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193. Have A Solo Business and Struggling? These Rookie Moves Might Be Why · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: Let's be honest. Going solo in business comes with a lot of facepalm moments. In this episode, we spill the beans on the rookie mistakes that we see solopreneurs make all the time. Some of them we even made ourselves. So from doing everything alone to undercharging, overworking, and ignoring your Legion pipeline, we are covering it all.
• 0:19
  So stay tuned. You're listening to the Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I are your guides to navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of one. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions. We help people work to live, not live to work.
• 0:56
  And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who've paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone. Joe, so I kinda wanted to do this episode today from a selfish damn standpoint because you and I have been writing solopreneur business for dummies, which preorder is available, shameless plug on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. But I just finished writing a chapter on rookie mistakes for solopreneurs.
• 1:38
  And so I was like, well, what better time than when it's fresh in my brain than to talk about it on our podcast. Now I should warn listeners, Joe and I both have our dogs next to us today that are at risk of barking at any moment. So just bear with us. This will be a family show with our pups involved.
• 1:54
  Joe Rando: Yeah. I just moved over. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see them in the background there.
• 1:59
  Carly Ries: Yes. They may be joining us and chiming in with what they believe are rookie mistakes solopreneurs, but I think Joe and I will be leading the show today. But, Joe, I think it'd be fun if, you know, I just kinda took turns going back and forth on what we see, not only from the section that I just wrote, but just in our daily lives of working with solopreneurs day in and day out. So if it's okay with you, can I go first?
• 2:20
  Joe Rando: Absolutely.
• 2:21
  Carly Ries: So what is my favorite thing to say? My favorite thing as it relates to solopreneurs.
• 2:27
  Joe Rando: Favorite thing to say. Niching?
• 2:31
  Carly Ries: Flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone.
• 2:34
  Joe Rando: Doesn't mean you're alone. I'm sorry. Okay.
• 2:35
  Carly Ries: Yep. My favorite thing to say, and I think that is my number one rookie mistake, is people go out on their own, and they do everything on their own. And I think before you jump into solopreneurship, you need to start thinking about who you might outsource to, who you might have on as clients. Because working with people, even if they're your clients, is a way to do things not on your own. What strategic partnerships?
• 2:57
  I just think you when you jump into it, you need to realize that it you can get lonely pretty quickly or feel isolated pretty quickly. And just know that the vast majority of successful solopreneurs that we work with, they are not doing everything alone. So I think that is my rookie mistake number one.
• 3:15
  Joe Rando: Absolutely. So another one that I think is a really good rookie mistake that, we probably haven't thought of a lot in ourselves because we're not new to this, but one of the things that I think people get into sometimes when they start a business is doing all this planning, trying to put the perfect plan together, taking all these courses and learning this and learning that. And it's like at some level, you just wanna kinda get out there and do stuff. Right? And it's like, you know, having that perfect business plan, having every course on every aspect of marketing or whatever under your belt isn't necessarily worth the investment as much as just getting out there, making some mistakes, seeing what you really need, what the world really needs, and just figuring out as you go.
• 4:01
  Carly Ries: Such great pieces of wisdom there. Because people wait to be perfect, and that's just not ever gonna happen. So you may as well start it perfectly and iterate as needed. My other thing, saying yes to everything. Learn the power of no early on so you can take on the types of clients and the types of projects that you want to take on.
• 4:23
  A lot of times people feel like they have to say yes to everything because they underprice their services, which is another mistake people make. And so in order to make ends meet, in order to make a good living, they say yes to everything. Instead, maybe consider pricing your services a little bit higher, pricing your products a little bit higher. You can turn away the things that don't align with your values and how you see yourself running your business.
• 4:47
  Joe Rando: Yeah, to add to that, this idea of you talked about well, I mentioned niching, right? This idea, if you can get focused on a particular set of people, a particular pain point or set of pain points and target your products around solving those pain points effectively and communicating that to the potential customer, you can charge a lot more money. You know, if I said to you, hey, I can help you write better stuff. I'm a good writer or something, and I can help you write better.
• 5:20
  It's like, okay, great. If I came to you and said, you're looking for a job in the information technology industry, and I am a master at crafting resumes that get interviews and which repeat interviews for people in the information technology industry. Now I'm going, okay. If I'm looking for that job and I'm, in that situation, I'm like, I'm ready to give you some real money to help me solve that pain point of trying to get that new job versus just saying, oh, you can help me write stuff.
• 5:52
  You know what I'm saying?
• 5:53
  Carly Ries: Oh, yeah. I totally agree that and something that's a mistake that people make quite often, I think. So another mistake that I also see is not having not setting clear boundaries.
• 6:07
  And the biggest thing for setting clear boundaries to me is to avoid burnout. Because as a solopreneur, it can be really easy to blur the lines between work life and personal life. And you could bring your computer everywhere. I know I'm guilty of this. I always have my computer with me.
• 6:25
  And if you have a ten minute wait for something, you could just flip out your laptop. But if you don't set those boundaries with clients specifically, they will contact you after hours. They will contact you multiple times throughout the day. So you just say, hey, I check my email three times a day. Or hey, I sign off line at 05:00 and I do not respond unless it's an emergency.
• 6:46
  You contact me after them and it's not an emergency. Here are the consequences. But just whatever the boundaries are that makes sense for your business. I have found that people respect you so much more if you are clear about those boundaries from the get go because at the end of the day, you'll produce better work than if you're just bending over backwards for clients twenty four seven. It gets exhausting.
• 7:08
  So really do that for yourself from a work life balance standpoint and from a quality product standpoint.
• 7:13
  Joe Rando: And I'm gonna add to that because I think it's a great point, but what happens too is, inside of the actual work, you need boundaries as well because what will happen is what they call scope creep. Right? So somebody hires you to do something, but all of a sudden something becomes something more. Because in their brain, either they had a vision, that they didn't share with you effectively or their expectations grow as they see the possibilities for what you're doing. And the next thing, you sold them x, and you're doing two x of work.
• 7:44
  And the solution to that is something called a statement of work. And a statement of work is basically a document. It can go with your standard contract or a master servicing agreement or whatever you use that outlines the scope of the particular project, and it basically outlines what's gonna be delivered. It outlines how often you're gonna meet, who's responsible for what, and it really kinda lays out the guardrails on the project and usually has something about if we go beyond this, the cost is x per hour.
• 8:15
  And it's really, really amazing what a difference it makes for solopreneurs that are in that kind of service project based business. Once they start using a tool like this that that they're no longer getting just hammered by scope creep and or at least being able to charge for the scope creep, which isn't so bad. But I've seen this over and over again with Solopreneurs not having that statement of work document in place and then ending up kinda regretting the deals that they make because they end up doing more work than they price for.
• 8:49
  Carly Ries: Yeah. That is such a great point. Joe, I know you piggybacked off of my last two. I feel bad that I'm leading this.
• 8:55
  Joe Rando: It's great. I mean, one of the other real rookie mistakes I think I've seen is people that don't separate personal and business finances. Right? So if you start a business, first of all, you really probably don't wanna be a sole proprietor. You should do an LLC or some kind of a corporation with a sub check or a selection or something that protects, you know, that limits your liability in the business.
• 9:23
  And then get a bank account, a checking account, and maybe a savings account, and a credit card in the name of the business. It's not hard to do. A little bit of expense involved, but, you know, the idea of getting sued and having your house being on the line is a lot, riskier to me than the cost of of creating and maintaining a limited liability company or some other equivalent entity.
• 9:45
  Carly Ries: Which does not take that much time and effort to do the basics. Well, Joe, I think my last rookie mistake that I really wanna touch on today, maybe I should have started with this, but we've identified that the three things the main three things that solopreneurs across the board struggle with are lead gen, sales, and time management or productivity. Those are really the pain points that we hear over and over again. And so on that note with lead gen, people get so caught up working in their business that they forget to work on their business, and they neglect that lead gen funnel and pipeline to keep those leads going. They're like, okay.
• 10:19
  I have five clients. That's all I need. And then they just work with these five clients, forgetting those clients could leave at any minute. And if you don't have other ones lined up, you could be in for a lot of trouble. And you don't wanna be yourself with that situation.
• 10:33
  You wanna make sure that there's always something that could be coming in the door. And I think so many people neglect that. So that is my probably my number one rookie mistake, even though I said it last.
• 10:43
  Joe Rando: Well, I'm gonna have one more too, and that is and I think you'll agree with this wholeheartedly, is that when starting a solopreneur business there's a very good bet that you're gonna be better off focusing on your network than trying to focus on building out a website and driving traffic to it through whatever, pay per click or whatever. So ignoring your network is a big mistake when you first get started, because those people know you. They can help you get to other people that need what you're doing, and you really wanna be spending time, dealing with when you're getting up and running, dealing with your network and seeing, you know, how those people that you're connected to could help you get your business up and running. So I think that's a big mistake we see sometimes.
• 11:26
  Carly Ries: Absolutely. So those are are the things that we see kind of across the board, across industries, across skill sets that we think solopreneurs really need to work on. But, Joe, speaking of your network and your community, we really encourage all of you to join LifeStarr intro.
• 11:45
  LifeStarr.com/intro is where you'll get access to a great community of solopreneurs, monthly events, other resources to really hit the ground running, tweak whatever you need. We have a whole community there to support you.
• 11:56
  And I already mentioned this, but we have an entire book called Solopreneur Business for Dummies. It's coming out fall twenty twenty five, and you can preorder it now. So if that sounds like something you might be interested in where we elaborate on all of this, be sure to check it out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Joe, you look like you're gonna say something.
• 12:12
  Joe Rando: I just want you to tell them how much LifeStarr intro costs.
• 12:15
  Carly Ries: Well, it doesn't cost anything, and it never will. Correct. Thanks, Joe. LifeStarr Intro is free, and it will be free forever. So be sure to join.
• 12:24
  Link is in the show notes, but it is LifeStarr.com/intro And for us, please leave that five star review. We love spreading the word. It helps with the ratings. It would be so awesome if you could do that and share this episode with a friend, and we will see you next time on The Aspiring Solopreneur.
• 12:43
  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.