216. Start Here: The Solopreneur Blueprint You Didn’t Know You Needed

Ever feel like you're building your solo business one guess at a time?

In this episode, Carly and Joe pull back the curtain on the Solopreneur Success Cycle, the foundational framework behind their new book Solopreneur Business for Dummies. From defining your goals (hello, Step Zero!) to tweaking, refining, and reimagining your business as it grows, they break down the entire cycle designed specifically for one-person businesses.

It's not a lecture, it’s a roadmap with a healthy side of real talk, laughs, and lessons you can apply right away. Whether you buy the book or not (but, like, you should), this series is your shortcut to building a business that actually works for you.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Ever wish someone handed you a roadmap for

(00:01):
solopreneurship? In thisepisode, Joe and I break down
the solopreneur success cycle.This is the framework behind our
new book, Solopreneur Businessfor Dummies. Learn the three
essential phases and eight stepsthat can help you start, run,
and improve your one personbusiness without the trial and
error headache. Plus, find outwhy step zero might just be your
secret weapon to success.

(00:23):
You're listening to the AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
those just taking the bold stepor even just thinking about
taking that step into the worldof solo entrepreneurship. My
name is Carly Ries and my cohostJoe Rando and I are your guides
to navigating this crazy butawesome journey as a company of
one. We take pride in being partof LifeStarr, a digital hub

(00:45):
dedicated to all aspects ofsolopreneurship that has
empowered and educated countlesssolopreneurs looking to build a
business that resonates withtheir life's ambitions. We help
people work to live, not live towork. And if you're looking for
a get rich quick scheme, this isnot the show for you.
So if you're eager to gainvaluable insights from industry
experts on running a businessthe right way the first time

(01:08):
around or want to learn frommissteps of solopreneurs who've
paved the way before you, thenstick around. We've got your
back because flying solo inbusiness doesn't mean you're
alone. Okay, listeners. So asyou just heard, we just talked

(02:03):
about this incredible offer thatwe are doing right now. And as
we lead up to the release of ourbook, Solopreneur Business for
Dummies, which saying that outloud, Joe, is still so crazy to
say.
But you may be wondering, like,okay, you talked about it
briefly in that teaser. What isthis book about? you can kind of

(02:24):
deduce what is solopreneurbusiness for dummies, we really
laid out for you. But the entirebook is based on a framework,
the solopreneur success cycle,that Joe, you actually came up
with. So I figured, I mean, Ihelped, but you this is your
brainchild.
And I feel like we should startwith an overview. Listeners, we

(02:45):
are gonna kinda do a series whenit's just Joe and I over the
next couple of months, kindadiving into highlights that we
discuss in the book. We're notgonna give away everything.
Obviously, we want you to buyit. But just really the
framework behind the methodologyof everything that we're
discussing.
Again, the Slopreneur SuccessCycle. Joe, why don't you dive
into it? You start. It's yourbaby.

Joe Rando (03:07):
Yeah. Well, let me first say that, this is not
gonna be like a we'll give youhalf of the info and leave you
hanging. There's so much in thebook about getting into the
details of nitty gritty that wecan give you the whole picture
here, and still, it's gonna beworth buying the book. So I'm
not worried in the least bit.You know, the whole aspect of
the solopreneur action plan,which is covered through the

(03:29):
book, and there's a link todownload your own copy so you
can create your own.
But, basically, it's a businessplan concept for solopreneurs
that kind of cuts through thenonsense that you don't need for
a one person business. But,anyway So I'm gonna not leave
anything high level out of here.Obviously, not going too far in
the weeds because these areshort podcasts. But so the

(03:50):
Solopreneur Success Cycle isdefined by three phases. The
first one is getting started,starting your business. A lot of
you listening have probablyalready gone through that phase.
If you looked at what we puttogether here, maybe you'd say,
gee, I wish I had done it thatway. I hope you'd say that.
But then the second phase isdoing, but while you're doing,

(04:11):
you're learning. So you'rerunning your business, and
you're learning what's working,especially what's not working or
what could be better. or whatmaybe you want to be different
for your life. And then lastlyis the, improving phase where
after you figure out all thethings that are going wrong or
not going the way you want themto or could be better, you

(04:32):
implement some of thoseimprovements. And then you go
back to doing, so it's a cycle.
You're going around in a circle.Right? And you're gonna put a
link to an article that showsthese graphics. Right, Carly?

Carly Ries (04:43):
Yeah. We actually have an entire page on our
website, that we'll link to inour show notes.

Joe Rando (04:48):
So these three phases are broken up actually into
eight different steps. And thefirst step is called goals and
success. We call it step zerobecause nobody ever does this.
Everybody says, oh, I'm gonnastart a business.
I start a business. And the nextthing you know, there's a good
chance they're running abusiness they don't like running
or isn't doing what they neededto do or isn't making enough
money for them or whatever. Sowe start off with this, we call

(05:11):
step zero, defining what yourgoals you have for starting a
one person business.
It's not about becoming abillionaire, I hope, because if
you do, you wanna have employeesto do that. So there's something
else about your life orsomething about what you want
that a one person businessserves. Once you've got those
goals defined, you have toenvision your business, and we

(05:32):
try to encourage people to thinkoutside the box a little bit.
You know, just because you're aCPA doesn't mean you have to go
and do accounting. Maybe youwanna do something related, but
not, just a freelance accountingperson or bookkeeper.
So this that step. And then whenyou decide what you wanna do,
you gotta plan it. You gottafigure out the details of how
you're gonna get it up andrunning. Next step, which is

(05:55):
step three, is getting set up.
You gotta set up the businessthat you've now planned. Once
you've got it set up, now you'rein business. So now you're
running, executing, learning.That is step four.
And as you execute and learn fora while, at some point you
decide, hey, I'm gonna step backand rethink this business a
little bit. Or maybe, we have astep five called refine, or

(06:20):
maybe reimagine. So it's refine,reimagine, depending on how the
business is going. It's, acouple of tweaks you need, you
refine it. My God, this isn'tmaking enough money, or I am
hating my life, or gee, I see away better opportunity, then you
might reimagine it.
Go through that process ofrefining or reimagining the
business, decide what you'reactually gonna do, which is step

(06:40):
six. And finally, step seven isadjust. Make the adjustments
you've decided to make. At thatpoint, you're going back to
executing and learning. So theidea here is that you have this
process of starting, running,and improving your business
continuously.
Does that makes sense?

Carly Ries (07:00):
It makes sense to me, but I'm very biased.

Joe Rando (07:02):
Look at the pictures on the link from the show notes,
because that will tell a muchbetter story than my describing
this thing. But it basicallylooks like kind of a spiral that
circles back on itself. So let'sjust dig in really briefly why.
So it's a flywheel, because youshould never be done, right?

(07:23):
You should never be done withyour business. Something's
changing. You're changing, theworld is changing, your
customers are changing,something's going on out there.
so it's always good to have aprocess of, thinking about what
you're doing and makingadjustments of some kind.
Second thing I would wannastress is that step zero is the
secret weapon. If you don'tdecide why you're doing this and

(07:47):
what you want out of it, you'regoing to find yourself building
a business that isn't quiteserving what you hoped for. And,
Carly, you're gonna talk aboutthat a lot, I think, the next
podcast episode.

Carly Ries (07:59):
Mhmm. Yep. Absolutely.

Joe Rando (08:01):
And the reason we did this is that trial and error is
expensive. It costs money. Itcosts time. It costs, just brain
damage as we used to call it.You know, your brain hurts when
you make a mistake and you haveto turn around.
So, there's some things we cando to avoid making the rookie
mistakes and get this thingright or closer to right the
first time. So that's whatthat's about. I wanna assure

(08:25):
people that this is not likesome MBA framework that I, took
and tweaked. This is a groundup. I didn't even look at any
other processes when I came upwith this.
It was over a summer. It was thesummer that you were actually,
having your youngest, I think,if I remember. And, I just kinda

(08:46):
started a solopreneur business.I started a second one, had been
an entrepreneur. I said, what'sdifferent?
And just came up with this, forsolopreneurs. And so that kinda
covers the solopreneur successcycle at a high level and why.
Do you have anything to add oranything you wanna ask me,
Carly?

Carly Ries (09:07):
No. I think this makes a lot of sense. I mean,
like you said, I would encourageeverybody to click on the link
in the show notes to the page onour website that has the
diagrams and everything. I thinkyou'll find that really helpful.
Just refer to that. Like I said,we're doing this series, and
that'll be helpful throughouteach of these episodes. But,
whether you buy the book or not,which we certainly hope you do,

(09:27):
these short segments that we'regonna be sharing with you will
hopefully be helpful in yourbusiness regardless if you have
that supplemental piece ofliterature. Hopefully
regardless. But speaking ofwhich, next time we're gonna be
talking about those goals andthat step zero, so be sure to
tune in.
And of course, as alwayslisteners, leave that five star

(09:49):
review, share this episode witha friend, subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform, andwe will see you next time on the
Aspiring Solopreneur. You may begoing solo in business, but that
doesn't mean you're alone. Infact, millions of people are in
your shoes, running a one personbusiness and figuring it out as
they go. So why not connect withthem and learn from each other's

(10:10):
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.