April 13th, 2019 by Ramesh Dontha
It is not easy being an Entrepreneur or a Solopreneur. There are a plethora of hurdles you face when you are starting your business from scratch. Solopreneurship differs from entrepreneurship majorly because the level of autonomy the business owner has and the burden that has to be borne by the solopreneur individually. Here are fifteen of the challenges cited by solopreneurs that most Solopreneurs can relate to.
1. Sense of Loneliness
Solopreneurship can be a very lonely road. As opposed to entrepreneurship where one can continuously pick their partner’s or employees’ brain, Solopreneurship could be quite lonely, and the average solopreneur has to deal with the loneliness. This can seem quite daunting.
2. Juggling between selling and delivering
Being a solopreneur means that you must market your product and deliver on promises all by yourself. Finding the right balance between the two can get quite tricky. A solopreneur is in charge of every aspect of the business, from delivering on sales to marketing. Thus, finding the right balance between maintaining the existing clients and breaking new grounds is always a challenge for a solopreneur.
3. Getting overwhelmed by the functions
Marketing, Logistics, Operations, Sales, Product Development. You are required to juggle through it all. This can get quite overwhelming and feeling anxious about it all becomes a common occurrence.
4. Personal and Professional Development
As opposed to entrepreneurship where some other person or team may be in charge of professional and personal development, in solopreneurship, it is easy to forget about development because of the different activities competing for one’s time.
5. Staying focused on the goal
With so much to do, it is easy for solopreneurs to lose sight of the vital goal they are chasing. Whilst dealing with other elements of the business, your focus may divert. Running a business by one’s self requires a high level of self-discipline and focus. Thus, the average solopreneur at one point or another struggles with maintaining focus while juggling several activities.
6. Uncertainty
Risk and uncertainty should be synonymous to entrepreneurship. In case of a solopreneur, everything is being managed by a single person that further raises the stakes. The uncertainty combined with loneliness can be a deadly combination that a solopreneur has to deal with.
7. Risk management
Every decision you take as a solopreneur has risks attached to it. Some find it hard to gauge the level of risk involved or to decide whether a given project is worth it or not. Since one person makes all the decisions in solopreneurship, they are bound to struggle with risk management stretching themselves too thin and not thinking actions through before taking them.
8. Developing a business plan
Developing a sound business plan can get tricky. And not developing one means that you are sailing a boat without a compass. Either way, obstacles are bound to come your way.
9. Sustaining the business
Seventy percent of startups fail within the first year. Sustaining your business in the long-run and ensuring growth can get quite challenging.
10. Time Management
Every solopreneur faces the challenge of managing their time because of the thousand and one things they have to do. A solopreneur is involved in every process, from the production to delivery, and learning how to manage time between these different activities is a necessity.
11. No objective feedback
Since you are the sole inhabitant of the boat, you don’t get any objective feedback on your performance or mistakes. As opposed to working with a team which is achievable with entrepreneurship, the solopreneur does not have that luxury thus may lack the objective feedback they need to effectively run the venture.
12. Second guessing
As a solopreneur, your biggest challenge is yourself. It is easy to second guess and overthinks each decision, which then delays work.
13. Resources
Getting enough capital or acquiring the right resources is much harder when you are a one-man show compared to when you are part of a well-established organization.
14. Generating revenue
To generate revenue, each department must function smoothly. Since solopreneurs perform all functions, doing so flawlessly is quite hard, thereby impacting revenue.
15. Prioritizing
With so much to do, solopreneurs must assign weights to different tasks. Setting your priorities can be a challenge when everything seems important. Solopreneurs tend to struggle with prioritizing activities and maintaining that priority irrespective of the changes that may occur. Thus, prioritizing is a fine art which every solopreneur must learn.
Conclusion
Each of these challenges may slow a solopreneur down, but with resolution and clarity of goal, you can kickstart your business towards success.
What are your challenges?
April 12th, 2019 by Ramesh Dontha
Solopreneur is someone who sets up and runs a business on their own. In other words, they are ‘solo entrepreneurs’. Why is it important to focus on solopreneurs? MBO partners, in their annual report on independent professionals, estimates that there are approximately 40+ million independent professionals, contractors, consultants, freelancers, side giggers and more. They contribute $1.3 trillion to the US economy which is close to 7%. Those are pretty impressive numbers indeed.
So why people want to be Solopreneurs?
The joy of being sole owners
More often than not, solopreneurs are driven by their desire to be on their own. They enjoy the ‘freedom’ of not having to report to any boss (other than maybe their spouse 🙂 ), ‘freedom’ of working from anywhere, and ‘freedom’ of flexible work hours. I have been both a solopreneur and an entrepreneur managing employees. I am driven by the desire to be the sole owner of my enterprise in both cases.Some of the ‘joys’ may be myths like for example, having ‘no bosses’. Obviously, solopreneurs have to report to their customers who are the real bosses anyway. Given that they have to make a living, the concept of ‘flexible hours’ may also be a myth if they have to work long hours to make a living. Despite all those, solopreneurs truly relish and enjoy being sole owners of their enterprises.
Drive one’s own destiny
Solopreneurs have the ability to choose their work. This enables them to drive their own destiny. Whether they choose to work long hours or a few hours is in their hands. Working for someone else or in some other company wouldn’t give the people the broad leeway to choose work or hours. The ability to drive the direction in which my enterprise is going is very important to me. While working in large companies, my biggest frustration was that I could not control the direction of the project by myself. I had to depend so many others to make my project successful and many times I felt powerless. Solopreneurship is different in that area and it has been a pleasant experience.
Fulfill one’s passion
I always wanted to create a product that I could call my own. I clearly imagined what this would wouFulfillld do, who it’ll serve, and what impact it’d have on the people it’d serve. And I was very passionate about this product. Talking to other solopreneurs, this passion is clearly what differentiates them.
Fast learning
A solopreneur needs to do many things by himself/herself. Write the business plan, build/outsource website, manage marketing, create/manage products & services, sell and grow the business, and manage the accounts to say the least. This gives solopreneurs an opportunity to learn many things in a short span of time. I was blessed to have learned about building websites, managing outsourced projects, and pick up social media engagement.
Summary
I probably just scratched the surface of what drives solopreneurs. The key points mentioned in this article are:
- 1The joy of being a sole owner
- 2Drive one’s own destiny
- 3Fulfil one’s passion
- 4Fast learning
In spite of the risks and the unpredictable nature of starting one’s own business, I believe that the rewards outweigh the risks. I could give up everything just to be my own boss. The opportunities to drive my own destiny, fulfill my passions, and learn what I want to grow my business are the icing on the cake.Are you a solopreneur? If so, what drives you?If you are not, what is stopping you?
April 10th, 2019 by Ramesh Dontha
The Harvard Business Review’s ‘Thriving in the Gig economy’ mentioned that 150 million people from the US and Europe have left their relatively stable jobs (either forced out or left on their own) to work as independent contractors. These individual entrepreneurs, mostly working for themselves, are the solopreneurs. Whether the economic forces led these people to become solopreneurs or the demographics led the economy to morph into a gig economy is unclear. But what is clear though is that the gig economy and solopreneurs are real. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a solopreneur?
Having been a solopreneur and an entrepreneur, I would not trade my position with anything else. Of the two, I prefer being a solopreneur even though that may mean that I’d be managing a smaller operation than being an entrepreneur of a larger entity. I have been lucky enough to manage multiple ventures and time management has been an extremely crucial skill I had to develop and learn over the years. More on time management in other articles but let me go over some pros and cons of being a solopreneur as I see it.
Fundamental Differences Between Solopreneurs and Entrepreneurs
A solopreneur intends to run his or her business by himself and herself and will be solely responsible for its incredible success or a disastrous failure. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have employees and will rely on them to develop their business over time. A solopreneur may outsource work to external providers and engage freelancers to keep things moving. Solopreneurs typically seek the freedom and independence that comes with the business whereas entrepreneurs may be looking to build and sell their business after some time. Both build businesses, take risks, and create some ingenious things in the process. It is just the way they approach and conduct a business that is different.
Advantages Of Being A Solopreneur
There are 3 distinct advantages of being a solopreneur as opposed to an entrepreneur. Solopreneurs are able to maintain complete control of their venture. As a result, they are able to keep the majority of the money they make, own 100% of the decisions they make, and maintain the freedom to do as they please. In the process, solopreneurs may outsource tasks they either can’t do or won’t do. But overall, solopreneurs crave the freedom and the control they get in the process.
Disadvantages Of Being A Solopreneur
Of course, it’s not all roses for these people. One of the main complaints you hear from solopreneurs is that there isn’t much support when things are not going their way. It can be lonely and may they feel isolated. Time management is another major issue for solopreneurs. There are so many things to do such as web site building, promotion, product creation, financial management, etc. Even if they are outsourcing some of these tasks, managing the vendors can also take a significant amount of time.
Conclusion
The demographics and changing nature of our economy made the gig economy happen and either encouraged or forced people to become entrepreneurs. I enjoyed every bit of the process. All I can say is that passion and perseverance are the main keys to your success.
Whether you are a budding solopreneur or entrepreneur, you can get help with a business startup checklist, writing a business plan, or the tools I continue to use for my businesses on this website.
