Last week I celebrated International Women’s Day by attending a great event in the morning, Your Business, Your Way run by Boldheart‘s founder Fabienne Fredrickson. Fabienne is a hugely successful business coach and helps people elevate their businesses to the success and value they deserve with great results.

After I’d got over the hugs, high-fives and motivational words to our neighbours (sorry – things like that make me feel weird!), I really enjoyed the session and in particular, one thing that Fabienne shared definitely resonated with me. This was the fact that now, as established business owners / entrepreneurs / whatever you want to call us, we have made ourselves unemployable. And that’s a great thing!

I’d never really thought of it like that before and in the days when running my business is a struggle, I always thought the ‘getting a job’ option was a feasible one. But now I definitely realise it isn’t and that goes both ways.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of the 9-5, Monday to Friday seems alien to me and not having the control and flexibility over my time and workload would be hugely conflicting. I feel I have worked so hard to achieve this ‘being my own boss’ thing that I would be very hard-pressed to relinquish it and go back to ‘working for the man.’ When I was in full-time employment I definitely struggled to conform and found the senior male, lack of freedom and creativity environment stifling so I was very ready to branch out on my own.

Don’t get me wrong, I have never worked so hard in my life (I remember so fondly the lovely little hangover days of yesteryear in front of my computer and doing just the bare minimum and that being ok), or worked such long hours or been more stressed about things such as clash flow, work flow, time management, tax – the list goes on – but, it’s totally worth it as I am in control of it all and it’s mine.

Being unemployable is fine with me and has taken that option and sometime safety-net thought away which leaves me more focused head space to concentrate on making my business the best it can be.

I know I’m not alone here and know several business owners who feel the exact same and find the thought of getting back on that treadmill incomprehensible.

So thank you Fabienne for re-establishing what we all already know but firming it up in our minds. There are a special kind of people who venture out on their own, put their stake in the sand and say ‘this is what I offer and what I believe in’ and I’m very happy to be one of them!

Does this resonate with you? I’d love to hear your stories and how you find being unemployable is. Or are you thinking of leaving the 9-5 to venture out on your own (woo!)? There are so many like-minded people out there to support you (me being one of them).