Also described as a “company of one,” solopreneurship is the small business you start and run alone, with a few external providers.
While solopreneurship is similar to freelancing in that you build it alone, there is an important distinction: in solopreneurship, your company sells a product, while in freelancing, you’re selling your time.
How it starts
The typical way to start a “company of one” is to transition from a full-time job to entrepreneurship.
This switch can be caused by losing your full-time job, switching from your full-time job to a part-time agreement and starting the company in the time left, or starting the new company while still holding the full-time job.
If you start your company in parallel with a full-time or part-time job, it’s crucial to ensure that no non-compete clauses from your job restrict you from doing so.
Also, be prepared for a stressful period of uncertainty if you don’t have the revenue of a full-time job to rely on and also more work than you probably did in your employment days.
How it grows
After your product is completed and you start onboarding clients, you will start earning revenue. Then, you will focus on improving the product and promoting it to grow your customer base.
At a certain point, your company’s profit will exceed what you made at your full-time job, a milestone worth celebrating.
As your revenue grows, you can start outsourcing various tasks that you don’t enjoy or don’t excel at and grow your team with this outside help. The key aspect of solopreneurship is that, at least initially, this outside help is with external collaborators rather than full-time employees. Although you pay more per hour, you also have the flexibility of increasing/decreasing the volume of work you need, changing collaborators, or eliminating those costs if your business can no longer afford it.
At some point, it will make sense to hire full-time employees for some roles that external collaborators previously filled. If you can still do these jobs and your team is small, you can continue working like in the solopreneurship stage.
How it thrives
At some point in your growth, you will need to decide whether to scale up your solopreneurship into a full-fledged business or keep it in the solopreneurship stage.
This is a personal decision and the only recommendation is that you don’t do it too soon. Scaling your business by hiring a team has risks, and scaling too early can increase stress and financial strain.
Conclusion
Startups are on the rise in difficult times, leading to periods of great innovation. Think of the many great companies founded after the 2008 financial crisis.
We recommend reading Profit First by Mike Michalowicz if you are considering starting on this road.
We’re looking forward to seeing what you build.