5 Key Lessons From my First Year as a Solopreneur
I get a lot of people asking me questions about the journey and what I’ve learnt, so I've packaged these into five key lessons
Showing up, Consistently.
We all know why that’s helpful but there was a surprising side effect of being consistent: It trains your brain to see things in a certain way. It also helps you bust through some unhelpful mindsets.
⬇️ How are you showing up consistently?
⬇️ How would you like to show up more consistently?
How do you get business as a facilitator?
Here’s my response to a question I often get: “How do you get business as a facilitator?”
😯0% of my marketing budget goes to paid advertising. (I know, there are a few of you reading this who preach IG and FB ads. I’ll get there, one day)
In my first year, 90% of business that came through, was the result of a connection with somebody: An old friend from university, a podcast listener/guest, former colleagues. I even connected with a couple of my favourite authors, one who flew me to Paris!
If you want to build your business through connections (or as Capt Tapas Majumdar says, “Get results through relationships”), something to understand is that it’s a long game + you probably won’t see results straight away.
The 🐝 Queen Bee Role (QBR) 🐝
This lesson on Solopreneur tips has a cameo from my employee of the month, Milo.
Let's talk about a vital role in your business: The 🐝 Queen Bee Role (QBR) 🐝
When you leave a job to start your own thing, it’s very tempting to want to do everything because you can "teach yourself" with a quick Google search.
So far I’ve held the following titles: CEO, CFO, CMO, webmaster, bookkeeper, podcast producer, content writer, collections officer, oh yeah, speaker and facilitator! (Milo plays the role of Health + Wellness officer, ha ha. As you’ll see, he’s typically motivated like I am w/ snacks!)
In his book Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, Mike Michalowicz shares a metaphor I completely dig: The 🐝 (QBR).
If you want to grow your business, you need to consider:
👉🏼 What are the roles that only I can do?
👉🏼What functions am I doing that interfere with vital tasks that would result in the biggest financial return of my business
👉🏼 How can I free up time to focus on my QBR?
⬇️ What's your 🐝 QBR? 🐝
The Importance of Having Someone you can Talk to, to Act as your Sounding Board.
When you’re a one-(wo)man-band, who do you turn to when you need to test an idea, or need a sounding board?
In this video I share the importance of having someone you can talk to, to act as your sounding board.
This could be through a one-on-one coaching arrangement (like I have with my brilliant biz coach,Sarah McVanel, MSc, CSP, PCC, CHRL, CSODP), group coaching, or even a mastermind.
Here are 4 great questions I answer before every catch-up - that I probably wouldn’t prioritise + answer unless I had to send them to someone!)
- How do I feel right now?
- How has my week been?
- What am I looking forward to?
- What have been the challenges?
⬇️Who do you chat to when you want to test an idea?
Importance of Investing in Tools, that Move your Business forward
Leanne: Is 2pm Friday okay?
Bob: Oh sorry, I’m not free then. How about Tuesday, 8am?
Leanne: Sorry, I have another meeting at that time. 🤯
I don’t know anyone who thrives off the back and forth email correspondence when you’re trying to set a meeting.
Painful!
Then along came Calendly, a neat tool where I could integrate my Google Calendar and show when I was available for all different types of catch-ups. This week on LinkedIn, I’m sharing five business lessons learnt over the last year, celebrating my first year in as a solopreneur.
In this video I share the importance of investing in tools, that move your business forward (and reduce the incessant overwhelm).
The 4 tools I wish I had paid for on Day 1 of my business are:
A: Calendly
B: ConvertKit
C: Squarespace
D: Zoom Share in the comments:
Do you use any of these tools (A, B, C or D) in your business?
📄 Free PDF: Check out ‘’From Corporate to Solopreneur’ where I outline some neat tools that helped me with my transition. Grab it on my site (no email required) https://www.leannehughes.com/corporate-to-solopreneur
💡 Running a workshop soon? It’s painful having to find new activities + ideas to structure a workshop, I know.
Join the waitlist for my virtual program, the First Time Facilitator bootcamp. I’m packaging up all the facilitation goodness I’ve acquired over 100 + podcast episodes; international workshop delivery (+ thousands of hours of googling activities) for those wanting to step up their workshop game.