Today I am in Tuscany. At a retreat for me as a business owner, to work on my business, and network with my business bestie group. 

You might say - wow look at her, she’s so lucky.
But it wasn’t luck.
It was a series of knowing what I wanted, and working for it. 

5 years ago I felt stuck in my business.  I couldn’t leave town because I was dedicated to providing a good service to my clients, opening the office after hours so I could “smash out tax returns” as a tax accountant and trying to be a mother to my kids and a good wife as well as run Northwest Accountancy. I wasn’t coping well.  I cried at work most days. I was overwhelmed with doing everything and although loved helping people I was not in a healthy mental space. 

I tried to find things other than tax to do - so did some life coaching training, and also found profit first. 

I transitioned the business to have someone help me manage the team and the client work so that I could take long service leave (after working in the business for 17 years).  This was the first huge stepping stone of letting go and the start of many more small changes that have lead me here. 

After returning from Long service leave I quit my job - that is, I told the manager I was no longer going to do tax returns as I was going to focus on giving people training in bookkeeping and running their business.  It took a couple of years to settle into what that would look like. 

In the height of Covid we made sure that everyone could work from home if they chose to - and when I found out that we were being relocated from Karratha to Perth I took extra steps to make sure the business could run without my physical presence in the office.  Of course I was still attending daily meetings and accessible to clients and my team.  But working from home meant I could be so much more efficient with my time and energy - I didn’t have to work a 30 hour week - so dropped my hours back to 20 hours per week (and still feel like I get more done). Of course some weeks I work more and some weeks I work less, but the flexibility works for me. 

We worked for a year in Perth, then applied for an overseas position- meaning that I could truly work remotely, in a different country in a different time zone.  We’ve been there for 15 months and loving the experience. 

This week, I’m in Tuscany at a retreat for Profit First Mastery members. There’s 16 of us here from Australia, all enjoying the beautiful countryside and amazing hospitality. 

I didn’t get here by accident. I have delegated, planned, set up systems.  Everything I have been doing in my business has been to allow me the time and freedom to travel to different countries and experience life. 

While still being paid, while the business is still running.  While everyone is being looked after. And when I return, there will be more things that I will do to make it even easier for me and my team. 

All these little changes over so many years have resulted in an intentional life of travel, exploring and helping clients who want to do the same.

If you want this too, you can have it. Be intentional about what you want and take lots of small steps to get you there.