How to Be a Solopreneur: 7 Steps to Help You Succeed & Thrive
Are you curious about how to be a solopreneur?
Maybe you’re tired of spending your days, months, and years commuting long hours and being stuffed in a cubicle.
And you’re probably tired of building other people’s dreams for a living. At the end of the month, you want more than a paycheck and a depressed spirit.
You’ve thought about building your own dream, but you’re unsure (and maybe nervous) about going solo. There are so many things you don’t know.
What will I sell? Where will I get clients? How will I afford my mortgage and healthcare?
Although this article won’t appease all your fears, you’ll get a solid idea of what a solopreneur is, and how to build a thriving solo business.
Are you ready for a preview of the solopreneurial life?
Let’s go!
What Is a Solopreneur, Anyway?
Briefly put, a solopreneur is a person who runs their own business without the help of any employees.
But how do they differ from entrepreneurs and freelancers?
Solopreneur vs. Entrepreneur
The word solopreneur derives from the word entrepreneur. The difference between the two concepts can be confusing, as a solopreneur is a type of entrepreneur, i.e., “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”
Nowadays, the term entrepreneur refers to a business owner with multiple products or services who employs people to assist them in building a large company. A solopreneur may also hire freelancers to help them with tasks such as graphic design or accounting, but they remain a “company of one,” and their business may revolve around a single product or service.
For example, a software company is run by an entrepreneur, whereas a software developer could work as a solopreneur.
You can read more about the nuanced difference between solopreneurs and entrepreneurs here.
Solopreneur vs. Freelancer
So, are solopreneurs just glorified freelancers? No. Freelancers are independent workers who sell their services to a wide variety of companies, usually on a project-by-project or hourly basis. The solopreneur has a more business-like approach to their work and can be likened to a freelancer who has leveled up their business.
Freelancers usually trade time for money with their skills, while solopreneurs have a wider river of income streams, often involving products.
Although both freelancers and solopreneurs may work as independent contractors, most freelancers don’t identify as business owners. Whereas solopreneurs spend time on branding, developing products, and expanding their customer base, freelancers don’t. If they do, they are, in fact, solopreneurs.
You can read more about the difference between solopreneurs and freelancers here.
How Do You Become a Solopreneur: 7 Steps
A solopreneur often starts their career through a side hustle while still having a paid job. They usually begin with a product or a service they are passionate about and work on it in their spare time.
As a solopreneur, you either try to invent something new (service or product) or do something that already exists in a different, better, or more exciting or elegant way.
These are the basic 7 steps to becoming and succeeding as a solopreneur:
1. Nail down your niche
In this discovery phase, you should try to find a niche where your passion and the world’s needs intersect. Finding the right service or product is crucial for your success. Yet, you should not aim for perfection but rather a minimum viable product/service. This makes it easier to course-correct or perfect your idea based on feedback from early adopters.
2. Concoct a business plan
It is not enough to “find clients who will pay you,” although that is a good start. You need to make a thorough inventory of who you are, your skills, how you can help others, and how you intend to go about it. In short, a business plan establishes your mission and goals and how you will attain them.o
3. Brand yourself like a boss
As a solopreneur, your business is you. That means letting people know who you are, what you can do, and how you differ from others in your niche. You want people to not just like you but love you. Having a branding strategy will help you attract your dream customers.
4. Build your online presence
Invest in building (or hiring somebody to build) a functional, appealing, SEO-optimized web page and blog, engaging social media accounts, and a newsletter. Most consumers use the internet to explore what they want to buy. You need to be visible and easy to find there. Build an online presence that makes your dream customer love you.
5. Connect with a community
Working alone may be your dream, but isolation can kill your spirit and your business. It is vital to have a community to lean on for support, referrals, and mentorship. In addition, you will avoid getting tunnel vision as others will give you an outside perspective.
6. Be organized
As a company of one, you will need solid routines and leverage tools to automate as much as possible to avoid burnout. Being organized helps you be efficient.
7. Cultivate trust (or nothing else matters)
As Zig Ziglar said, “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” When you run a business, you are in the relationship business. Without trust, there is no relationship.
By following these steps, you will have a solid start to your new life as a solopreneur.
10 Solopreneur Examples
There are endless opportunities to be a solopreneur. Here are 10 examples of jobs with solopreneurial potential:
1. Illustrator
2. Dog groomer
3. Personal trainer
4. Event planner
5. Graphic designer
6. Dog trainer
7. Blogger
8. Copywriter
9. E-commerce business
10. Author
Let’s explore the last example from the above list to exemplify the solopreneur mindset.
As an author, you may think that your job consists of writing one book, then another, and that the only way you could scale up your business is by writing more books.
However, if you choose to become a self-published author, you are changing your mindset to that of a solopreneur.
You will have complete control of your copyrights, and you can publish various paper versions (hardback, paperback, large print, illustrated), audiobooks, and e-books.
In addition, you can start an income-generating podcast and sell online courses on how to write and market different types of books. Your website can have a blog, and you can use your blog and newsletter to earn money on affiliate marketing.
One great example of an author solopreneur is Joanna Penn.
11 Reasons Why Being a Solopreneur Rocks
There are many reasons why people become solopreneurs; most of them are related to the long list of advantages solopreneurs enjoy.
1. Easy to start
Unlike when you create a limited liability company (LLC), setting up a sole proprietorship requires little paperwork, and the tax process is similar to personal income tax. Some solopreneurs eventually end up establishing an LLC. You can read more about the differences between an LLC and a sole proprietorship here.
2. Location flexibility
You can work from anywhere with an internet connection.
3. Workday flexibility
You decide when you want to work. The flexible work hours are a significant force driving the rise of mompreneurs. Depending on your business model, you can have two 12-hour or five 3-hour days or any other schedule that suits you.
4. No commute
You can work from home.
5. Being your own boss
You won’t have anybody to order you around, no colleagues to argue with, no shareholders to answer to — no fires to put out that were created by others.
6. Agility
If your first idea is not working, you can quickly turn around and polish it or create a new service or product. You only answer to yourself. You can even go back to paid work as you develop your new business idea.
7. Potentially limitless income
Solopreneurs keep the entire profit they make. If you build your business with several passive income streams (courses, products), your income will increase with sales.
8. Greater control of your work situation
The only person who can lay you off is you. Now, you may lose a customer, but the beauty of the solopreneur model is that you have several income streams. When you lose a customer, your ship will not go down. Instead, you may attract another customer who may be an even better fit.
9. Choosing who you work with
You decide who your freelance service providers and customers are.
10. Learning, creating, and growing every day
As a solopreneur, you will constantly be creative and learning, writing newsletters and figuring out how to attract clients or make your services or products even better.
11. Doing what you love for a living
Although some solopreneurs choose their business idea merely based on its profitability, you can choose a niche that also gives you deep pleasure.
With all these advantages, it’s easy to understand why so many choose to become solopreneurs.
Why Do Solopreneurs Fail?
But let’s face it. Many solopreneurs fail.
Why?
Often, solopreneurs don’t give enough attention to the 7 steps listed above. It’s too easy to get into a rush and miss the basics.
For example, if you fail to nail down your niche, you’re in trouble.
The biggest problem usually relates to the first point — failing to establish a niche — and cascades from there.
Business mentor Chris Ducker believes that the most critical mistake business owners make is never figuring out how to define their business. He coined the term “youpreneur,” emphasizing the importance of defining who you are and what you can do for people. “This,” he writes, “really, is about you becoming you.”
Are You Ready to Become a Solopreneur?
You have now completed a quick immersion in how to be a solopreneur.
Although your curiosity about the solopreneurial life started with a healthy dose of fear and hesitation, hopefully, you now have a map of the previously uncharted waters in your mind.
Remember: Becoming a solopreneur is easy, but succeeding can be hard.
Commit to the 7 steps, and you can avoid the common pitfalls of solopreneurship.
Are you ready to change the world?
It’s time to start building the business of you.
