Interested in starting your own freelance business as a nutritionist or eating coach? Then read up on our interview with Alana Van Der Sluys, the founder of Freedom with Food and Fitness an intuitive eating coach based in New Jersey.
Tell us all about your business...
I am an intuitive eating coach who helps women stop dieting, feeling out of control around food, and reclaim a love of fitness and their bodies.
What's your background and motivation to get into the solopreneur life?
I just launched Freedom with Food and Fitness in December 2020, only five months after the birth of my first son, Archer. I had a five-year battle with binge-restrict cycles, body dysmorphic disorder and orthorexia. I healed myself through podcasts, Instagram accounts and books, alone. What motivates me is seeing other women suffer through what I went through and I want to share the strategies that helped me reclaim my life.
As a business owner, what does success ultimately mean to you?
It means contributing positively to the world and doing something that is meaningful to you, something that creates a sense of happiness and fulfillment in your own life.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Keeping up with the Instagram and creating growth! Also I know nothing about marketing from an educational standpoint so I've just been learning as I go!
What are the top 3 tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run or grow a business today?
Do something that you truly believe in and that you would do as a hobby...because you're going to be dedicating a lot of your precious time and energy into it!
If there was one thing you could do repeatedly to help grow your business, what would it be?
I just plan to continue making genuine connections and relationships with my followers. I love hearing their stories and their successes. It fuels me to keep pushing forward with my work.
What are some of the things you put in place to maintain a healthy work/life balance and to keep it all together?
I block out times to do things so I can toggle between work, being a wife, a mother, a friend, a daughter, and just a person. I wear a lot of hats so I need to make time for all of them and also just for myself.
Who are some of your favorite entrepreneurs and best business resources/books??
Canva! It's free and they have a great app, too. I love Jessi Jean, Caroline Dooner and The Body Love Society. They are in the same body positivity/intuitive eating space, but they're KILLING it. Total goals.
Where can people find you online?
Find me on Instagram @FreedomwithFoodandFitness. DM me, start a conversation, ask questions, make suggestions. I am here to serve those women who are sick of dieting and just want to find peace, so anything I can do to help them do that, I will. Also, join my email list by DMing me "email" or clicking the link in my bio.
I'm also on Facebook and TikTok.
If you like what you've read here and have your own #GoSoloStories that you'd like to share then email bethany@subkit.com, we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.
