the kitchen garden

beginner business coaching package 

Let's grow!

Build a business that feeds you, without replicating the systems that starved you.


For first time entrepreneurs who need help figuring out where to start, and how to break the patterns they learned in school and corporate.

So you took the leap. Now what?

You have the inspiration. You have the drive. You have absolutely no idea what to do first. Now that you’re on your own, doubts are messing with your head. You’re afraid of making the wrong choices. If you’ve burned out before, maybe having an idea feels paralyzing because it feels like you’re going to have to do it all the time forever. There’s no one above you to give you the A or tell you “good job”, and now you realize how much you needed that.

None of this means you aren’t cut out to run a business. It’s not you.

I need this

It’s just that no one teaches you how to work for yourself.

Not just business skills (lots of people teach those), but how to handle uncertainty, build trust in your judgement, and how to draw from your vast life experience to build systems that actually work for you instead of stuffing yourself into someone else’s vision of work.

You need a bridge between employee-you and entrepreneur-you. That’s what we build in the kitchen garden. This is a lab where, yes, we work on your business and everything that comes with it (systems, brand voice, business model) and build the strength you need to take it and run with it.

You’ll have the support of someone who’s been there. Many times, and can normalize the experience and help you troubleshoot when things come up, and something always comes up.

What you get:

  • 9 months of coaching and consulting. With a session every two weeks. The gestation period is not a coincidence.

  • Coaching plus consulting. Coaching as the default, consulting when you need and ask for it.

  • One visual coaching session for mapping your business, your positioning, or a decision that needs to be seen clearly.

  • Structured sessions on brand identity, and strategic planning: an intersection where most first-time founders get stuck

  • Practical first-steps support: surviving inconsistent income, basic business systems and structures, the must have basics you need before you start. The stuff nobody tells you clearly and early enough.

  • Referrals to trusted experts when you need someone outside this scope

  • A shared place to ask your questions and receive weekly answers in between sessions so you don’t get stuck.

  • Pattern recognition work: watching for the old system resurfacing in your new one and naming it when it does. Recycling what’s useful and making space for new choices.

Intentionally not included:

  • Rise-and-grind hustle culture

  • “Make 10k in your sleep”-type grifts

  • Spiritual bypassing of systemic inequality as “money mindset work”

  • You left a burnout situation to build something of your own… and the burnout followed you

  • You keep looking outside of you to make decisions, even though you're the boss now

  • Imposter syndrome isn't just a feeling. It's stopping you from pricing your work, showing up visibly, and trusting your own expertise

  • The practical stuff (pricing, policies, contracts, a website) feels overwhelming and you don't know what to do first

  • You want to build something that reflects your values, but you're not sure how to do that without it being naive

  • You're lonely in this. No one around you quite gets what it's actually like to

  • You have no good models for what it looks like to be a good boss to yourself

  • You left a system that was burning you out, and you're terrified of building another one

The Kitchen Garden is for you if :

Yes, this is me

This probably isn't the right fit if you're:

  • Looking for someone to hand you a complete business plan

  • Looking for a record deal, literary agent, or traditional publishing path

  • Building a scalable tech product or inventory-based business

  • Still deciding whether you want to build something at all

  • Service-based business, coaching, wellness, or healing practice (life coaching, somatic work, yoga, TCM, tarot, therapy, nutrition and more)

  • Creative practice or small studio (visual art, illustration, graphic design, handmade goods, artisan work)

  • Teaching practice (music, dance, movement, language, craft, academic tutoring)

  • Web or internet-based service business

  • Freelance creative career (copywriting, photography, graphic recording, facilitation)

  • Self-publishing project or author platform

  • performance-based independent practice (local gigging, workshop facilitation, speaking)

And if you:

  • Are going independent for the first time or early in your first venture

  • Your business is you — your skills, your expertise, your relationships

  • Want to build something that fits your life, not the other way around

  • Are willing to do the inner work alongside the practical work

We’ll be a good fit if you’re building a:

How it works:

  • 18 sessions, 60 minutes each, across 9 months

  • Biweekly rhythm by default. Can be closer together if needed in early weeks, or pause for a few weeks later on for integration.

  • Founder's Foundations sessions in month one: getting basic systems in place with support and accountability. We inventory what your business needs to operate safely: contract, insurance, business bank account, saving for taxes, and cover the basics of thriving with inconsistent income.

  • One visual coaching session (90 minutes) — to map your business vision, your brand positioning, or a strategic decision. You leave with a finished visual artifact.

  • Pre-session async touchpoint: a shared document where you can put your questions to be answered weekly so you don’t get stuck between sessions.

  • Coaching plus consulting on demand: business knowledge, brand identity, strategic planning, referral network

  • Goal-setting and milestone check-ins across nine months — a long view held alongside the immediate work

Investment

3150 CAD

(+ 5% GST) for the full package

  • 9 monthly payments of $350

    Available here

  • 2 sliding scale spots at $85-100/session available across all packages (retainer excluded) — genuinely subsidized, apply here

I'm ready to get down to business

Bonuses

  • Curated list of vetted reading material and resources

  • Branding and marketing exercises and visual brainstorming resources drawn from 13+ years of graphic recording and brand work

I want to be one with the forest floor

Imagine…

Imagine building something that actually fits the way you work. Not a hustle. Not a grind. Not a replica of the office you left. A kitchen garden: practical, nourishing, yours. Structures and creations that produces something to feed you, in a rhythm you can actually sustain.

Nine months from now, you could have:

  • A much clearer picture of what you're building, who it's for, and what makes it yours.

  • A working understanding of the practical basics (business model, pricing, contracts, policies, cash flow) so the business side doesn't feel like a foreign language anymore.

  • A clearer sense of why you kept getting in your own way, and some tools for when it happens again.

  • The experience of showing up visibly at least once in a way that scared you, and the knowledge that you can do it.

  • A brand that sounds and looks like you, at least in its first form.

  • A sense of what kind of boss you want to be to yourself and some real practice being that person.

  • A business that's starting to look like you, not like a replica of the system you escaped.

  • A kitchen garden with its first seeds in the ground. What grows is up to you, and you won't be figuring it out alone.

yes!

“Working with Annalee enabled me to tap into the source of my own creative genius and function at a highly energized state.”

-Denis T.

“Annalee’s open, flexible and non-judgmental approach to coaching always made it a safe space for me to explore and take risks. 

Her sense of observation, curiosity and deep inquiry helped me gain new perspectives and move forward with my projects”

-Marie N.

I DON’T HAVE AN MBA. I LEARNED BUSINESS AT THE KITCHEN TABLE.

Growing up, my mom ran businesses. Handmade crafts at craft fairs. An haute couture and alterations business. Massage therapy. Music teaching. An MYC franchise. My stepfather ran his own computer help business. When I was a teenager I'd sit at the kitchen table while my mom met with her women's business peer support group. I grew up thinking this was just something people did: hang up a shingle and make a living. However small. However scrappy. Just figure it out.

I started my first business at fifteen. A greeting card company. At eighteen I had my first illustration commission and my first art sale in the same week. I fell in love with the creative process and architecture of running a small business. I've had jobs, of course, but I've always been self-employed.

For thirteen years I've run a visual consulting practice as a sole proprietor. I've written my own contracts, done my own books, and filed my own business taxes every year. I've self-published, vended at markets, priced and sold fine art, built client bases from scratch across multiple fields, auditioned, found and fired agents, and taught for money. I know what it feels like to not know if the next client is coming, and to build something anyway.

I've also worked on the other side of the table. Copy-writing and web merchandising for large scale retail. Social media management for corporations including MEC, before and as the field professionalized (back when it was called “the blog report”). Over a dozen websites built for myself and for money. Operations, marketing, and client management for business owners from solopreneurs to professional firms of ten people. I’ve sat in on a hundred strategic planning meetings as a graphic facilitator for businesses, governments and organizations. The patterns and pitfalls? I’ve seen them. I’ve probably drawn a picture of them.

When you go somewhere for the first time, chances are I've been there too. And I'll tell you what I actually did, help you figure out what you need to do, and tell you when to call someone who knows more than I do.

I want help

FAQ:

  • For the Kitchen garden, yes! This is for people who are ready to start building. Of course your idea will evolve, they always do, but to get the most out of this coaching program you should have an idea of what you want to be doing and why.

    If you’re looking for a more open, creative, brianstorm-y type of coaching the Greenhouse is probably a better fit. If you’re not sure, you can book a vibe-check discovery call and I’ll be happy to help.

  • Most business coaches work at a different stage and scale to help you increase your earnings and streamline processes once you’re up and running. This is foundational. We’re building the infrastructure and doing the inner work that makes everything else possible. When you're ready for a $24k/year retainer, you'll know. This gets you ready to head in that direction.

  • If you’re hoping to make money doing something then it is a business, and the same skills, patterns and lessons apply! Your business model might be different than say, a massage therapist, but you still need structures, like systems and policies and… don’t shoot the messenger, but sales and marketing are still going to be part of your life. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t have to be sleazy. It can be joyful, creative and ethical.

  • Kitchen Garden is for people actively building something new. If you're still in the thick of burnout, start with Rich Soil. If you're looking for exploration, brainstorming and a creative outlet, the Greenhouse is for you. If you’ve been building your business for a while and need a thinking partner for higher level executive coaching ( work life balance, leadership and management, strategic planning) look at Tend the Orchard. If unsure, you can book a discovery call.

  • Take your time deciding. Only you can make that call. There’s a time for bootstrapping and a time for asking for help. I’ve been grateful I’ve struggled through solo at times, and also grateful I hired experienced advisors. Sometimes paying for help is the more economical and less stressful option.

    Yes to payment plans: You can spread the coaching package out over 9 monthly payments of $350. I won’t charge you interest.

    You can purchase on a payment plan here.

  • 18 x 60 minute sessions over 9 months, biweekly. You have the option to send me some questions and reflections through a shared document that I’ll review once a week between sessions. This part is totally optional.

    I’d recommend scheduling our package during a time where you can dedicate some time to working on your business so you can get the most out of our work together.

  • I’m not a business coach who made a business off of telling you how to run a business (we all know the kind I’m talking about).


    I’ve been running side hustles since age 15, and fully self-employed as a creative service provider for well over a decade. I feel in love with entrepreneurship and became a bit of an embarrassing nerd about it.

    I’ve been self employed as an actor, nanny, music teacher, performing artist, fine artist and more. I’ve worked in marketing, social media, vended at craft fairs, built websites and done my own books. I’ve also worked as a facilitator for big organizations doing visioning and strategic planning. So I’ve approached the challenge from many angles and found something to be stoked about every time.


  • Good news! This is both! Practical help to get you moving and coaching to draw out your best thinking and solutions. Coaching along can be too vague at this stage of business, and consulting or advice can get overwhelming if it isn’t tailored to your particular situation.

    This is a done-with-you service, not a done-for-you. So if you need to hire a web designer or a book keeper you should definitely do that. This is DIY support for someone determined to figure it out. I can help you find the path forward that works best for you, and help you build the skills to keep making those solid decisions.

  • I don’t guarantee specific results. No coach can, and you’ve probably been burned by programs that over promise before.

    Your mileage will vary because you are unique and your business is unique. Our goal is going to be to get you as much clarity as possible around your business’s identity, structure, and inner workings, and to implement as much as possible so you have something to run with by the time we’re done. But this looks different for each client.


    I do guarantee that I’ll show up with my whole self and all my knowledge and experience, that I will hold you gently but firmly in these first steps. The rest is up to you.

  • Sometimes we need an integration period and the body just says no to more inner-work. If this happens to you, or if something unexpected happens in your life that needs your full attention, we can absolutely discuss a timeline and take a pause for the time that you need. Refunds and pauses will not be issued for ghosting without notice (except in cases of truly extreme circumstances).

    If you decide this isn’t the right fit for you, or if your circumstances change making it impossible to complete our time together, you may either defer your remaining sessions to a later time, or request a cancellation of our agreement and the remaining unused sessions will be refunded.

    Please take your time when deciding to work together. If you’re not sure if we’re a good fit I’m happy to meet for a vibe check call. You can book a free 20 min Q and A call here

  • You’re welcome to purchase another package, or to book more coaching sessions individually as a returning client. We can discuss it as we see how things evolve.

  • Access: I always ask my clients about their access needs and wants. Adaptation is the rule not the exception. We meet over zoom or over the phone and we can adapt that format in any way that feels best and that technology allows. Some adaptations include: camera off, fidgeting, doodling, shared whiteboard for brainstorming, pacing and moving about, laying down, automated subtitles and more. My goal is to make this a place to unmask.

    Inclusion: I understand how important it is that the folks to whom we entrust our care honour and embrace our full humanity. That’s basic human decency. And so is being LGBTQ2S+ affirming, and respectful of the global majority (aka BIPOC folks). I am a white, disabled hetero, cis woman so naturally my default POV reflects that. I’m always working to expand and challenge that POV and to learn. I can’t promise you perfect safety (no one can) but I can promise you a relational approach, humility and self-reflection.

Lets plant something good