Ep 89. The Hidden Costs of Solo Entrepreneurship and How to Overcome Them
In this episode, I discuss something many moms and entrepreneurs struggle with. What happens when you do everything yourself in business? As tempting as it might be, there's a hidden cost to this hustle, and I'm breaking it all down.
Here's what you'll hear during the episode:
- Three costs that come with operating your business as a solopreneur
- One powerful solution that can reduce the chances of you paying those costs.
LINKS & MENTIONS
- Ep 63. How to Plan Maternity Leave for Self Employed Entrepreneurs
- Apply for the Harmony Systems Sprint
RESOURCES
- The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection: https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
- CRM: Dubsado - Get 20% off your 1st month (if paying monthly) or 1st year (if paying annually)
- Website Hosting: Showit - Get 1 month free
Connect with Phylicia
FB: Phylicia Pough
IG: @phyliciapough
Connect with The Mom CEO Suite
Website: themomceosuite.com
Instagram: @themomceosuite
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Transcript
You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.
Speaker:I'm your host, Phylicia, wife, mom, and
Speaker:entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur
Speaker:journey along with strategies that will help you build your online
Speaker:business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is
Speaker:to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who
Speaker:values putting family first. We will also hear the
Speaker:experiences and expertise of other moms with service
Speaker:based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys, so you'll
Speaker:know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.
Speaker:Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together, we can
Speaker:do hard things. Welcome to the suite.
Speaker:Hey friends. Welcome to another episode. Thank you so much for being here and
Speaker:listening to the podcast. So today I want to talk a little bit
Speaker:about the hidden cost of doing everything yourself. I
Speaker:know in the online space, there are a lot of solar preneurs
Speaker:and myself included. I still consider myself a solopreneur.
Speaker:I, um, from time to time, I might hire a
Speaker:contractor to. work on a project or to do something
Speaker:specific for me, but for the most part, I do the
Speaker:majority of the things in my business. And
Speaker:so when it comes to being a solo preneur, though, there is a
Speaker:hidden cost. To you doing everything
Speaker:yourself, but even on the flip side, there's a hidden
Speaker:cost. If you have a team. So either route you choose there's
Speaker:going to be a hidden cost. So at the end of the day, you choose
Speaker:which route works best for you. Um, and you choose what, which
Speaker:costs you are more willing to pay, right?
Speaker:Nail. There's different reasons for why we
Speaker:choose to be solo preneurs. It could be for a financial
Speaker:reason. Maybe you don't have the financial capacity to
Speaker:hire team members. Maybe you don't have
Speaker:the, just the bandwidth to manage a team.
Speaker:Maybe you just don't want to have a team. And that is perfectly okay
Speaker:as well. But When you start doing everything
Speaker:yourself, there's a few things that you could potentially run
Speaker:into. And I want to talk about those few things today. And then of
Speaker:course, I want to give you a solution to this as well. So number one,
Speaker:the main thing that there's the risk of is. Becoming
Speaker:emotionally and physically burnt out. We hear about
Speaker:burnout so much, not even just in the online
Speaker:space, but we just hear about burnout a lot. And
Speaker:that typically comes because we are trying to do
Speaker:so many things. We are trying to be all
Speaker:things to all people at all times. And we
Speaker:were not created to operate in that way. We say yes
Speaker:to too many things. And so, um, when you are a
Speaker:solopreneur, you're doing all the things in your business. You
Speaker:are the marketing team. You are the admin team. You
Speaker:are. Fulfilling. The delivery. To the
Speaker:clients, you are the accountant you're
Speaker:doing. Everything in the business, right.
Speaker:And this can lead to. Stress,
Speaker:this can lead to exhaustion. And this
Speaker:can kind of demotivate you because you're so busy
Speaker:doing all of the things that you can't even enjoy
Speaker:your business anymore. And then when you run into burnout and you're doing all the
Speaker:things in your business, This also starts
Speaker:to, affect your personal life as well.
Speaker:And this is sometimes not all the time, but this is sometimes
Speaker:why. we hear a lot of conversations
Speaker:about. Not being able to balance work
Speaker:and family because. We
Speaker:are over committed. In the business or maybe we're over
Speaker:committed. In another area. Right. And so
Speaker:this can lead to that emotional and physical burnout. And I want
Speaker:to be sure to include that emotional piece because you might
Speaker:physically feel fine. But you might just emotionally,
Speaker:you might be tired. You might feel drained. You might not
Speaker:have energy to have conversations, right? It could be more than just
Speaker:a physical thing. And so when you are doing all the things
Speaker:yourself, you run the risk of, Experiencing emotional
Speaker:and physical burnout. So that's the first thing. The next
Speaker:thing you could run into. is the loss of
Speaker:revenue opportunities. And so when you
Speaker:are focused on like administrative tasks,
Speaker:We are constantly focused on doing the client work or you
Speaker:are doing repetitive tasks.
Speaker:Whatever you're doing is taking you away from those
Speaker:revenue generating activities. And so it could
Speaker:be taking you away from doing the marketing that you need to do.
Speaker:People need to hear about your business. So you need to be doing marketing activities.
Speaker:It's taking you away from the actual sales activities.
Speaker:So you can generate those actual sales. However you
Speaker:do that in your business. It's taking you away from being
Speaker:able to develop your, your offers and
Speaker:your offer. Sweet in all of these things. It's taking you
Speaker:away from being able to be strategic. And
Speaker:so again, when you're doing all the things yourself, you're pulled in so many
Speaker:different directions. That the revenue generating
Speaker:piece of the puzzle. Or I guess I'll say a piece
Speaker:of the pie just for a better visual that revenue
Speaker:generating. Uh, piece of the pie is going to be
Speaker:slimmer because your time is being
Speaker:spent in other areas as well. I'm going to
Speaker:shift before I get into the last cost of doing everything
Speaker:yourself, I want to kind of shift into what you can do. To
Speaker:kind of mitigate this risk. Right. And so I know a lot of
Speaker:times there is, um, a lot of talk about.
Speaker:Needing to hire a team you should delegate to a
Speaker:team you need to have, people supporting you in your business.
Speaker:And while that might work for some, it might not work for you.
Speaker:Right. But what you can do is that you can
Speaker:delegate to systems. I talked about this in a
Speaker:past episode and I will link it in the
Speaker:show description. I actually think it was the episode about maternity leave.
Speaker:But I'll link it in the show description. But you can delegate to a
Speaker:person. Yes. But you can delegate. To a
Speaker:system. Always like to say, automation can be your first
Speaker:assistant. And many times it's going to be cheaper
Speaker:than you bringing on. A contractor or an employee.
Speaker:Okay. So you have, you have these challenges in your business
Speaker:and you're looking for a solution. You're looking to hand these tasks off
Speaker:to someone else, but before you do that, There
Speaker:is a another step that you can take. You can look
Speaker:to systems to delegate, to.. And when I say
Speaker:systems again, if you've listened to the podcast or my teachings,
Speaker:when I say systems, I mean your process. Plus your tools.
Speaker:Yes, your people as well, but it's also your tools. So don't
Speaker:forget to look at the tools that you can
Speaker:use, that you can implement automation to
Speaker:help you with some of your tasks. Okay.
Speaker:When you have automation set up in your business, when you have these
Speaker:automated workflows going, it's like the
Speaker:workflow is working for you. It's like having a team
Speaker:behind you because these tools now this software, they can
Speaker:do so many things, especially now. With the
Speaker:emergence of AI artificial intelligence. And so you
Speaker:want to see, look at your processes, look at how you operate,
Speaker:how you do things you want to see. What can I delegate to
Speaker:a tool? When you do this, when you delegate to a
Speaker:tool. Right. When you implement automation, you are
Speaker:going to absolutely free up your time. And this
Speaker:is going to allow you to focus on whatever
Speaker:you're best at. Whatever your zone of genius is if
Speaker:that's serving clients. Or if that's, you know, creating
Speaker:your offer suite. maybe you do like to do the back end operational
Speaker:stuff. Right. But you can hand off these
Speaker:repeatable. Tasks. To a tool and you can be
Speaker:freed up to do the things that you need to do.
Speaker:Now, when you have the right systems in place.
Speaker:You're not doing things manually. You're freeing up your time.
Speaker:Yes. But you're also making your business processes.
Speaker:More efficient. And so things that might've taken you
Speaker:one hour or two hours to do manually, it can now be done
Speaker:automatically within maybe 30 minutes or even
Speaker:10 minutes. Right. It just depends on what the process, where the
Speaker:workflow is. And so you're saving time. You're saving
Speaker:your time, but you are also saving time in how
Speaker:you deliver your service or just how things are done in your
Speaker:business. Also when you implement automation through these
Speaker:tools. You are positioning yourself to
Speaker:provide a consistent experience for your
Speaker:clients. Okay. So all of your clients are going to be going through this
Speaker:same experience. It's not like.
Speaker:Client a is going to get one experience because you
Speaker:had a, you know, you had a great week. You remember to do all of
Speaker:the tasks in a timely manner, and then client B,
Speaker:you, your calendar was a little bit more booked. And so you forgot to send
Speaker:the invoice or there was a delay and you responding to emails. And so
Speaker:they didn't have as great of an, of an experience. Okay.
Speaker:And so when you implement automation through these tools, you are able
Speaker:to provide a consistent. experience for your
Speaker:clients. And I talk a lot about how your client
Speaker:experience is so important because it affects your
Speaker:revenue and it affects, you know, the retention of your clients, but
Speaker:also your referrals as well. and then finally, when
Speaker:it comes to, delegating to systems,
Speaker:There's just a peace of mind that comes when you know
Speaker:that nothing is slipping through the cracks. When you know that things are just
Speaker:taken care of. Okay. That could just be your
Speaker:client communication, like your one boarding. Let's just say somebody wants
Speaker:to join your program. You can have peace of
Speaker:mind that they are going to get all of the information that they need. They're
Speaker:not going to pay you. And then second, guess their
Speaker:decision because they did not receive any receipt or they
Speaker:didn't receive a welcome email or they didn't receive next steps.
Speaker:Okay. Um, so you just have this peace of mind that
Speaker:everything is taken care of and nothing is going to slip through the
Speaker:cracks. Which just by human nature, we're
Speaker:forgetful. We're sometimes going to forget things. Now I am going to say
Speaker:like, yes, automation and technology and tools, sometimes
Speaker:these things break. And so that is why it's important
Speaker:to, you know, on some type of schedule. Be
Speaker:testing out, reviewing, evaluating, uh, your,
Speaker:your processes, your workflows, all of those things.
Speaker:But for the most part, it is more reliable
Speaker:than a human completing the task. And
Speaker:it provides more consistency. Okay. And so you might be
Speaker:thinking, okay. Yes, I know. I need to automate more of
Speaker:my business. I know I need to leverage these tools. To
Speaker:start handling these tasks for me. And so I want to
Speaker:talk to you guys about the harmony system sprint, because this is
Speaker:literally what I will do for you through this harmony
Speaker:system sprint. It is a very quick, we're gonna work together for
Speaker:one week and I'm going to review your business.
Speaker:processes and your workflows identify, those
Speaker:bottlenecks identify any efficiencies, identify
Speaker:areas for growth, and you'll get a guide where you're able to
Speaker:implement. some quick changes so you can see some
Speaker:wins. Um, and then I'm also going to do a tool audit for you,
Speaker:so you don't have to figure out what tools. And you're a tech stack. You
Speaker:need to keep what's working. What's not working. What integrates, what does it
Speaker:integrate? I will figure that all out for you and we'll help you,
Speaker:you know, choose a tech stack. That makes sense for you, your business and your
Speaker:business goals. And then I will complete One core
Speaker:automation. For one of your business workflows, right? So that can be
Speaker:your client onboarding. If you have a podcast that can be your podcast,
Speaker:guests management, that can be some type of content management,
Speaker:but your workflow will be automated. It will be
Speaker:optimized and it will be efficient. And when I say efficient.
Speaker:I'm meaning, there's little or, or no waste in your
Speaker:process, right. That could be wasting time or wasting resources.
Speaker:Okay. And so again, this is
Speaker:a one week service, this is not a long six to
Speaker:eight week or three month consulting container one
Speaker:week, because I know sometimes we just don't have the capacity to
Speaker:commit to these long things. And so I want to be able to give
Speaker:you some quick wins in your business so you can
Speaker:get your time back so things can flow more efficiently
Speaker:in your business and you can have streamlined systems. And so if you
Speaker:are interested in that, just go ahead and click the link in the show description.
Speaker:There is an application, and, I'll get back to you once you
Speaker:submit your application within 24 hours. But if you have any questions
Speaker:about it, before that you can shoot me a DM over on Instagram.
Speaker:So just to recap really quickly, we talked about the hidden costs of doing
Speaker:everything yourself and your business. This can lead to
Speaker:emotional and physical burnout. And we don't need that.
Speaker:Especially as moms, we do not need to be burnt out
Speaker:because our children and our family, they rely on us. For so
Speaker:much, we don't need to be burnt out because of the business. Right. And so
Speaker:we really want to leverage systems. We want to leverage having a
Speaker:process or knowing how to do anything in our business.
Speaker:We want to have tools. And technology that are
Speaker:going to do the heavy lifting for us. Okay.
Speaker:Um, the second hidden cost is that there is the, risk
Speaker:of losing out on revenue opportunities. and then finally
Speaker:your growth. I don't even think I got back to this in the beginning of
Speaker:the episode, but your growth. Is stagnant. Because you are
Speaker:focused on the day-to-day operations and you're not able to
Speaker:really focus on that strategic growth in that
Speaker:longterm planning. Okay. So.
Speaker:Don't want you to have to deal with these hidden
Speaker:costs. And so really consider.
Speaker:Delegating to systems. When I say systems. Yes. I
Speaker:mean your process, your tools and your people, but before
Speaker:you get to that people piece, Don't forget about the tools. The
Speaker:tools can do so much for you, especially when you leverage
Speaker:automation. Let automation. be your first assistant. Go
Speaker:ahead. Click the link in the show description to apply for the harmony system
Speaker:sprint. I'm very limited opportunity. I'm only doing one to two of
Speaker:these per month. Um, if you have any questions, DM. Instagram,
Speaker:and I will see you guys in the next episode. Thank you
Speaker:for listening to the MomCEO Suite Podcast. If you
Speaker:enjoyed this episode, can you do us a favor? Leave a review on
Speaker:iTunes and share with other moms in business like you.
Speaker:Help us spread our message and empower others who are at this intersection
Speaker:of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
