Starting a Wellness Business

Hey! Welcome back, and if you’re new here, let me introduce myself! My name is Ana, I am the creator of TBH Co. I decided to start a wellness community to help others grow as individuals mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

As someone with no real post secondary education, I felt overwhelmed by where to start when thinking about “starting a business”. I didn’t know how I was going to help people or how to even reach people and didn’t have much interest in sitting in a classroom for 4+ years taking business courses. So I took it upon myself to turn to the internet and research what others had done to get started. I listened to audiobooks, watched hours and hours of YouTube videos, I even follow coaches online, but I always drew the line at paying for this info because I knew if I looked hard enough, I’d find it without paying for it. And this has so far been true, the only thing I will say is you can save soooooo much time and energy if you just invest in coaching or how to guides. Honestly, I wish I’d been less stubborn and just invested in myself a little bit more, but here we are, we got there the hard way.

So now that I have these tools and resources I find myself thinking “wow, there’s a lot more that goes into starting an online business than I originally anticipated.” Well Duh Ana… common. I began with what made the most sense to me… the legal stuff. I registered my business name with my local government, which was it’s own headache, and once I finally got it approved, I registered my business and gained a business license. Cool. Now what? Then came registering for things like GST and taxes, because you have to tell the Government everything or they’ll come for you. Did that and instantly felt accomplished but quickly realized that was a fraction of what needed to be done. I then turned to online platforms and creating accounts on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and of course, this website. Several years ago I taught myself some skills like web design, graphic design, and social media marketing, without having any direction of what I would use those skills for, but found it all interesting and enjoyed it. Now I am beyond grateful for these skills because they have padded my resume, provided me freelance income during the Pandemic and saved me sooo much money when starting my own online business.

That brings us to the present moment. I have the website, the social channels, the email, the legal paperwork yada, yada. What I don’t currently have, is an audience. I feel like I’m just talking to myself most of the time. The other big thing I’m lacking is time. I work a full-time job managing a busy and rapidly growing business (not this one), and being a manager goes beyond a 40 hour work week. I’m also a strong advocate for a healthy work life balance so when I’m not working my full time job I just want to relax and live life. Which means I don’t spend nearly enough time on my own business. On top that, though I have a pretty good understanding of it, I have always struggled with consistency online, and my mixed feelings about online presence, social media etc has resulted in me not following algorithms to properly develop an online presence. This is a HUGE obstacle for me and I’m working on it.

Which brings me to some deep thoughts and big decisions I have had to make lately, so I asked myself… what are my priorities?
Well to be honest with you, my top priority is to live a life I genuinely love, what ever that looks like to me. And to me it looks like sun, sand, coconuts, yoga, surfing and most importantly, helping people heal, grow and thrive! I want everyone to genuinely LOVE their life, every damn day. Maybe not all day everyday, because that’s not realistic, but I believe every day should have a moment of gratitude for life. So how do I achieve this?

Well… I have decided the best way for me to achieve this, is to just freaking go for it. So I am! I have made the terrifying decision to completely vacate my life in Canada and move abroad. Yeah… wild and so original Ana… I know. But I genuinely believe this is what it’s going to take for me to succeed. So I’m going to see if my current job can be converted to a remote role, I’m going to sell everything I can’t fit into 2 suitcases and come end of summer 2023, I’m taking a one way flight to Asia. I decided this is what I need to do for a few reasons. 1. I need to find a community of likeminded people and I’m just not finding that in Canada. 2. I need somewhere more affordable to live than Vancouver if I am ever going to get out of this rat race and build my business. Which brings me to reason 3. I thrive when I’m desperate or up against a wall. Seriously though, I need a fire under my ass to get shit done sometimes, it’s just who I am. And I know with my whole heart, if I put myself in an environment I love (tropical beach vibes), give myself some financial padding (saving up 6 months of living expenses), I will rise to the occasion. Something in me just knows this is the right path to take in order to set myself up for success to achieve my goals, live the balanced life I’m looking for and push myself to do the work it takes to build the community I want to offer others.
My biggest reason I think this will work for me? I get bored, fast. Meaning I know myself well enough to know that after a month or so of lazy beach life, I’ll need something to do, and with nothing but time on my side, I will have zero excuse not to invest my time into my business, to make social media content, finish my Ayurvedic Medicine and Yoga Teacher Training, and just immerse myself in all the things I’m passionate about. I’ll also have that fire under my ass because I’ll know if I don’t invest in my business, I’ll run out of money eventually and I’ll have to drag my sorry butt back to Canada to start again. That’s what I mean by “I thrive when I’m desperate”, I’ve been pretty close to homeless a few times, but my drive to avoid that always takes over and I never fail to rebuild my life to be better than it ever was. For the record, I’m no where near being homeless right now. My job pays enough, I have a beautiful apartment with nice things and on paper I am “thriving” by societal standards. I have everything I need, and yet, I’m not happy living this type of life.

With that said, I understand most people will find it absolutely insane to throw it all away, travel to a foreign country and live out of a bag. And maybe it is crazy. But I’m here for it!
Life is short, but it can also be insufferably long if you’re not doing what makes your heart happy. So I invite you to come along for the ride and either watch me flourish and grow a beautiful business and community for those looking for the same things from this human experience, or fall flat on my face and start this whole process all over again. Either way, it’ll be anything but boring, so I hope you’ll join me and maybe you’ll even root for me.

Namaste

- Ana