If you wish to be your individual boss, set your individual work hours, and by no means handle a single worker, solopreneurship is the automobile that may assist you to obtain that purpose.
Whereas it would sound too good to be true, we’ll provide you with a sensible overview of what it’s wish to be a solopreneur (trace: it nonetheless requires laborious work) and supply a confirmed step-by-step course of that will help you turn out to be a profitable solopreneur.
We’ll additionally break down the important thing variations between a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, and a freelancer, and supply a listing of profitable solopreneurs you possibly can comply with for inspiration.
What’s a Solopreneur?
A solopreneur is a enterprise proprietor that doesn’t commerce their time for cash and has zero workers.
Some widespread examples of solopreneurs embody course creators, content material creators, product house owners, and affiliate entrepreneurs.
Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur vs Freelancer
The primary distinction between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur is that an entrepreneur might have workers working for them, whereas a solopreneur has no workers.
Nonetheless, neither solopreneurs nor entrepreneurs commerce their time for cash.
That is the principle distinction between a solopreneur and a freelancer.
Whereas each solopreneurs and freelancers function with zero workers, a freelancer trades their time for cash, whereas a solopreneur can promote a deliverable (course, advertisements, product, and many others.) that’s not tied to their time.
Consequently, a solopreneur can scale their enterprise infinitely by promoting extra of the product, whereas a freelancer should elevate their hourly price to scale. So although each are self-employed, the solopreneur can ultimately create a enterprise that generates passive earnings, whereas a freelancer will at all times should work to generate earnings.
That mentioned, some solopreneurship enterprise fashions (like content material creators and affiliate web site house owners) require loads of upfront funding earlier than seeing a greenback. In distinction, freelancers can instantly make cash after touchdown a brand new consumer.
However, if you wish to personal a enterprise that may ultimately make passive earnings with out managing workers, solopreneurship is the important thing to reaching that purpose.
Solopreneur Enterprise Concepts
Listed here are just a few of the preferred solopreneur enterprise fashions you possibly can steal.
Affiliate Advertising and marketing
Beginning an affiliate web site is a wonderful enterprise mannequin in the event you’re a digital marketer or net designer.
Primarily, you construct an viewers after which promote different manufacturers’ services to your viewers.
When somebody out of your viewers buys that services or products, you obtain a fee.
The fantastic thing about this enterprise mannequin is that you just by no means should work together with the purchasers. You simply ship results in the enterprise, they usually mechanically pay you a fee of all of the gross sales generated out of your viewers.
There are two most important strategies of internet affiliate marketing:
- You run advertisements to a touchdown web page after which ship these results in your associates. The draw back is that you need to spend your cash to amass these leads, so you actually should be glorious at profitably buying leads.
- You construct a web site utilizing search engine optimisation and drive natural visitors to your associates. Whilst you don’t should pay something to amass these leads, the draw back is that it might probably take months to construct an viewers by natural search engine optimisation.
Listed here are just a few examples of affiliate web sites:
Whereas the web sites above are companies with workers, you possibly can run a smaller operation as a solopreneur utilizing the identical enterprise mannequin. Or, you may as well select to scale the web site right into a extra established enterprise with full-time workers.
Course Creator
The course creator enterprise mannequin is fairly easy – you document some movies educating a talent you’ve gotten after which promote it to individuals who need to purchase that talent.
Course creation is a wonderful enterprise as a result of it requires little upfront funding, and you’ll promote it infinitely. The tough side of this enterprise mannequin is that clients usually solely purchase programs from folks they contemplate specialists.
So in the event you don’t have a private model and credibility in that area of interest, promoting your course gained’t be straightforward. For instance, chances are you’ll have to go on podcasts, construct a social media following, and collaborate with different influencers to construct credibility.
The excellent news is that upon getting that credibility and an viewers, you can also make cash virtually immediately promoting programs.
Listed here are just a few examples of solopreneur course creators:
Product Proprietor
In case you’re a coder or developer, you possibly can construct and promote your individual product. The profit is that after the product is constructed, you usually simply should preserve it updated. You can too construct out extra options and cost extra because it improves.
The draw back is that this enterprise mannequin might require substantial upfront funding in the event you don’t know how one can code.
Whereas some folks have efficiently employed builders to create merchandise for them, you’ll should know who to rent and consistently work with that particular person to enhance the product.
In case you don’t have coding expertise, you’ll seemingly construct a workforce or deliver on a co-founder, and it might turn out to be extra of a startup than a solopreneur enterprise mannequin.
Listed here are just a few examples of multi-million greenback companies created by solopreneur product house owners:
Ecommerce Proprietor
There are additionally loads of totally different ecommerce solopreneurs that personal way of life companies.
With an ecommerce enterprise, you put up bodily merchandise on a web site, and other people can buy them.
You may create, retailer, and ship the merchandise your self, or you possibly can undertake a dropshipping mannequin the place you’re employed with a producer who creates, ships, and shops the product for you. Then, you simply submit your product orders to the producer as they arrive in.
Whereas the dropshipping mannequin is great when you have a little bit money to fabricate a bodily product, you even have much less management over the product high quality and the delivery course of normally.
Nonetheless, it may be an incredible way of life enterprise, and loads of teams, like Dropship Life-style, let you collaborate with different dropshippers.
Right here’s an instance of a solopreneur ecommerce retailer proprietor:
How To Be a Profitable Solopreneur
Turning into a profitable solopreneur is comparatively simple, however it isn’t essentially straightforward. The excellent news is that in the event you stick with the recommendation under and put within the work, you’ll ultimately have a worthwhile enterprise.
Step 1: Select a Area of interest And Construct An Viewers
Selecting a distinct segment is arguably an important side of the method.
Ideally, the very best area of interest to pick out is:
- One thing you’re captivated with
- One thing you’ve gotten a singular talent set/experience in
- A market with low problem (there aren’t many creators within the area)
- A market with robust demand and excessive worth (lots of people have this drawback/curiosity and pays some huge cash to resolve it/be taught extra)
That can assist you choose the very best area of interest, contemplate score every area of interest on a scale of 1-10. I might additionally weight area of interest problem and distinctive benefit extra closely than any of the opposite classes:
As soon as you choose a distinct segment, I like to recommend constructing an viewers earlier than creating a proposal.
Most individuals create a proposal (product, course, and many others.) and then attempt to construct an viewers to buy their supply.
Consequently, they usually spend some huge cash on advertising and turn out to be discouraged after solely a handful of individuals buy the supply.
So construct your viewers first after which create a proposal they need.
We now have a whole information on the subject of constructing an viewers, so I gained’t go into an excessive amount of element right here, however contemplate these questions:
- How will I create content material distinctive from what presently exists? Folks most likely gained’t comply with you in the event you don’t have a singular angle or worth so as to add.
- Which medium (video, textual content, audio, and many others.) ought to I choose? The quick reply is to pick out the one you get pleasure from essentially the most, as publishing frequency and consistency are essentially the most vital features of constructing a model.
- Do you need to create a private model or an organization model? Private manufacturers are likely to develop quicker, however it would additionally make eradicating your self from the corporate tougher.
When you reply these three questions, create a publishing cadence. Publishing consistency is arguably an important think about constructing an viewers, so set a sensible purpose that you would be able to stick with for a number of months.
In case you’re searching for audience-building inspiration, I like to recommend analyzing solopreneurs like Justin Welsh or Brett from Design Pleasure, as they’ve each constructed extremely profitable audiences that gas their companies.
Step 2: Create an Supply
Now that you’ve an viewers, it’s time to create a proposal.
First, establish an issue your viewers presently faces to make sure you create a proposal that folks need.
So survey your viewers and ask them about their challenges and what merchandise/companies they purchase.
Then, resolve the way you need to clear up it. It may be providing a bodily product, a course, a partnership/affiliate deal, or an app/digital product.
Over time, you possibly can have a number of income streams, however for now, begin with only one.
In case you’re unsure which income stream to begin with, contemplate the next chart:
Step 3: Create SOPs And Leverage Automation
Many individuals get into solopreneurship with the dream of reaching passive earnings, however many solopreneurs discover themselves working extra hours than after they labored full-time.
The important thing to eradicating your self from the enterprise is to create methods and processes that permit the enterprise to run with out your help.
How do you do that?
Begin by auditing your time. This train primarily has you document what you do each quarter-hour of your day so that you could determine what duties you’re spending time on.
Right here’s a time audit template that you need to use to audit your day. Then, undergo every job and mark each the worth of the duty and whether or not it gave you power or took power away from you.
It is a idea that Dan Martell makes use of, and you will discover his templates within the workbook. Ideally, you need to take away as many duties as attainable that drain your power and duties which might be low worth.
As soon as you determine which duties it’s essential offload, ask your self these two questions:
- Is there software program I can buy to automate this course of?
- Can I rent a VA or part-time worker to execute this for me?
For instance, in the event you spend 20% of your time managing funds, can you buy a software like QuickBooks to automate the method?
Or, in the event you spend 50% of your time answering consumer assist questions, rent a VA to do that for you.
The important thing to creating the enterprise scalable is to create SOPs (customary working procedures) for every job. SOPs make it straightforward to provide the duty to any VA, and they’ll persistently obtain the identical end result.
To create an SOP, write down precisely the way you execute the job your self.
For instance, in the event you’re outsourcing buyer assist, write down the solutions to consumer FAQs, how one can deal with sure conditions, obligatory logins, and another data required to do the job.
Then, if the VA asks you any follow-up questions, inform them to jot down the questions and your solutions within the SOP doc.
Need assistance? Right here’s a template in order for you steerage creating your first SOPs.
This fashion, anybody can do the job. So even when one VA quits, you possibly can simply assign the identical job to a different VA with out spending time retraining them.
As soon as your corporation runs on autopilot, you’ll lastly have passive earnings.
Step 4: Scale Your Enterprise
Now that your time is free, due to your new passive earnings, you possibly can get pleasure from hanging out on the seashore or use your new free time to take your corporation to the subsequent degree.
As a solopreneur, your purpose most likely isn’t to rent full-time workers, however there are two different strategies to scale your corporation’s profitability:
- Construct an even bigger viewers
- Add extra income streams
I like to recommend beginning by rising your viewers as a result of doing so will make any income stream you add extra worthwhile.
Growing your content material publishing quantity is arguably one of the best ways to construct your viewers.
Nonetheless, you don’t essentially have to create extra content material to extend publishing quantity.
As a substitute, begin by repurposing your content material.
For instance, in the event you’re presently creating video content material, you possibly can repurpose it as a podcast. You can too obtain the script from the video, put it into an AI writing software like Jasper and even ChatGPT, after which have the AI software create a weblog put up.
You can too repurpose the weblog put up into a number of social media posts.
As you possibly can see, repurposing lets you scale content material output with out truly creating any new content material.
Nonetheless, optimize every bit of content material for the platform you propose to publish it on. For instance, in the event you’re republishing a video to TikTok, make sure to add captions, related hashtags, and edit it within the fashion of TikTok content material.
To automate this course of, you need to use a software like Repurpose. There are additionally loads of advertising companies that now supply content material repurposing.
One other solution to develop your viewers shortly is to do content material collaborations with different influencers.
For instance, you may do a podcast interview with one other content material creator in your discipline.
Alex Hormozi is a superb instance of a content material creator who has mastered the method of collaborating with different influencers and repurposing the content material on a number of platforms.
For instance, after showing on one other influencer’s podcast, his workforce republished the content material to his podcast, TikTok, LinkedIn, and several other different platforms.
You’ll additionally discover that the content material is at all times optimized for the particular platform. So even in the event you don’t have time to optimize it, contemplate hiring a VA to do that for you.
It’s additionally price noting that you just don’t have to increase your content material technique to all main platforms. Begin by including only one platform to your publishing schedule after which add one other. Every platform attracts a singular viewers, so that you might need to regulate your content material barely as you be taught extra in regards to the nuance of your viewers on every platform.
Now that you just’re maximizing your content material output, you may as well add different income streams. Your new income stream could be both the identical enterprise mannequin (e.g., in the event you’re already promoting a course, you possibly can promote one other course) or a brand new one (e.g., in the event you’re promoting a course, you may additionally supply a bodily product).
Once more, begin by including only one new income stream at a time and use the very same course of you utilized in step two to create your first supply.
You can too construct out your supply with upsells. For instance, in the event you presently supply a course, you may supply a mastermind as an upsell to associate with the course.
Amy Porterfield has a superb instance of this in her course:
Start Your Journey To Solopreneurship At present
Most individuals flip to entrepreneurship for monetary freedom, however managing folks is usually tougher than working for folks. On the flip facet, changing into a freelancer might imply you by no means should handle a single particular person, however you may also really feel that a number of bosses handle you.
Freelancers even have extra monetary danger as purchasers can go away right away.
So if you wish to run your individual enterprise in your phrases and even simply have a facet hustle that makes some passive earnings, contemplate solopreneurship.
If you wish to join with different solopreneurs beginning their very own companies, contemplate becoming a member of the Copyblogger Academy. It’s a group of solopreneurs and freelancers creating their very own monetary freedom by constructing profitable companies that may function with no workforce of workers.
You additionally get direct entry to me and might attend workshops and Q&As with different creators. You may join at present to make your new enterprise thought a actuality.
