Get Big Or Go Home …

I’m calling bullshit on this idea.  Your solopreneur business is tiny by definition, you scale by processes and procedures not people, and wag bills.

There is a ceiling on the size of your business you will never be huge, what you will be is right-size.  Just the correct size for you needs. As long as you are generating the income you need, you business is big enough.

What’s Wrong With A Lifestyle Business

I love watching Dragons Den (the UK version) but it sometimes makes the big vein in my forehead throb when they say:

“I cannot invest in you, it;s a lifestyle business and I cannot see a return”

To succeed as a solopreneur you need to have the mindset that you will return ENOUGH to fulfil your needs and thrive without killing yourself in the process. You don’t need investors and the greed that goes along with it.

You Cannot Point At A Solopreneur Business

My brother in law has an amazing garden centre business.  It’s an amazing site in the country, it has a small river meandering around his property lines, there are kingfishers dipping in and catching fish, there are highland cattle in the next field and a wood rising up away from his buildings.

He can point at his business and say this is mine.  As an online solopreneur I can point at my laptop, show people my website, perhaps  open up my analytics and show how many visitors I get.  What I cannot do is point at a physical thing and say that is what I built.

I’m cool about that, the most important things in my life are not things, I don’t need physical stuff to prove myself, that’s part of the solopreneur mindset.

You Need To Have A Touch Of Mad Professor

I think you need to run experiments in your business on regular occasions.  You need to throw out a new ideas, try new marketing experiments and roll with the failures.

Test, test and test again is my motor, eventually you and Igor will have a Frakenstein monster of a business to look after.

The Desire To Manage People

If your self worth is set but the control and influence you have over underlings, then solopreneurialism is not for you.

I love the idea that it is me and only me, I don’t want employees, I don’t need to one hundred people under me to boost my ego, I love the idea of building a thriving business by mself,  It makes me feel like a pioneer fighting against the digital wilderness.

An Eye For Minimalism

I think all solopreneurs need a minimalist mindset, I think they need to think about reducing all things that do not directly benefit their business.  Just because the status quo says you need a Facebook page and market this strongly, if this does not work for your biz, drop it and focus on what works, less is more, when you have to do everything in your business,

I have an 80/20 mindset and if it doesn’t stand up for the effort, it is cut from my activities.

You Need To Build A Business Not A Job

I’ve written about this indepth in this post “Build A Business Not A Job” but you need to be thinking about building a business that serves you when you are not at work, if you want to take time away or if you are absent due to business

If you want a job, work for someone else, if you want a business

Read the E-Myth Revisted for more details.

A Problem Solver

The solopreneur needs to be a problem solver.

A blue sky thinker, a thinker out of the box, someone who can build an on-ramp to sucess (I’ve spent too much time in meetings, playing buzz word bingo).

You need to be able to look at the bottlenecks in your business and remove them.

Wrap Up

This list is not exhaustive, give me your opinion in the comments, what do you think makes a good solopreneurial mindset.

Have you ever considered launching or re-launching a service offering in the same way?  I’ve been using service launches for some time now, and find they are a great way to sell one to one offerings. I’ll explain how to do it in this post.

Before we go any further, a huge hat tip to Skellie and the blog business funnel which first introduced me to the idea of a service launch.

Sideways Sales Letter

Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula fame/infamy (depending upon how much launch fatigue you have) coined the term of a sideways sales letter for selling products.

The same technique can be used for selling your one to one services such as consulting, development, copy writing or graphical design.

What you need to do is start releasing some quality unique content through your channels, be it your blog, email news letter, social media feeds and start spelling out the benefits of your services.

This sideways sales letter allows you to remove objections slowly but surely without the need for a huge sales page full of yellow highlighter and dull sales copy.

You’re Building To A Future Sale

The whole point of a launch is to build anticipation for a date in the not too distant future where you will make you services available to buy, and by using a launch process you build anticipation in your clients so they are ready to buy when you open your sales page.

An Example

Throughout this post I’ll give examples of a service launch with a fictional service.  Here at logo-a-go-go.com we create custom logos and we are doing a service launch to bring in 6 new logo clients.,  This is a high end service and we are going to charge $5000 to design and develop a new logo for our clients.  So that’s a target launch of $30,000.

$5000 is a lot of money, you need to get over people’s objections before they will fork over that amount.

We could start by creating a series of blog posts.  We are also going to use our email list to send out updates saying we have new blog posts.  We could write a series of posts educating people here are some ideas for the blog posts.

• The logo development process
• Branding Your Company With A Logo
• Working With a Logo designer
• What colours in Your Logo say about you and your company

As you can see from the titles they are all informative posts, but at the end of each you could hint that you are taking on new logo design clients soon, and perhaps you could setup an email list for people who are interested.

The content is strong, it helps to build your position as an expert who knows how to design and develop logos. It is also stand alone and informative for people who are not buying logos right at this moment.  You won’t damage your list by being too salesy because you are sening quality content too.

Building Anticipation

By sending out a string of content and hinting that something is coming down the line you can begin to build anticipation, buzz, perhaps even a little mystery.

Inside of the content you can begin to overcome objections.  In our example, if you have never works with logo designer before, you can spell out the process in the “Working With A Logo Designer” post.  People don’t want to feel stupid, so if you spell out exactly how to supply a logo designer with what they need, then that is an objection nullified.

The idea is to build up interest and desire to buy your services.

Scarcity

When selling products in particular information products people use some pretty shoddy scarcity tactics.  They say that they will close the cart after a couple of days or that there are only 100 spaces on a coaching program which is automated – pah I say, that’s just a marketing ploy.  But scarcity with services is inherent.

Human beings are a little lazy, and if they think they can wait and buy your service later, they will, but if you create some scarcity and give a little squeeze, people are much more likely to act and buy your services during your launch.

There is real scarcity in selling services, you are selling your time and there is only so much of that you can give over.  If you set a limit to the number of clients you can take on that’s real not manufactured.  It also helps to squeeze your clients into action.

Back to our example, we can say “The logo design process takes a long time and is very labour intensive so I only have room in my diary for six more clients before I’m fully booked until September” .  That’s not a false scarcity tactic as used by the info product guys (downloading videos and pdfs scales almost infinitely), it’s real scarcity, you can only do so many logos, and if you don’t grab this opportunity in the coming launch you will have to wait till the Autumn/Fall.

If I’m Joe Client and I was planning on hiring logo-a-go-go.com for my new organic cat food range, that squeeze can help me to take the step of hiring or I miss my slot.

Timing

Timing is key to a service launch, if you send out an email on Tuesday then open your door for business Wednesday, you haven’t given enough time to get over your message and build the anticipation.

On the other hand, if you start building anticipation for a service launch six months from now, the chances are, your potential clients will have gone out and found an alternative service provider already.

I recommend 1-2 weeks as a long enough launch phase for services.  This allows you to get out 3-4 pieces of content to build up a buzz and act as your sideways sales letter.

In our example, drip feed two posts per week, then a final sales post giving the final offering including the scarcity squeeze.

Bonuses

Bonus offering are huge in the information product marketing world, but very rarely used in the service world.  When you launch a service why not offer a free , limited time bonus to people acting right now.

One word of warning, offer a bonus that does not take your time in a one-to-one fashion, of you may find your self giving away too much time and not being able to service your clients for the original offering,

Examples of a bonus are a reduce rate for early bird sign ups, or going back to our example perhaps you could offer a free training video series on how best to use the logo files you will be providing; think how to enlarge your logo, how to use it on a website how to make sure the colours stay sharp on printed documents, you get the idea.

The Money Is In The List

I’m sure you have heard this before, but it’s true.  You can offer your services through your blog and hope people have subscribed by RSS and are reading your launch content, or you could hope and pray people give a rats-ass about your Facebook feed and are picking up the same launch content.

To really make service launches work, you need a list of email addresses of people interested in the content and the services you can provide. Send out your launch posts via email and you will see much better results.  Email allows you more control over when people read your content and help to build that buzz and anticipation.  If someone is getting your content via RSS feed, they might not check in for two weeks and compeltly miss yoru offer.

A really powerful technique I’ve found from service and product launches is to ask people to join a separate email list to your main one if they are interested in the upcoming launch.  This helps to segment your list so you are only communicating with people interested in your new launch.

Risk Reversal

One tactic that the product launch boys and girls use is the risk reversal money back guarantees.  That’s a little tough when you are selling your time, you cannot get that time back so I would not offer a money back guarantee.

Perhaps you could offer a warranty on your service, or a series of re-services, in our example, perhaps you could offer a series of proofs, with a couple of rounds of basic logo designs before the final design is done.

Launch Day

So you’ve built your anticipation, over come any doubts people may have.  It’s now time to offer your new service.  Write a sales post or page, send that out to your list and sit back.

Hopefully the slots you have created are filled quickly, if not go back to your list and gently squeeze again “There are only two more logo design slots left, once they are filled.

Head Down Do The Work

Once you’ve launched your service and filled your diary, get your head down and do the work, deliver on your launch promises and send the bonuses.

You’ve probably been a bit more vocal in your emails with launch content and the sales emails, so step back and leave your list alone for a week or so, if you want to keep in touch make sure the content you send out is none salesy and packed with value.

Relaunch

When you need a bunch of new clients in the pipeline, it’s time for a re-launch, rinse and repeat the above process with some new launch content and there you go again, a constant stream of happy customers.

Perhaps you can create a waiting list and all you need to do is send out a launch email to the list to fill your books again.

Hopefully this process will stop the feast and famine approach of service work for you.

I’m In Launch Mode

You probably saw this coming from miles away, I’m in launch mode.

I will be releasing a new coaching services called “From Service to Product”.  It’s my tried and tested formula to go from a service offering and translating that into a product that can be sold passively.

If you are interested in this one to one coaching, why not sign up for my early bird list, there will be discounts and bonuses   >>Early Bird List<<

Watch this space for details ….

What Is A Solopreneur

The answer to this depends upon who you ask, but I will give you my definition because this is the people I will be writing this site for.

A solopreneur is someone running their own small business.  I will go onto call it a micro business because the majority of people will be running their business as a single person with little or no assistance.  This business will have no employees other than the owner.

I style myself as a micro business business coach, I advocate removing all unnecessary aspects of your business leaving the core product of business which you can deliver simply leaving you ample time to enjoy your life outside of your business.

Types Of Solopreneurs

There are many different types of solopreneurs, I will be detailing these in the business models section of this site, but in brief a soloprenesu can be

• A freelancer
• A coach or consultant
• A single person professional practise
• An information marketer
• … the list goes one

The Key Definition

The solopreneiur employs no-one, they may bring on contractors (usually other solopreneurs) to provide servicese that the indivusdual cannot do, but they have no staff of their own, and probably more importantly they don’t want the hassles and troubles of managing people.

The business will be built through systems, procedures and automation so that a thriving business can grown centered around one person.  It is a true business not a freelance job.

How Solopreneurial Fits In

I will be teaching you how to build and grow a solopreneurial business through marketing practises, business model tutotrials tools and techniques.

If you want to go deeper I will also have my inner circle where you can join my group coaching program.

If you are with me for the long haul you are going to hear me bleat on about time a lot, I’ll say it again, but a solopreneur has limited time, use it well and guard it from time bandits (completely unrelated link to the Time Bandits film),  people who will steal your time and give nothing in return.

One thing I do is password protect my time, you need a user ID and password to get access to my time.

What’s The Password

Kerching, money, only give away your time to your clients in exchange for cold hard cash.  Think about your time as you do your computer, create logical/financial access controls to your time.

As a solopreneur you will always be battling competing priorities marketing, finances, service or product delivery, the list goes on and one.  Getting access to you on a one to one basis is something you should charge for.

Guard Access To Your Time Jealously

Orders are nobody can see the Great Oz! Not nobody, not nohow! – The Wizard Of Oz

I’m not saying you should shut yourself off from your clients or customers like the Wizard of Oz , rather getting access to your time on a one to one basis should be considered a premium offering not something your customers can grab on demand for free.

Set Expectations

Let your clients or customers know that you have resources and offerings that can be accesses at any time for free from your website an FAQ for example, publish your expertise in blog posts people can refer to create videos etc., but if someone wants one to one time from you they have to pay for it.

Give Access On Your Schedule

If you are happy to give away access, don’t give away access on demand, don’t let people call you at any time during the day which will break your flow and stop your productivity, disconnect and create a firewall to your time and give access when you want, not when the demanding customers want you.

Give Away Smart Time Not 1-1 Time

If you really have to give away free time for marketing purposes for example, use smart tools to do this.  If you need to give product demonstrations, give a webinar for a dozen clients rather than doing it one to one.  Record the webinar and use it over and over again.

Productise Access

You can also create a product of your access, this may sound a little weird, but if people ask you the same question time and time again, why not create a short video as an answer and point people to that.  They get your access and your attention but in a productised manner.

Examples Of Guarding Your Access.

If potential clients want to get on the phone with you to “pick your brains” before signing up, that sounds more like a free consulting session to me.  I’ve been guilty of this in the past, getting on the phone, giving people an hour of my time in the chance I might get a gig, only to find they exhaust my expertise and waltz off into the night.  Politely tell them you are fully booked and can you write up their queries in an email that I can answer at a later date.

Instant messaging requests, the old “Can we have a quick Skype chat”  usually degenerates into a 30 minute back and forth session, the instant nature of chat software is a huge distraction, once they have you, they have 100% of your attention, log out of AIM sessions.

Being reactive in your inbox is anther way people (sometimes unintentionally) get instant access to your time.  Once an email lands it becomes your problem and we are conditioned to respond.

Techniques To Guard Your Access

I don’t publish a telephone number any more, and the one I have is a Skype in number that goes to my skype account.  Using this technique I can block out calls or simply mark myself as offline.   I don’t answer my mobile phone unless I know who it is.

Disable chat utilities.  I always log out of Google chat and Skype to stop people IMing me.

Something I don’t do well but am desperately trying to get to and that is checking email once or twice a day.  Once you get into your inbox, other people’s problems suddenly become yours and they get access to your  time via email replies.  Email is a terrible time suck.

If you get hundreds of comments on your blog posts, disable comments.

Don’t get me started on the black hole of time that is social media that’s a horse of another colour (two wizard of Oz references in one post, not many people can say they get to do that for a living).

Want My Password?

Two ways to login to my time are via my coaching services or the Inner circle.  Buying my access this way gets you an instant login ID and password.

I may come over as cold and calculating in this post, but you will find giving away your time for free builds resentment in you, devalues your time in the eyes of your clients and it not great long term.  1-1 access should be premium. not something clients and customers have for free.

Are People Hacking Your Time?

How are people hacking into your time?  Emails, phone call, IM, Text messages, social media pokes, it’s time to change your password and setup the firewall.

Further Reading

Okay class, I’d like you to read chapter II – E is For Elimination from the The 4-Hour Workweek before next weeks lesson please.

Image by 33909700@N02

In this post I want to talk about business design for the solopreneur and how you can earn back time something that really resonates with me.

Lifestyle Design

As a solopreneur you are ideally positioned to not only design your ideal business, but your ideal lifestyle.  If one of the things you would like from your solopreneur business is more time outside of your business to have a life then this is the site for you.

I’ll be talking about this extensively and I will be documenting my progress with some of my other very time intensive businesses as I re-engineer them, you’re welcome to come along for that ride.  I want a fulfilling business but I don’t want to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week.  I’ve been earning back time in many areas.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not lazy, I work really hard for my clients, but I think there is more to life than work, and if you work for yourself you are in the ideal position to get that balance correct.

The first thing you need to know is that selling your time on a 1-1 basis is never going to allow you to earn back time.  You need to think about how you can sell your expertise and skills passively so your business is generating income whilst you enjoy your earned back time.  Work On Your Business Not In It 

You need to leverage technology and systems to free up your time, time that is now earned back.  Remember this is your business, you can design it as you please, there is no face time for the solopreneur, if you don’t have to work, you can free up that time.  You don’t have to sit in that seat from 9-5.

This took a little getting used to personally.  I found myself free from work at 3pm, and I was looking around for other things to do, busy work to fill the rest of the day.  I felt a little guilty not working a full day.  Then I realised if I have met my income goals and have clients in the pipeline then it’s okay to goof off for the rest of the day.  I have learned to love the feeling of picking up my daughter from school happy in the fact I don’t have to go back to work and we can mess about, watch a DVD or do anything we damn well please.

How To Earn Back Time

Here are some of they ways you can earn back time.

Productise Your Knowledge – package up your expertise in such as way that it can be bought like a product, you can package up your knowledge as an ebook, video course, membership site, physical book or DVD.  This can then be sold without you giving over time.  What is more it can be sold over and over again.  As an aside read the Asset Snowball Effect to see how releasing time with products allows you to create more products and a snowball effect happens.

Sell other people’s knowledge – if you don’t have any products of your own, then the next best thing is to  sell other people’s knowledge as an affiliate, I’ll talk about affiliate marketing at a later date, but essentially you sell related products to your clients and get a commission.  For example over at wpdude.com I recommend premium themes and plugins to my clients, if they buy them through my affiliate link I get a commission.  This is not a huge income stream for me, but I regularly earn a couple of hundred dollars per month via affiliate systems, this adds up to a couple of hours that I don’t need to bill and is earned back time my my book.

Ditch the commute – work from home and ditch the hours you commute, I remember when I was working in offices, a couple of hours of my day were given over to sitting in a bus as I commuted into a large city centre in the UK.  Wasted hours that can be earned back.

Automate, Reduce and Systemise - I’ll not go on about this as I wrote about this over at Kiss My A.R.S, but if you reduce certain activities from your schedule you can earn back hours.

Limit Liabilities – a small lean business with low overheads needs to earn less meaning less hours

Right size your business – if twenty hours a week billable covers your expenses and allows you to fund the lifestyle you want then only put in 20 hours.  I’ve got a minimalist streak to me, I look around me and I have everything I need, I don’t need any more toys. I know the amount of income I need to sustain this lifestyle, if my business can generate my income requirements on a part time basis I’ve earned back my time.

Increase your rates – I’ve been experimenting with this extensively and I’ve got a stack of techniques to increase your rates without putting off clients, join my solopreneur mailing list to keep up to date on this topic.

Design Your Business

This is just a 101 intro to lifestyle and business design.  I want you to think about this when building your solopreneur business.  Get it right sized, don’t just focus on income, focus on quality of life too.

Want To Learn More Techniques Like This?

I’ll be teaching you how to design your solopreneur business so you can build not only the business, but the lifestyle you want in my  Inner Circle coaching program.  In this weeks session I will show you “Why Webinars Work” an excellent way to market your business and deliver services in a smart way that can free up some of your time.  I’m offering a 14 day free trial membership of the inner circle, why not take advantage of that and learn all about webinars.

Image by 29254399

Holiday Entitlement

Read that again, this is the number of holidays I am entitled to.  I’m  not sure if it’s the same setup where you live, but in the UK a salaried position comes with a number of none monetary benefits and one of them is a holiday entitlement.  Ususally you start with 20 days you can take in a year and it may increased as a long serving bonus.  We don’t get medical or dental packages  or even need one, we love our free national health service, it’s brilliant, but we do expect a holiday package.

So part of my pay and conditions was a certain number of days I could take out from the normal 9-5 and do my own thing.  Those days off are paid holiday.

Here is the rub, you have to jump through hoops to get the thing you are entitled to.

Book Your Holidays With Your Manager

I needed to book in my contractually agreed holidays with my managers to make sure my entitled time away from the company was agreeable to them.

If it is not agreeable with their plans (not my plans, their plans) they can reject my holiday request.

So the time I am entitled to can be denied to me.  I come to work for my salary and benefits not for the fun of it.

If they withheld salary for comapny reasons, there would be uproar, but the can mess with my time off.

Overworked Run Up

The days or weeks leading up to your holiday are fun filled, people realise you will be absent and they come a calling with all sorts of requests and demands.  These demands can probably wait but it doesn’t fit their personal agenda to wait till you return, it must be NOW!

As a result you are stressed to hell, overworked and drained.  A brilliant position to be in when you are leaving for time away with your family.

Two Weak Break

I heard this line in the Four Hour Work Week, you get your break and it’s over in a flash two weeks seems like too weak a time to be spending away from the corporate grind.

The overworked run up probably means you have dropped a couple of balls and there is always a nagging doubt in the back of your mind that you will get into trouble when your return.  Not a mindset conducive to sipping cocktails by the pool.

Shit Storm When You Return

When you get back from your break you are landed with a shit storm of requests and follow ups.  People know when you are due back and they come a calling.  The stress mounts and it’s as if you have not even been away.

You Need Time To Re-Charge

Even if you love the work you do, you need some down time, some time to recharge the old batteries.  A couple of days away from the grindstone with friends, a weeks holiday with the family or even a couple of days off to paint your stairway.

Work cannot be the centre of your life unless you want colleague only turning up to your funeral. ( and they are only there for a day off).

Your Time Belongs To Someone Else

When you work for someone other then yourself, you have sold your time 9-5, Monday to Friday and unless you want to lose your position you have to give that time willingly like a drone.  If they want to mess with your holiday plans they can, unless you say no.  If they want to mess with your weekends, they can until you say no.  It’s time to claim back that time and use it as you see fit not as a corporation sees fit.

It’s up to you to make the choice, if you take their money they own your time.  You are the only one that can change the game.  They are not, it’s not in their interest.  All they want is to move X units of widgets in as cheap and effective manner as possible.  You are a line on a spreadsheet that can be marked in red at will.

Never Having To Ask For Time Off Again

The point of this rant – working for yourself as a solopreneur means you never have to ask for time off again.  You never have to jump through anyone else’s hoops only the ones you set for yourself.

If you design your business wisely as I will be showing you hear at solopreneurial.com you can even pack up your business in your suitcase and take it with you.

This is a rallying call to step away from the stifling corporate world and strike out on your own.

Do You Want Take Time Off When You Want?

Stick with me, join the mailing list and I’ll give you tips and techniques how to build your own solo business.  Check out the inner circle for premium training or book a coaching session.

What Got You As An Employee?

What else has rubbed you up the wrong way as an employee?  Anwers in the comments below.

Image by jeeheon

This is a personal account of why I don’t want (or need) a team.  I invite you to tell me your reasons in the comments below.

I truly believe you can build a scalable profitable and enjoyable business with just one person, you.

I’ve Had Teams In The Past

When I worked in corporate IT I was a team leader with a handful of techies under me.  I have also built a small team of outsourced contractors at wpdude.com in the past so I’m talking from a position of experience.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I know which one I prefer.

I Hate Management

The process of managing personalities and motivating people to do things has never sat well with me.  Commanding, chastising and generally pushing people towards a goal is not for me.  It may be that I’m piss poor at the process, but whatever the reason I don’t want it.

I think this is because of the very high professional standards I set myself, I expect people to work in this manner too, and when they don’t, when they cut corners, or won’t make any decisions for themselves I get annoyed.  Why bring these stresses into your business if you don’t need them.

By taking on a team I had found that I had created a whole load of work for myself, what is more it was work I did not enjoy.  I want to build a business not a job.

I’ve Had To Let Someone Go, Never Again

I took on a trainee at wpdude and began training him up, only to find I hated the process,  I was paying for substandard work and clients were complaining.

In the end I had a very painful exchange and let him go.  I never want to do that again.

Don’t believe the outsource for pennies myth, but that’s another post all together.

People Lives In Your Hands

A little dramatic I’m sure you will agree, but the idea of having the responsibility of someones livelihood in my hands would keep me awake at night.

It’s not something to take on lightly, as an employer it’s your job to ensure you have enough money to pay that person on a regular basis so they can pay their bills.  In effect you have responsibility for yours and their bills.

As a solopreneurs that feels a little weird and needy, surely people should be self sufficient and make their own way in life instead of expecting someone to do it for them.

When I talk to my employed friends they have this mindset that they could be sacked at any time and they live with a fear.  I say cool, take that fear and get off your arse and start your own business on the side.  They never do, they have been conditioned by society to be cogs in the corporate wheel.

No Ego Drive

Many people get an ego boost by being in charge, they gain social status by the number of underlings they have.

Not me, again some soul searching and questioning the perceived norms has shown me that I don’t need a big business for self fulfilment.  I don’t need an office building I can point at and say that is mine. If I did that it would be for other people.  I have a quote on my cork board in front of me.  It says

One of the most universal causes of self doubt and depression is truing to impress people you don’t like.

If I tried to build a huge team I would not be for me, it would be to impress other people.  No thanks, that’s not the way I’m wired up.

There’s No Need For A Big Team

We’ve got the internet baby and all of the business models that enables.  I don’t think we need to build teams to build companies.

Neil-matthews.com is an experiment in just that.  Everything I’m planning to do and offer here can be done with just one person.  That’s why I put my name to it instead of using the domain soloprenerial.com that I own.  One person Neil.

Automate with computer scripts and services, reduce what you do and systemise the rest.  It can be done by one person if you have the correct business model.

Agility

I’m a multipotentialite, and I want to do many things in the coming years.  Not having a team allows me to change course in a very agile manner.

If I had a team and all the baggage that brings, I cannot easily change course without consulting them, taking into consideration their wants and needs.

If I want to travel I can, just by picking up my laptop.  If I want to work on a new project I can, no team meetings or project plans for me.

I’m Scared To

There I’ve said it, the responsibility of employees it too scary.  I just don’t want the hassle.

Me, Myself And I

It’s just me, myself and I running this show, it’s the way I want it and I just love being a solopreneur.

Wrap Up

These are my own very personal reasons for not building a team, even a virtual one, what are yours?  Answers in the comments please.

Image by bobaliciouslondon