But for others like me we are asking the question –
Who am I now?
What do I want to do with my life?
Can I travel solo?
Should I start my own business now?
Can I travel and have a business?
These are great questions.
Would you like some help to work through them?
Some support as you work through what you want in your life.
Book in for a free chat and we can talk about how I can help you.