How to think of a one person business?

It took me years to learn, I'll teach you in 2 minutes!

Hi friend,

I was scared of the word business. I could not have imagined in my sane mind that I would be starting a business, let alone making money out of it!

In my mind, business meant having an out-of-the-box idea, acquiring funding from a VC, managing a team, and renting an office in the Outer Ring Road, Bangalore! All this made me feel overwhelmed, even with the thought of starting a business.

Now I know that none of this is true; I mean, it doesn’t have to be this overwhelming when I came across the idea of solopreneurship. There are lots of simple services and products you can do to become a solopreneur/business owner. You just need to know your strongest skill sets.

If you are working a full-time job and you like your job to some extent but would like to start something on the side so that one day you could quit and get full-time on this side hustle, this is my advice to you. Here are the steps you can take to become a solopreneur-

• Start with providing a service- Don’t overwhelm yourself with everything I was afraid of; you just need to think about what services you can provide to people based on your current skill sets. Starting with providing a service is the easiest way to start getting income almost instantly.

• Pick a skill that you genuinely enjoy- It is not going to be easy. It looks lucrative in the LinkedIn posts of your favourite creators; in reality, it is tough to execute any task along with your day job. It is crucial that you pick an area in which you have the unfair advantage. Something that other people find taxing but for you it’s fairly easy and gives you energy.

• To whom will you provide your services?- More often than not, people in your circle are the ones who need the services you can provide because you are one of them and you know their problems first hand. So, get comfortable with pitching, and talk to everyone you know, including your grandmother. If you can’t get at least one person(in your circle) to buy your service, you probably need to rethink your offer.

• Start small- In the beginning, don’t take on a lot of work; start small, work with only 1 client, and test the waters. Remember, this is supposed to be hard but, at the same time, not draining.

• Don’t call yourself a freelancer- A freelancer is someone who says, “I’ll do anything you ask me to in exchange for money.” vs A solopreneur is someone who says, “I have the following services, and promise to deliver it in this amount of time.” Choose to be the second one at any point in time because you don’t want to get the freelancer tag if you’d like to grow your business and eventually quit your job.

• A zero investment deal- One of the main reasons I advise you to start with a service is because you will not need to raise a capital for it. Isn’t it awesome?

I hope my thoughts will give you an idea of how to think of being a Solopreneur.