If you wish to be your personal boss, set your personal work hours, and by no means handle a single worker, solopreneurship is the automobile that may assist you to obtain that objective.
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 arduous work) and supply a confirmed step-by-step course of that can assist you grow to be a profitable solopreneur.
We’ll additionally break down the important thing variations between a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, and a freelancer, and supply an inventory 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 staff.
Some widespread examples of solopreneurs embody course creators, content material creators, product house owners, and affiliate entrepreneurs.
Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur vs Freelancer
The principle distinction between a solopreneur and an entrepreneur is that an entrepreneur could have staff working for them, whereas a solopreneur has no staff.
Nonetheless, neither solopreneurs nor entrepreneurs commerce their time for cash.
That is the primary distinction between a solopreneur and a freelancer.
Whereas each solopreneurs and freelancers function with zero staff, a freelancer trades their time for cash, whereas a solopreneur can promote a deliverable (course, adverts, 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 increase their hourly price to scale. So although each are self-employed, the solopreneur can finally create a enterprise that generates passive earnings, whereas a freelancer will all the time must work to generate earnings.
That mentioned, some solopreneurship enterprise fashions (like content material creators and affiliate web site house owners) require quite a lot of upfront funding earlier than seeing a greenback. In distinction, freelancers can instantly generate income after touchdown a brand new consumer.
However, if you wish to personal a enterprise that may finally make passive earnings with out managing staff, solopreneurship is the important thing to reaching that objective.
Solopreneur Enterprise Concepts
Listed below are a number of of the preferred solopreneur enterprise fashions you possibly can steal.
Affiliate Advertising
Beginning an affiliate web site is a superb enterprise mannequin if you happen to’re a digital marketer or net designer.
Primarily, you construct an viewers after which promote different manufacturers’ services and products to your viewers.
When somebody out of your viewers buys that services or products, you obtain a fee.
The great thing about this enterprise mannequin is that you just by no means must work together with the shoppers. 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 major strategies of affiliate internet marketing:
- You run adverts to a touchdown web page after which ship these results in your associates. The draw back is that it’s important to spend your cash to amass these leads, so you actually must be wonderful at profitably buying leads.
- You construct an internet site utilizing search engine optimization and drive natural visitors to your associates. When you don’t must pay something to amass these leads, the draw back is that it could actually take months to construct an viewers via natural search engine optimization.
Listed below are a number of examples of affiliate web sites:
Whereas the web sites above are companies with staff, you possibly can run a smaller operation as a solopreneur utilizing the identical enterprise mannequin. Or, it’s also possible to select to scale the web site right into a extra established enterprise with full-time staff.
Course Creator
The course creator enterprise mannequin is fairly easy – you report some movies instructing a ability you might have after which promote it to individuals who wish to purchase that ability.
Course creation is a superb enterprise as a result of it requires little upfront funding, and you’ll promote it infinitely. The difficult facet of this enterprise mannequin is that prospects usually solely purchase programs from folks they take into account consultants.
So if you happen to don’t have a private model and credibility in that area of interest, promoting your course gained’t be straightforward. For instance, it’s possible 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 after getting that credibility and an viewers, you may make cash virtually immediately promoting programs.
Listed below are a number of examples of solopreneur course creators:
Product Proprietor
If you happen to’re a coder or developer, you possibly can construct and promote your personal product. The profit is that after the product is constructed, you usually simply must preserve it updated. You too can construct out extra options and cost extra because it improves.
The draw back is that this enterprise mannequin could require substantial upfront funding if you happen to don’t know the way to code.
Whereas some folks have efficiently employed builders to create merchandise for them, you’ll must know who to rent and consistently work with that individual to enhance the product.
If you happen to don’t have coding expertise, you’ll doubtless construct a workforce or deliver on a co-founder, and it might grow to be extra of a startup than a solopreneur enterprise mannequin.
Listed below are a number of examples of multi-million greenback companies created by solopreneur product house owners:
Ecommerce Proprietor
There are additionally loads of completely different ecommerce solopreneurs that personal life-style companies.
With an ecommerce enterprise, you put up bodily merchandise on an internet site, and other people should buy them.
You possibly can 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 in case you have a little bit money to fabricate a bodily product, you even have much less management over the product high quality and the transport course of on the whole.
Nonetheless, it may be an excellent life-style enterprise, and loads of teams, like Dropship Life-style, help you collaborate with different dropshippers.
Right here’s an instance of a solopreneur ecommerce retailer proprietor:
How To Be a Profitable Solopreneur
Changing into a profitable solopreneur is comparatively simple, however it isn’t essentially straightforward. The excellent news is that if you happen to stick with the recommendation beneath and put within the work, you’ll finally have a worthwhile enterprise.
Step 1: Select a Area of interest And Construct An Viewers
Selecting a distinct segment is arguably an important facet of the method.
Ideally, one of the best area of interest to pick out is:
- One thing you’re keen about
- One thing you might have a novel ability set/experience in
- A market with low problem (there aren’t many creators within the house)
- A market with sturdy demand and excessive worth (lots of people have this drawback/curiosity and can pay some huge cash to unravel it/be taught extra)
That will help you choose one of the best area of interest, take into account ranking 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 suggestion.
Most individuals create a suggestion (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 grow to be discouraged after solely a handful of individuals buy the supply.
So construct your viewers first after which create a suggestion they need.
Now we have a complete information on the subject of constructing an viewers, so I gained’t go into an excessive amount of element right here, however take into account these questions:
- How will I create content material distinctive from what presently exists? Folks in all probability gained’t comply with you if you happen to don’t have a novel 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 essential facets of constructing a model.
- Do you wish to create a private model or an organization model? Private manufacturers are inclined to develop quicker, however it would additionally make eradicating your self from the corporate more durable.
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 objective which you can stick with for a number of months.
If you happen to’re in search of 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 gasoline their companies.
Step 2: Create an Provide
Now that you’ve got an viewers, it’s time to create a suggestion.
First, establish an issue your viewers presently faces to make sure you create a suggestion that individuals need.
So survey your viewers and ask them about their challenges and what merchandise/providers they purchase.
Then, resolve the way you wish to remedy it. It is likely to 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.
If you happen to’re unsure which income stream to start out with, take into account 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 once 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 basically has you report what you do each quarter-hour of your day so to work out what duties you’re spending time on.
Right here’s a time audit template that you should utilize to audit your day. Then, undergo every activity and mark each the worth of the duty and whether or not it gave you vitality or took vitality away from you.
This can be a idea that Dan Martell makes use of, and yow will discover his templates within the workbook. Ideally, you wish to take away as many duties as potential that drain your vitality and duties which are low worth.
As soon as you determine which duties you must offload, ask your self these two questions:
- Is there software program I should buy to automate this course of?
- Can I rent a VA or part-time worker to execute this for me?
For instance, if you happen to spend 20% of your time managing funds, can you buy a instrument like QuickBooks to automate the method?
Or, if you happen to spend 50% of your time answering consumer help questions, rent a VA to do that for you.
The important thing to creating the enterprise scalable is to create SOPs (commonplace working procedures) for every activity. SOPs make it straightforward to provide the duty to any VA, and they’re going to constantly obtain the identical outcome.
To create an SOP, write down precisely the way you execute the job your self.
For instance, if you happen to’re outsourcing buyer help, write down the solutions to consumer FAQs, the way to deal with sure conditions, vital logins, and another data required to do the job.
Then, if the VA asks you any follow-up questions, inform them to put in writing the questions and your solutions within the SOP doc.
Need assistance? Right here’s a template in order for you steering creating your first SOPs.
This manner, anybody can do the job. So even when one VA quits, you possibly can simply assign the identical activity to a different VA with out spending time retraining them.
As soon as what you are promoting runs on autopilot, you’ll lastly have passive earnings.
Step 4: Scale Your Enterprise
Now that your time is free, because of your new passive earnings, you possibly can get pleasure from hanging out on the seaside or use your new free time to take what you are promoting to the following degree.
As a solopreneur, your objective in all probability isn’t to rent full-time staff, however there are two different strategies to scale what you are promoting’s profitability:
- Construct a much 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 simplest 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, if you happen to’re presently creating video content material, you possibly can repurpose it as a podcast. You too can obtain the script from the video, put it into an AI writing instrument like Jasper and even ChatGPT, after which have the AI instrument create a weblog put up.
You too can 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 really creating any new content material.
Nonetheless, optimize each bit of content material for the platform you intend to publish it on. For instance, if you happen to’re republishing a video to TikTok, you’ll want to add captions, related hashtags, and edit it within the fashion of TikTok content material.
To automate this course of, you should utilize a instrument like Repurpose. There are additionally loads of advertising companies that now supply content material repurposing.
One other method to develop your viewers rapidly 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 all the time optimized for the precise platform. So even if you happen to don’t have time to optimize it, take into account hiring a VA to do that for you.
It’s additionally value noting that you just don’t have to develop 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 novel viewers, so that you might need to regulate your content material barely as you be taught extra concerning the nuance of your viewers on every platform.
Now that you just’re maximizing your content material output, it’s also possible to add different income streams. Your new income stream may be both the identical enterprise mannequin (e.g., if you happen to’re already promoting a course, you possibly can promote one other course) or a brand new one (e.g., if you happen to’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 too can construct out your supply with upsells. For instance, if you happen to presently supply a course, you may supply a mastermind as an upsell to go together with the course.
Amy Porterfield has a wonderful instance of this in her course:
Start Your Journey To Solopreneurship As we speak
Most individuals flip to entrepreneurship for monetary freedom, however managing folks is commonly more difficult than working for folks. On the flip aspect, turning into a freelancer could imply you by no means must handle a single individual, however you may additionally really feel that a number of bosses handle you.
Freelancers even have extra monetary danger as shoppers can go away right away.
So if you wish to run your personal enterprise in your phrases and even simply have a aspect hustle that makes some passive earnings, take into account solopreneurship.
If you wish to join with different solopreneurs beginning their very own companies, take into account 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 staff.
You additionally get direct entry to me and may attend workshops and Q&As with different creators. You possibly can join immediately to make your new enterprise concept a actuality.
