Cindy was my first international story sharer and I am grateful she gave up time in her evening to talk to me. She was also my first example of starting your own business! 

After working for a Canadian bank for 15 years, Cindy took a year’s leave of absence. She initially took a few months to spend time with her children, then when they went back to school “I now had to figure out what my sense of purpose was, without having a job to get up and go to every day. I hadn’t realized how much my sense of identity came from my work.   

“Going into my leave, I did have an idea that I might be able to start a business focused on providing financial advice and consulting to business owners and so I planned to spend some time talking to business owners through the fall.  But I was still quite nervous about the idea of going out on my own.  I set a structure for myself where I’d work for an hour and a half on my business plan, then take a half hour break.  Early on, I found that every five minutes I’d check to see how long I’d worked for and if I earned my break yet.  I was just so panicked at that time having thoughts like “What am I doing?  Can I actually do this? Can I make a go of this?” 

Cindy is has decided that she can make a go of this and has recently resigned from her job and incorporated her company, Lightbulb Finance Inc.  

If you are like me, you love to know what motivates people to make such big changes.  In Cindy’s case: 

“I had a few situations at work that had all happened at once and were all challenging to deal with. I thought, ‘I’ve done this for long enough that I know I can get through this. I just don’t know that I actually want to keep pushing like this’. I learned from every challenging situation I dealt with but I was not really sure that I needed to keep going through those sorts of things.” 

Cindy has four clients already which is fantastic. 

Cindy’s main changes have been about her identity and even just changing the schedules around how the household runs. 

But also “there are so many times filled with joy and happiness. I love this. I love having the flexibility. I love being able to walking down the street at 10am on a Tuesday and not be tied to an office schedule. 

“So there were there were definitely joyful times mixed in there with the panic and the nervousness or the ‘what comes next’ feeling as I tried to figure everything out” 

Working on her own is different to being part of a team, having to deliver on her own.  It can also be a bit isolating, but Cindy went gliding mid-week a few months ago to compensate! 

Cindy talked to me about the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone (something she does do regularly!) “It’s a chance to learn more about yourself, learn more about the world out there. I mean, I’m fascinated by this, within the first month of taking my leave of absence, I met this whole new group of people, mostly entrepreneurs. I think learning more about yourself, learning more about the world, and then what kind of possibilities can you fulfil in the world” 

As always, Cindy gets the last word of advice about stepping out of your comfort zone: 

“I think first of all, knowing yourself and knowing how you deal with change and with new things.   

“Then you’re preparing yourself as much as possible. That might be planning and figuring out what structure you need as you go through a change, and then figuring out who’s going to support you, and who’s going to be there when you’re having challenges and celebrate your successes as you succeed.  

“I just encourage people to do it in a way that’s that works for them. And that is comfortable for them. And for some people, it might be trying new food, for some people it might be making a big life change but I just encourage people to, to try it and see what else is out there for them.”