But for most of us the thought of being our own boss and holding the keys to our own destiny is just a pipe dream.

Friends Lorraine Hollis and Nicola Harkin bit the bullet and risked it all to start up a lifestyle coaching business and show people they practise what they preach.



LORRAINE and Nikki (as she calls herself) have been friends for seven years and between them have 26 years of experience in social care.

But in October last year they took a bold move and packed it all in to start up their own life-coaching business in Hartlepool - aptly named Inner Dynamics Coaching, 'From Rut to Strut'.

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The firm friends - who take pride in having a giggle - met when they both worked at a charity called DISC (which stands for Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities) in Hartlepool, which offers treatment and support for young people with drug problems.

Lorraine said they became friends because they had similar lifestyles with demanding jobs and young families - Lorraine has a nine-year-old boy called Ryan and Nikki has two girls, Abbey, one, and Erin, four.

Lorraine said: "We used to plot and plan all sorts of things that we could do and even thought of setting up a cafe together at one point."

Nikki said: "Coaching was an extension of what we did, helping people."

Despite the fact that Nikki was pregnant at the time, in February last year the pair threw caution to the wind and embarked on a diploma course in coaching and mentoring, which saw them travel from their homes in Stockton and Sunderland to Warwick, for weekend courses.

Lorraine said: "We had the confidence to make it happen and we believed that we could do it.

"We had to be assessed on our coaching over three-way phone calls.

"We benefited from our own coaching of ourselves, because we never knew what we wanted."

Nikki added that she feels that she has taken control of her life and that, beforehand, things just happened to her - like going to university and picking a degree in law without thinking about where it would land her.

"It was not something I did out of a burning desire; I had never consciously sat down and worked it all out ... until it came to coaching," she said

The pair say they do not tell their clients what to do, but help them to set their own goals and achieve those goals by committing to them.

But, it wasn't all as carefree as it sounds, as both women were giving up good wages and careers for their dream.

Lorraine said: "We had to invest in ourselves, as we were giving up our security and regular income. If we don't get customers then we don't get paid.

"Originally we worked silly hours to get things up and running and Nikki had a child in the middle of that."

Nikki said that she stood by her core values so far as her own work/life balance was concerned, and took her child along to meetings with directors when the company was being set up.

Now their premises at Queens Meadow, in Hartlepool, have been up and running for two months and things are looking bright.

The pair also do training in coaching and offer coaching to communities and businesses.

They have a new exciting idea, to set up parties where groups can be coached together while having a laugh.

Lorraine said finally: "Anybody has got the potential to live the life that they really want to live."