What Is a Solopreneur (and how to become one)

Have you ever heard of the term solopreneur and wondered how can I live that life? Five years ago I started my journey as a solopreneur and it was the best decision of my life, not just for me but for my family too. Many of you sent me questions about solopreneurship after my interview with They Got Acquired was published. So today I'll explain what a solopreneur is, to the benefits of becoming a solopreneur and give you a step-by-step guide on how to become one. This is just part one of the solopreneur playbook series. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next four parts. In simple terms, a solopreneur is someone who sets up and runs a business on their own. But it's more than just being self-employed, it's about being the heart and soul of your operations, from creation to execution. That's also called a one-person business. But in order to have a business you need to sell something, right? And that could be a physical product, a digital product or a service. But you can also choose any combination of these. I started in the digital marketing space and I was just a drop in an ocean of marketing agencies. But at the time I was living in China and spoke decent Mandarin. So I specialized in helping businesses in China grow internationally. But why was that a good idea? Because Google, Facebook, Instagram and all Western social media are blocked in China. So most Chinese people have no idea how to use these platforms for marketing or ads. So if I position myself as the foreign platform expert, that would be my edge. That's what they call a niche. But we'll get back to that later. There's definitely a million ways to make money other than being a solopreneur. And considering how hard solopreneurship can be, there must be a strong reason why we do it. For me personally, having a one-person business has four major benefits. The freedom to work from home and physically be with my family 24-7. The freedom to work from any country in the world. In the past year I came up with a product idea in Egypt, designed it when we were in Bali, manufactured it while visiting China and launched it while traveling to Dubai. The freedom of waking up every single day knowing you control your schedule, your time with loved ones, your projects and tasks or even giving yourself a couple weeks off. This freedom is what I love most about being a solopreneur. But there's more. I can hear some of you asking, when is this guy going to talk about the money? I will. I'm just showing you the benefits in their order of importance. As a solopreneur, your job is to provide a solution to a problem people have, right? Every single day you're trying to make a positive impact on people's life. The tens of thousands of people whose risk, strain and pain went away because of our product? These are people like you and me, you know? Not just a number of sales. And that, my friend, comes with a lot of fulfillment. Talking about the money is always tricky, but let's get real. Solopreneurship has the potential to be lucrative. I opened my books and showed you exactly what my journey looked like financially in a video linked somewhere here. There were lame months where I doubted everything. But then there was the financial freedom I always dreamt of. As solopreneurs, we don't hire full-time employees. And I personally don't accept any outside funding. So with that comes peace of mind. You don't have to worry about hiring and firing people. You don't have to carry the responsibility of employees' well-being, get into workspace politics or watch a board member or an investor control your business. It's just you, your business and your clients or customers. Now comes the big question. How can you become a solopreneur? If that's something you want to achieve, then you're in luck because what follows is a step-by-step guide to help you do just that. You don't have to do these steps in order, but I highly recommend doing so as it will make your solopreneur journey much smoother. I'm sure you heard a lot of experts talk about picking a niche for your business, but I strongly advise you not to do so. Why? You see, a niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. That's the old way of doing business, picking a niche like gardening, desk accessories or car parts. But the modern way and the best way to do it, in my opinion, is to focus on a specific person instead of a niche. So instead of creating a car parts brand, create a brand for car enthusiasts. This way you have a stronger connection with your customers, know what problems they have and provide solutions to these problems. And the deeper you go, the more they will resonate with your message and products. So don't be afraid to experiment with broader versus smaller audience. For example, you can create a brand that serves dads, but you can go one level deeper and target dads with toddlers, or even deeper by speaking to dads with toddlers who also work from home. But be aware that if your person is too specific, then your TAM or Total Addressable Market will be smaller. This will limit your growth in terms of audience size and revenue. We'll talk about TAM in the third video of this series, so don't forget to subscribe. And hey, press the like button if you're getting value out of this video. Oh, this part is fun. I want you to imagine that you're in a video game. One of these where you get to create your character before you start playing. Each character has a different background story, a strong purpose and a unique appearance, right? It's the same concept with brand building. For starters, you need to think about these. What impact does your business wish to make on your person's life? For example, this kelo is helping people working from home to be healthier and more productive so they get to enjoy their time with loved ones. How would your brand serve your person? Will you solve your audience problems by providing affordable products or luxurious high quality stuff? What do you want people to feel when they interact with your business? This includes the name and all the visible elements of your brand, such as color, fonts, logo. At this stage, make sure you check your potential brand's name for trademarks, secure a .com domain and start creating all the social media accounts for your business. The first two steps were the foundation of your business. And this is why I told you to take these steps in order. Because with your person and brand character in mind, it's a lot easier to come up with products or services ideas. You already know who your person is, feel their problems and pain and ready to provide solutions to help them. So once you reach this step, I want you to think about this. What products or services can you sell to them now? And what products or services do you want to sell to them in the next five years? Choosing a product or service to sell is not an easy task and each come with a different level of difficulty. Some products require a huge investment in advance, like making a large inventory order for physical products. Others, like digital products, require only minimal cash capital, but a significant time investment. So think wisely and find something that fits your business circumstances. And then, once you settled on the product or service you want to offer, it's time to launch it. You need to have a plan for actually selling the product when it's ready. Because you can't just create a product, put it out there and hope that people will find it and buy it. So you need to decide how are you going to put your product in front of your person. Would it be through paid ads? Would you try to build an audience organically? Or maybe a combination of both? Would you sell on a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy? Or offer your product or service on your own website? One advice is not to spend too much time stuck on a specific aspect of your business. Focus on moving forward and taking action every single day. I don't want this video to sound like solopreneurship is easy, because it isn't. Here are the biggest struggles that solopreneurs have to go through along with the solutions to problems. You know what to do. See you in the next video.