Answer these questions very honestly, have a page answer for all questions and get to the nitty gritty..

• When I imagine my dream, what is the negative voice in my head saying?
• When I hear that negative voice what are my thoughts after hearing them?
• Construct a full mental picture of yourself 5 years older than you are today..
• Feel what it is like to be this older person that is you, what are you doing, who are you being?
• Now recall how you were within the same area 5 years ago and note your levels of satisfaction and motivation at this point.
• What have you done in the past 5 years that has worked well to contribute to your current level of satisfaction?
• How might your life be different if you hadn’t made those positive choices?
• What else might you have done over the last 5 years that may have increased your level of satisfaction today? How has motivation been
  affected?
• What is the learning in this for you?

There are many factors that influence the growth and success of a business. One of the most important is determination. Without the will to succeed, many business owners find it hard to deal with the many obstacles that litter the road to success. For the team at Signs'n'Banners in Victoria, that 'True Grit' spirit has seen a hobby grown into a vibrant business that's firing with all guns blazing.

Partners Stacey and David are the duo behind Signs'n'Banners. For David, creating signage was really a backyard business/ weekend hobby. Already friends, I approached David with the idea of turning Signs'n'Banners into a fully functioning, successful signage shop. We both agreed. “As this was just a newly established business I was excited about the challenge”. I started being involved in the business in February 2007, by September 2007, Signs'n'Banners was a 'Business Achiever' 2007 finalist in our local paper.”

David's background is in mechanical engineering. However, he later went on to study marketing, real estate and quality control. Before Signs'n'Banners, David's work experience included a diverse range of fields such as quality control, sales of capital equipment and printed goods, and working in the field of real estate.

For myself, the road that led to Signs'n'Banners' has been an incredibly hard but inspiring one. I have lived life without my mum, was abused at age nine, fell pregnant at age fifteen, had a second child at age nineteen, and at one point when my son was three and my daughter was four months old, I was homeless and sleeping on a friends floor. For me, the hard years continued as I suffered a life of domestic violence. “Now you may be thinking this is a sad and sorry story, however these are my lessons I have learnt in life that are now my gifts to give and share with others”. “I discovered my higher purpose in life and that is to help other young mums gain back their self-esteem, discover their passions in life and to take action to achieve them.” I now have four delightful children Josh 13, Tahlia 10, Jack 8 and my little bub Toby 9 weeks. My life is finally where I have visualised it to be for many years.