3 Tips to Grow a Profitable Business as a Solopreneur

Are you a solopreneur (or newly just beyond the solopreneur phase) who is looking for ways to grow to the next level? You’re not alone – statistics show that approximately 41 million Americans are currently at this level. Some like where they are, and some are ready to uplevel; whether they will be successful depends on their planning, strategy, and systems.

In 2019, the Small Business Administration identified 50.7 million companies as “small businesses,” employing up to 499 people. 81% of those, however, were taking on running their businesses completely solo.

If you’re among those 41 million, this article is for you! Keep reading to learn how you can set a solid foundation for growth.

Step 1: Business Planning

No matter how large or small your business is – and regardless of your goals for growth – you need a business plan that can grow and evolve as your company does. I can’t stress enough how essential this is, even if your goal is to remain a solo operation for the foreseeable future. (This works better in some niches than others.)

This doesn’t mean that your business plan needs to be a huge, formal document that you spend hours (and a lot of money) developing. If you’re creating a plan with the goal of getting investors, then yes, you’ll want something more formal; otherwise, you really just need to sketch out your plans and goals.

If you have a plan in place, great! I encourage you to review and revise it annually, but also to check it for updates and tweaks on a quarterly basis. The quarterly checks can be fairly quick, but they’ll equip you to pivot smoothly as the market changes (which we all know it will!).

Don’t have a business plan? I have you covered – click the button below to access a free training I created to help you create one in an afternoon!

Step 2: Building Your General Systems

Right now, you probably wear most or all of the hats in your business. Maybe you have a virtual assistant a few hours a week, but other than that, you’re it.

Marketing. Sales. Client Happiness. Billing. Client Service.

And up until now, you’ve probably kept things running fairly smoothly. But if you want to grow – or if you want to free up some of your time to live the life you want to live – you’re going to need to start to build a team. (More on that in a moment.)

In order to build that team effectively, you’re going to need to start putting some of the policies and procedures that live in your head down on paper. Again, this doesn’t need to take a lot of time, but I encourage you to get started.

When small business owners start to build their teams, they often hit a panic phase of “how do I even do this? Who do I hire and how will they know what to do?” All too often, they expect their new hire to bring them through the onboarding process. While this might seem easier at first, it doesn’t bode well for equipping your new team member to do things the way you want them done.

Each week, take 15-20 minutes to sketch out a process in the way that’s easiest for you. Start with a checklist, an SOP, or a quick video. Add in a short sentence or two that explains the policy – the why – and put these together in one place.

This is the beginning of your General Systems Manual!

This could include things like naming protocols for your Dropbox or Google Drive folder, any physical or online filing systems, how you want your email handled, and what information to include in a calendar appointment. Just having these things down in writing will help you immensely!

Step 3: Hiring an Assistant

At this level, you can probably hire one person to fill a few different roles. They might handle your email and calendaring for an hour or two per day, do some marketing tasks for another 5-10 hours, and help you with Client Happiness check-ins for another 3-5 hours.

For 20-25 hours per week, you can get some needed tasks off your plate and bring someone on that can help you build the business you want to build (whatever it looks like). Some of their duties might include:

• Helping you build and flesh out your procedures
• Creating daily, weekly, and monthly checklists to help you both get more done in less time
• Work with you to build out your calendar for the next several months so things don’t “sneak up on you” (because otherwise, you know they probably will!)
• Schedule your social media posts and newsletters
• Help you with some social media engagement or other marketing tasks
• Touch base with your clients and make sure they feel well taken care of
• Notify you of anything that needs your attention (so you can handle it before it becomes a fire to put out)

By hiring an assistant for a few hours per week, you can get so much more done in less time – leaving you more margin to focus on what’s truly important to you!

Whether your dream is to have a smaller team and a business you love or to grow a large team (and still have a business you love), we can help. We’re committed to meeting you where you are and helping you get to where you want to be. Want to know more? Contact us – we’re happy to chat!