Julia Bickerstaff

When a wise man told Julia Bickerstaff "Spend time with your children while they still want to spend time with you" she was a partner with global consulting powerhouse Deloitte and simultaneously raising three small children.

She didn't think she was getting it right with her children so she left her job.

Still wanting to work, Julia took up a career speaking and writing about small business, and working with private clients. She wrote her book "How to Bake a Business' and within a few years of leaving she was busier than ever and, er, back in danger of getting the mix between children and work wrong again.

So she set off on the path of creating a 'lifestyle business' - a business that would give her everything she wanted in terms of income, time commitment, and purpose.

Having spent many years in small-business-land she knew that the vast majority of small business owners wanted a lifestyle business too, yet very few were achieving it. To this end Julia decided to combine her business know-how with her desire to run a lifestyle business and founded The Business Bakery, a company which helps people turn their lifestyle businesses into profitable little gems.

Julia got to personally road test her recipes for creating a lifestyle business when her fourth child was born right in the middle of product development!

Julia continues to write for Australia's Smartcompany, she keeps a blog, The Daily, Juice, and she can also be seen on Australia's Channel 7 show Kochie's Business Builders.