Cora McKeown

With nearly a 20 year career in the NHS working 50, sometimes 60 hours a week, I left stressed and burnt out not really knowing what to do next.

I was introduced to the concept of running my own home-based business under the umbrella of a large company that would support me. This appealed because I knew I could do it if I was going to be supported and trained well. The training is a "hand-holding" exercise which has exceeded my expectations. The other attraction for me was an opportunity to help people with their health and wealth. I wanted to be able to sleep at night and knowing I was entering into an ethical organisation has made that possible, we work alongside a very special company.

Five years on I now have my own thriving business that has allowed me to stay at home with our little boy fitting a business in and around the nooks and crannies of my time. I work part-time to fit around school, about 25 hours a week now instead of 60 hours. I did not want to have a child as an accessory but to be there for the 'waking' moments and I have developed a great full-time income.

This business has given me more than money, it has given me confidence and has been brilliant for self-development. It has helped me to understand what taking responsibility truly means. It has given me tools for parenting. It has given our son confidence because of that.

It has given us a new car, free holidays, more family holiday to places like Devon, Devon Heaven we call it.

New friendships with like-minded people who are happy for our success.

It has given us choices so that when we realised that our son wasn't getting the support in main stream education, we could move him to a private school in Cambridge paid for by this business.

Most importantly, as a family this business has given us peace of mind, it is our future. My husband Dan was recently able to walk away from his career after being made redundant. We lost his six figure income overnight and yet we are happy! He has been able to join me in this business, we now both work part time from home around the commitments of our little boy.

I am not driven by money, I am driven by time. ....we will never get this time again.....we are making the most of this precious stage of our son's life. This is a lifestyle business......

Dan Hawkins

I have worked in the software and mobile telecommunication's industry for over 20 years. What was an interesting and varied career has more recently turned into a stressful, long-working hours job working across several time zones and cultures. The politics, the pigeon-holing, the lack of interesting stimulating work, the lack of direction and the lack of contact with the real outside world fuelled my unhappiness and my cynicism. Could I really continue this to the end of my days?

Cora, my wife, in the meantime founded InParallel. I was concerned about the business at first. It is unconventional when compared with traditional businesses. I supported Cora throughout however. I attended the trainings and met the leaders and was slowly swayed.

I watched the team grow through both Cora's and the team's efforts and started seeing the tangible benefits from it: the friendships, the positiveness, the holidays and the income. Hope had returned.

Recently, the majority of the office where I worked was made redundant. I have not looked back and now I have joined Cora.

There are challenges that vary from one person to another. They are mostly associated with personal development. There are many people to help with these challenges and once they are overcome, those dreams that were put-aside become a reality again!