Steve and I know a thing or two about Solopreneurship. We know the stress and struggles, the ups and downs, the long days…and even longer nights. In the early days, we set up many different kinds of businesses, including a not-for-profit that helped kids with after school programs. For us, those were practice runs, the false starts, all leading up to building something bigger—Federal Conference and EventPrep®.
Solopreneurship takes a special kind of person and a special way of thinking. Solopreneurs aren’t satisfied with the status quo. They just aren’t content being confined in a box and having their futures planned out for them. They are always striving for more and asking why.
Solopreneurship isn’t easy and it isn’t for everyone. But if approached properly and with the right mindset, owning your own business and running things solo can be one of the most rewarding and profitable things you ever do. So what’s the key? Be prepared!
It sounds simple, but Steve and I live by those words every day, and not simply because we were both Boy Scouts. Preparation has helped us in every single facet of our lives—from our time spent in the military and as law enforcement officers, to our professional and personal relationships. We literally wrote the book on it with our bestseller: Prep for Success: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Achieving Your Dreams. Steve and I may be preparation experts, but you’re no stranger to it. Preparation is ingrained in our day-to-day lives, in the things we do without thinking. What you are having for dinner tonight is a result of preparation (or a maybe a lack thereof!). But whether it’s a five-course meal, leftovers, or carry out, you are prepared to eat something.
For Solopreneurs, preparation means visualizing the best while anticipating the worst. It means staying sharp, strong, and always motivated. And it means seizing opportunity. Recognizing opportunity is one thing. Having the ability and taking the initiative to seize it is something altogether different. And the key to seizing an opportunity is identifying a need greater than your own…that of your customers. As a business owner, you have many needs—personnel needs, supply needs, payroll needs, and scaling needs just to name a few. The customer has a plethora of needs as well, and not one of them involves paying you money. So how do you seize an opportunity with a customer? Find a way to meet their needs.
We didn’t plan to go from a Solopreneurship to capturing the number one spot in a $25 billion dollar industry. Nor did we plan to experience nearly 25,000 percent growth over the first three years and make the Inc 500 twice, ranked number 23 and number 2—becoming the second fastest-growing privately held company in the United States.
But planning isn’t the same as being prepared. When you are prepped for success, realizing your potential is just a matter of time!