A tough start to 2024

The start of this year was a really tough year in the business, beginning in February when a certain non-South African online business hit the SA market, along with their HUGE marketing budgets. This completely wrecked the paid advertising that most of us online SA businesses were doing, as they took over the monopoly of which businesses get seen.

I am not normally one to buy into external factors affecting the business or operating from a competitive point of view, BUT this time got me. Besides their marketing budget, everyone was in a frenzy to buy from these people and share with their friends and family, their “not so ethical” marketing tactics and import tax advantages, gave them a very unfair advantage over the rest of us.

A negative cash flow spiral

And all of this during our normally quiet season, left us with not enough business to pay our overheads. I watched in despair as our cash flow went further and further into a negative. Before any of this started I had booked an overseas holiday in June.

As the holiday came closer and closer and things were just getting worse and worse, I was thinking this is it, we are going to lose our business. Before I left, I had to take an overdraft to cover our overheads, something we had never done before. My body seized up with stress…and to make matters worse, my holiday was planned around running my first full marathon.

Weeks away from having to close our doors

Manifesting is not new to me, but with the state I was in, I simply couldn’t even start to try and get us out of this. My holiday was a blur, I was in survival mode, my body was in pain, miraculously I still ran my marathon. I arrived back from my holiday at the end of June, facing another month end with no money! I couldn’t borrow more, we were weeks away from having to close our doors, sell off stock to pay creditors, and walk away with nothing.

My despair was very real, my body was in agony, I couldn’t think straight, all I knew was this was NOT how the story ended, and it wasn’t!

Along came I CAN Manifest

Along came Melanie Britz’s book, I CAN Manifest!! Melanie is a personal friend who happened to be asking friends to read her book in return for honest reviews. Knowing how deeply connected she is, and how well she packages concepts like this into practical ways of getting results, I jumped at the opportunity and set about getting into the book and applying its principles immediately.

Day one you are asked to pick an amount of money to manifest. I went with 3 times what we had been bringing in monthly over the past 4 months. Strangely at no time did I doubt that we could do that, even though under the circumstances, it was a big stretch. I diligently read my chapter and wrote my letter to the Universe every single morning.

As if they were "Under some secret spell" to say yes and pay deposits

I found that after about 10 days I was waking up feeling incredibly excited to log onto my bank and website to see what the Universe had done for us the previous day. Website sales started increasing, I changed my priorities and effortlessly made time to contact as many corporate clients as I could. They said yes and paid deposits as if they were under some secret spell to do so on request!!

A client who should have paid 50% at the end of August and the balance in September, agreed to pay 25% immediately, 25% at the end of July and the balance at the end of August. I watched in amazement as the balance owing reduced daily, on track, in proportion to what I had asked for. By day 33 I ended up with R1 534 587.50. This is R34 587.50 more than what I had asked for.

Every day as money came in I was able to clear the amounts owing to creditors. I paid off the 120 days, and then the 90 days and then the 60 days and so it went. Every day I felt my stress melting away. By the end of the 33 days, there was enough in the bank to pay all the overheads for the end of July. August is already taken care of too. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would go from being a few weeks away from closing, to being totally in the green again. Although the overdraft is still there, I know that will get sorted soon. I think I see another 33 days coming again soon!!

Highlights from the journey

Going through my journal, here are some of the highlights/thoughts from the 33 day journey:

• My first letter was written in very scruffy (angry) handwriting. How could the Universe have let me down after all the hard work I have done on myself and in the business?

• By the 5th day I could see I was feeling a lot more playful and starting to really enjoy this “game” with the universe. Money was coming in daily with ease.

• I had written down my feelings on day 1 as “frustrated”, on day 8 I wrote that I was feeling hugely relieved. I could see a light at the end of the tunnel and was paying people with no fear as I knew more was coming.

• On day 9 I got the idea to set up and send a specific mailer which generated 6 x our normal daily turnover, that was awesome. By day 10 I was in such a state of gratitude, ease and peace, team “Ali/Universe” was unstoppable.

• Day 13 asked us to think of a time where we felt successful. I realised I had never actually celebrated the marathon I had run, because of the state I was in about the business. Thinking about it made me see that if I could push through 43km’s of trail running,  (the furthest I had ever done was 21km and with a body that was screaming with pain), then I could push through anything. I realised how strong and determined I am.

• Reading through my letters in my journal, I saw more things like “whoop whoop” appearing, as gratitude and excitement came bubbling out of me, watching the process work 100% as it was meant to.

• On day 17 a client called to say “it’s your lucky day, we paid 100% upfront instead of 50%”. I gave an “Oohweeee!” on that day.

• When we got to day 23, I rather sternly reminded the Universe that there were only 10 days left for the commitment to be fulfilled, and that it better not let me down, I was having great fun being the boss of the universe for a bit!

• Day 25 was one of my favorite days, but I wont say more than that as I don’t want to give anything away – and also the process will feel different for each of us.

Other side benefits during the 33 days

Other side benefits that came during these 33 days. I healed an issue I had with one of my kids with resentment with money. I was in a state of complete abundance and treated myself to things that I had been wanting to buy or do for a long time. This was with my personal money, not business money.

Two new employees literally fell out of nowhere and were both employed by us before the end of the 33 day period, I had never met them before. One was for a role that was 100% needed to take over from someone in the business that needs time off for health reasons, and the other was a role that I had not even thought about, but one that will help take the business to another level.

I found I became more gentle, kind, loving and my interactions with everyone was quite different. I was going so much easier on myself with work, stopping earlier and giving myself more time off.

When I wrote down the amount that I wanted, I did not base it on what I needed. I didn’t want the outcome attached to something, and the amazing thing was, it was EXACTLY what I needed.

I so enjoyed the practical exercises and the journaling each day.

Easy, manageable and practical

This process has come with so much ease, trust, playfulness and softness. There was not one day where I doubted that the Universe would give what I had asked for. Even on day 30 when there was R224k still to come in and only 3 days to go, I knew it would happen.

The melting of the stress each time money came in to pay another bill, was incredible. I cant wait to start again for ME ❤

What I enjoyed the most about this book / process was the very easy and manageable, practical hands on approach. I found myself waking up excited every morning to reconcile the money gifts the Universe had bestowed upon us the previous day. This and so much more.

With so much love and  gratitude

*Ali

*Alison Deary lives in Cape Town, South Africa

WANT TO CHECK OUT I CAN MANIFEST FOR YOURSELF? BUY YOUR COPY HERE