Latest / The Life-First Solopreneur / 98. Are You Actually Ready To Become A Solopreneur? With Alison Hall
Transcript
- Alison Hall (00:00): When you go in for the one big thing, then you have to continually come up with the next big thing. But when you have this concept, there is a joy in it, and there's a piece and there's a lot less stress, and you can be resilient and have continuity. Intro (00:15): Welcome to Solopreneur: The One-Person Business podcast for professionals ready to take charge of their company of one and reclaim their freedom. Join us as we bring you inspiring stories, invaluable insights and practical strategies from successful solopreneurs and industry experts. Get ready to feel empowered to create a thriving business that aligns with your unique goals, and allows you to live life on your own terms. Here are your hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries. Carly Ries (00:48): Welcome to Solopreneur: The One-Person Business podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Carly Ries. Joe Rando (00:53): I'm Joe Rando. Carly Ries (00:54): At Lifestarr, we work with solopreneurs all day every day. One thing that we know is that everybody has a very unique journey, but the one common ground I feel that everybody has is they have to have that courage and drive to actually jump ship either from their current company or from whatever situation they were in, and actually build out that self-esteem to fly solo. We've both gone through it. It is so scary. It is such a life change, which is why we are so excited to have Alison Hall on the show today. She helps people, specifically women, but men and women will both benefit from this conversation. She helps them reinvent themselves to craft the lives they truly desire and deserve. I'm just so excited to dive in because we talk to people all the time who are at their current jobs and they have that idea, they know what they want to do, but they lack the confidence to move forward. So Alison, you're going to help people do that and welcome to the show. Alison Hall (01:59): Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation. I always love talking about how people can move from one thing to the next. Carly Ries (02:08): Absolutely. Well, then let's not waste any time. But before we even talk about the leap, how do people know if solopreneurship is even right for them? What are the things they should be thinking about when they make this big life transition? Alison Hall (02:26): I know you guys have probably talked about this at nauseum, but to me it's kind of two things. You have to be honest with yourself about who you are. Are you somebody who, when you're presented with a situation, do you kind of make decisions led by fear, like trying to avoid the bad thing happening? Or is it more of a glass half full situation where every new thing looks like an opportunity to you? A lot of times people don't think about that, but that's huge because how you view the world is going to define how you move forward. So that's the first thing. Also, if you've been in a job for a long time, you might want to take your own pulse. Do I maybe not care for what I'm doing right now? But I like the predictability and the structure and somebody else kind of being in charge and having a schedule. (03:17): Because sometimes you do need to be honest with yourself about that. You can always have a side gig. You don't necessarily have to just bust loose and become a solopreneur, but I think you have to be honest with yourself. Another question you also want to ask yourself, do I want to be a business owner or do I want to be an entrepreneur? And neither one is a bad word. They're just different. Some people would be great if they're able to keep the structure kind of thing that they had in their paid gig. Maybe you want to be a franchise person. Maybe you want to start a business that does something that you're not just crazy about, but it makes money for you and it's good for your schedule. Maybe however, you're super creative and innovative and you want to start new things and you want to pursue your passions. Maybe you're an entrepreneur. I think you just need to be really clear about who you are and where you are before you put in your notice. Joe Rando (04:12): Can I ask a question? At the beginning of that, you said the people that are kind of seeing change new things as from a fear perspective versus what we'll say an opportunity perspective. Now, the people that see it from a fear perspective, are you suggesting that maybe they don't want to think about going into business for themself? Are you saying that maybe they need to change their attitude and approach? How are you thinking about that? Alison Hall (04:38): Yeah, I think we all just have to be honest with who we are. I look at it as a continuum. If you're really passionate about it and you know that this is something you want to do, once you've kind of given yourself a self-assessment and you realize that you kind of lead by fear, then probably you're on a continuum where the first thing you need to do is either get help with or find a way to adjust your thoughts around the world around you before you even get moving forward. So you can identify that. And there are lots of ways to do that. There are questionnaires that are created by psychologists that will help you assess where you are on a continuum in terms of your own mindset. Carly Ries (05:19): These are such good points and I'm glad you're talking about the mindset. There's another concept that you like to apply when people are making these transitions, and Joe and I are huge fans of this. We've actually written about it in our solopreneur success cycle that you could find on lifestarr.com, but the concept is icky guy. I want you to tell people what this is and why they should think through that when they transition to being a solopreneur, because I think it's so important. Alison Hall (05:52): Well, it sounds like you guys are probably experts in this, so I'll do my best. But I love this concept because it really is a Japanese concept that almost means a life worth living. At any rate, it's a combination of if you're going to go out into the world to do something that a way to look at, how to find the right thing for you, is to look at what you're passionate about. That seems fairly obvious. But then also, what are you good at? What are your skills? What is it that you had to offer to the world? Combining those two things. Then very often we forget about the fact that we get really excited about, "oh my gosh, I love knitting balls of string". Is there a market for that? Does the world need this? (06:37): What it is that you think that you have to offer that you're super passionate about and you have a great skillset for? So is there something out there that you're going to accomplish with what it is that you can do? And then lastly, of course, we're talking about supporting yourself. So, is there a market for it? Can you make money? Those four things, passion, skills, what the world actually needs, and then whether or not you can make money at it that you can get paid to do it, it's actually a profession. Those things all help us in multiple ways in terms of just finding the right thing for you to go out and to do in the world, but also it helps you with decision making. If you've aligned all these things, you tend to have better work life balance because you're doing something you're passionate about and getting paid for it. (07:24): So you're accomplishing a couple of things all at the same time. It allows you to have better vision and goal setting around what you're going to do out in the world. It's just a concept that I love because it's so simple. It could be for anybody. You've probably heard of this example, but a woman in Japan whose sole job was to make the little feathers or little things that go into little brushes. And all she does is by hand put these little things in there, but she's really, really good at it. She's passionate about it, she makes a good living at it, and then she can sell these things for a lot of money because they're handcrafted and all this stuff, and it's something that women out in the world actually want. So that's a perfect example. It doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to accomplish all the goals mashed together. Carly Ries (08:17): I like how you said that this is so simple, and it may seem so obvious, but for a lot of people today, it isn't obvious because a lot of people lead with, I want to make money. That's what they care about. Or, I want to have a video that goes viral on TikTok. Alison Hall (08:33): I want to be famous. Carly Ries (08:34): Yes, I want to be famous. I will figure out sponsorships and everything after that, but I just want to make money. And we live in an age where this concept of icky guy doesn't always factor into people's minds. We just want to say for all you listeners that actually want a solid business and don't want to be the next TikTok influencer, I'm a millennial and I feel like I should know this lingo and I don't. But it is just so important for the longevity of a business to think through icky guy. Alison Hall (09:06): Also, it takes some of the stress away. When you go in for the one big thing, then you have to continually come up with the next big thing, and there's no real plan to it. It's just I want to be famous or I want to go viral, as you said. But when you have this concept, there is a joy in it and there's a peace and there's a lot less stress, and you can be resilient and have continuity. Joe Rando (09:30): When I was young, the version of going viral was becoming a rockstar. I was on that path. I was with a group of guys. We were trying to make it in the music business, but the fact is one in 1,000 or 1 in 5,000 bands actually make it to the point where it's a good living. You can do it with the wedding band scene, which that was completely opposite of what we were about. And it's the same thing today. Yeah, there are lots of people that are making a lot of money on TikTok and on Instagram and everything else, but there's a thousand, 5,000, 10,000 more that aren't. And if you find a way to do something that makes sense for you, you're going to be a lot more happy than trying to play a game that very few win. Alison Hall (10:17): And I dare say, I would be stunned if some of the ones who are at the top of their field in terms of the viral content, when you really look at their business models, they run their businesses like businesses. This isn't some flash in the pan. It took them a while to get where they got and they found a formula and it works and they're good at it, but everybody has that opportunity to do that in their own thing. That may not be your thing. Maybe showing videos of what your thing is make sense, and you might go viral in that way, but it's not realistic to think that that's going to be your consistent gig. Carly Ries (10:54): It's not the angle. Alison Hall (10:57): Exactly. Carly Ries (10:59): Well, so let's say people go through this process, they figure out what they're passionate about, they figure out if it is going to be a viable business model and if there's an audience for it. You recently published a report about the barriers for small business owners and for their success. There are tons of things in this report, but can we go through maybe five of them and the five main ones you would focus on first for entrepreneurs just starting out. Alison Hall (11:24): I'd start with failure to plan. I think this kind of goes in a natural order. I think we have a tendency to get excited about something, and we thought about it a lot, and we've maybe made notes and all that sort of thing on our phone or whatever. You have a plan, you think in your head, but so many people don't take the time to actually do a true business plan. In this day and age, when everything moves so quickly, people think, "oh, I can skip that step. I know what I'm doing." But if you don't have a plan, the business plan outlines, and I know you guys have talked about this to people plenty of times, so this is nothing new, but it certainly bears repeating. Your plan outlines what your marketing's going to be, what your product is, how you're going to operate your business, how you're going to finance your business. You need all of those things in order to get started and have a direction. But also, if you're going to need additional funds at some point. No one's going to give you money except for your parents maybe, if you don't have a plan that shows how you're getting from point A to point Z. So first thing is always having a business plan. Carly Ries (12:29): Can I say something about that, and you can tell me if you think I'm way off, but a lot of times I see people find a business plan template online and they're like, okay, this is how I'm going to plan it. But that doesn't always work for individual personalities. For me personally, I go off of a 90 day plan where I plan the next 90 days and at the end of the month it's kind of a rolling thing because that's how my mind works. A structured word doc without actionable steps doesn't work for me. But there are so many of those templates out there. So what I would say is I totally agree, but I would find a way to do the plan that you'll stick with and that will resonate with you. Alison Hall (13:06): That's an excellent point. You're right, because it's just like any list. We can all have lists, but if you're not actually following the list because it doesn't work for you, it doesn't make sense. So yeah, absolutely. Joe Rando (13:15): Another thing that I've said before is that I find that a lot of generic business plan templates tend to sometimes focus on selling the business to the outside world in some way, either to the SBA or a bank or an investor. And for most solopreneurs that's not really on the table in the beginning. One of the things we've done with that solopreneur success cycle that Carly mentioned is come up with a form of a plan that serves the solopreneur to kind of execute against their business as opposed to spending a lot of time from a perspective of trying to sell a third party. You believe in what you're doing and there's something to be said for coming up with ways of convincing other people, but there's an awful lot of time that can be spent and then you're not motivated to update it if it's a lot of work. So keeping it as simple as possible, we found is a good strategy for not spending too much time and getting locked in because it's painful to do those docs. I'm sure you've done it. You don't come out of that going, "I'm glad I did that. That was fun." Alison Hall (14:21): Yeah, I agree. You guys are absolutely dead on. I think being able to have categories that are actionable. I think that's the biggest thing for solopreneurs particularly, is taking action. I guess that's what you're referring to, Carly. Carly Ries (14:38): Yeah. Is that step two or is that a piggyback off of step one? We totally deviated your five recommendations. Alison Hall (14:48): Another thing I think for any preneur, solo or otherwise is not doing enough market research. That always sounds kind of difficult and tough. I am not a great big business. How am I going to do market research? But honestly, it's just about taking a look at what it is that you are going to offer and making sure that there's a market for it. There's a market for it if there's competition, that's just a given. But is there too much competition? Is this a space where it's going to make sense for you to move into? Do you have some sort of a niche idea that's a little bit different, or do you have a way to do this that's going to give a little pricing competitiveness? Again, it goes back to the kind of icky guy concept. (15:32): Is this something that the world needs that you're offering up? Very often we're so excited about our own ideas, particularly when you're working on something by yourself. You may have run it by your significant other or your bestie. Typically, they're going to be pretty supportive unless you're lucky and have somebody who's really objective. But if you don't run it out into the world, and there's some easy ways, and I'm sure you guys have lots of ways to do this, but there's some easy ways to do it. Even on LinkedIn, you can put out a questionnaire asking about whatever it is your product is. It might not work on LinkedIn. I'm just using that as an example. You could put it out in any of the venues that you operate in where you have communications and networks and all that sort of thing and ask people about it. You can allow people that you know or have some connection to, to try it. If it's a service of some kind, say "I'd love for you to try this and give me your feedback on it". All of that is a long way to say inadequate market research can make you fail before you've even begun, and you don't even know why. Joe Rando (16:32): Thank you for saying that because I've spent the last four days putting together a course on just that aspect, and it's just trying to get it right because it's so important. It's so important. If you start off there wrong, nothing you do is going to help. So thank you. Alison Hall (16:52): And I think this is one that everybody knows because we always concentrate on it, especially if you're a solopreneur, you don't typically move from the job you have without adequate funds, but insufficient funding I think is often something. And I think we could combine that with financial planning, not the kind of financial planning like investments, but planning your business, truly planning your business. We often get caught up in the shiny objects and I'm going to need this new software and this thing over here and that thing over there. And the crazy thing is if you don't have a financial plan in place, those things, they're still coming out of your checking account or they're on your credit card, but you're not even accounting for them. And at the end of the year, you have no idea how much money you made or didn't make, but the insufficient funds at the beginning, if you don't have an adequate idea of how much you are going to be spending because you haven't made the plan, that goes back to the planning. You can't make a financial plan if you don't have business plan. All of these things are interconnected, and I think that's something. Even though people read in articles or on blog posts, you need six months of capital before you leap off and start your own business. That may be true, it may not be true. It depends on your lifestyle, but you're the only one who can come up with that plan for yourself. Carly Ries (18:12): The thing I would piggyback on that with is some people are going to take the leap and they're really good at that one thing that they're going to be focusing on for their business, but the financial side may be really out of their wheelhouse, maybe foreign to them. So just to reiterate, just because you're flying solo doesn't mean you're alone. Outsource where you need to. If you need help with this, find somebody who's good at that. It doesn't have to be super expensive and just make sure you put a plan in place like Alison was saying, but you don't have to do it alone. Alison Hall (18:39): Absolutely. I agree. I'm a big believer in the whole solopreneur thing, but as you said, nobody can do it alone. You can't do all the operations and all the financial bits and all the tax things and all that sort of stuff on your own. That kind of leads me to my next one. This isn't necessarily right out of the box issue, but not having the right legal and tax information. Legal, what form of business am I going to have? It may not seem all that important right in the beginning. It's just going to become important later in terms of how am I getting taxed? Did I even think about this in advance? If you truly believe in your business and you believe that it's going to succeed, it may be starting out small, but hopefully it's going to get to a place where it's viable and you're making money, so let's make all the right decisions in the beginning. (19:30): And to your point, Carly, you do not need to be the expert on the legal things. What you do need to do is get legal help, and it's not expensive. You can get this sort of help from an attorney, or there are services online that just help with small businesses, so that's not expensive. Also things like insurance, do you have adequate insurance to cover the things that need to be covered? If you're doing something in some cities or states or provinces, you have to have a license to do it. Have you even checked into that? Because that can become extraordinarily expensive later if you have fees assessed because you weren't set up appropriately. Are we saving? This goes back to the financial planning. Are we saving appropriately from every dime that we make in order to pay our taxes? The first year, you might not be in the black, but the next year you will. If you don't get in the habit of making those savings decisions, it could come back and slap you later. Those are the things I think all of those align with adequate planning in the first place. Carly Ries (20:37): Yeah, absolutely. I feel like when you're leaving a business, some of that stuff, like you said before, even with icky guy, seems obvious, but people just try to hit their ground running and then they forget all these things. It is so good to just keep in the front of your mind, maybe write those things down listeners, and just have it in front of you somewhere so that you remember to get all of your ducks in a row for all of this. Joe Rando (21:02): I just want to add to that, one of the things that I've found in most businesses that I've started over the years, including this one, is that you put together a plan and then you start and then the old saying, the plan doesn't survive first contact with the enemy or in this case, the world, and you start adjusting and adjusting and then you wake up one day and you really don't have a plan anymore. You have a plan, but it doesn't describe what you're doing. I am guilty of not coming back around as much time as I've spent putting together solid plans, and I have, of not circling back when that business has morphed and said, "okay, how is this going to work now" . I'm basically preaching to myself at this point. I haven't done that the way that I should historically. And sometimes you wake up and go, "oh, gee, that's something I didn't notice until it was later than I wish", but just wanted to put that out there. Carly Ries (21:58): To piggyback off of that, it's okay for plans to change. That's the other thing is you have a plan, but be prepared for it to pivot. The journey of solopreneurship is never linear, and I think you just need to, like Joe said, assess and reassess, continue to plan, but just know it doesn't have to be set in stone. Alison Hall (22:21): I completely agree. It is iterative, but we have to be iterative on both sides. You can be as innovative as you want to be and make changes. You just have to always come back around and that links us back again to the plan. The plan, the high level parts of the plan don't change. You have an end goal in mind and you have a way that you want to get there. It's just that you're changing the in-between part. I won't say I'm amazing at it, but I do force myself every month to kind of go back over what I had written down the month before. That was going to be the plan. I follow shiny objects too, just like everybody else, and I have to reel myself in. Carly Ries (23:06): For me personally, that's why I find the 90 day plan helpful because at the end of the month, you are adding a new month and then getting rid of the previous month, so you're forced to look at that previous month. I mean a lot of times, things roll over to a new month that you didn't plan, but at least you can visualize that. You can see, "oh, I put too much on my plate. That wasn't feasible." and just kind of have a bird's eye view of everything. Alison Hall (23:32): Solopreneurs, they tend to be very creative and they have lots of ideas, and I bet if you gave every one of them a whiteboard, they'd have 15 different things that they want to do, and it's very hard to keep your brain focused. I have to prioritize my things constantly so that I stay on point and don't move over to the new thing that I'm really excited about. If I want to write a book or something like that. I'm sure you guys have this all the time. Carly Ries (23:57): We experience this all the time. Alison Hall (23:59): "I have a great idea. I want to do this, but I haven't finished that. Ugh." Joe Rando (24:02): That's called being a visionary. I thought that was a good thing. I was called a visionary too. There was Les McKeown, and he has this thing called Predictable Success, but he has this quiz, kind of like the quizzes you were talking about, but it tells you what kind of person you are. I think you would code him as a visionary. I did, and I thought, oh, that's great. Then I looked at what he describes and I said, no, it's not great. (24:35): But just being a visionary is like, "oh yeah, I can do this now. Oh, I can do this." It's like you never kind of want to settle down on one thing, and that is what you're talking about. Making yourself do what you've got to do because it's not natural. Alison Hall (24:49): Exactly. Joe Rando (24:50): It takes discipline. Carly Ries (24:53): I hope my five-year-old doesn't listen to this because then she will start calling herself a visionary because she always hops from one thing to another and she'll use that against me. Joe Rando (25:04): I'm a visionary mom, Carly Ries (25:11): Well, Alison, there are so many things solopreneurs need to think about, and we will direct traffic to that report on your website as well as your website in general. But if you could pinpoint one thing that you would want this audience to leave with in terms of leaving a company and venturing out on their own, what would that one piece of advice be? Alison Hall (25:36): It's tough. I'm going to say be flexible. Honestly. I think flexibility will take you a long way. Flexibility in your mindset, flexibility in what comes your way and how you adapt to it. I think it's just one word that incorporates a lot of different circumstances. As you were both saying, right out of the box you'll have a fantastic idea and it's probably not going to be as fantastic as you thought it was or the way that you've envisioned it isn't going to come to fruition and you hit that. You have to be able to get back up, be resilient, and find a different way, because if you truly believe in what it is that you think you can do, there's got to be another way. You just have to get up and think about it. The hardest part to me, this isn't what you asked me, but the hardest part about moving away for me from a corporate role, was a lack of predictability and the difficulty scheduling and managing myself. (26:38): I think if you've been in a role or roles for a long time where somebody else dictates how you operate, I think that's one of the first things that kind of slaps you in the face. You can spend months pulling yourself together, or you can embrace that and be flexible and realize that this is probably going to be an issue right up front. So I need to overschedule myself and be overly corrective about how I manage my time because time gets away from you and six months is gone and you've not really accomplished any of your primary goals. Carly Ries (27:10): I know a thing that helps a lot of people is calendar blocking when they go out on their own, and so even if they don't have a set meeting like this interview, they could have an hour to schedule their LinkedIn posts for the month or an hour to do this, and they have to look at it like it is a real meeting and not move it. It could be so easy to be like, oh, well, I can do that hour, or I could go for a hike because it is 70 degrees that day and I'll do that later. You have to look at it like it's an actual appointment. I think that helps a lot of people as well. Alison Hall (27:38): Absolutely. I agree. I live in Atlanta, the weather's lovely most of the year, so I am prone to looking outside and thinking, oh, I should go do something outside, so I have to force myself to do that. Also I get a lot of things done at night. That's one of the great things about being a solo person. You do have the opportunity to have a flexible schedule. You just have to get all of the things done without underperforming or exhausting yourself, two ends of the spectrum, Carly Ries (28:07): And to best understand how you operate. I'm a morning person. I can't work at night because we joke that I have borderline undiagnosed narcolepsy because seven o'clock hits and my brain turns off and I just want to go to bed. But, I can get up at 4:30 AM no problem, and I'm really, really efficient. Whereas my husband is the complete opposite. I love him more than life itself, but a total dud before 8:00 AM. But he can work late at night. So I think also when you have this flexibility, just knowing when your peak hours are and trying to revolve your schedule around that. Alison Hall (28:43): I agree. It took me a long time when I first came out of the corporate world, I really thought I had to keep the same kind of schedule for some reason, and then it finally clicked. I am a night person, and so I get a lot of technical things done late at night. But I was keeping this schedule like I was wearing a suit every day, Carly Ries (29:03): And some solopreneurs do wear suits every day to get into that mindset. Alison Hall (29:08): Yeah. Carly Ries (29:08): To each their own You do you. Well, Alison, you are so helpful with people finding success once they jump from their corporate world into a new world to achieve their dreams, so we ask all of our guests this, what is your favorite quote about success? Alison Hall (29:26): I love that question too, because you don't really think about it that often, but I saw this on a T-shirt and I loved it. "I never lose. I either win or I learn." That's Nelson Mandela. Carly Ries (29:39): Ooh, I love that so much. Alison Hall (29:42): I hate that I first saw it on a T-shirt. I feel a little ignorant in that regard, but I remembered it. Carly Ries (29:47): We bget a lot of bumper sticker quotes on here. You're totally fine. Alison, like I said, we will link to that report, but where else can people find you if they want to learn more about you, maybe work with you? Where are you online? Alison Hall (30:01): I am on LinkedIn. It's Alison Hall Coach Women. I'm not on a lot of other social media, but I answer a lot of emails, so you can contact me directly. Again, it's Alison@changeagentcoaching.com and that's if you're interested in moving into the business world, that's where I do that. Then The Boldest Me is where we kind of do more things about general life transitions, where it's about mindset and things like that. Also, this is just a sidebar, but it's for entrepreneurs, a little tiny entrepreneurs. We have The Boldest Me Kids, and that's where young kids can get information about entrepreneurship. I just published a book called Startup Smart, the Girls Guide to Entrepreneurship, so boys can read it too. It's just that all the stories feature girls. Carly Ries (30:52): My husband's Spidey senses just probably perked up down at our house right now to be like, "we're getting that". Alison, we are so happy we finally made this work. Listeners, we had some back and forth with sickness and everything, and I've been waiting to have Alison on you did not disappoint. You are worth the wait. Alison Hall (31:14): Oh, thank you. Joe Rando (31:14): Definitely a great conversation. Great stuff. Carly Ries (31:19): Listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and viewers, I'm so sorry, you YouTubers out there. Thank you for tuning in. We love doing this. We love providing all of this value for you. In order to do that and to continue to do that, we would love that five star review. We would love that subscribe, that like, whatever you want to do to show your support, we would love it. (31:41): Tell your friends. Tell anybody that's not your friend. Just yell it in the grocery store for all we care. This has been so wonderful and we will see you next week on Solopreneur. Closing (31:53): You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes running a one person business and figuring it out as they go, so why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures. At Lifestarr, we're creating a one-person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.