Thinking of Starting a Business?

You have a profession you love.

You're qualified. You're experienced. You know you can do good work.

Perhaps you've even watched people you trained alongside go into private practice.

And you've thought: I could do that.

Maybe you've been thinking about it for months, or even years.

You've looked up venues. Wondered about insurance. Thought about what you might charge.

But somehow, you are still hovering at the threshold.

My story

Eight years ago, I graduated with a PGC in Leadership Coaching.

I had a qualification and a skillset, but no experience of working for myself.

I had a vague idea that I would need to start a business.

What had me hesitating (or so I thought) was all the practical stuff:

Where would I practise?
How would people find me?
What would I charge?
What if I don't get enough clients?

But somehow, the entire thing was still only a hazy notion in my mind, somewhere in the smoky-blue distance of "one day".

Eventually, it came home to me that the questions I wasn't quite getting to were more fundamental.

Questions that no-one outside myself could provide answers to, like:

Could I see myself as somebody running a one-person business?

Could I imagine other people wanting what I had to offer?

I couldn't really get underway without tackling these.

Because it's hard to move towards something you can only imagine hazily in the far-off distance.

I needed to bring the possibility closer. To get a clearer sense of what such a working life might actually look and feel like — before I could decide whether I really wanted it.

Until then, “starting a business” remained an enormous, rather abstract thing to commit to.

Caught between Stop and Go

Your friends or peers may be telling you that there's only one way to start: by starting.

And you can see the logic in what they're saying.

But starting feels like such a massive leap into the unknown!

It's easy to say Jump. It's quite another to actually do it.

So you go back to that "one day" refrain.

And yet, some part of you keeps urging that you must make a move.

Play tourist in your imagination

What began to solve my imponderable conundrum was getting tiny “previews” of what life as a solopreneur could be like.

It let me begin to explore:

Which bits did I feel ready for?

Which aspects would ask me to learn something new?

Which versions of the solopreneur life was I keen to avoid?

It turned something unimaginable into something still scary-exciting – but gradually getting more tangible, more clearly defined.

Give your imagination room to play

A surprising number of people don't find it easy to keep dreaming of a potential future in the abstract (I belong among them).

When they try, they either get exhausted and give up – or keep attempting the same thing over and over, getting progressively disenchanted.

I find it easier to think when I have something tangible to work with.

That's why I use NeuroGraphica.

It gives you a simple sequence of drawing steps you can use to explore what's on your mind.

It makes your thinking visible to yourself – without asking you to make your thoughts make sense straightaway.

No drawing experience or artistic talent needed.

All it takes is some paper, a marker, and a dollop of curiosity.

"I was curious: How could drawing lines help me think?

"The surprise was: you can draw about something — almost as if you're writing about it, but without words getting in the way."

- Tsveta Dimova, screenwriter

Prefer the intimacy of 1-1 support?

Request a 1-1 with Margarita

Try it for yourself

Bring the idea you've been mulling over.

I'll guide you step by step to use the visual language of NeuroGraphica to give your thinking shape.

You won't need to disclose the details of your idea – it's always up to you what and how much you share.

My approach

I've spent many years helping people move from “I know something needs to change” towards discovering what they actually want to do about it.

With this work, my role isn't to tell you what your business should look like.

It's to listen carefully, ask useful questions and help you see possibilities that may be difficult to see while you're standing inside the fog.

"I know what I'm choosing"

Imagine the difference between thinking about working for yourself and actually being able to picture yourself living it.

You know who you're there to help.

You have a sense of what your working life could look like.

You know where you'll need to stretch to make it work.

And perhaps most importantly: You can begin to tell the difference between something you genuinely don't want... and something that simply feels unfamiliar.

Perhaps you'll decide it's time to give self-employment a go.

Perhaps you'll realise you want to shape your idea differently.

Either way, you're no longer standing outside a future you can barely imagine, wondering whether you could possibly fit inside it.

You're beginning to find out.

NeuroGraphica lets me circle the shape of what I'm thinking.

Sounds familiar?

“But I already have a job.”

You don't have to resign.

This isn't about making a dramatic leap.

It's about giving yourself enough space to discover whether there's something here worth pursuing.

“I don't know anything about business.”

That's okay.

This isn't a business-startup course teaching you how to register a company, find premises or create a marketing plan.

Those questions come later.

First, you need something to build.

“What if I discover I don't want it?”

Then you've discovered something useful.

The purpose isn't to persuade you to become self-employed.

It's to help you find out what you actually want.

“What if I'm not ready?”

You don't have to be.

You only need to be curious enough to explore the possibility.

A tool you get to keep

Once you've learnt the basic NeuroGraphica process, you don't need me — or anyone else — to carry on using it.

You can return to NeuroGraphica as new questions arise:

Is this still what I want?

What kind of clients do I want to work with?

What is making me hesitate?

What would make this adventure feel more mine?

"Months later, I still reach for NeuroGraphica whenever I need a fresh perspective."

Is this for you?

This might be for you if:

• You love your profession but wonder what it would be like to work for yourself.
• You've been thinking about working for yourself for months or years.
• You keep finding practical questions to solve, but the bigger picture still feels hazy.
• You want to explore the possibility without committing to it.
• You'd like to know whether what you're feeling is reluctance — or simply unfamiliarity.

Ready to explore?

Prefer the luxury of 1-1 support?

Request a 1-1 with Margarita