5 Essential Steps for Becoming a Successful Solopreneur

Being a successful solopreneur requires you to wear many hats in the workplace. You need to be skilled enough to take on any challenge, as well as have the determination to bring in more clients and hire more people. If, however, you choose to do things your way, then you need to work well with the distributed systems that you’ve created.

E.g. if you have a remote worker and a remote customer, then ensuring constant communication is key. Also, if you’re working with multiple chains of command then you need to make sure that there are no lapses in sign-offs as well. There are a lot of challenges that solopreneurs need to face, but with the right mindset and a winning mentality you can overcome a lot more than you think.

Having a Clear Goal for Your Business

Whether you’re an online consultant or an accountant looking for that next big gig, you need to be able to create clear goals for your business. It starts with having a clear picture in mind. Where you are and where you want to be, should be mapped out from the beginning. You don’t want to be struggling all the time and you don’t want to have to hustle to keep your monthly goals up.

Goals allow you to focus better, as you need to break an hourly goal every time you start to work. This keeps you motivated and eases off any financial pressure that you may have been facing. You also feel less distracted and you can perform at a much higher level.

Break Up Your Big Goals into Micro-Goals

It starts with having micro-goals and sticking to them. Like everything, it takes time to become goal-oriented. You need to put in a lot of work and you don’t have much time to succeed. You can start things off by preparing an overarching goal - $70K in a year for revenue or increasing your hourly rate to $50/hr. Whatever your goal may be, it boils down to how simple and small steps contribute to that.

For your overarching goal, you can start setting smaller targets. E.g. by the end of this month, I should have made about $5000-7000. Next, you should try to conquer that target before the 20th of each month. This ensures that you’re pushing as hard as you can in the early days rather than struggling towards the end. Having a clear goal is the best way to make things happen correctly.

Building the Right Kind of Systems

This includes many systems that require communication, process management or tech integration. The systems that you build early on, will remain with you for the rest of your firm’s duration. That’s why it's important to build them correctly from the ground up.

Since systems evolve over time, you need to keep up with the latest trends and innovations. You can’t rely on old systems to carry you to the next level, as your goals might get affected in the process. You want to be able to have clear systems that can be scaled whenever necessary. You also want to have a clear signal as your system might break down when scaling up too quickly.

This systems-focused approach works best when there are long lines of control and there is a huge gap between yourself and your end clients. However, if you enjoy the 1-on-1 time with them and talking directly with them, it’s better to do it with as few steps as possible.

Leveraging the Right Opportunities

You shouldn’t jump on any opportunity you see to take advantage of it. You need to space things out and see where the right opportunities lead you. You want to focus on increasing profitability, which is why you should hunt for the right leads.

Otherwise, you might become a people pleaser and offer the world on a platter. You need to be realistic with your approach and only go after opportunities that seem right to you. The clients that pay just the right amount to the vendors who work just the right proportion, everything should be mapped out according to how much money you’re about to make off it all.

Leveraging the right opportunities also ensures that you’re keeping yourself busy and there is no downtime in your business. Otherwise, you may start to drift away or have issues with low self-confidence. Working on your business is a lifestyle commitment, which is why you need to look for the right leads for your business.

Networking

Networking is the key to business success. You don’t have to meet everyone at a party but talk to everyone to get to know them better. You also don’t want to jump into every conversation to talk about yourself. You want to balance off the opportunity so that you end up feeling connected to the industry and providing real insights where necessary.

When you want to work with a certain group of customers or industries, you should be feeling that inner urge to go out and talk to them. That’s the inner need for networking that stems when you’re feeling down in your business. Talking to your customers, industry heads and general vendors can be an immensely successful step towards ensuring solopreneur-ship growth.

Being a solopreneur can be a lonely journey, especially when you’re working long hours and aren’t taking enough breaks. That’s why it’s important to keep networking any chance you get.

Conclusion

Everything boils down to how well you manage your time, your work ethic and how well you treat your customers. You don’t have to constantly be clamouring for perfection as your work is going to be just enough for the payment that you’re receiving. While most solopreneurs might be feeling a shade of ‘imposter syndrome’, it’s a fairly common theme and they should snap out of it after they've reached a level of success. Keeping your eyes on the prize is the best way to stay motivated for long stretches of time.