3 Realistic Expectations for Solopreneur Success

Because few of us in the counseling, coaching or naturopathic medicine professions have been trained for being in business, we tend to have unrealistic expectations about how long it should take to consistently turn a profit.

Likewise, we can be overly idealistic about how soon marketing efforts will start bringing in clients. And the danger of this is that we adopt a shotgun approach to setting business goals and working an effective marketing plan.

Exact timelines will vary according to what degree of resources you start out with, how much time is available to work on your business, and how persistent you are at following through on a small number of daily tasks. But there are some generally realistic timeframes to keep in mind.

If you are like most solopreneurs I work with who have a small pool of resources to invest at the beginning, and are financing the launch of your business on personal credit cards or family loans, it will take longer to get a continually full client load.

The realistic expectation for the time it takes a one-person businesses to truly succeed is about 5 years.

If you are reluctant to set business goals with targets for where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years, it will take longer to feel and be successful. The more organized and business-like you are in your approach to running your business, the faster it will settle into a nice rhythm of keeping clients coming in.

The realistic expectation for success without a detailed business plan is from 3-7 years.

Note that detailed doesn't have to mean extensive. You don't need a 20 page business plan with charts and graphs. Start with 3 goals -- big, medium, small -- and target dates -- long range, mid range, near term -- by which you intend to achieve them.

If you are impatient or scattered in your marketing strategies, or trying to make a method work that goes against your natural personality, it will take longer to generate powerful client attraction. The more concrete, specific and consistent your marketing activities are, the faster they will pay off -- although not always in the direct ways you can measure.

The realistic expectation for highly effective marketing to be producing a steady stream of clients when you're a one-person show is from 12 months to 3 years.

These timeframes may sound like a very long time when you need clients now. There's no time like the present to get started on focused planning and follow through.

Overwhelmed? Not sure where to start? Email for a brief strategic steps chat.

Multiple Streams -- of income or hassle?

There's a lot of excitement in some quarters about the old idea of having multiple streams of income. What that means is that you have additional ways to make money aside from your one-on-one client appointments.

There are two common ways to do this for the novice solopreneur:

• developing and selling products -- books, self-help tools, diagnostic kits, dispensary items
  
• developing and selling live group services -- group therapy / coaching, workshops, signature talks, teleclasses, etc
  

The more experienced business owner may also venture into:

• affiliate programs -- where you get a percentage for referring clients to others
• creating online membership programs
• train the provider programs

What's important to realize is that establishing multiple streams of income when you are your only employee means that you are running more than one business. It can become a multiple nightmare -- assuming you even had time to sleep -- in keeping up with your bookkeeping, different tax structures, various regulations, not to mention different marketing campaigns and business plans for each income stream.

However, some of these same activities can be more simply started as marketing strategies for your one initial service.

What's your plan for transitioning multiple marketing strategies into multiple streams of income?

The 4 Legs of Effective Marketing

Effective marketing strategy has 4 main legs:

1. who your ideal client is
2. what type of marketing personality You have
3. how much persistence you are able to commit
4. what stage of development you're in (what your marketing need is)

No one leg of strategy is THE answer for everyone.

Know who your ideal client is. This drives where and how you market, and what your marketing message needs to say. We all have to start here.

Know what type of marketing personality You have. This helps construct a marketing plan that can be consistently followed to get results. We all present ourselves and our business better if we lead with the strengths of being an introvert or extrovert, and use the style opposite from our own to supplement primary activities.

Know how much persistence you are able to commit. Carve out the necessary daily/ weekly/ monthly time, nurture the energy, gain the skills, and do the follow through -- all are needed to make your marketing efforts work.

By the way: four hours a day is optimal to start. Four hours a week is better than 4 hours a month. The more persistence you put in, the faster your business will grow.

Know whether you need to fill your pipeline, follow up with a contact list, get more chance to talk about your work, or become more efficient at converting interested people into clients. Those are the four stages of client attraction development for solopreneurs in the healing arts.

When you know which stage you're in, you'll know exactly what marketing activities you should be doing.

Need help? See The No Hype Mentor for a coaching package that's right for you.

3 Things that Steal Your Confidence -- & 3 Easy Daily Actions that Build It

3 Confidence Thiefs

• the unfamiliar
• procrastination
• fearful mindset

Confidence in life and in business, especially as a solopreneur, is sabotaged by encountering the unfamiliar -- situations in which we don't have a positive automatic reflex for knowing what to do, or believing we have the answers we need.

Procrastination robs us of success momentum. Putting things off for whatever reason -- especially the things that our business needs for daily growth and hygiene -- lets all the ingredients for success dry up and blow away.

Perhaps the greatest thief of confidence is the fearful mindset. Fear is generated when we soak in negative thinking about taking small risks, trying something new, or making a choice and following through. Probably the worst eroders of confidence are the self-asked questions: what if something bad happens? and its cousin, what if I do it wrong?

3 Confidence Builders

• be persistent
• take action now
  
• have learner's or adventurer's mindset

Things that we do over and over again become familiar. They become second nature. We learn to trust what to expect and know how to meet it. Persistence builds the confidence muscle. The most successful business owners try, fail, adjust, and try again. Confidence comes from the commitment to keep going.

Taking action that moves you forward in accomplishing your goals provides valuable feedback -- you can't know what works and what doesn't until you put something in motion. Many small actions done on a daily basis add up to business success. Small actions that succeed keep the confidence muscle toned and functioning at optimal levels.

Being a solopreneur is a life of adventure, of constantly learning to observe, assess, adjust, measure, and reap rewards. An approach that comes from the mindset of let's see what happens will bring more positive, delightful, and initially unexpected surprises that build confidence in tolerating risks.

So your coaching questions for today are:

1. What marketing activity do you need to apply some persistence to throughout this month?
2. How will you take action on promoting your business every day for the next 28 days?
3. Who can help you maintain the adventurous learner mindset, and how will you be accountable for being positive?