Start-up Entrepreneurs' Blog

How Solo Entrepreneurs Thrive

June 28, 2011

All companies start small, some start small and intend to stay small, while others start small and dream of becoming big. Regardless of the desired result, most start-ups begin with one, two or even three founders.

Are there many solo entrepreneurs? Not really. Because even the smallest companies have vendors and service providers who perform a wide range of job functions for them, functions that would be done by full time employees in larger corporations.

Today, these solo entrepreneurs and small companies act as general or prime contractors, subcontracting reams of work out to others whether it is to product designers, virtual assistants, contract manufacturers, freelance marketing professionals, financial planners, and every job function possible. They key to thriving is realizing the importance of assembling this external team.

Venture capital firms invest in many start-ups and manage billions of dollars, and many are only a handful of people. There is a pet products start-up that is literally two full time employees; everything from marketing to manufacturing is outsourced.

Keys to Thriving

So how do entrepreneurs cope with the seemingly overwhelming workload?  They quickly learn a few rules for being highly productive.

-          Automate whenever possible. Most of us work the same way. We start by doing sometime manually until we figure out what we need to do. Then we streamline the process and determine how to do it more efficiently. Next we look to see how much of the procedure can be automated.

-          Outsource as much as possible. Here’s my rule. If you know something has to be done and you’re just not getting around to doing it, then find someone who can do it. If a task goes on the “to-do” list week after week, it’s a sign that you should outsource it.

-          Eliminate any task or expense that does not impact revenue. Small businesses need to be efficient and highly productive. If you can’t associate the task with creating, building and growing the business, why are you doing it at all?

Without a network of outsiders, the truth is small companies are bounded by the number of hours in a work week. So whenever you are at an event or gathering of entrepreneurs and start-ups, ask them for recommendations for vendors and  freelancers because a list of quality, dependable vendors is invaluable.

Unleash Your Thinking

Is what you are doing the best use of your time? Just because something needs to get accomplished, doesn’t mean YOU have to be the one doing it? Is what you are doing adding value to your business? Think like a big business. They view functions in terms of core competencies. They do what they do best and hire others to do the rest.

I always find thinking in the extreme to be a useful exercise. I find that many start-ups limited themselves by their thinking. They immediately think and act in terms of their current limited resources since most are self-funded or bootstrapped start-ups. Ask yourself, what would you do if you have an unlimited staff of people, what would you have these people do? Of the delegated tasks, which do you consider critical or important to grow the business? Now, find a way to get these done. A mark of a true entrepreneur is always finding ways to get what’s needed done even when it seems impossible under the current circumstances.

Filed under: Management

Tags: bootstrapped start-up, self-funded startup, single entrepreneur, small business productivity