Solopreneurship isn’t for everyone, as it’s a risky endeavour and takes a lot of hard work. Because of this, you want to give yourself the best chance at success. Here are the 3 best solopreneur businesses that will give you an extremely high chance of success if you put in the work!
1. Digital Marketing Agency
Social media is taking over and is a dominant part of our lives as everything can now happen online and people have more social media followers than in-person friends.
Businesses are also joining on as they realized how much time their prospective customers spend on social media, and many have moved their storefronts online, created dynamic and engaging pages, and learned to spark viral online trends by having witty social media posts that don’t feel like ads when seen in timelines.
But a lot of businesses need help navigating this new trend of marketing on social media and are willing to pay for content and engagement to grow their subscriber base, and ultimately, customers.
Luckily for you, digital marketing isn’t rocket science either and since it’s so new, it’s easier to get caught up with the times and know enough to provide real value to businesses. To get started, we recommend picking a niche (for example, Instagram for influencers, or LinkedIn for service businesses) and offer some services for free to get more experience and prove to potential clients that it’s worth it for them to pay you to keep you around.
Another way to try and find clients is through marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork, but keep in mind there are pros and cons to using them. While they offer visibility to many potential paying clients, you will be competing with lots of other service providers and usually for a lower rate than normal. That being said, it can be a great way to get started and build up a portfolio.
2. Freelance Writer
Freelance writing is another great solopreneur business if you’re good with words and would enjoy writing day-in and day-out. Just like with the growth of social media, more and more businesses are creating more written content than ever in the form of blog posts, landing pages, ebooks and more.
Since writing is a more well-known skill and easy to evaluate, businesses and even other solopreneurs are more than happy to pay a writer to save them time and create even more content. While having some writing experience and being comfortable with the English language is encouraged, it is definitely not required to get started. However, make sure your grammar and spelling is strong enough and edit everything before sent out – poorly written content will not be appreciated by a paying client.
Getting started as a freelance writer is very similar to digital marketing. Make sure you are a good enough writer (maybe even start a blog of your own for practice!), then go out and find some clients. You can do this by networking, doing outreach, attending events or using the sites we mentioned above (Fiverr and Upwork). And for more info on how to get your first few sales, make sure to join our email list to get my 3 key tips to landing more sales as a solopreneur.
3. Build a Brand
If you would rather not work for clients, then this option is for you. Our 3rd recommended solopreneur business is to build a brand around either yourself, a specific topic or business. While getting started with brand building is very easy to do and free if you don’t want to spend any money, it’s much harder to grow to a large enough scale to monetize.
This requires doing things like starting a website/blog, Instagram or YouTube account, creating lots of content for the platform of your choice, and using these forms of social media and search engine optimization to get noticed and start growing your following. As your following grows, you can then monetize your website, or followers, or community through things like affiliate marketing, advertising, selling your own products, or other creative ways.
A few things to keep in mind:
- you will need a large enough following to start earning a livable income – this can’t really be done with 500 followers or subscribers
- you should pick a topic or market that can be monetized. Popular ones include business, health, fitness, electronics, and more. In other words, things that people are willing to spend money on.
- It also helps to pick a topic or market that you have some interest in. This doesn’t have to be your life passion, but having some interest will lead to better content and you’ll be less inclined to stop when you hit those inevitable tough times
To get started, do some research on a brand, topic or industry you want to focus on, then pick your content medium of choice. For example, do you want to create videos, or thoughtful posts, or audio? Based on that decision, you can choose the best social media accounts and strategies to start creating content and building your following.
Get Started on Your Solopreneur Business ASAP!
While it is important to prepare for any new solopreneur business, what’s most important is that you take action. Find the type of business that you think is the best fit for you, do some research and preparation, then get started! You will learn and adjust along the way.
And if you want more help along the way, including 3 tips on how to get started, make sure to join the email list here.
