In the United States, small businesses account for a whopping 99 percent of companies. But do you know that at least 20 percent of them have solo entrepreneurs? It means that only the owner runs it without hiring employees!
Company owners do this for many reasons:
Of course, running a business by the lonesome has its drawbacks. It can be tough, tiring work without someone to bounce ideas off or hand out tasks.
Owning a business comes with greater responsibility. Whether someone is working for them or not, they are still accountable for making sure the business succeeds.
When someone works solo, they will miss out on camaraderie. Even if they don’t want employees, sometimes it’s nice to collaborate with others in the industry, especially when they’re trying to accomplish big things together.
How to Get Started with Solo Entrepreneurship
If the idea of working by yourself still sounds attractive, here are some steps you can take to get started:
1. Research and Create a Business Plan
Make sure you know what it takes to start and run a business. This includes things like licenses and permits, insurance, and your target market.
Based on the research, you can now create a business plan. This will be your road map to starting and running your business.
It includes the following information:
2. Build a Team
This advice sounds counterproductive since you don’t want to hire employees. However, you cannot scale when you don’t get help from others. Fortunately, the Internet provides you with access to talented individuals you can collaborate with even if you don’t hire them permanently.
For example, you can hire finance and accounting outsourcing services to balance your books, record financial transactions, reconcile figures, generate reports, audit the business, and help you make sound financial decisions.
You can also have virtual assistants who help you with marketing, product development, and administrative tasks. You can also outsource your customer service needs.
You can hire temporary staff or seasonal workers if you’re into manufacturing or retail. You can also hire people on the busiest days or times of the day.
3. Set Up Systems and Processes
One of the best ways to run a business by yourself is to have systems and processes in place. This way, you can manage your time and resources well.
These are the basic systems you should have:
If the idea of setting up these systems seems overwhelming, consider hiring help. You can hire an expert to set it up for you or outsource it to freelancers who do the job better and faster at a relatively low cost.
4. Find Investors
Most solo entrepreneurs finance their business through bootstrapping, savings, and investments from friends and family.
If you want to grow your venture faster while limiting how much funding you need, consider finding investors willing to share the risk while sharing in the rewards if things go well.
This gives them a chance to see your business plan in action before committing their money. They’ll also be more effective in helping you grow your business because they’ll be more vested in it.
You can consider different kinds of investors:
Starting and running a business by yourself can be daunting, but it’s not impossible. With careful planning, you can make your venture successful.
An important thing to remember is to get help when you need it. This could mean outsourcing some of your work, hiring temporary or seasonal staff, or finding investors. With the right systems in place, you can efficiently manage your time and resources and grow your business.
