Hi there! 👋 My name’s David - I’m a writer and solopreneur from Northern Ireland. In this publication, you’ll find a growing archive of resources (created by myself and a collection of valued guests) for those hoping to become - or grow as - solopreneurs. While you’re here, you should also check out:
Thanks for stopping by! Now, back to the article.
Happy Friday, and welcome back to Solo Success Stories! Each week, I’ll feature a fellow solopreneur with an instructive story to share about how the pursuit of solo business success has shaped their life so far.
So without further ado, let’s hear from
!When it began, I do not know with any accuracy. It just evolved, this solo thing, but from a most inauspicious calamity.
I’m a journalist by trade, but losing a defamation suit back in the late 1990s brought against my employer, Time Inc Australia (a story for another day), opened up a whole new world of writing opportunities when I was ‘shown the door’ by the managing editor.
In the washout from that experience, and with jobs thin on the ground, I found myself working from home, long before it was a thing. I eventually managed to scrounge a living in a pre Internet era as a freelance writer. Solopreneur was not part of the lexicon back then. Freelancing mostly meant printing and posting pitches via snail mail. And waiting. Ironically, word rates back then, and we’re talking over 30 years ago, were more lucrative than today, even taking inflation into account.Â
Then this thing called the Internet started to make its presence felt so I took a look under the hood, and very much liked what I found. After only a few inquiries I scored casual work within an online team at a financial services provider as a copywriter. It was the ‘wild west’ of publishing back then. There were no rules, or at least none specific to interface design, so we all learned on the go. Thinking back now as I write this, I realise what a rare and privileged time in history that all was, to be a writer at the forefront of an entirely new professional era.Â
And I’ve been playing intermittently in the digital content space ever since. Mostly contract work, and mostly for big corporates and government departments. My role has evolved from a pure editorial play, into a content management position, before morphing into what’s now referred to as a content designer.Â
The ebb and flow of going solo
But along that journey I have always dabbled in freelance writing, choosing topics and titles that interested me. It was an ebb and flow affair because the contracts were rarely contiguous. There could, either through choice or circumstance, be long gaps of many months between engagements, and into this void the freelance work flourished. If time and finances allowed, travel was also an option, which in turn fed the freelance beast.
Along the way (circa 2008/09), I developed a web writing training workshop and pitched the course idea to the Australian Writers’ Centre in Sydney. A case of perfect offer; perfect timing. This is rare. That course continues to this day, albeit significantly updated. I present it, and several others offered by the centre, online and onsite across the country. It’s just another income stream in the solopreneur mix. And will continue for the foreseeable future.
A handy benefit from much of this teaching is the occasional request from course attendees to work directly with their employers on digital/content strategies. So without a conscious intention, consulting services are also part of the ‘package’ under my Digital Done Write domain.Â
But 2023 marked a deviation. I took up a part-time UX writing contract with Airbnb; reporting to head office in San Francisco, but working mostly with designers and engineers based in Beijing. That weekly 20-hour commitment allowed time to ramp up teaching and other freelance consulting opportunities. The contract finished as expected late 2023, leaving me to focus 100% on solopreneurship endeavours in 2024.
And Substack joined that mix earlier this year. I’d been following a few authors and had subscribed to George Saunders and his incredibly generous Story Club. I don’t see the platform as an income stream, or at least not yet for me.
Rather, I intend it to be a repository for my random observations, thoughts and experiences gathered over three decades spent travelling; be that off the rails, on the road or all at sea. And occasionally, up in the air. That’s The Vagabond’s Log. It’s early days, but I’m enjoying the experience and wild memories this trove of material unearths. Over 80 countries visited so far, with a few more to be added later this year.Â
It was while roaming western Russia in the lead up to its 1996 election when an idea for a book slowly took shape. Some readers might need to Google ‘Boris Yeltsin’ to appreciate the historical and political context of what took place that year. For the first time in its history, Russia re-elected a sitting president — in a semi-legitimate and mostly peaceful 2-party contest — as it transitioned from communism to something resembling a democracy. How times change.
Anyway, after leaving Moscow, I wandered overland through Eastern Europe before landing in Istanbul. And it was here — after having seen firsthand how these former Soviet Republics were beginning their experiments with ‘democracy’ — that the gestation of a book took hold. And it’s still taking shape all these years later. Many chapters drafted, with some workshopped to death during my MFA years. Am thinking of serialising its publication via my Substack section: Magnum Opus. This may well become a paid subscription in time, but I’m not sure.
What tomorrow holds
As you’ve probably gathered dear reader, I am towards the back end of my lifespan. Near the start of the last quarter, if the average life expectancy of white males in my country (82 years), is any guide. Appallingly, that number for Indigenous males in Australia is roughly 72 years.
I’ll continue freelancing, teaching, Substacking, travelling, ocean swimming (see image of the beach at the end of my street) and reading. Call it solopreneurship if you like. It doesn’t feel like work. It’s a ‘workflow’ I’ve been angling towards because it’s portable, pleasurable and adequately profitable.Â
But it hasn’t always been as simple as that. It’s just with time, and much toil, I’m now fortunate to have choices about what work to embrace without the pressure of finding next month’s rent or mortgage payment weighing on those decisions.Â
I do not take the privilege of this position granted for one second. But I do take each day as an opportunity to craft my own journey. And a solopreneur is one of the best ways to take control of that quest. Whether you’re on that path now, or wavering at the prospect, I heartily recommend it. Comrades, go forth and spread the words.
Thanks Grant!
Interesting thoughts from others:
The KitKat method to winning 'Top-of-Mind' awareness by
Why being slow is important in business by
Email Marketing is Easy by Evan Kelly
How Sending Just Ten Cold Emails Can Earn Me $2000 by Motaz Majed
- and
Stop Missing Out On This Valuable Substack Opportunity by