Table of Contents
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by projects, and caught yourself making progress in the wrong direction? I’ve been there, starting a solo business forced me to streamline my processes and have a clear understanding of what really matters.
If you’re starting (or thinking about starting) a solo business, these lessons will save you months of confusion and countless hours of spinning your wheels.
Here’s everything I wish I knew on day one and what I’m changing:
Focus
You need to focus on one thing. Ask yourself, what’s my business core? Everything else stems from it.
When I started, I told myself I would work on my iPhone app while doing WordPress websites so I can secure income.
The truth: I already had my Freedom Fund, so going after other projects came out of fear.
If you’ve done the prep work, trust it. Focus on your business core, no matter what fear whispers or what well-intended people suggest.
What I’m changing: I’m pausing efforts to offer a public service for website building. Instead, I’m only building websites for friends at a sustainable pace.
Deadlines
Set a hard deadline, otherwise you open the door to endless polishing. You achieve excellence by quantity, so ship as much as possible.
Setting a deadline for shipping my app was the best thing I could’ve done because now I have an app I can continue improving. I wasn’t proud of the first version, but shipping it taught me more in one week than polishing for another month ever would have.
What I’m changing: I’m setting deadlines for all my projects so I can ship the minimal version and iterate on it. It is scary to put something out in the world before you feel it’s 100% ready, but it’s better than having nothing to show.
One Platform
If you don’t have an audience yet, focus on only one social platform. Social media is overwhelming, so experiment and get good at one platform where your audience hangs out.
I made the mistake of publishing to multiple platforms using tools that make cross-posting easy. I felt busy but got nowhere on most platforms–it takes time to get to know a platform, and people notice when your post is generic.
What I’m changing: I’m focusing on LinkedIn only because that’s where I’ve gotten the best engagement.
Momentum & Rest
Life flows in cycles. Permanent progress is an illusion because life is not linear. The quicker you accept this fact, the more progress you’ll make–even when things get messy.
I was lucky to have a 2-month period of momentum–I even planned what was to come next–but then life happened.
I resisted the slowdown and felt deeply frustrated. Weeks passed without coding or creating—and that hollowed me out. But eventually I realized: there are no obstacles, only opportunities to shift focus.
What I’m changing: I’m adding tags in my task manager for quickwin and highfocus. When things get messy, I can still make progress with quick wins.
Audience
The faster you can get clarity on your audience, the better. Everything you create should be in service of them. They won’t care about what you want to sell them if you don’t provide them with honest value first.
When I started, I was confused. I had clarity about who I wanted to help, but I wasn’t sure if I should create content for indie developers or potential app users.
I learned that a messy Ideal Customer Profile you act on is way better than a perfect one you’re still refining. The clarity you seek comes from publishing, not from consuming more content.
What I’m changing: I’m creating content with a new audience in mind, with the goal of building a small community around my app.
What matters the most is not getting stuck in old habits or cycles, don’t be fooled by the continuation bias. It’s not about having it all figured out, but figuring it out as you go–with intention, not perfection.
If anything, give yourself permission to:
- Ship/Publish even when you are scared
- Focus deeply on one thing
- Rest when you need to