Every once in a while, a group of habits, lessons and common tips show themselves repeatedly in my day-to-day that I just like to get off my chest. These general tips for becoming a successful solopreneur apply to anyone who might:
- want to start a business but not have any ideas
- have an idea but haven’t started yet
- have a business but want to take it to another level
- feel an urge to be doing something more… to be working on something a little more “special”
Here they are, in no particular order:
1. “Where focus goes, energy flows” – Tony Robbins
This is a great quote from Tony and I’ve seen it play out many times. What I’ve noticed is if you shift your focus towards something, even if that something is “I want to come up with a business idea”, and put in the right effort, over time something will happen.
Maybe you’ll meet someone with an idea, maybe it’ll come to you while reading a book, maybe it’ll pop into your head randomly. But if you focus on it, take action and be patient, something interesting will happen.
2. Always be learning (ABL?)
I’ve been playing around with ideas in terms of how to grow my firm, or start an industry-related company. Instead of just sitting on a chair and thinking and thinking and thinking for days on end, I decided to keep learning and networking.
Now if you know me, you know I’m always reading a book anyway, but I continued to read business related books, met with/talked to industry-related or just fun/nice/intelligent people, and some magic has already happened.
And yes, spend some time thinking to yourself as well. You do need time to digest everything you’re learning, but if you aren’t learning in the first place you may end up feeling stuck or confused.
3. Network, network, network
I have never been mad after attending a networking event. I have never been mad after meeting up with someone for a coffee chat, or having a call with them, or interviewing a solopreneur on the SG Podcast.
Maybe the chat or event doesn’t lead to a “sale” or idea or solution that minute, but meeting other cool people will ALWAYS be valuable – even if it’s just to make another friend.
I have many friends in my network right now that I met through networking. Some of us have given business to one another, some of us have worked together, some of us haven’t. But the value we give to one another, even just through emotional support and chatting here and there, is so valuable.
4. If you're going to create content, commit
Especially if you’re looking to grow a business or brand, half-assing content creation these days isn’t a great idea because there are so many people putting out content. Not all of it is great, but if you’re putting out average content once or twice a week, you may have a hard time seeing any real growth.
This doesn’t mean I don’t think there’s value in a weekly or monthly email, it just depends on what your goal is. If you’re really trying to grow your business or brand, especially on social media, it’s going to take some pretty good content and posting consistently, engaging with followers, etc.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t any value in a monthly email, or a monthly blog post that provides real value. But if you’re doing it monthly, it better pack a punch. And if you’re trying to grow a social account, it HAS to be more often than monthly.
That’s it for this post, hopefully you got some value and if so, would love to see a comment below. And if you want my weekly email every Friday where I send my tips, updates and lessons learned from my solopreneur business journey, make sure to join the email list below (you’ll get a free pdf on my top sales tips as well):
