Why The Solopreneur Economy Is The New 'Buy Local'

*Originally published on Forbes August 2017

Solopreneur ventures are on the rise, and I’m excited. It has never been easier to make a great living full of profit and freedom by working for yourself. And when you execute a solopreneur career effectively, it has an incredibly positive impact on the greater community.

This wasn’t always possible.

Back when Michael Gerber wrote the classic book The E-Myth in 1986, he made the case that if you work for yourself you don’t own a business, you own a job. At the time this statement was accurate. The only way to handle all the moving parts of a business was to hire people to help you.

The Solopreneur Economy is in its infancy

But we are light-years from where we were then, or even six years ago. When my husband and business partner, Steve, and I started our business in 2011, the technologies that make it much easier to work for yourself didn’t yet exist. You had to know code and CSS to build a simple website, and payment-processing applications like Square were still in their infancy.

Now there are websites and apps that can take over many of the tasks that humans once managed. Individuals can essentially run the equivalent of small-business organization with a combination of low-cost technology, outsourced support and high-level consultants instead of an in-house support staff. This both cuts down on the need to pay for low-value support and also frees business owners who to spend more time on high value, strategic work that pushed the company forward.

Before where I may have needed an admin to answer the phones and schedule my meetings, I now use ScheduleOnce. Where I may have used a personal assistant to manage my personal chores I now use Fresh Direct, Laundry Stork, and Blue Apron. Where I may have hired a marketing company I now use applications like Mailchimp and Infusionsoft that run entire marketing funnels on automation.

I asked a group of solopreneurs how these advancements have helped shape their ability to operate their businesses and many pointed out that their businesses would be nearly impossible to exist 20 years ago as a solopreneur. 

Priya Malani, founder of Stash Wealth, a financial firm for high-earning millennials, built her business to serve clients across the country without ever needing a traditional office footprint. “Without tools like Zoom and Slack, we’d have to open physical branches just to serve clients nationwide,” she said. “Now, we can be fully virtual, efficient, and still deliver white-glove service that feels high-touch.”

Marisa Corcoran, a copywriter and coach who teaches others how to build thriving copy businesses, shared that “email automation, online course platforms, and social media have allowed me not only to run a successful business as a writer—but to scale a second business helping other creatives do the same, all from my laptop.” 

And Stacey Brass-Russell, founder of Passionate & Prosperous Coaching, helps coaches and creatives build thriving businesses doing what they love. “Tech tools like Zoom, content schedulers, and podcasting let me serve clients around the world—without an office or a team,” she says. After pivoting from Broadway to yoga to coaching, Stacey now runs a multiple six-figure business entirely online.

A shift in structure

I know this sounds like just another recounting of how technology has eliminated jobs, but quite the contrary. I see it as a huge opportunity to grow and nurture a much brighter and more fulfilling ecosystem of individuals owning their destiny. Instead of using funds to pay a staff, we can invest in ourselves by increasing our expertise in our chosen fields, thereby building our skills, value, and brand credibility. Instead of being staff in our businesses, other individuals can more readily build their own solopreneur venture and create a much more fulfilling experience working for themselves.

By drastically increasing the value and profitability of small businesses while keeping them small, we free up capital to support others who are doing the same. It’s encouraging every individual to capitalize on their competitive advantage which can allow all of us to prosper more. 

This has wide-reaching implications for how we think about what it means to build a business, and the result is a population of people who are fulfilled by blazing their own path.

A shift in values

The Solopreneur Economy can support far more individuals investing their energy in their own skills than large corporations do. This is a drastic shift from the idea of scaling up businesses with teams. Instead, in The Solopreneur Economy the focus is on individuals creating an abundance of knowledge and skills, in turn using that abundance to support others who are doing the same. 

I again asked a group of solopreneurs what they value most about working for themselves. The responses largely focused on freedom, the ability to learn and grow endlessly, and having agency over their destiny. Here are a few:

What i value most about working for myself is that i can take the longest, deepest of dives into what I do and how to do it best. I have the privilege of conducting the best experiment in the world - how to have my passion and expertise be meaningful to me and the people I serve. -Kathleen Day, Savvy Office Systems

Working for myself allows me to learn new things, test those ideas and lessons, and formulate new paths going forward. I want to build something on my own and be damn proud of it. - Ian Johns, Ian Johns Photography

“I've reinvented myself in an industry that didn't even exist 10 years ago and I'm thrilled to wake up everyday knowing that I only have myself to account to for my successes, my failures (and yes, there are still some)” - Mary Romeo

“I love getting excited every day about working for myself because I don't have a cap on how much I can earn and I get 100% control over my life and goals. I don't need permission to make decisions that could impact my life in a positive way!” - Luke Hall

Members of The Solopreneur Economy tend to value experiences over material things, relationships over power, and self-reflection over blame. And in my observation from the clients that have hired us in the past, individuals who invest in themselves and excel in their area of mastery tend to hire other experts who similarly excel in their space. They value expertise in others because they value their own expertise. They are able to charge premium pricing for their expertise because they are willing to pay premium pricing for others. 

A shift in business

This ecosystem of high-performing individuals has the power to grow in an unprecedented way, and I think that’s something we would all benefit from nurturing. It’s the “buy-local” mentality for food taken to the world of businesses and services, except instead of local farmers, it’s supporting other individuals building value in the world. 

Last week’s article about using the pull versus the push method of branding is one way to encourage entrepreneurs to focus your energy on becoming great at what you do, which will in turn build higher value and attract the right kind of clients. The more we as individuals focus our efforts in this manner, the more we will do our part to help build a thriving Solopreneur Economy.