How my six-figure business disappeared with just one email

I sat in front of my laptop, willing myself to hit send.

I knew this last action was going to mean the end of a steady, six-figure income.

I knew it meant giving up a business that proved to the world (ahem, some members of my extended family) that I was a success.

I knew it meant the end of 10 years of hard work, successes and failures, up and downs.

I knew it meant letting down the clients that depended on me on a daily basis.

But I was tired of letting myself down, day after day.

This week marks the one-year anniversary of shutting down my old business. It was one of the hardest decisions I had ever made, and it probably took me way too long to make it. Looking back in my journals, I had started dreaming about it, wishing I could do it (but thinking it was impossible) a year and a half before I ever wrote that email.

Did I have a cushy savings account to fall back on? No.
Had I been building up a side hustle that had started equally my income? No.
Did I have a job lined up? No.

What I had was a dream - a dream of a life where I worked in an industry and for clients that were in alignment with me. A dream of a business that allowed me to put my life and my passions first.

A Life-First Business

I hadn’t even heard of this term yet, but what I desperately wanted was a life-first business.

Now, a year into, my life-first business has a number of benefits for me:

Flexibility: A life-first business allows me to have more control over my schedule and work-life balance. This is particularly appealing to me as my aging parents, who live 3 hours away, have started requiring more from me, but also as I start looking to my future, knowing that soon my husband and I will be ready to live that laptop lifestyle: working and travelling the world simultaneously!

Low startup costs: Many life-first businesses can be started with relatively low startup costs, which makes them accessible to a wide range of entrepreneurs. I went into a LOT of debt in my old business, more than I care to think about. Starting this new business has cost me nearly nothing. I did a bit of training, and had to subscribe to some new software.

Fulfillment: A life-first business allows us to pursue a passion or interest, and can provide a sense of personal fulfillment that may be lacking in a traditional 9-to-5 job. For me, my last business was not built on passion. I started it because I was able to do the work, and there was a great need for it - simple. It was easy work for me, and I made great money. It made sense at the time, but it sure wasn’t fulfilling. After 10 years, I couldn’t go on. Now I do work that fills me up - I work with entrepreneurs, helping them build the business of their dreams.

Potential for passive income: Some life-first entrepreneurs, such as online business owners, can generate income while they're not actively working, providing a potential source of passive income. I’ve had this dream for years, and now I’m doing it! There’s nothing better than getting that notification that you’ve made money without lifting a finger!

Scalability: Some lifestyle businesses can be scaled up or down depending on the owner's preference, providing more control over income and workload. It’s really something, to know that if I want to increase my income, I simply can. Or, if I want to decrease my workload, I simply can.

Autonomy: Lifestyle business owners have more control over their working environment, how the business is run, and the products or services offered. In my old business, my boundaries were often ignored, even mocked. I knew my phone could ring at any time - early mornings, evenings, weekends. I had clients contact me while I was on vacation (even when I had given them plenty of notice that I was going to be away), because they didn’t plan properly. I ended up firing more than one client over their lack of respect for my boundaries. But, the industry that I was in didn’t normalize boundaries, it normalized working until you dropped. I think this has been one of the biggest changes to my lifestyle, knowing that I am in total control of my schedule, I am in control of how and when my clients and students contact me. And I know that I am now in an industry where those boundaries are respected.

I can still remember how scared I was sending off that email one year ago today. I pulled up that email this morning and read it over. I can hear my fear in the email. It was cold and impersonal, like I just wanted to get it over with even though it was something that I had been thinking about for over a year.

One year later, I can’t believe that it was so hard to do. If I knew things were going to turn out the way they have, there would have been no fear. Not that it’s been easy. There have been a lot of sleepless nights, laying awake thinking ‘what have I done?’, but that has only made me work harder. Looking back to what I left behind has made me more determined to build this new business into exactly what I needed it to be.