We recently connected with Monica Kubik and have shared our conversation below.

Monica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

I started my current company at the age of 35, and I believe the time was just right. I needed all the experience from before – and I am a firm believer that things come to you when you are ready.

Although horses were part of my life since an early age, I could never see myself working in the equestrian world. So I separated my private hobby from my career and went on to work in totally unrelated fields – I studied economics and after I graduated worked in exhibitions and trade fairs.
It was great at the time – I got to meet many businesses from different industries all across the world and bring them together in one place. My counter parts were often General Managers and Directors and I was given lots of opportunities for growth, career wise.

As trade fairs director, I also got experience in all aspects of running a business – I was involved in marketing, sales, planning budgets, hiring team members and training them, brainstorming and launching new events….
Many things that later helped me when I started running my own business.

Looking back, it was essential for me to get a good understanding of the corporate world to be able to do what I do now – as a leadership and teams coach, I need to have been in their shoes to be able to understand their struggles and what they are talking about.

The decision to work for myself came after having my children and realizing that I did not want to be stuck in an office all day long, which, when adding the commute, meant that I would not really be able to see my kids grow up.

But I also knew from the beginning that I would not be happy as a stay at home mum, and since part time jobs were not really available at the time, I began my journey to search for the perfect business idea….

And I have to admit, I failed several times in the beginning – I bought a business which turned out to be a scam. Next, I launched a new event with a friend, but we couldn’t get the clients and gave up after a year.
It was truly frustrating and I lost a lot of money, but I also learned a lot in that time, many real life lessons which you never learn at university!

I then found a (part time) consulting job back in exhibitions which was great to get my self worth back!
But also made me realize that my passion for the industry was no longer there.

And a few years into my journey of self-discovery, it all came together:
I read about horse assisted corporate trainings and immediately knew that this was something I wanted to do!
Two weeks later I flew to Germany for my first Train the Trainer, and since then have added several other certification courses and learned a lot more over the years.
It was still not easy to get the business of the ground and took me years to be where I wanted to be – but this time, I have found something that I am truly passionate about, and that has made the key difference for me, as it allows me to persist even when things don’t work as smooth as I want them to, to keep learning, to keep pushing, and to work long hours when necessary…

However, the business I have now is not something I could have started straight after university – it required all learning and lessons before I could even start to develop it!

And so I am grateful for having come across it at the right time…

Monica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I offer horse assisted corporate leadership training and Horse Guided Empowerment® sessions in Dubai, as well as worldwide retreats in unique locations combining horse guided coaching and other modalities.

I also run the Middle East division of Horse Guided Empowerment® by Christina Marz, mentoring new students who want to learn to include horses in their coaching work, and furthermore assist architects and real estate companies with new stable design ideas.

I started this journey in 2016.
The Corona pandemic was quite a hit as we mostly work face to face and just when the business was getting some traction, it really threw me back and got me doubting.
But I got through it, and now look forward to the future, having in the meantime also build quite a team of colleagues in the region and spreading this unique new way of working with horses.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

My first idea when I ventured into becoming my own boss was: “Hey, instead of starting from scratch, how about I simply buy an existing business?” I had a newborn baby and was looking for an additional income without the added stress…
My father, who at the time had taken a terminal bonus and was in early retirement, exploring himself the idea of starting a new business, was very supportive and suggested to give me a loan…

This all put me in a mindset of – let’s go shopping for a business!

Looking back, I took the first offer I found, which additional sounded extremely promising… and I did very little background check.
It was a small souvenir shop with two sales ladies – according to the seller, all I had to do was let them stand in the shop and collect the cash in the evening and make sure they had enough inventory to sell…

I did not really listen to my intuition, questioning why she was selling such a seemingly well running business, or speaking to different stake holders… I remember my mother and my husband warning me, but I didn’t listen. I dove right in looking for the easy solution, and it quickly turned out to be very different from what she had promised me.

After that came months of lawyers, angry calls and emails, many sleepless nights, and lots of guilt on my side… I was able to get out of the business, but lost a lot of money in the process.

It was fairly easy to acquire the business – too easy in fact – and rather complicated to let go of it – also emotionally…

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

One tool that truly helped me from the beginning and still does is my website.

In 2009, whilst I still had my full time job, I experimented with a website builder called SBI! – Solo Build It.
At the time, I still wasn’t ready to start my business, but was curious about website building…

SBI! goes far beyond just offering a tool to build a website – it’s a full blown management system with hours of tutorials and a community of entrepreneurs who want to get it right – building honest websites from scratch that get seen by the search engines, and as the name says, it is mostly for people going solo, people who work for themselves and can’t afford to outsource everything.

I have learned so much over the years from them, and when I eventually started my business and my new website, I got it right from the beginning.
It still today brings me so many leads for my offline business, simply because I get found for all the relevant key words, and this has really helped me tremendously in my entrepreneurial journey…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.feel-quest.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feelquest/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-kubik-15876132/

Image Credits
Elizabeth Glanville Angi Raab