Bed-bound to Business Bombshell

Bed-bound to Business BombshellI was 21, two weeks a bride and desperately, dangerously sick. Bed bound and hurting, letters became my link to the outside world. Until you are sick and imprisoned in your own home, in your own body, it is hard to understand exactly how important post/mail is.

I lived for letters; that contact with the outside I could only just remember, something to focus on and hope for. We made up Healing Boxes – gifts of information, support and healing goodies for friends and family. We tried to buy healing gift boxes for friends and found none in the UK. So we just continued to make our own and more and more people requested them. After a cancer scare at 22, I decided to stop being scared and start living my dreams and so my entrepreneurial journey began.

I believe that there is balm for healing hearts and we all need access to it. (Click to Tweet!)

Idea Goes International

When you are ill or a loved one is hurting and in life crisis you can purchase a Healing Box for yourself or send one as a gift. Each box is filled with supportive items, carefully tailored to each situation, to bring ease, comfort and to brighten yours or someone’s day.

Healing Boxes exists to support the community of people with illness and pain worldwide. We are a community interest company; a non-profit social enterprise and charitable aims are built into our legal structure.

Healing Boxes exclusively employes – as volunteers and as board members – people with chronic illness, pain or caring responsibilities, who often struggle to find other work. A portion of the proceeds of every box sold goes towards donating Healing Boxes to our local cancer hospice.

We have worked very hard to make the boxes and contents (which are completely ethical, recycled, fair trade, eco friendly, organic, vegan and hypoallergenic) affordable. You can order a small box with 3 items for $23, a medium box with 5 items for $31 and a large box with 8 items for $35. We are working on keeping the boxes affordable while making sure the standards are kept high and ethical. We continually review and improve upon our service.

Business Bombshell Inside Information

The best advice I never had is that anything is possible. All those things you think are impossible are possible. Practically, a woman with multiple serious illnesses, needing full time care and who has never had a real job before should not be able to run two successful businesses from the back of beyond in the Welsh valleys. But it is so. I am living the full colour reality. Those things you think are impossible, the dream you have of changing the world, I am just waiting to see you in action. You have too little time and too much talent to waste.

The one thing I did right was to reach out and ask for help. Ask questions again and again. Be polite and say thank you but ask and then act on the information you receive. When you find someone amazing ask them for a 10 minute chat, prep your questions and ask away. Then take everything they have given you, ask for a reading list and who else you should speak to. Follow up on it all then go back and report your process. Consistency and openness are key.

If I was to give a message to other would-be business bombshells who are deciding to make a difference it would be to step up and begin. Launch now. It will never be perfect and the world needs the revolution you have inside you. Refine as you grow, but just grab your reasons and your let’s-make-a-miracle-team and go!

Would you like my reading list? Here you go:

Think Like a Stripper by Erika Lyremark

The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte

Pitch Perfect by Dyana Valentine

Life is a Verb by Patti Digh

101 Poems to Keep You Sane edited by Daisy Goodwin

Everything Alexandra Franzen has written

The Adventuress Manifesto by Grace Quantock

I look forward to sending you a box of goodies to brighten your day and to see your social entrepreneurial dreams soar!

If you want to help Healing Boxes we would love to have you join our international affiliate program. We love social media and you can find us on Twitter & FB.

*Image courtesy of Camdiluv.