5 Stupid Solopreneurship Mistakes I Made, but You Shouldn’t
Don’t learn this as late as I did.
Looking back, I realise that the feeling of waking up with a heavy chest was avoidable.
Getting burned out and being overwhelmed was avoidable.
Even though I have a 4-hour workday, being stressed out for the rest of the day was avoidable.
It took me a month-long holiday to realise all these mistakes I made as a solopreneur. But if you’re planning to start your journey or are already there, you don’t have to learn it the hard way as I did.
What Does the Future Hold?
I can’t emphasise this enough — you will not know what your one-person business has ahead of you.
I never wanted to start a course or have digital products.
Course — because I didn’t feel I have anything to teach that people would pay for. And digital products weren’t in my mind at all.
But one thing led to another, and it happened.
Stressing out so much about what will happen is futile because you’re trying to find answers to something that you cannot find clear answers to. So why worry?
To do:
Here’s what’s in your control:
- being consistent
- learning new skills
- constantly improving
Focus on that. I feel all my wins result from hitting publish more than others around me. Nobody can beat someone who shows up consistently.
Isn’t Outsourcing for the Big Fish?
I thought you need to make a lot of money to outsource.
Wrong.
To make more money, which results from more creative output, you need the headspace to create.
And that happens when you’re not doing everything on your own.
I’m working with Arpit who I know for a few months. He handles Canva for me and now even edits videos for my YouTube channel, which I started a few days ago.
Canva would take me an hour. It’s fun but time-consuming.
Arpit knows what colours work well and does it faster than me — so I can work on my ideas while he takes care of creatives.
To do:
Outsource work that is high-energy low impact. This could be:
- emails
- editing
- illustrations
Making Tech Do the Work
Use tools like Zapier to automate your email workflow. I don’t use it yet as I run my email list on Gumroad, but I automate my LinkedIn and Twitter posts using Hypefury.
My Twitter is posting stuff even when I’m asleep or away on a holiday.
My LinkedIn is publishing content without my presence.
If owning your time is a priority, then automation helps. I sit down every Monday to schedule my Tweets for the week ahead and I’m already done for the week.
I’m still figuring out a LinkedIn process, but I’m scheduling randomly for now.
It takes off the burden of cross-posting across platforms.
To do:
Use a scheduler, preferably one that is neat (to eliminate distractions) and helps you post across platforms.
Once a week, sit with zero distractions and type your tweets away.
Not Taking Saturdays Off
I was offered a job last year with Saturdays working.
I declined the offer because I wanted to do my own thing, but also because it feels unfair to just have one day off in a week.
You come home tired on Saturday evening.
And on Sunday you’re again thinking of the week ahead of you. Sucks for me because when I was working, Saturday was the most relaxed day with another night to sleep and another free day ahead.
As a solopreneur, I’ve worked a lot of Saturdays sometimes till late in the evening.
Again, it's overwhelming and counterproductive.
Now, I’m not ‘writing’ at all on Saturdays and just working for a max of 2 hours if I have to edit my newsletter or have a call with my course students.
To do:
Take your weekend off like you would at work. And for God’s sake, don’t work Saturday nights.
Working Even When Not Working
This is by far the most stupid mistake I’ve made.
I’ve thought of work even while holding a yoga pose when I should focus on my breath.
I’ve stressed out about work during my time off when I should take time off.
And I’ve stressed out about stupid things where thinking about it wasn’t helping me but only making me feel more overwhelmed and burned out.
To do:
When you take time off work, be completely away from it.
Unless a task has to be done and won’t take much time, then go all into it.
Lastly
I knew about burning out even before I started side hustling, so I thought I’d never make that mistake because I’m huge on work-life balance.
But I unknowingly did.
I hope this can help you recognise some early red flags and rectify them before it’s too late.