Poor Solopreneurs Think These Three Thoughts

I know I did.

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It took me 9 years to figure solopreneurship out.

It took me 9 years to make $100K+ per year. 9 years to figure out exactly what type of business I want to build. 9 years to approach solopreneurship with confidence.

9 f*cking years.

So when David & I were speaking a few weeks ago, and he asked me to write a story about my journey as a solopreneur, I thought, how do I make it easier for you, guys? Because I don’t it to be 9 years for you, too.

Cliche as it is, it all comes back to mindset. Thoughts create behaviours, and I wasted too much of my time thinking the wrong things.

Specifically, here are the 3 thoughts that kept me poor more than anything else, and the lessons I learned the hard way.

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I tried and it didn’t work.

You will get that feeling a lot as a solopreneur. It’s usually when:

• You’ve tried once or twice and nothing happened

• Something happened for a while, but then it stopped

It’s a powerful emotion. Remember, emotions are always more powerful than logic.

When I felt like that, it was easy to stop doing things.

When I first started writing on Medium, I got my first viral article in my 3rd month. 80K+ views, and it made me $2K.

I tried to replicate that success, but I managed “only” an article with 16K views and $800 income.

Everything else was doing just “okay.”

I felt like a failure. Like the first article was just a coincidence, not real success. Why do we do this to ourselves? We always find it easy to believe the bad stuff.

After a while, I stopped writing on Medium altogether.

Now, let’s put a pin in the emotion and look at the facts:

• I’d made more money in my first 6 months on Medium than most writers make in their first 2 years.

• I didn’t try hard enough to replicate my success. I was writing 6–8 articles per month, and many writers write 10–20–30.

• I didn’t make the best of my success because I didn’t have an e-mail list to build my readership into a proper audience.

• I didn’t believe followers mattered (even though I wanted to build online credibility).

• Giving up wouldn’t (and didn’t) make anything better.

I’ve experienced this “What’s the point” emotion again and again as a solopreneur, and learning how to deal with it is perhaps the most important lesson I can share.

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Strategies To Prevent Burnout And Thrive As A Solopreneur

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Keep. Going.

If it’s important to you that you build a profitable business, you need to stop lying to yourself. You haven’t tried everything. One, two or three failures/rejections aren’t the end of the world (or your business).

The reason you feel this way is that this is a new way of making money for you. It’s a completely new way of life. Chances are, none of your parents were solopreneurs.

Our mind likes what’s familiar. That’s why kids of divorced people are 90% more likely to get divorced. It’s not because they liked what they saw as children — it’s because they know it.

We prefer things we know how to handle, even if they suck.

But if you want to reinvent your professional life, you must reinvent yourself. Swallow your pride and try again. Keep showing up — just try to learn how to do it even better than the last time.

Honestly, 1% better every time adds up. Ignore stupid emotional patterns and keep fighting for your dreams.

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If I can only make some money…

I quit my job way too early.

As in, I had zero side income. I did have a website and a coaching certificate. Turns out, that doesn’t make people throw their wallets at your face.

For about a year and a half, we struggled financially. I was trying to stay positive, but I was horrified at the thought of having to look for another job.

I focused only on the money. When my Fiverr gigs exploded, I put all my energy into developing that platform. And I did. To date, I’ve made $240K+ on Fiverr. I’ve worked with 2000+ clients, which gave me the confidence to find projects outside the platform.

If you’re interested in making it on Fiverr, you can read more about & get my Fiverr Launcher course here. https://msayvanova.gumroad.com/l/liazw

The problem was, when there was a bad month on Fiverr, there was nothing I could do about it. I didn’t have a business — I had a job working for Fiverr.

And while Fiverr was a pretty good employer, that’s not what I set out to do. Eventually, I started resenting the platform and my clients.

Look, there are bazillion ways to make money online, but if you don’t build the business you want, you’ll end up burnt out and miserable.

Success in anything means more of the same. If you don’t love what you’re doing, are you sure you want to be successful at it?

Now, before I think about how much money something will make me, I think about what I want.

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Create a clear vision.

I’m a master in my service business. Briefly, I even turned my practice into an agency and worked with big clients for lots of money. I had employees and an office downtown. I built processes and spent all my days in meetings.

And if anything, that experience only confirmed this wasn’t for me.

I still have a lot to learn about the content and product types of businesses, but at least I know I’m on the right track.

I wish it didn’t take me 8–9 years to figure out that a service business wasn’t my thing.

Get clear on your vision — that will save you more time than anything else.

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What if no one buys it?

Whatever business you’re building, you’re selling something.

The truth is this: everyone fails at selling sometimes. Only two people bought Tim Denning’s first course, even though he had an audience of thousands.

The thought that probably no one would buy my things has kept me from creating a digital product for years.

Now, I know that if people aren’t buying it, it’s because I’m not selling it.

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Learn how to sell.

Instead of wondering if anyone would buy what you’re selling (whether it’s your content, products or services), learn how to sell it.

This includes two things:

• Learn how to build things people want

• Learn how to sell them

Of course, not every offer will sell the same. Sometimes, you’ll be surprised at what sells and what doesn’t. That’s okay. Take that data and reuse it in your next offer or your next sales push.

The revelation is this: sales are in your control. Not in any exact ways, but the difference between 0 and 1+ sales is totally in your control.

And, as with anything, the more you sell, the better you become at it.

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