A friend considering the solopreneur route recently asked me: “Are there any things that you wish you had done sooner or worried less about? And is there one important foundational reflection, action, or experiment that helped you in some meaningful way?”
I’ve been doing this now for a long time, so I thought I’d share my reply here in case others find it helpful:
-
I wish I had been more consistent in growing an audience. If I had more confidence in my voice and a better grasp on how to grow an audience, I could have had decades of audience growth behind me at this point.
-
I wish I had gotten more formal training around the basics of determining value, pricing, and selling. I struggled for years just to pay bills before learning how much value was tied up in the industry. I remember another solopreneur friend who was surprised when I told her about a job offer I was considering. Turns out her annual income was almost 3 times as much as mine.
-
I could have worried way less about pretense. I squashed a lot of good ideas and passed up opportunities because I felt like I had to present a certain way, and I didn’t feel confident enough to do so. The aha moment came when a client told me my branding (edgy and business-like) didn’t seem to match with what it was actually like to work with me (thoughtful and friendly).
-
Don’t be afraid to think creatively when finding something of value for both parties: barter, learning, exposure, audience reach. Early in my career, I traded design work for a deep-dive into good engineering principles and high-profile exposure, which became a very valuable long-term trade. I wish I had known about equity, though. (One of my greatest professional losses was tied up with not understanding that well.)
-
Documenting my process of learning was far more helpful than I realized at the time. Not only did it help codify in my own head what I was learning, it positioned me (rather unwittingly) as an authority. The people who understood what I was writing about were grateful that I was willing to share, and the people who didn’t just wanted to hire me to do it.