When she was made homeless at age 16, the future looked very bleak for Hayley Forbes.
But against the odds, she’s recently earned her first £1million and now flies first class, just two years after starting her own business.
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Hayley, 33, grew up on a council estate in Dunfermline, Fife. “My parents split up when I was one year old.
“Me and my brother lived with my mum and stepdad, who was a grafter, out the door to work on the Forth Bridge at 5am, not home till late and working weekends for overtime.
“We were getting by on about £300 a week,” she tells The Sun.
After her mother and stepfather split up, their home was repossessed and the family became homeless.
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She found out from a shock call from her mum while at college, telling her they were being kicked out and had until 5pm to collect all their belongings.
“I remember rushing home and having to get everything we owned out into the garden.
“And then we went into the homeless system. It was all very traumatic.
“We were moved to a scatter flat [short term housing] in a different place where we didn’t know anyone.”
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Hayley always believed there was a better life out there though, and used her devastating experiences to fuel her entrepreneurial drive.
“My background helped me to get where I am today. I learned from a young age that if you want something, nobody’s going to help you, you’ve to go and get it yourself,” she says.
Hayley’s tough upbringing instilled a strong work ethic, and she started earning her own money washing cars at just 8-years-old.
“I’d say to my brother ‘I can’t wait to drive a brand new car’ and he’d laugh and say ‘Hayley you’re never gonna get a brand new car, that doesn’t happen to people like us’,” she says.
“A lot of people think the fact they didn’t have opportunities works against them, but it can work for you as well.”
By the age of 18, Hayley worked 60 hours a week in a hairdressers, a chippy and a pub while studying beauty at night school.
Two years late she finally escaped the homeless system when she met her now-husband Derek.
They moved in together and she set up her own business as a make-up artist.
‘Transforming my life’
Over the next decade, she also had four kids, and battled a chronic health condition called Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
“When my eldest, Lucas, was diagnosed with autism and I found out I was pregnant with my fourth baby, I thought something needed to change.
“I was on crutches and I was told I’d likely be in a wheelchair by the time I was 50. I thought ‘this can’t be my reality. This can’t be my life’,” Hayley explains.
“I used to be on 30 tablets a day and they caused a hole in my stomach so I wasn’t able to take any more medication and had to go down a different route of diet, health and mindset.
“I had coaching and it started to transform my life, so I felt inspired to train as a life coach myself.”
In 2017, she’d also set up a mum blog and built a loyal following, going on to monetise it through affiliates and ads.
In 2021 she hit on the idea of combining her skills of coaching and social media marketing to set up a new business.
The Sigma Femme offers life and business coaching, trains other women to become coaches and teaches them how to grow their businesses with social media.
“I never just teach about business. It’s self development and making conscious choices and reminding people they’ve got the power, that you don’t have to come from a fancy background – you get to create the life you want.”
Within just six months, her business had a six figure turnover.
“Before I launched, I spent two months building a social media presence and a brand.
“I started to use social media like a job. I’d be on Instagram for hours every day, connecting and networking and going live.
“You need to build an audience and you need to give value to them.”
Her first revenue came from affiliate marketing. This is when you promote a product online, and get paid each time someone buys it off the back of your recommendation.
She also started offering one-to-one coaching her first clients, who were life coaching peers that she taught how to grow brands on social media.
From £60 an hour to £2,000
Although she was advised to charge £100 and hour, she started at £60 to work with as many people as possible.
Word of mouth quickly brought more clients and she started group coaching programmes and doubled her prices.
By the fifth month in business, Hayley also started a mastermind course, charging £4,500 for six months.
“I packed everything into it, from how to start a business, to how to launch, to how to build a coaching course, to how to grow on Facebook.”
Fifteen women joined the course and, the following month, The Sigma Femme had achieved a turnover of £125,000.
By working long hours and investing every penny back into the business over the next 18 months, Hayley hired a team of four, including her husband as a director, and attracted clients from all over the UK, Europe and America.
She can now charge up to £2,000 an hour for her coaching sessions – and earlier this year, the business reached a turnover figure of more than £1 million.
Hayley now has the life she always wanted, travelling the world, spending time with her children – who are homeschooled – and living in a three-storey farmhouse with land in Aberdeenshire.
“I don’t work before 11am, we have a lot of family time and we’re always there for dinner,” she says.
“We were in Barbados in December on a catamaran hanging out with multimillionaires in the middle of the Caribbean Ocean, and I thought ‘This is insane’.
“I remember when I was a kid, my brother and I went away with Cubs and Brownies and we had to get sleeping bags donated to us because we didn’t own any – and now I’m flying business class.
“There was so much good in my childhood but it’s a different world that my kids are growing up in, and I feel so privileged to be able to give it to them.”
Top tips for starting your own business
Alan Thomas, UK chief executive at Simply Business, previously shared his top tips for starting a business with The Sun.
Know your customer inside-out
Knowing your audience is crucial. Start by asking yourself if your idea could help make their life simpler, or fill a gap that competitors currently aren’t.
Testing your product or service and iterating based on feedback is a great way to ensure you’re building what’s right for your customer.
Doing this early, before investing too heavily, can help to validate your business idea and save a lot of money in the process.
Sort your legalities
Make sure you’re on the right side of any rules, regulations, and legalities.
Registering your business with HMRC should be a priority and it will inform how much tax you need to pay.
You can do this online at gov.uk. You’ll also need to decide on the structure of your company (sole trader, limited company or a partnership).
Legally you may also require business insurance, such as public or employers’ liability insurance.
A public liability policy protects against damage to third party property or individuals, whereas employers’ liability is a necessity if you have staff.
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Create the perfect marketing plan
This is where websites and social media come into play. Consider what platforms work for your business and go from there.
You don’t need a presence on all of them. Also, don’t ignore the power of flyers, local PR, and good old word of mouth.
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