Solopreneur Guide: The Truth About Starting Your Own Business
Would like to start your own business? Don’t get misled by marketers and know what you are in for, before starting your solo business.
Whoever sold you the dream that running your own business means that you can sit on the beach and just have passive income rolling in with little or no effort is NOT telling the truth.
They sell you stories that you just need to follow their ONE cookie-cutter system, and you’d be set for life.
They tell you that ONE funnel is all that you need to succeed.
They promote that following their ONE template can solve your traffic problem.
If you got sold on that get-rich-quick with little effort idea, I don’t blame you.
It’s not your fault as you didn’t know any better.
I was once in the same situation.
In fact, I kept getting sold, and I bought into the stories — over and over again.
I kept telling myself the lie of “this time is different”, and then finding out how wrong I was. The result was that I had to learn the painful lessons with more than 5-figure sums down the drain. Well, I have paid my dues and learnt to be a lot wiser now.
Even though I’ve been online for over 10 years, I still see the same tricks being used by many marketers today. It’s frustrating when I get to know from my own clients on how much they have been duped from buying into the fantasy of the 4-hour work week, just when they barely even started on their business. Ouch! Well, I decided to turn the frustration that I have been feeling into fuel for this article.
So if you’d like to find out more about what it takes to start and run a solopreneur business, continue to read on.
Probably if you are starting out, you don’t have a lot of funds or resources. Thus, you can expect to play a big part in this business. It starts with you putting in your own time to building it. Without a team, starting a business on your own will make you a solopreneur (an entrepreneur running a solo business).
“You don’t start a solopreneur business because you wish to work less, you start a business because you value living life on your own creative terms.” — Evelyn Lim
Considerations for Starting A Solopreneur Business
You start a solopreneur business NOT because you wish to work less. In fact, you can end up working more than being in an employee job. What you can expect is that you will need to wear many hats. For instance, you could be a solopreneur running a coaching business like myself. Hence, you are the coach, customer service, writer and marketer rolled into one.
If your business is online, you need to think about how to utilise technology to help you. Of course, you can automate things in your business, so that all the tiny tasks do not fall on your shoulders. Then, there is also product creation and learning how to market them online. You will need to test out ideas and find out which marketing ad works.
When you add these things up, you’d realise that it might take over ONE thing or way to generate success. It is also very untrue that not much effort is required. Conversely, what is true is that when you are passionate about what you do, work feels less of a struggle.
Solopreneurship is for you only if fitting into a job is not making the best use of your talents and gifts and you absolutely hate your job. You’ve long recognised that you probably can’t explore your various gifts or align with your fullest potential if you are working under a boss in a corporate environment. In fact, you feel nauseated thinking about having to report for work every single day.
As an adventurer, you are looking for more. You’ve got your ideas about how to do things better and you wish to honour them. In fact, you are passionate about manifesting your ideas into reality. Doing this gives you great satisfaction. It’s “why” you want to do what you want to do.
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.”
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”
- Simon Sinek, inspirational speaker, best-selling author to “Start with Why”
Living Life Fully on Our Own Creative Terms
Don’t be mistaken. Just because I am a solopreneur does not mean that I only depend on one source of income. In fact, I liken myself to be a multi-creative solopreneur with a few related businesses; even though there is a single theme that ties all these parts together.
Sometimes in my life when I asked myself if I’d like to go back to full-time employment. They usually happen after getting holed up in my home office for too long, prompting me to long for the nebulous experience of some human connection taking place in an office pantry while having a coffee break. Fortunately, these short, hazy bursts wouldn’t last long.
Instead, I went back to the same “why” question: why be a solopreneur and run my business?
Invariably, my answer is: I can’t put a price on having the freedom of living life on my own terms.
As a coach and a multi-creative solopreneur, I have the best opportunity to express my best art and to help others find self-love and joy. I am answerable to no one but myself (and my family). Not to mention, I have the option to work from anywhere because my business is online. These are worth more than money can buy. It’s very much aligned to my mantra of living a creative life — fully!
All in, here’s the message that I hope to drive at
- Never be led by lies that are based on hype and get-rich-quick.
- Know your “why”.
- Decide what terms you wish to live your life by.
- Always always stay true to yourself!