I have a wide range of interests. Beyond my love of tarot and my interest in spiritual development, I enjoy modern culture. Trends in music, fashion, entertainment and politics fascinate me. On this blog you will find my observations about the world in which we live - everything from dating advice to resturant reviews.
Here in the Dark Forest, anything can happen. If something captures my interest, I am likely to write about it here.
The Truth about Being a Solopreneur
Solopreneurs must learn to do things they aren't good at. It's the truth no one wants to tell you.
Photo Creative Commons, via Pixabay.
The internet is full of blogs and podcasts to help us reach our potential as sole proprietors of metaphysical businesses. Most people will agree that having your own business and doing what you love each day is a great recipe for happiness.
It’s also a recipe for stress! There is so much uncertainty, so much you need to do, and very few resources at hand. Most solopreneurs need to handle virtually every aspect of their business themselves.
This can be a tough thing. If the healer were great at marketing, the healer wouldn’t be launching a healing center. Instead, the healer would be happily working as a marketer. What must the healer do, then?
The answer is clear. The healer must learn to market.
We become solopreneurs because we have a calling, and talent. But to be successful as solopreneurs we have to be willing to leave the comfort zone of our wheelhouse and expand our skill set, sometimes on the fly.
As a solopreneur, you must always be willing to learn something new, and to develop skills outside your comfort zone. What you will learn about yourself and your abilities will amaze you. The difficulty of learning to do things that exercise your weakest muscles will strengthen you.
As a solopreneur, there is no other path to success.
Give Yourself a Promotion
If you are a solopreneur, you probably have a pretty varied job description. Like any career-minded professional, you probably also have goals for the future; things you would like to accomplish and ways in which you would like to challenge yourself.
In the corporate world, there is a structure in place to encourage us to think about our professional development. If we excel, we are given new, more interesting responsibilities, and more money. When that happens, some of our lesser responsibilities are taken on by other people, so we have time to address our new tasks. When this happens, it’s called a promotion.
While we solopreneurs may have goals for professional growth and development, there is no structure in place to help us get there.
Certainly, if we excel, our business grows and we make more money. That part of promotion happens naturally.
The task-advancement aspect of promotion only happens for solopreneurs if we make it happen.
We can only try new things if we make it happen. We can only make time for new things if we relinquish the tasks that no longer serve our goals.
This can be a very difficult thing to do. To stop teaching a class because you need the time to write a book, for instance, can be a tough decision. To stop working street fairs because your time is better spent elsewhere may require a whole new business plan.
Solopreneurs are like sharks. If we don’t keep swimming, we’ll die.
We must constantly update our skills, offer new products and adapt to changing technology. We also need to be our own HR department, and our own supervision.
When you have your own business, if you are not moving up quickly enough, it’s because you forgot to give yourself a promotion!