The Solo Entrepreneur’s Guide / 3 Actions Every New Business Needs to Grow

August 2019

If you follow this site, you know it’s our mission to help you escape a 9-5 job and join the booming entrepreneur community.

We know that starting and growing a business to a level of success where you can replace your salary is not automatic. It takes work,  but it also takes three things, not often considered, that will set you on the right path.

If you’re currently employed in a company,  you may want to leave because you’re bored, stuck, underpaid, and have no chance to do anything exciting or creative. Starting your own venture is important to you.

Don’t just jump into taking action without these three fundamentals that will give you the best chance to succeed and prosper.

3 Start-up Requirements

In order to increase your chance of making your business thrive, here are important elements to pursue.

1- Develop An Entrepreneurial Mindset.

Entrepreneurs think differently. They know that they are responsible for everything that happens in their business. They know that their decisions impact their success and they take limited risks to make it happen. They spend the time and money to learn the skills necessary to build their business. They develop personally and put themselves out there, even if it’s beyond their comfort zone. And when something doesn’t work, they make the choice to pivot and try something new.

They also start simple with just the things they need to attract customers and see if their idea is viable.

It’s very different from being an employee in a company. A company has a hierarchy of managers, executives, and various internal departments all making decisions that affect you and the profitability of the business. You only have to do your job, a small piece of the structure and hope that the business remains profitable and you stay employed. Even if you see some actions that you feel threaten the business, you probably have little input.

2-Find the Right Advice.

The advice can come from a mentor, coach or a mastermind group, or several of them. Successful people know that getting support is one of the most powerful things they can do right from the beginning. These advisors or peers can help accelerate growth, determine specific actions to achieve a goal, evaluate opportunities, offer insights, motivation, wisdom, and push you to expand beyond your current situation and awareness.

Contrast that to making all the decisions based on narrow experience, know-how, and opinions of how you think things should be.

“So how can I ever claim to be self-made? To accept that mantle discounts every person and every piece of advice that got me here. And it gives the wrong impression — that you can do it alone.

I couldn’t. And odds are, you can’t either.”  Arnold Schwarzenegger  from his forward in Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris

This is one area that people feel is a nicety, but not necessary. I interview a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who tell me they have no one to talk to about their plans and goals, they don’t know what they should be doing, and they feel alone. But, then they explain they can’t afford to either join a mastermind group or have private coaching.  If this sounds like you, ask yourself:

• How am you going to move forward?
• If you’re already stuck, what’s your Plan B?
• Where will you get the answers that you don’t have now?
• Will you eventually give up?
• Can you not afford it or do you question the value?

For a better understanding of where to find the right help, The Best Way to Get Business Answers –Seek the Right Advice.

3-Get the Help You Require.

A successful business needs help in some key areas. No entrepreneur has the time or ability to do everything themselves, and do them all well.  These jobs don’t need to be filled by employees, instead, they can be made up of freelancers, outsourcing services, and temporary contracts. For more on the lean one-person business, read  A One-Person, Million-Dollar Business. Is it Possible?  

Prioritize hiring someone for the essential projects that are holding you back.

For example, I was committed to running an online business, so a website was a must. I was overwhelmed when I purchased my WordPress package. For me, even small steps took hours of reading and research. I finally found someone who can do the work for me, make some changes to the design I wanted, set up my email, and all the back-end stuff that made the site run better. Without someone to help me, it would have taken me a long time to get started.

Maybe, you know a lot about websites, but you need marketing and sales help, Or you need help producing your product. Or you want to produce content, but don’t know what to write about. Whatever it is, if you’re serious about starting a business, you need to invest some time and money into getting someone to help you do it right.

I am not suggesting you need everything to be perfect but have what’s important to start and know it will work properly.

Summary

I urge you not to be short-sighted, not to jump into spending money on your business before you are clear on what you’re doing.  Think and act like an entrepreneur. Develop your skills and knowledge so you know how to handle business situations, read case studies about other people who have done what you want to do, and learn from them.

The reality is you could spin your wheels and waste time trying to do things you’re not sure of. Making decisions without any feedback or insights,  and not doing the important stuff that generates revenue. You may spend more time and money trying to do everything by yourself than you would if you put some capital to establish a strong foundation.

So while the urge to fund your business and get started in strong, use a little to make sure it’s going in the right direction.

The Solo Entrepreneur’s Guide