After 18 years of working for companies, Maria decided to change everything and start working for herself. In this article, Maria shares her story and tips with us for those who are just starting out.

I started my career as an accountant. Then I switched to management accounting automation, and worked at Microsoft. There I was the product manager.

One day a friend suggested that I become a part-owner in a new company that would do the same things I did at Microsoft. I agreed and became executive director there: I was responsible for finance, software development, and consulting. The company was growing rapidly, and I was asked to focus on finances. After a while I began to feel unwell.

Before I moved to finance, my job was consulting, project work: I took complex tasks and solved them. But here I was working with data: you had to be attentive, reconcile figures, work with large volumes of numbers.

I felt that this job was not for me, I was not good at it. I began to feel that I did step back: I had a manager and he decided what I should do, even if I did not agree to it.
I was accumulating fatigue. Plus my parents started getting sick, my kids are preschoolers, I felt like I was needed at home, and I was spending 12 hours a day at work, crunching some numbers. Once I made a mistake and there was a big scandal at work. That situation was the trigger, I decided to leave, it was 2020.

I have a very diverse experience: in management, finance, sales, marketing. I did everything, and I really didn't know what I could do after that. I could have gone for a finance or executive position, but I didn't want to.

At that point, two entrepreneur acquaintances of mine found out that I had left the company and asked me to be their mentor and help their business achieve the right results. I thought it was a sign and decided to get into experience transfer.

I tried to start an online course, I did it for about 6 months and then I quit, because I was working 24/7 and there were no results.

Then I decided to try my hand at entrepreneurship: I opened an apartment hotel, bought a franchise of a programming school for children. I worked like that for another six months, realized that I was bored, and in the end I sold the school after a year. And thanks to the income from the hotel I was able to keep looking for myself.

At that moment I ran out of ideas: there were many attempts to do something, but they were fruitless, and as a result there was a feeling of "stalemate": I didn't know what to do next. So I decided to work with a coach, because I didn't understand what to do. I even started to think about going back to work, which made it even worse.

Coaching helped me a lot to understand myself and what I could really be useful in.

When working with a coach, I studied the situation from different angles. One day I was looking for someone who was doing something in the field of knowledge transfer, and I saw on the website of some consultant a line saying that he had studied at the school of tracking. It interested me because I hadn't seen that word before.

I thought that I knew everything in this field, but I was wrong. I started looking into what this thing was and realized that it was really something that I was doing with entrepreneur friends that I was mentoring. So I went to school to learn about trekking, it was 2021.

I started taking clients, but I wasn't very good at selling. I started Instagram, so that people would understand who I am and what I do.

Clients slowly came in and were very happy with what we did with them. I felt like I was making a difference.

But I felt like I lacked a system in my work. My fellow trackers advised me to do another training, I went to study 6 months after I finished the first one. That's where I already found that very system. Now I have about a dozen projects in my work, which I lead by my methodology from start to finish "by hand".

I want to start my own business gas pedal and business training.
Of course, if I hadn't come to coaching at the time, none of this would have happened. I would still be sitting there wondering what to do.

Have a reserve of money that will allow you to survive the first time. Sales don't kick in right away when you start doing something new.

And believe that everything will work out: he who seeks will find.

If you are going to do exactly what you were already doing at work, then six months may be enough to start earning. And if it's actually a new profession, as I am, a year at least. And this is where the tracker helps: you can reach the necessary business turnover faster.

1. When you leave hiring to develop a business, it's not a fact that everything will work out as planned the first time. And this is normal. We try different things and through practical experience find our way.

2. It may seem to us that we know everything in our niche and there are no opportunities. But it only seems that way. Look at what other people are doing in your topic, how they are building their way, and you'll find lots of ideas!

3. The most energy-consuming and difficult thing: endure when you feel bad or hang in doubt. Stop, analyze yourself, and act.