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From incorporating your business, to messaging, to marketing and managing fulfillment, we give an overview of the key things to consider when setting up your one-person business.
*Formerly known as Solopreneur: The One-Person Business Podcast*
Welcome to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the weekly podcast that dives deep into the world of solopreneurship. Join us as we bring you insightful interviews with industry experts and successful solopreneurs who have mastered the art of running their own businesses.
Are you a solopreneur looking for guidance on how to attract clients? Or maybe you're searching for ways to stay motivated and overcome the challenges of working alone. Perhaps you're even struggling with the intricacies of taxes and financial management. No matter what obstacles you face, The Aspiring Solopreneur Podcast is here to provide you with the knowledge, inspiration, and practical advice you need.
In each episode, our hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries, sit down with a diverse range of guests, including seasoned solopreneurs, marketing gurus, financial experts, and productivity specialists. Together, they unpack the secrets to solo success, sharing their personal stories, strategies, and actionable tips.
Learn from those who have paved the way before you, as they reveal their tried-and-true methods for growing their company of one.
Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, be sure to check out LifeStarr Intro!
Access LifeStarr Intro: https://www.lifestarr.com/lifestarr-intro-for-solopreneurs
No one cares about your product. They care about how you can solve their problems. Make them understand that you understand their problems, and then explain to them how you can help.
Intro:Bigger doesn't always mean better. Welcome to the 1 Person Business podcast where people who are flying solo in business come for specific tips and advice to find success as a company of 1. Here are your hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries.
Carly Ries:Welcome to the 1 Person Business podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Carly Ries
Joe Rando:And I'm Joe Rando.
Carly Ries:And as you may have guessed it, today we're going to pick up where we left off with the Solopreneur Success Cycle. Last week, we discussed planning your business, and today we're going to give an overview of setting up your business. Now, just a reminder, you can listen to these success cycle episodes alone, but we highly recommend you listen to the entire series to get the most out of it, which, prior to this show are I believe are episodes 26, 28, 30, and 32. So, Joe, let's kick things off.
Joe Rando:Very good. Well, this step of the Solopreneur Success Cycle is extensive. So take it in pieces and know that we're continually working hard to bring you all the content you need about these topics, and that'll be ongoing. Also, in the meantime, visit the LifeStarr community with any questions you have at community.lifestarr.com, and you can ask other community members questions or ask the experts.
Joe Rando:Definitely worth your time. So in terms of setting up your business, it's good to start at the beginning. And what I mean by that is, that you want to decide on a legal structure for your business. And there's really 2 main options for a one person business. There's s corps, and there's limited liability companies, also known as LLCs.
Joe Rando:These make the most sense for one person businesses. Sole proprietorships are maybe tempting but not usually a good idea, so avoid that urge even though it's simpler. It's just too risky because you'll be personally on the hook for anything that happens and all your possessions could potentially be at risk. Your taxes could potentially be higher as well by doing this, although depending on your situation, they could also be lower. Bottom line is it depends on your state.
Joe Rando:And so this is a place where it's best to talk to an expert that knows how to do this. So after you've gotten your business structure set up, it's time to look and take care of any showstoppers. Right? What are the things that can prevent you from actually going into business into your business? And you should do these in parallel as much as you can. Unless one aspect of it is really expensive, then do that one last. You don't wanna spend money on that and find out something else is stopping you from going forward. So I think one of the most important things to think about are government permits. Any permits required to operate your business. And that could be something from the board of health. It could be, you know, some other kind of operating permit. Could be, you know, some kind of land permit to get zoned properly.
Joe Rando:So it really depends on your business. But don't go spending time and money on other stuff until you're absolutely sure you have the right to move forward. I know you wanna build that website, but but you probably don't wanna do it yet. So get that stuff done.
Joe Rando:Also, look for things like any kind of third party licenses, agreements, or contracts, anything that you need to tie up with another company to do your business or run your business. And lastly, financing. You have the money you need to start. If so, awesome.
Joe Rando:But if not, you know, don't go any further till you get the money lined up, because it can be a really quick end if you don't have that money and you run out. Next step is to create your messaging. Right? Now you wanna basically get into a situation where you understand how you're gonna explain yourself to your your desired customer. So I want you to be sure to talk exclusively about yourself and your product.
Joe Rando:Not. No. Don't do that. No one cares about your product.
Joe Rando:Repeat this. No one cares about your product. They care about how you can solve their problems. Make them understand that you understand their problems and then explain to them how you can help. To do this, let's start by writing down the pain points that your target market has that you helped to solve and then write down how you solve it.
Joe Rando:And do this for each problem that you solve. And just write these down for now. And, you know, it would be great if we had a marketing expert to kinda elaborate on this a little bit, but wait a minute.
Carly Ries:Well, look at that. Apparently. I actually have 2 things, like, 2 big takeaways that I would wanna say in regards to your messaging. The first is to be specific. your audience wants to know that you are talking to them. So don't keep it general, even if your product or service could technically solve a bunch of problems. They like, make it seem like you're solving a problem for one person that could apply across the board. The other thing I would say is your messaging might be your differentiator. So your business may not be super unique.
Carly Ries:It's hard to have a very unique business now, but your messaging could be what separates you from your competition. And so really think about that, and I was actually thinking about as I was driving through my coffee stand this morning, as I so frequently do. I go to a place called Dutch Brothers, and it's across the nation. I get a latte, I could get a latte anywhere, at any coffee shop, you name it. But when I drive up to Dutch Brothers, the employees that work there are so energetic, it's it's unbelievable.
Carly Ries:And it's just the way you start your morning based off of their tone and personality and everything, is what sets them apart, not the coffee itself because you're gonna find that coffee anywhere. And I would take that analogy and apply it to your messaging. That is what could be your differentiator if your product or service is not what separates you from the crowd.
Joe Rando:You made me think of Laura Sorensen that we had on the podcast a while back, and she's a basically, she's a graphic designer, But she calls herself a design doctor because she really does do above and beyond what you would expect from a typical graphic designer. So she's you know, a standard business, but made herself special. So I think that's what you're talking about.
Carly Ries:Yeah. Exactly. You just need to, like I said, it is it's very hard to have a business that nobody else has. I mean, think about if you go to Etsy, there's so many people with the same skills on there, but it's the messaging that will separate one person from another. So, really, really think about that.
Carly Ries:This is a very critical part of your business that you don't want to take lightly. It could change over time, but just make sure you're putting a lot of thought into it at this start.
Joe Rando:Google ferret artists to see if those are out there.
Carly Ries:Enough with the ferret artists.
Joe Rando:So messaging's important, obviously. So we spent some time on that. Next step, create your website. It's an exciting thing to do unless maybe you don't think you need a website.
Joe Rando:If so, think again. Okay? Personally, I think the only business that shouldn't have a website is a social club for Luddites. Every business should have a website. I even avoid restaurants that don't have one.
Joe Rando:I don't usually hire contractors that don't have one. Facebook pages just aren't enough.
Carly Ries:I'm a marketer. I've been a marketer my entire career. I am not the person that usually builds my website. I know what goes into it, I know from the marketing side of things, but the actual to do of the experience and getting the website set up can be daunting, but it is actually really simple if you just take the time to do your research on it. And actually, we had George B.
Carly Ries:Thomas on, and then in an episode a while back that I'll, include in the show notes. But he really goes into what should be included, but just know it is not as daunting as it may seem. And like your messaging, it will evolve over time. So just get something out there and then, change it as you see fit with the results you're getting.
Joe Rando:Next thing you wanna do is decide what you need that website to do. So maybe you just need an online brochure or maybe you need a way to capture email addresses or maybe you wanna sell your product via online retail. Right? You have to decide what it is that the site is supposed to do, and that's gonna help you to figure out what it should have and what should be there or not.
Joe Rando:Next question, should you hire a pro to make it, or should you just do it yourself? And that's about time and budget and getting the results you need. Right? So if you're hiring a pro, look really carefully. Budget's only one aspect of it.
Joe Rando:There's a number of components to a website. From a simple perspective, there's how it looks, right? Is it designed nicely? Is it attractive? There's what it says.
Joe Rando:Right? The words that are there. And, really, that comes down to how well does it convert? How well does it do what it's supposed to do? And that's got something to do with the look and the words, but also with the flow. So there are a lot of pros out there that are good at how it looks, but you really need all 3. So the question you have to ask yourself first is what aspects do you feel competent to cover. Right? Maybe you're a good copywriter. So you can write the words, but you gotta find somebody else who's good at the other aspects. If you're doing it yourself or even if you're hiring a pro, find a great website that really works the way you want and, try to copy its approach with your own.
Carly Ries:The other thing I would say about that is a lot of people have heard the term search engine optimization or SEO, which will help your website get found in search results when people search for terms that are related to you. That is something that you should consider in this phase. I, being on the marketing agency side for a lot of my career, we often heard people say, Can you SEO my website? And sure, we could go in and make the updates, but it's really nice if you get this aspect of it at the beginning. And so, if you don't know a lot about SEO, which isn't uncommon, just do a quick Google search, you will find some great posts just to to get you started.
Carly Ries:Just get the basics in there, but really think about that in this phase rather than once your website is already built.
Joe Rando:Great point. It's so much easier to do it now and then gets the results you need by you know, when somebody goes in and searches Google, you come up near the top of the list, all the better. So now the next step is, you know, to think about a platform. Right? So if you're doing it yourself versus if you're hiring a pro, a pro's gonna have a strong opinion about this, you know, what platform to develop and host on.
Joe Rando:If you're doing it yourself, then it's all up to you. The options I would put on the list are Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and HubSpot. Wix is really, you know, a brochure type website, something that looks nice, puts out some information. Squarespace integrates with HubSpot, and that can be really useful because you can use HubSpot to kind of capture leads and email addresses and things and do other cool stuff with it. WordPress has loads of options and also integrates with HubSpot and lots of other platforms.
Joe Rando:It's, you know, it it's a little more complicated than Wix and Squarespace, but you can do anything you want there. And lastly, the HubSpot CRM suite bundle is extremely competitive with WordPress and gives tons of flexibility and power. So there's lots of research you can do online for this, but you do have to decide how you're gonna build it and where you're gonna host it.
Carly Ries:Well and budget is a big factor, I would say, in those as well.
Joe Rando:Absolutely. I mean, you can spend lots of money building and hosting a website. And you don't have to, though. There's there's templates and and, themes in HubSpot, in WordPress and and Wix and Squarespace. HubSpot has what they call themes, but the same idea.
Joe Rando:There's kind of all the pages and you go in and fix them up to make them exactly yours, but they're already kinda looking nice when you start. So there could be a way that you can do this without having to hire a professional. So the next question is, well, what pages am I gonna build? And my advice there is keep it simple.
Joe Rando:You need a home page, an about us page, a contact us page, and perhaps a page to buy your products if you're selling online. There may be something else you need for your specific use. But keep it as simple as possible. Right? You might have some content marketing stuff, your blogs and that kind of thing that you want to put on there.
Joe Rando:But just don't go crazy. Put you know, the basics, and you don't need to make all kinds of crazy pages at this point.
Carly Ries:Yeah. And, Joe, I mean, that's just to reiterate, this the purpose of this podcast episode specifically is to set it up. So we're literally just talking about what to have to get started. You can absolutely elaborate on your website later on, but just start with the basics. And then once you're up and running, then you can evolve from there.
Joe Rando:Definitely. If you do wanna have a blog, though, make sure that whatever platform you choose has blogging capability built in. I meant to mention that. So the next step, you've got you define which pages you wanna make. Now you gotta write the words. Write the words for each page. Refer to your messaging. We're focusing on the customer.
Joe Rando:Try to make it easy for them to understand how you solve their problems and make it easy for them to convert, whatever that means to to you for your website, whatever your website's doing for you. It may mean capturing an email address, downloading an ebook, or signing up for a webinar, but whatever it is, focus on making that easy and compelling. Last is the the graphics. Right? There's gonna be if you're using a template or you're working with a pro, you're gonna have to choose graphics and images for each page.
Joe Rando:And so I would suggest try to be stylistically consistent in your graphic selection so that it looks like it's you, you know, so you don't have one thing that looks one way and one thing that looks another way.
Carly Ries:And just to reiterate, there are so many freelancers out there, other solopreneurs that can help with both the website copy and the graphics. And again, not to toot our own horn, but community.livestar.com has these types of professionals. So you get questions answered, but maybe even find somebody to work with to help you with this step. Because if you've never done it before, you may not need to. You can hire somebody that's done it forever and and just use it for your business.
Joe Rando:Yeah. It can really save a lot of time and get you up and running a lot faster and a lot better. So now that you've got your website, you gotta set up the rest of your marketing program. Right? And the idea here is to think in terms of, you know, reaching your customers.
Joe Rando:And in the planning phase, we talked about deciding how you were gonna reach your customers. Now you need to make this happen. And there's so many endless possibilities here. I can't really get specific. But whatever you decided to do, whether it's a billboard, a podcast, social media, blog, video search, whatever, get it ready to go.
Joe Rando:The pizza in a cup example, silly example I gave in the last podcast on on planning, needs to get his sign permitted and constructed. That's how he's getting customers. He's gonna have a sign visible from the road. So he's gotta get that going.
Joe Rando:Should have permitted it in the last step, but he's gotta get it built at some point. So, Carly, maybe you can walk us through some of the other options for for marketing programs.
Carly Ries:Yeah. And I'll also just say, back in the day, it wasn't uncommon for people to, like, build out a 12 month plan or something that they wanna see their annual like, what they're gonna do for the next year. And and now I would say that's not really practical. I mean, can you imagine if somebody on January 1, 2020 put together a 12 month plan that they were set in stone with?
Carly Ries:I mean, we all know that those plans would have changed just a few months into the new year. So, I would say now plan out like 6 months in advance, at the longest. And then every 90 days or so, just reiterate. Like, look at your plan, keep it fluid, just know it's not set in stone and it can change with the times or whatever your business is facing. So with that, there are a bunch of different marketing efforts that you could dive into.
Carly Ries:We will actually have a separate series on marketing, so this is just a quick overview. You could think about content marketing, we have an awesome episode coming up in a few weeks with JP Medved to talk about content marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization like I discussed, paid advertising, influencer marketing is a big one these days. And then of course, social media. The one thing to be mindful of with social media is you do not need to be on every platform. I would highly advise against that.
Carly Ries:I mean, with all these marketing efforts, think where your audience is and focus your efforts on where they would see your marketing. So really start from there and and have all of that dictate your strategy.
Joe Rando:Definitely good advice. Don't try to do it all, especially as a solopreneur. It's gonna get overwhelming fast, and you'll probably get nowhere anywhere with any of them. Okay. So now your marketing is in place, at least in the, you know, the beginnings of it.
Joe Rando:And, you're going to now have to set up a sales process assuming that you're selling. And the question is, you know, how will you sell? We talked about that in the in the planning phase of the solopreneur success cycle. But, you know, is this high touch, low touch, no touch sales process? You know, what I mean is high touch is like face to face or lots of calls or maybe cold calling people.
Joe Rando:Right? Low touch may mean, you know, a phone call or a couple of emails or LinkedIn messaging, And no touch would be, like, via a web sale or or maybe, you know, mail order in the old days. So you have to know what kind of selling that you're doing and and set up the process accordingly.
Carly Ries:And, actually, if you want an example of that, we had a great guest on when we actually first started the podcast, Greg Grutan had a a great episode that I will link to in the show notes that kind of referred to the whole high touch side of things. So just look in the show notes for that.
Joe Rando:Yeah. Good point. So once you've, kind of thought this through, you wanna write the process down. Do it step by step and numbered. Here's how you want it to go.
Joe Rando:It might always it won't always go that way with the high touch sale, especially. But if it's a online sale, then you might be able to spec it out of the individual steps and have it work every time. So the last question then after you've kind of laid it out the sales process is how do you do it consistently? Is there something you need to do to create, to build, to, you know, outsource or whatever to make this thing flow smoothly so you can close sales efficiently? You're not making money when you close the sale.
Joe Rando:You're making money after you close the sale when you deliver the product. So making sales happen quickly and efficiently is a really good investment. Next, you've made the sale. How are you gonna manage fulfillment? Again, it's kind of a big topic here because we don't know what your business is.
Joe Rando:But at some point, you have to then once you've made the sale, you've got to deliver something, right, to get that to get that payment. So try to think about efficiency and great customer experience and balance those 2. You know? You don't wanna be so efficient the customer doesn't feel like they had a great experience. You don't wanna be so customer experience focused that you you can't do it efficiently and make any money.
Joe Rando:So think that through in terms of getting the work done. Again, I can't say too much because you might be, you know, painting portraits or or coaching or or selling, you know, access to your app. It could just be so different. But just make sure how you can do it consistently and make it easy to execute and document it. And later, we'll talk about revisiting this and figuring out how to make it more efficient.
Joe Rando:Now for the end, not the end, but the homestretch here, we get into the kind of boring stuff. It's boring but important. Okay. 1st is banking. Don't mix your business finances with your personal finances. Open a business checking and and I would say also a savings or a money market for the business and keep that money separate. It's really important. It's just a good practice, to keep that money separate so you really have a business.
Joe Rando:The second is bookkeeping and accounting. Now I went to school and got an MBA. And definitely accounting was my most boring course. I don't love it. But there are people that do love it and are really good at it.
Joe Rando:If you're one of them, do it. If not, it's one of the ones that, you know, people tend to not wanna DIY. They tend to offload this one to a pro. And you can do it a few ways.
Joe Rando:You can get a basic bookkeeper that you use, you know, work with on a regular basis, and then get an accountant to tax time to to get it done. Or you can go with a firm that does all in one, the bookkeeping to the accounting. The most important thing is good financial statements to help you understand your business and how it's doing. Right? That's what these are for. And there's also the matter of taxes. And tax planning can pay big dividends. I can't tell you the amount of money I have saved by having good tax planning and good tax advice. And it was I I just it's it's amazing, and people don't think about it, but it's really, really worth the effort to find somebody that can give you good tax advice for your business in your state.
Carly Ries:And just find a CPA that fits for you. I hate tax planning. I hate anything revolving around taxes. My CPA lives for it. She loves it, and she's so energetic and enthusiastic and creates these videos that make things so self explanatory.
Carly Ries:She's exactly what I need. She may not be for everybody. She's perfect for me. Just do some interviewing and see who fits best to get you to actually get it done. Because at the end of the day, they're gonna save your life, so make sure it's somebody you want to be working with.
Joe Rando:Yeah. And remember, Hunter Boyd, he was a financial planner, but he was also doing this kind of work. And it was, that podcast that we had with him was really interesting and, maybe worth a look or a listen, I should say.
Carly Ries:Yeah. He's awesome. And he has a growing family, so definitely
Carly Ries:Support that growing family.
Joe Rando:are you going to put a link to that podcast in the show notes?
Carly Ries:Yeah. Absolutely.
Joe Rando:Outsourcing. Now you've got a whole list of all the stuff to do. You're probably wondering whether you should actually go forward. And the answer is, you know, yeah, you should do this. But the way to kind of make it less daunting is to think in terms of what of these things can be outsourced.
Joe Rando:And, you know, look at everything that needs to be done. What do you think would make sense to to outsource? You know, there are some things that you can't outsource because they're what you're good at and you should certainly shouldn't be outsourcing those things. But a lot of this stuff, you might be able to get some help on, whether it's, one of these kind of, back office firms. What are the ones, Carly, that we've interviewed and talked to?
Carly Ries:Don't Panic Management.
Joe Rando:Oh, yeah. so I mean, they outsource things like anything from podcast production to just a a virtual assistant, all kinds of stuff. So think in terms of of those kinds of things. And then, you know, as you're doing this, we put out a tool a while back called hire a pro or no. It's just a spreadsheet.
Joe Rando:And, Carly, I'd love to put that in the show notes too just so that people can use that to see whether any one of these given processes should be outsourced or at least consider outsourcing versus doing in house.
Carly Ries:Absolutely.
Joe Rando:But it's really important to think this through and and so that you don't get overwhelmed. Because getting up and running is really hard because you're not good at it yet. You haven't cut it down yet. And so having some things that you can kind of take off your plate can really help. Okay.
Joe Rando:And then in conclusion, as I said, this sounds overwhelming, and it and it is. Okay? But it's way better to cover all the bases in the beginning as opposed to finding you missed something crucial. So this trick is to just break it down into steps and focus on a few 1 or a few at a time. Right?
Joe Rando:It's amazing how things become doable when you break them into little pieces. And that's what we tried to do here on this podcast. So what are you waiting for? Let's go plan your business.
Carly Ries:So inspirational, Joe. So we know we just threw a lot at you, so take the time to really digest it, take it in. But also let us know what which of these topics you want us to elaborate on. We wanna make sure we're providing the best information and content for you, so to be sure to shoot us a note at lifestar.com/podcast. But, we'll be back next Thursday to discuss the next phase of the solopreneur success cycle and on Monday we have an awesome interview that you won't want to miss.
Carly Ries:So, be sure to tune in. And as always, be sure to subscribe to the podcast by visiting Lifestarr.com/podcast or anywhere you listen to your shows.
Carly Ries:See you next time. You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At Lifestarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs.
Carly Ries:Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com. That's community.lifestarr