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12/12/2007: Moving reason for talented duo to help UK therapists achieve Fledgling Complementary Therapists Invited To Soar With Specialist Business Support Owing his life to complementary therapy, entrepreneurial coach Ethan Taylor is saying thank-you by launching a unique business success package for fledgling therapists. The Essex man has teamed up with Peter Dickson - a marketing specialist friend, whose family has also benefited repeatedly from the healing touch of complementary medicine. Ethan also believes that complementary therapy saved his father from prostate cancer and is improving the life of his severely autistic son. Saying thank-you Peter, 38 insisted: “Our passion and purpose is to help as many therapists as we possibly can, achieve their dreams with strong, profitable therapy businesses. “Making a living from something you enjoy doing is something most therapists understand – it’s just a pity that so many shun the chance to earn really big money, and help as many people as possible, believing it is wrong to become rich through what many regard as a gift to heal. This is just one of the mindsets that Ethan and I seek to adjust.” The Competition Peter came up with the idea of launching the business with a nationwide competition to find the student therapist, who must still be in training, or in the first six months out of training, with the best business potential. The first prize will be everything they need to start and run a new therapy business, including a treatment room, branding, logo, car, website, printing of flyers and stationery, membership of relevant organisations etc. First taste of complementary therapy Although Peter and his family have benefited from various complementary therapies, Ethan has a far more moving reason to say thank-you for the treatment that he, his father and autistic son have received. The Brentwood man first experienced complementary therapy as a 14 year-old French boy after moving to England with his parents. “Children had teased me mercilessly about my accent since arriving in the UK at the age of ten, so I asked mum and dad if I could have language therapy lessons to make me sound English. “Dead against me losing my accent, they refused to pay – so I set up a local gardening and housework business to pay for the therapy myself!” said Ethan, 46. “As well as paying for what I wanted, my two-year ‘enterprise’ was my first taste of entrepreneurship – something that I now coach.” Even when Ethan took employment, his entrepreneurial flair still shone through – making him the youngest manager a leading car hire company had ever known, aged only 19. Only three years later, the young man’s free spirit drove him to launch his first business - a mobile car repair service, developed out of a passion for classic cars that remains with him today. Drawing on his extensive entrepreneur skills, creating and developing businesses for others, Ethan’s career took a totally different turn in 2004, when he finally became a coach for other entrepreneurs and management leaders. Suicide However, despite his talent for success, there was one pitch that almost slipped through Ethan’s hands: his life. Recognising that he was gay since being a young teenager, he was in denial until the age of 36. By then, the pressure of leading a double life as a gay, yet married, father-of-three was such that Ethan tried to take his life – twice. “I took an overdose which took effect faster than expected while still driving,” explained Ethan. “Despite passing out at the wheel, I didn’t crash. An ambulance crew came to my rescue and I survived. “So I bought a motorcycle which I tried to crash – but costing £10,000, it had the latest safety features, so the anti-lock brakes and traction control saved my life!” A painful divorce now under his belt by 1999, Ethan had become so depressed and run down that he collapsed in the doctors surgery following extensive and sudden weight loss – which he believes combined with a life of stress to result in cancer. “I had the perfect opportunity to give up and let myself die – but could I leave behind my three children?” said Ethan. Concerned that medics wanted to bombard his body with chemotherapy – despite being unsure of the exact nature of his cancer – Ethan consulted his father about his own complementary cancer therapy experience. “Dad took the complementary route to combating prostate cancer owing to concerns about the potential side-effects of traditional medicine – in which he had lost faith after an unsuccessful operation to cure his cancer,” explained Ethan. “Despite being given only three to six months to live, dad won through and lived for a further five years.” “Do you really want to live?” Although Ethan had never told his parents about his suicide attempts, when he asked his dad’s advice about his cancer treatment, the first response was: “First you have to be sure you really want to live!” Ethan said: “I’ve often wondered if he instinctively knew about the attempts on my life.” Originally misdiagnosed with tuberculosis, Ethan consulted a naturopath who detected telltale free radical cells that indicated cancer of the bowel, prostate, right lung and left kidney. “I was advised to work on the immune system by treating my blood, since my body was being effectively eaten from the inside – making me lose almost five stones!” said Ethan. “I ended up taking a daily dose of some 53 vitamin and mineral supplements and pills – and after ten months noticed a significant improvement. I received the all-clear 13 months later.” Chance meeting Meeting through a mutual business contact in June 2006, Ethan and Peter soon became great friends – supporting one another with their respective businesses. Their respective experiences of complementary therapy soon prompted a unique business opportunity – while also giving something back. Their competition is open to newly qualified therapists and those who qualified by 31 July 2007, supported by an accreditation letter from the entrant’s college. The judges, taken from some of the most respected organisations in the therapy and business worlds, will decide who in their opinion will make the best use of the car, therapy room, therapy equipment, marketing and promotional support as well as accountancy and legal support. Other sponsors are providing additional services and products for the prizes on a weekly basis and the value of the three main prizes is likely to exceed £30,000. Application is via an on-line form, to be found at: www.therapybusinessacademy.com. Entries are invited until 13 April 2008, although you can register your interest and be placed on a notification list from 1 December 2007. For further information about the work of The Therapy Business Academy, contact Peter or Ethan on: 0845 370 5060. |