Three Key Factors to Launching a Successful Solopreneur Service Business

If I only five minutes to give someone advice on this question, here's what I would get them thinking about. This is high level, strategic kind of stuff and that's exactly how you should be approaching it at this stage. We care a lot about the "why" at this stage.

1 - Why do you want to do this?

If you hate your boss, starting your own business is probably not the most logical solution. For me, the motivation was always just there. Back in Junior High school, a friend and I had a goal – be financially independent before we graduate high school. We toyed with all sort of entrepreneurial ideas, but alas, we went to college and did things the normal way.

But the itch never went away. I’ve been day dreaming about building a business for as long as I can remember. Eventually, reality set in and I realized that building a massive company wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted freedom and flexibility. I wanted to eat lunch every day with my kids while they were little. I wanted us to choose our home based on our wants and needs, not because that’s where my job was.

So for me personally, it was two things – scratching an itch to do my own thing and do things  my way – and striving for a certain lifestyle that didn’t involve long commutes and corporate nonsense.

2 - Understand Your Cash Needs and Develop a Business Model

If I were to ask you how much cash do you need to generate for this be successful, do you have an answer? Do you know how much health insurance will cost once you bail from your day job? Out of a standard 40 hour work week, do you have a plan for how much time you’ll spend doing revenue-generating work vs non-revenue generating time?

Do you know how to price your services? How to set an hourly billing rate? Should you even bill hourly or on a per-project basis? The Solopreneur Service Business Model is not that complicated, but it’s critical you understand how these and other variables work together. You want a model that allows you to hit your revenue targets, work the number of hours you want to work, while ensuring you have time allocated for working “on” your business – not just in it.

3 - Figure Out Who Your Clients Are and How to Reach Them

It's not enough to just say "I'm gonna charge people for the stuff I'm good at." You have to drill down a alot deeper than that. What exactly are you going to do and who exactly are you going to do it for? If you're a photographer who simply markets as a do-it-all phtographer, you're not going to land the clients planning a big ticket wedding. The new mom searches for "new born photography" and finds someone who's marketing towards that niche. 

You need to identify clear lines of business and determine who gets served by each of them. Now, you can build content and marketing to reach those specific people and fill those specific needs.

I think my five minutes is up.