Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sara Callahan, Founder of Nutrition For Life Project, located in Chelmsford, MA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I'm a Nutrition Coach, and I help active people who are sick of dieting to see results and get the body they want without restricting the foods they love!

Tell us about yourself

I've been there. The reflection in the mirror was telling me I was never going to look good enough, feel good enough, or be good enough. On top of that, long hours at work were sucking the life out of me. This is what led to me crying myself to sleep countless nights before addressing the real problems. I had been chasing diets, blindly listening to others when they talked about how "you shouldn't eat dairy," or whatever the hot food-group-to-cancel was that week. I became more discouraged; I would lose weight just to gain it back the next week… Why weren't these quick fixes not working!?! I needed to change my approach.

So I immediately stopped all that and dove into all things nutrition and health, and really took the time to learn--for me! I studied the reasoning behind every fad diet you've ever heard of, I charted out the building blocks of proteins, fats, and carbs, and I discovered the factual nutritional needs for athletic performance.

Then, I used my degree in Education to develop a step-by-step process that can take people from the basics to the advanced and package it into what I call the Nutrition For Life Project. Your experiences around food are unique, personal, and REAL to YOU. I wish this process of building healthy habits and understanding the surrounding details was available to me all those years ago.

Lucky for you, I've read the books, I've tried the diets, I've tracked every detail, so you don't have to! The nutritional plans that are created in NFLP are full of foods you love, allowing you to see yourself in the mirror in a whole new way, so no one has to cry themselves to sleep again!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Establishing and growing the business in itself has been a huge accomplishment! Within the Nutrition For Life Project, I've helped hundreds of people gain a new perspective on their food and nutrition and better understand what they need to eat to reach their goals and, all without restricting, foods they love. That is the critical piece for me... nothing can be successful long-term if we're always focused on the things we can't have or can't do!

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Two things come to mind here!

  1. Delegating! This one can be challenging for me because I see my business as my baby and want to be fully responsible for it! But that can't always be true, and accepting support and resources from others has been hugely beneficial for me and the business as a whole.
  2. Constant innovation. I, like I imagine many others, can get into a groove with their schedules and routines and just stick to it. But that can be detrimental to business growth if we're not constantly looking at what people need for the next avenue to deliver a product or service or not seeing outside of the tunnel we've built for ourselves. This is still a challenge sometimes, but I'm working on it!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Make sure it's something you're really passionate about! You're going to be spending a lot of time in the business, researching, talking with clients, or doing market research, and you want it to be something you really care about and not "just" something that can make you money... that can get old quickly!
  2. Ask for help! Especially if establishing or growing a business is a new venture for you, ask for support from people who have been there or know more than you about business. From my perspective, as someone who comes from an educational background, this was a challenge, and I'm glad I used the resources I did to setup my business structure in a way that makes sense for me; it removed a lot of guesswork, and I was really thankful for that!
  3. It's okay to feel like you don't know enough... you probably don't, and there are always people who are going to know more than you! And that's a good thing... we can learn from others, grow from the experience, and continue to innovate. If we always imagine we're the best and know everything, that really limits our abilities to see outside of our box, challenge our ideas, learn new things from updated research, etc... all things that can make us better at what we do!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.nutritionforlifeproject.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NutritionForLifeProject
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nutritionforlifeproject/
Substack: https://nutritionforlifeproject.substack.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-callahan-b66886228/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.