If you are a freelancer or a consultant working on your own, it might be mildly overwhelming when you think of your business beyond yourself. After all, you sell yourself through the name or operation of your business, but you might not often think about your business as a business. This might be especially true for you if you work your business on the side and have a hard time articulating your business as “a business.” You are not alone. Many solo entrepreneurs find themselves struggling to inform the world about what they do, so if you fall into that category, we can help. Here’s how you can think of your one-person operation as a real small business.
Acknowledge the Reach of Your Work
Whether you send gift baskets around town or offer graphic design services around the world, it’s likely that you are underestimating how impactful your business really is. Small business owners, especially those that work alone can easily fall victim to a mindset that undermines their entire operation. If you lack confidence in what you offer, or you don’t take the time to consider how your business is helping others, you might run into this problem. Take the time to not only imagine how far reaching your business is, but believe it.
Find Some Others in Your Situation
A great way to turn your opinion about your business into a positive one is to surround yourself with like-minded people, and people who find themselves in a similar situation. Find a great coworking space and connect with other solo entrepreneurs to learn about how they are overcoming confidence issues and increasing their reach in the world. What’s more, you can get out and enjoy the company of others who have been there and done that. For a small fee, you can rent a spot at a coworking space and have a place to go everyday to make yourself feel more connected to the world you serve.
Collaborate and Connect
Whether you do this at a coworking space, or online, it’s important to find others who compliment your work and can provide referrals and a broader range of networking opportunities. Even when you are held up in your basement trying to get things done, knowing that there are people you can call on or work with makes those long hauls easier. Plus, collaborating with others provides lots of opportunities for more work, bigger projects, and commission on those projects. You might find that your little one-person business is blossoming into something bigger in no time.
Bigger is Not Always Better
Whatever you do, resist the urge to grow your business to a bigger size just because that’s what everyone else is doing. When you find a groove in your business, you’ll feel better about yourself and how you offer your services or products. Having a network, a place to work on occasion, and a plan for extending your network will help you see that you can accomplish a lot on your own and you don’t need to hire 50 people to work with you to achieve similar results. Thinking about your one-person operation as a real small business really just requires a shift in your thinking about how your business presents in the world. If you want to grow your business, you don’t need to have a team of professionals behind you. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on space and marketing. You can run things your way and do things at your own speed. It’s probably the best part about running a one-person operation: you can do it the way you want.
