Being a solopreneur is often seen as an unwise choice. From what I read online, many times the advice for entrepreneurs is to not do it solo.
These experts say that if you want to grow and scale your business you need to work on your business instead of in your business. They think you need to delegate, and hire employees to truly be an entrepreneur and succeed. Or else, they say, you’re not going to make it.
Unpopular Opinion
Alternatively, as a solopreneur, I have found that not only are my businesses thriving but I’m also really happy and satisfied in my career. I’ve also been doing this online business thing solo for 6 ½ years! Therefore, my business approach seems relatively sustainable as well.
Most people probably wouldn’t thrive being a solopreneur, let alone an entrepreneur for that matter. But, I imagine that there are likely some people who are similar enough to me who would thrive as solopreneurs.
Why Is Solopreneurship not Advised?
If you do a simple internet search of whether or not it’s a good idea to be a solopreneur you are going to get all kinds of headlines saying that it is a bad idea.
I thought it might be an interesting exercise to read one of these articles that is anti-solopreneur. Then, I’ll react to each of the reasons used to dissuade people from following this career path.
One of the titles that caught my eye in my search was titled: Why You Should Not Be A Solopreneur. This title felt very direct.
Let’s dig into the reasons they say you shouldn’t pursue being a solopreneur.
1) You are your biggest roadblock
“Since you are the only person involved in the business and have to handle each of the tasks yourself, if you do not do some work, then it won’t be done at all.” (Belyh, 2019)
For most people, this is the biggest roadblock to entrepreneurship. You have to be incredibly self-motivated to keep your business going.
I have found that I am quite self-motivated. I have a passion that I am pursuing. I can have a tendency to swing too far to the extreme and overwork myself in pursuit of this passion. Personally, my growth edge is learning how to reign in my motivations so I don’t neglect the other things that I also value.
2) Separation of personal and business finances is difficult
This particular item has not even been on my radar. Any time I’ve started a new business, I immediately open a new bank account. And I do not do any overlaps!
My business bank accounts are their own dedicated entities. I do not look at that money as part of my personal finances. That money belongs to my business. That business will have its own revenue and expenses, will hold back quarterly taxes, and offer me a paycheck.
I make sure that the business bank account has enough savings just in case there’s a slow month or an emergency.
The article states, “But mixing of finances is inevitable as a solopreneur and often leads to legal hassles” (Belyh, 2019). I don’t think it is inevitable at all! You just need to keep really good boundaries and keep your finances between your business and personal life completely separate.
3) Exhaustion
As a solopreneur, you wear a gazillion hats. All hats that are relevant to your business. The author of this article draws an assumption that you’ll grow exhausted because you are constantly having to switch from one hat to another and multitask.
For me, the workaround that I’ve chosen is that I keep my focus on a very limited range of tasks.
I ask myself: What are the things that matter the most to keep this business running and thriving? What things do I not have to do?
4) Lack of Collaboration
As a solopreneur, you don’t have any employees, team members, or people to bounce ideas off of. Therefore, it’s easy to find yourself in a rut.
Though I understand this concern in theory, I don’t personally relate to it.
Personally, up until I started working for myself, I struggled so much working on teams. It’s honestly not my strength. Usually, I end up being the person who feels resentful because I think I’m doing most of the work. Or that others are going much slower than the speed at which I would like to work.
And let’s be real: I’ve worked at my share of toxic work environments and I’ve gotten burned.
For me, it’s a total gift that I can work for myself.
5) Things can get extremely lonely
This sounds familiar. A lot of people talk about how therapists can feel isolated.
For me, I don’t find working for myself to be lonely. It’s a welcome respite from the rest of my personal life which is full of people-facing interactions. I so enjoy having time on my own to work.
That said, if I didn’t have social connections outside of work, I would absolutely feel lonely. I’ve just sought social support primarily from outside of work.
6) Experiencing failure can be overwhelming as a solopreneur
I definitely agree with this caution against being a solopreneur!
When you fail, you are the sole reason for why it’s happened. You can’t go and blame your boss, team member, or employee. It’s on you.
Usually for me, the thing that can feel like a failure is if I’ve created something that feels like it doesn’t quite jive with my values or purpose.
On the other hand, I’m not too bothered if I make a video that not too many people watch or an online course that doesn’t sell well. This is probably because I make enough of a paycheck from all the other things I’m doing, that if one item flops, it’s not going to make or break my income.
But if my whole business tanked, I could see that feeling like a bigger blow than say, getting laid off from an employer (though that would be so painful for a whole different set of reasons!)
7) Lack of resources
I think the article I’m referencing is primarily referring to the lack of financial resources as a reason not to be a solopreneur.
This can absolutely be an issue!
But, both solopreneurs and entrepreneurs with a bunch of employees could struggle with this. This is not uniquely a soloprenueur issue.
When I started Private Practice Skills, I assumed I wouldn’t make any income for quite a long time. I made a decision to do all my Private Practice Skills work on the side of my full-time job. I didn’t buy anything for Private Practice Skills until it started generating it’s own income.
I have never had an issue not having enough money in my business account to cover my business expenses and pay my bills.
But on the flip side, I do find it scary to imagine having employees and not having enough money to cover their paychecks! With more employees, your expenses go way up since you have to pay people.
8) Lack of validation
The article says: “The reason why teams tend to produce better results than individuals is because each member can validate or improve the ideas of the others” (Belyh, 2019) .
This is true, and I think could be one of my weaker points as a solopreneur. I am kind of on my own island of content creation.
With that said, it’s definitely possible to get feedback as a solopreneur. I’m part of a mastermind of fellow female psychologist entrepreneurs. We bounce ideas off of each other and get the validation, feedback or new ideas that we might need from each other.
Historically, when I’ve worked as an employee on a team, my ideas were often invalidated. I’m not usually trying to “go with the flow,” I want to try new things. And often, teams will naturally lean towards groupthink and prefer not to try something new. Especially if it could be perceived as a risk.
So, though I may be a little rough around the edges and I may put things out there sometimes that are a flop, doing things my own way ends up making me feel validated. Now I get to do the things that I’ve always wanted to do rather than feeling perpetually held back by invalidation.
9) Not for everyone
I’m not sure if I love this as a reason why solopreneurship isn’t a good option. I do agree that it’s not for everyone, or even most people. But I think it is a good fit for some of us!
Maybe it can be up to each individual to determine if being a solopreneur is for you.
Who shouldn’t be a solopreneur?
The authors of the article go on to name some characteristics of who solopreneurship is not for.
1) Those who can’t multi-task
- I’m not sure if I agree with this one. I very rarely multi-task.
- On the contrary, I don’t have team members pinging me all the time. I hear from my clients who have corporate type jobs about how constantly they are getting pinged from coworkers, managers, etc. They never get to work on the thing that they want to work on.
- I understand what the article is getting at, because there can be a lot of different hats you wear as a solopreneur. My strategy is to block off time for doing one task at a time/wearing one hat at a time.
2) Those who don’t like risks
- Yes, and, I would say this is true for entrepreneurship in general. I don’t see this as being very specific to being a solopreneur.
- As I read this article, I noticed something that popped up in my mind several times. There were lots of warnings about solopreneurship being high stress and high risk. But, for me it doesn’t feel stressful or very high risk.
- I believe a big reason that that is the case is I’ve diversified my income, within my business, so much. Overall, my income has been very stable. When you have 15 different streams of income and one of them disappears, you’re probably going to be okay.
- All of that being said, I wasn’t always in the financially cushy spot that we are now. Even in the past when I had to work on staying on a tight budget, I never really felt like I was taking too much of a risk.
So finally, if you are thinking of being a solopreneur, explore it! Explore the pros and cons. It might not be the best fit for most people, but it is a good fit for some people. Maybe you’re one of those people!
Still On The Entrepreneur Train?
If you are interested in continuing to explore the world of solo entrepreneurship and, then check out my article on what no one tells you about being an entrepreneur.
And you may enjoy a fun behind-the-scenes video I made showing a week in the life of a therapist solopreneur.
Until next time, from one therapist to another: I wish you well!
-Marie
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