Going solo resonates confidence, fun, being in-control and satisfying but it may also get you slowed down, jittery and wrong if you get a bit sloppy. As all businesses build on values and skills so does a solopreneur. Here are top 5 secrets that can help you to easily navigate through the solopreneur’s rough role.
Values make decisions
Unless you have individual values regarding life, family, social and business you may fail in making the right decisions at the right time. It’s these values which fabricate the templates, on which making these decisions would prove easy, worthy, and correct. Mind you, you are all alone here and cannot afford the company of colleagues to help you, neither you can afford to lose time over a decision. So build a value system for your business growth and take decisions based on that.
Stay focused on the core
As your business grows, never let the additional business activities like back office tasks, customer relations, marketing, etc., bother you and let you deviate from the core business activity which only you can perform. These deviations may pluck you off the main business activity and gets you on the wrong end of fulfilling customer schedules. So think smart and try to offload non-core business activities to professionals like virtual assistants or freelancers who would do you a world of good by letting you focusing on your expertise.
Know how to set up a home office or virtual office
This is real key to save you all that you are gaining. It’s not advisable to rent premises, hiring employees, purchasing furniture, office equipment and so on, at least in the initial phase of your solopreneurship. Understand and know how to grow a home, garage or backyard office, a shared office space, etc., the objective is to save money for the business to take wings. Remember, the key is to build an environment that lets you unleash your expertise, ignite your passion and nurture your growth.
Extract the best out of the Internet
There are plenty of tools, people, social forums, advisors who offer free or cheap services to accentuate your business growth. For e.g., if you are a software trainer you could borrow or rent database of prospective students and send emails to them about your training courses rather than depending on costly newspaper ads. You can use the power of social networking and other technical forums to talk about your training programs and showcase your expertise on the related faculty and gain credibility and also business. For your other business needs you also have tools like QuickBooks to take care of your accounts, blogs to write articles promoting your business and so on.
Have a plan, have discipline, and don’t lose control
The biggest problem with being single is there is no one up there to warn you or tight you up if you are off track. If you can tackle this single biggest hurdle you sure will make it big. This mandates you having a clear and written growth plan, built-in discipline to follow the plan and the ability to kick your own butt when you get things wrong. So train your mind to ring the alarm bell if you go off track, and things will get you where you have planned to go.
That’s all to start with your own self-made business, remember not to get off track or the big boys will ride over you. It’s really satisfying to be in the company of some solo greats, so buckle up and get going.
Check out the slideshow How to Build a Successful Freelance Business
Solo Entrepreneurs are like pioneers.
While everyone is looking to get a job, they are looking to strike it on their own.
Like the saying goes….”it gets lonely at the top” is a perfect illustration of how things can get really difficult during your journey to financial freedom. Nevertheless, those who come out on top are those who who have conquered the fear of failure and are willing to learn from their mistakes
To succeed as a solopreneur one has to learn to outsource part of the workload to VAs who can do it better and more efficiently especially time consuming chores. Secondly, one has to prioritize, remain focused, and act as the CEO. Work smart hours, not long hours.