How to Become a Solopreneur and the Benefits of Becoming One

Solopreneur is the new buzzword. Many aspire to become one, but few know what is actually involved and what it takes to be a successful solopreneur. I didn’t even know that such a word existed until recently. All I knew was what I wanted and it just so happens that I have found the term for what it is that I wanted to be actually. A solopreneur.

What is a solopreneur?

A solopreneur is essentially a person who runs their own business and does most of it alone. They are often location independent so they are not tied to working in one spot. The could be working from their home office, or the local coffee shop or Bali if they so choose! Anywhere is good. They are entrepreneurial in character. According to thesolopreneurlife.com a solopreneur is someone “ who has developed a business with NO Employees, that’s Portable, Scalable, and produces Passive Income.” The “no employees” part is the part of being a solopreneur I like the best.

Having said that, being a solopreneur does not mean that you have to do it all alone and break your back and become burnt out. No, not at all, because that would defeat the purpose of it all.

Succussful solopreneurs often outsource services such as graphic design, accounting and website design.

Some of the benefits of being a solopreneur are:

You work alone so there’s no office politics and drama
You set your own hours so there is a lot more flexibility. This can be especially important if you are a mom to young children and can be a game-changer for you and your family.
You can work from home or anywhere you choose.
You have the power to choose who you want to work with and who your clients are
You can scale your business as much as you want or not
You determine your own income
You call the shots

I personally love working for myself and by myself, because I am an introvert. If however you need some human interaction, then fear not. Depending on the actual type of work that you do, there is plenty of opportunities for human contact in terms of the clients that you may be working with or the people that you outsource to do some work for you. And if that is not enough, then you can always take your laptop and go and work in a local coffeeshop if you want. The possibities are endless.

Here are some solopreneur ideas:

Blogging

Blogging lends itself extremly well to the idea of solepreneurship. As a blogger you can work from anywhere and it can be quite lucrative if you are prepared to put in the time and effort required to build your blog to a level whereby you can start earning a full-time income.

Check out my recommended blogging resources to get you started on your journey.

Graphic Design

If you are a creative type of person with an eye for design and detail, then a career as a graphic designer might be for you. There are plenty of short courses out there that can help you to get the necessary training you need to you get started. Check out Udemy.com, Lynda.com and Skillshare.com for short courses on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and the like. All you basically need is a laptop with the required software and your imagination and you’re good to go. You’ll of course have to work at marketing yourself so that you can build up a client base.

Writing

Most types of writing work can be done from home. You can become a freelance writer or write your own novels amongst others. With the reach of the internet many authors are choosing to self-publish so you don’t have to wait on a publishing house to publish your work if you so choose. Check out Amazon’s Self Publishing division for more information on becoming a self-published author. Freelance.com, Upwork.com are good places to start if you are interested in becoming a freelancer.

Bookkeeper

Many small businesses cannot afford to have a full-time Accountant on staff, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t need to have their financial books in order. If you are good with numbers, then this can be the business for you.

Ecommerce

Having an online shop can be very, very lucrative and exciting – if you know how. Luckily there is plenty of trainings out there these days, even from ecommerce powerhouses such as Shopify and Woocommerce. Check out Shopify for more info on getting started with ecommerce. Also check out this amazing course on Udemy that is really good and will help you understand some principles of ecommerce.

Online courses

If you are particularly good at something you could consider making that into a course and selling it online from a WordPress website. If teaching is something you are passsionate about then this might be a real option for you. Many online gurus make a very good income by selling their knowledge in the form of a course online.