June 5, 2025 • 12 mins
What if scaling your solopreneur business didn’t mean hiring a team or working 80-hour weeks?
In this episode, we’re diving into creative, cost-effective ways to grow, without giving up the freedom that made you go solo in the first place.
From automating tasks and outsourcing smartly to using AI to customize your messaging and repurposing content like a pro, we’re sharing real strategies that actually work. Whether you're a one-person powerhouse or just getting started, this episode is your blueprint for doing more with less.
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 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!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carly Ries (00:00):
Can you scale a business without hiring
(00:02):
employees? Yeah, you can. Inthis episode, we spill the
secrets on how to grow as asolopreneur without giving up
your freedom or bringing on ateam. We cover the magic trio,
outsourcing, automation, and AI,plus a few bonus strategies you
might not have thought of. Fromset it and forget it systems to
trading services with othersolopreneurs, this conversation
(00:23):
is full of, oh, I can totally dothat moments.
So if you're ready to grow yourbusiness on your terms, keep
listening. You're listening tothe Aspiring Solopreneur, the
podcast for those just takingthe bold step or even just
thinking about taking that stepinto the world of solo
entrepreneurship. My name isCarly Ries, and my cohost Joe
(00:43):
Rando and I are your guides tonavigating this crazy but
awesome journey as a company ofone. We take pride in being part
of LifeStarr, a digital hubdedicated to all aspects of
solopreneurship that hasempowered and educated countless
solopreneurs looking to build abusiness that resonates with
their life's ambitions. We helppeople work to live, not live to
(01:05):
work.
And if you're looking for a getrich quick scheme, this is not
the show for you. So if you'reeager to gain valuable insights
from industry experts on runninga business the right way the
first time around or want tolearn from the missteps of
solopreneurs who've paved theway before you, then stick
around. We've got your backbecause flying solo in business
doesn't mean you're alone. SoJoe, we work with solopreneurs
(01:29):
day in and day out. And a lot oftimes, people ask the question,
want to grow my business, Iwanna scale my business, but I
don't wanna hire employees.
Because for whatever reason,there's the connotation that
comes with running a one personbusiness that the only way you
can get larger and larger is byhiring people. And that simply
isn't the case. I wanted toaddress a few of the ways you
(01:49):
can do that today. The firstone, and I said it two episodes
ago and I say it all the time,flying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. Outsource toother people so that you can
focus on building more products,focus your time on taking on
other clients, whatever you needto do.
But you don't need to take onall those tasks. Figure out what
you're not good at or what youdon't like doing, and outsource
(02:12):
those so that you can focus whatyou enjoy and what you're good
at to grow the business further.So just getting rid of some
tasks and getting some thingsoff your plate is a way that you
can scale and grow becauseyou're not bogged down by things
that you don't need to befocusing on.
Joe Rando (02:27):
I totally agree. I love seeing solopreneurs getting
other solopreneurs to work withthem, to help them with things,
maybe swapping back and forth.We've seen a lot of that, and
you know, getting somebody tohelp you with your books, you
help them with their marketing,or whatever it is. And it's
really really powerful. One ofthe things that I always say is,
(02:50):
being a solopreneur means thatyou're not trying to scale at
all costs because there is nomore powerful tool for scaling
than employees. Right?Contractors are a different
animal. You have less say, lesscontrol.
If you try to treat them likeemployees, the IRS can step in,
and it hurts when they do thatbecause they basically make you
pay all those, employment taxes.So when you're dealing with
(03:13):
contractors or other people likethat, you're limiting your
ability to control them, whichis fine because you're also
giving yourself some freedom.But the bottom line is, you're
not going to be able to scaleeasily without some level of
outsourcing and also obviouslyautomating, right? You need to
automate. So that idea ofoutsourcing really can make a
(03:38):
huge difference in terms ofhelping you to scale, regardless
of the fact that it's not gonnalet you scale at the rates of an
employee based business.
It's still worth doing.
Carly Ries (03:48):
Well, you just said automate. Can you elaborate on
that? Because I think that'shuge thing.
Joe Rando (03:56):
let's give a simple example. So right now, we are
working on building out paidtiers of LifeStarr.
And one of the things that we'redoing in that process is we're
letting people sign up on awaiting list to get into that
paid tier. And when they dothat, we want to basically send
them information that kindakeeps them engaged, you know,
emails that say, hey, you're onthe list. Here's what's
(04:19):
happening, we'll let you knowwhen we've got room to let you
into this plan that you'vesigned up for. And we don't have
to send those emails ourselves,we basically use a marketing
tool called HubSpot toautomatically once those people
sign up, fill that form outonline, it knows, send this
email, then wait a few days andsend this email, then wait a few
(04:41):
and so we don't have to worryabout doing that for everybody.
So we build out the emails,build out the experience, and
then the system does it for us,and it takes so much brainpower
away from us having to thinkabout doing that, because it
just happens automatically.
Carly Ries (04:58):
And it's so crazy, sometimes you even forget that
you said it because it's soefficient. I got a few email
responses last week from anautomated email that went out
that we kinda set and forget,and I was getting responses on
it. I was like, oh yeah, Iemailed these people yesterday.
it just can work so well for youbehind the scenes. But hand in
(05:19):
hand with automation so we usedto say automate, delegate.
Automate, delegate. And nowautomate, delegate AI, is the
third thing. Right? I mean, AI,the whole agent AI thing isn't
quite there yet. You know, youcan actually, have AI do the
work for you. At least, Iwouldn't trust it yet to, really
(05:41):
be taking actions for me, butboy, does it save time. I mean,
it can save a ton of time. Ihaven't been doing a lot of
social media lately because ofthe book and just heads down.
Joe Rando (05:54):
But when I was doing social media posts all the time,
and I'll be getting back tothat, I developed kind of a
formula that I like to use, kindof a recipe for the way I wanted
my post to look. And I taughtthat to ChatGPT, and then we go
in and I would just put in anidea, and I'd say format this,
and it would format it into aLinkedIn post that I could then
edit and post in LinkedIn, andit saved me tons of time from
(06:17):
having to implement my ownformula manually. So it really
saved a bunch of time doingthat.
Carly Ries (06:26):
It's amazing what you can train, like we'll use
ChatGPT just as that's the mostcommonly known one. But Joe, you
created a you're wrong ChatGPTthat as solopreneurs, you work
in a silo a lot, so you needsomebody to kinda tell you when
you're wrong about something,and you trained it to tell you
when you're wrong, which cansave so much time.
Joe Rando (06:45):
I did it as a joke. I was trying to make, something
funny I was gonna share with allof you. And I, basically told
it, you know, disagree. Tell mewhy I'm wrong, but be diligent.
Don't just make stuff up. Doyour research and and be smart
about it. And you know,generally be polite, but
occasionally throw a littlezinger in. And it does, but it's
(07:08):
surprisingly useful. One of theproblems with ChatGPT out of the
box is it's a little too nice.
It's a little too, hey, that's agreat idea. And that doesn't
always help because it's notalways a great idea. And this
one just basically says, yeah,that sounds good on paper, but,
and it'll give me all thesereasons why it really isn't
complete, or it isn't right, orI'm missing a point, And it's
(07:30):
shockingly helpful, and it justreally helps me adjust my
thinking.
Carly Ries (07:33):
Yeah, and just tie it back to how this helps with
scaling and everything, is itsaves you time. And you have a
new product and service, youwanna feel like, is this a good
idea? And ChatGPT will be like,nope. And here's why.
Joe Rando (07:47):
ChatGPT will be like, oh, great idea, you know. But if
you tell it to be a littlecritical, then all of a sudden
it gets a little more real and alot more helpful.
Carly Ries (07:57):
But another time saving thing that we've done
from an AI stand point that isgoing to help us scale because
we're using it as a way to dopaid tiers, is you trained it on
all five of our personas. AtLifeStarr, we have five
personas, three primary onesthat we're targeting right now,
and you put those personas intoChatGPT, you trained it, and so
(08:18):
now we could say one of ourpersonas is, for example, is
called experienced Erica. Andyou can now say, tweak this
email so that it relates toexperienced Erica. Because of
what you put in there, we nowhave that email with her voice,
with the type of messaging thatwe want, and you can apply it
across the board to any kind ofproject or service you wanna put
(08:39):
out there, which is crazy.
Joe Rando (08:41):
Yeah. Because you can basically be talking about the
same thing. You know, say, forexample, the solopreneur problem
solvers event, and describingthat to Erica is different than
describing it to somebody that'sstruggling. So Erica has
established it. We have somebodythat's persona that's
(09:01):
struggling, not that thingsaren't going the way they want
them to.
You wanna talk about that alittle differently for them. So,
not having to re craft the emailfor every persona, it really
saves some time, you know. Andit's more effective because what
happens is you get busy, you getcrazy, and I'll just send that
same email to everybody. But itdoesn't have the same effect as
(09:22):
when you're speaking theirlanguage.
Carly Ries (09:23):
Absolutely. So just in terms of scaling there, there
are three other ones that Iwanted to point out. One is
productizing your services andfiguring out ways to do that
because you don't always wannabe trading your time for money
if you're let's say you're acoach, do a coaching course.
Instead of doing one on one withone person, put a course
(09:45):
together that many people canget. Or another example is
instead of one to one, one tomany.
And instead of doing one on onecoaching, coach 10 people at one
time, get that income all in thesame hour that you would be
doing one on one coaching, justas an example.
Joe Rando (10:00):
Right. You can make a lot more money doing that. When
you do the math, you charge 25%of your one on one coaching
rate, but you do, you know,eight, ten people, that's a lot
more per hour.
Carly Ries (10:12):
Yeah. Absolutely. And then we started this episode
by talking about outsourcing andworking with others. But also I
don't wanna forget in terms ofworking with people, that
partnerships and collaborationsare also a great way to expose
each other to your each other'saudiences, to gain exposure in a
new area you may not haveotherwise. And you could do this
(10:33):
on trade and not spend a dimeand say, hey, I'm a designer,
you're a writer, let's combineour services, I'll show you to
my audience, you show me toyours, I'll recommend you if you
recommend me.
Bada bing bada boom, then youhave a new audience and you
didn't Do anything.
Joe Rando (10:48):
Right.
Carly Ries (10:49):
So I think I covered all my things.
Joe Rando (10:52):
We talked about digital products and courses.
That's important. Andrepurposing content is another
way that can help you to scaleif you find that you need to be
in multiple, you know, socialmedia platforms or something in
order to effectively scale, notcreating stuff from scratch, but
(11:13):
repurposing can be a powerfulway to kind of, get the content,
scaled up enough without havingto do all the extra work of
creating new content for asecond platform. If that makes
sense.
Carly Ries (11:29):
So there you have it. If you like these ideas and
you wanna learn from othersolopreneurs, and not just Joe
and I, be sure to visitlifestarr.com/intro and that is
our free and free foreverplatform where you can get
access to monthly educationaland networking events, resources
to help you as a solopreneur, aswell as an awesome engaging
(11:52):
community that will welcome youwith open arms. It's so great. I
love the people in ourcommunity, so be sure to join
that. The link is in the shownotes, but again,
lifestarr.com/intro
And don't forget to leave us afive star review, share this
episode with a friend, andsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform, includingYouTube. And we will see you
(12:13):
next time on The AspiringSolopreneur. You may be going
solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go. So why not connect with
them and learn from each other'ssuccesses and failures?
At LifeStarr, we're creating aone person business community
(12:33):
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.
Can you scale a business without hiring
(00:02):
employees? Yeah, you can. Inthis episode, we spill the
secrets on how to grow as asolopreneur without giving up
your freedom or bringing on ateam. We cover the magic trio,
outsourcing, automation, and AI,plus a few bonus strategies you
might not have thought of. Fromset it and forget it systems to
trading services with othersolopreneurs, this conversation
(00:23):
is full of, oh, I can totally dothat moments.
So if you're ready to grow yourbusiness on your terms, keep
listening. You're listening tothe Aspiring Solopreneur, the
podcast for those just takingthe bold step or even just
thinking about taking that stepinto the world of solo
entrepreneurship. My name isCarly Ries, and my cohost Joe
(00:43):
Rando and I are your guides tonavigating this crazy but
awesome journey as a company ofone. We take pride in being part
of LifeStarr, a digital hubdedicated to all aspects of
solopreneurship that hasempowered and educated countless
solopreneurs looking to build abusiness that resonates with
their life's ambitions. We helppeople work to live, not live to
(01:05):
work.
And if you're looking for a getrich quick scheme, this is not
the show for you. So if you'reeager to gain valuable insights
from industry experts on runninga business the right way the
first time around or want tolearn from the missteps of
solopreneurs who've paved theway before you, then stick
around. We've got your backbecause flying solo in business
doesn't mean you're alone. SoJoe, we work with solopreneurs
(01:29):
day in and day out. And a lot oftimes, people ask the question,
want to grow my business, Iwanna scale my business, but I
don't wanna hire employees.
Because for whatever reason,there's the connotation that
comes with running a one personbusiness that the only way you
can get larger and larger is byhiring people. And that simply
isn't the case. I wanted toaddress a few of the ways you
(01:49):
can do that today. The firstone, and I said it two episodes
ago and I say it all the time,flying solo in business doesn't
mean you're alone. Outsource toother people so that you can
focus on building more products,focus your time on taking on
other clients, whatever you needto do.
But you don't need to take onall those tasks. Figure out what
you're not good at or what youdon't like doing, and outsource
(02:12):
those so that you can focus whatyou enjoy and what you're good
at to grow the business further.So just getting rid of some
tasks and getting some thingsoff your plate is a way that you
can scale and grow becauseyou're not bogged down by things
that you don't need to befocusing on.
Joe Rando (02:27):
I totally agree. I love seeing solopreneurs getting
other solopreneurs to work withthem, to help them with things,
maybe swapping back and forth.We've seen a lot of that, and
you know, getting somebody tohelp you with your books, you
help them with their marketing,or whatever it is. And it's
really really powerful. One ofthe things that I always say is,
(02:50):
being a solopreneur means thatyou're not trying to scale at
all costs because there is nomore powerful tool for scaling
than employees. Right?Contractors are a different
animal. You have less say, lesscontrol.
If you try to treat them likeemployees, the IRS can step in,
and it hurts when they do thatbecause they basically make you
pay all those, employment taxes.So when you're dealing with
(03:13):
contractors or other people likethat, you're limiting your
ability to control them, whichis fine because you're also
giving yourself some freedom.But the bottom line is, you're
not going to be able to scaleeasily without some level of
outsourcing and also obviouslyautomating, right? You need to
automate. So that idea ofoutsourcing really can make a
(03:38):
huge difference in terms ofhelping you to scale, regardless
of the fact that it's not gonnalet you scale at the rates of an
employee based business.
It's still worth doing.
Carly Ries (03:48):
Well, you just said automate. Can you elaborate on
that? Because I think that'shuge thing.
Joe Rando (03:56):
let's give a simple example. So right now, we are
working on building out paidtiers of LifeStarr.
And one of the things that we'redoing in that process is we're
letting people sign up on awaiting list to get into that
paid tier. And when they dothat, we want to basically send
them information that kindakeeps them engaged, you know,
emails that say, hey, you're onthe list. Here's what's
(04:19):
happening, we'll let you knowwhen we've got room to let you
into this plan that you'vesigned up for. And we don't have
to send those emails ourselves,we basically use a marketing
tool called HubSpot toautomatically once those people
sign up, fill that form outonline, it knows, send this
email, then wait a few days andsend this email, then wait a few
(04:41):
and so we don't have to worryabout doing that for everybody.
So we build out the emails,build out the experience, and
then the system does it for us,and it takes so much brainpower
away from us having to thinkabout doing that, because it
just happens automatically.
Carly Ries (04:58):
And it's so crazy, sometimes you even forget that
you said it because it's soefficient. I got a few email
responses last week from anautomated email that went out
that we kinda set and forget,and I was getting responses on
it. I was like, oh yeah, Iemailed these people yesterday.
it just can work so well for youbehind the scenes. But hand in
(05:19):
hand with automation so we usedto say automate, delegate.
Automate, delegate. And nowautomate, delegate AI, is the
third thing. Right? I mean, AI,the whole agent AI thing isn't
quite there yet. You know, youcan actually, have AI do the
work for you. At least, Iwouldn't trust it yet to, really
(05:41):
be taking actions for me, butboy, does it save time. I mean,
it can save a ton of time. Ihaven't been doing a lot of
social media lately because ofthe book and just heads down.
Joe Rando (05:54):
But when I was doing social media posts all the time,
and I'll be getting back tothat, I developed kind of a
formula that I like to use, kindof a recipe for the way I wanted
my post to look. And I taughtthat to ChatGPT, and then we go
in and I would just put in anidea, and I'd say format this,
and it would format it into aLinkedIn post that I could then
edit and post in LinkedIn, andit saved me tons of time from
(06:17):
having to implement my ownformula manually. So it really
saved a bunch of time doingthat.
Carly Ries (06:26):
It's amazing what you can train, like we'll use
ChatGPT just as that's the mostcommonly known one. But Joe, you
created a you're wrong ChatGPTthat as solopreneurs, you work
in a silo a lot, so you needsomebody to kinda tell you when
you're wrong about something,and you trained it to tell you
when you're wrong, which cansave so much time.
Joe Rando (06:45):
I did it as a joke. I was trying to make, something
funny I was gonna share with allof you. And I, basically told
it, you know, disagree. Tell mewhy I'm wrong, but be diligent.
Don't just make stuff up. Doyour research and and be smart
about it. And you know,generally be polite, but
occasionally throw a littlezinger in. And it does, but it's
(07:08):
surprisingly useful. One of theproblems with ChatGPT out of the
box is it's a little too nice.
It's a little too, hey, that's agreat idea. And that doesn't
always help because it's notalways a great idea. And this
one just basically says, yeah,that sounds good on paper, but,
and it'll give me all thesereasons why it really isn't
complete, or it isn't right, orI'm missing a point, And it's
(07:30):
shockingly helpful, and it justreally helps me adjust my
thinking.
Carly Ries (07:33):
Yeah, and just tie it back to how this helps with
scaling and everything, is itsaves you time. And you have a
new product and service, youwanna feel like, is this a good
idea? And ChatGPT will be like,nope. And here's why.
Joe Rando (07:47):
ChatGPT will be like, oh, great idea, you know. But if
you tell it to be a littlecritical, then all of a sudden
it gets a little more real and alot more helpful.
Carly Ries (07:57):
But another time saving thing that we've done
from an AI stand point that isgoing to help us scale because
we're using it as a way to dopaid tiers, is you trained it on
all five of our personas. AtLifeStarr, we have five
personas, three primary onesthat we're targeting right now,
and you put those personas intoChatGPT, you trained it, and so
(08:18):
now we could say one of ourpersonas is, for example, is
called experienced Erica. Andyou can now say, tweak this
email so that it relates toexperienced Erica. Because of
what you put in there, we nowhave that email with her voice,
with the type of messaging thatwe want, and you can apply it
across the board to any kind ofproject or service you wanna put
(08:39):
out there, which is crazy.
Joe Rando (08:41):
Yeah. Because you can basically be talking about the
same thing. You know, say, forexample, the solopreneur problem
solvers event, and describingthat to Erica is different than
describing it to somebody that'sstruggling. So Erica has
established it. We have somebodythat's persona that's
(09:01):
struggling, not that thingsaren't going the way they want
them to.
You wanna talk about that alittle differently for them. So,
not having to re craft the emailfor every persona, it really
saves some time, you know. Andit's more effective because what
happens is you get busy, you getcrazy, and I'll just send that
same email to everybody. But itdoesn't have the same effect as
(09:22):
when you're speaking theirlanguage.
Carly Ries (09:23):
Absolutely. So just in terms of scaling there, there
are three other ones that Iwanted to point out. One is
productizing your services andfiguring out ways to do that
because you don't always wannabe trading your time for money
if you're let's say you're acoach, do a coaching course.
Instead of doing one on one withone person, put a course
(09:45):
together that many people canget. Or another example is
instead of one to one, one tomany.
And instead of doing one on onecoaching, coach 10 people at one
time, get that income all in thesame hour that you would be
doing one on one coaching, justas an example.
Joe Rando (10:00):
Right. You can make a lot more money doing that. When
you do the math, you charge 25%of your one on one coaching
rate, but you do, you know,eight, ten people, that's a lot
more per hour.
Carly Ries (10:12):
Yeah. Absolutely. And then we started this episode
by talking about outsourcing andworking with others. But also I
don't wanna forget in terms ofworking with people, that
partnerships and collaborationsare also a great way to expose
each other to your each other'saudiences, to gain exposure in a
new area you may not haveotherwise. And you could do this
(10:33):
on trade and not spend a dimeand say, hey, I'm a designer,
you're a writer, let's combineour services, I'll show you to
my audience, you show me toyours, I'll recommend you if you
recommend me.
Bada bing bada boom, then youhave a new audience and you
didn't Do anything.
Joe Rando (10:48):
Right.
Carly Ries (10:49):
So I think I covered all my things.
Joe Rando (10:52):
We talked about digital products and courses.
That's important. Andrepurposing content is another
way that can help you to scaleif you find that you need to be
in multiple, you know, socialmedia platforms or something in
order to effectively scale, notcreating stuff from scratch, but
(11:13):
repurposing can be a powerfulway to kind of, get the content,
scaled up enough without havingto do all the extra work of
creating new content for asecond platform. If that makes
sense.
Carly Ries (11:29):
So there you have it. If you like these ideas and
you wanna learn from othersolopreneurs, and not just Joe
and I, be sure to visitlifestarr.com/intro and that is
our free and free foreverplatform where you can get
access to monthly educationaland networking events, resources
to help you as a solopreneur, aswell as an awesome engaging
(11:52):
community that will welcome youwith open arms. It's so great. I
love the people in ourcommunity, so be sure to join
that. The link is in the shownotes, but again,
lifestarr.com/intro
And don't forget to leave us afive star review, share this
episode with a friend, andsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform, includingYouTube. And we will see you
(12:13):
next time on The AspiringSolopreneur. You may be going
solo in business, but thatdoesn't mean you're alone. In
fact, millions of people are inyour shoes, running a one person
business and figuring it out asthey go. So why not connect with
them and learn from each other'ssuccesses and failures?
At LifeStarr, we're creating aone person business community
(12:33):
where you can go to meet and getadvice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.