231. 7 Failure Modes That Can Sink Your Solopreneur Business

You’ve worked hard to get your solopreneur business off the ground, but what happens when things start to stall, or worse, head in the wrong direction?

In this episode of The Aspiring Solopreneur, Carly and Joe dig into the “improving” phase of the Solopreneur Success Cycle. They uncover the seven most common failure modes that can quietly sabotage your progress, from burnout and stagnation to external threats and even your own mindset.

Whether your business is thriving or just surviving, these insights will help you spot trouble early, course-correct with confidence, and keep your business aligned with the life you want to live.

Popular Questions and Answers From The Episode

What’s the first thing solopreneurs should address when improving their business?

If there’s an existential threat, that has to come first. These are big, business-ending issues—like a major competitor undercutting your prices, new technology disrupting your industry, or a business model that simply isn’t working. Before worrying about tweaks or small improvements, solopreneurs need to tackle these threats head-on to ensure survival.

What are the “seven failure modes” solopreneurs should watch out for?

Joe outlined seven common failure modes:

1. Misalignment – your business no longer matches your goals or interests.
2. Overload – you’re working too much and burning out.
3. Money problems – not enough revenue or profit to sustain you.
4. External risks – outside forces like platform changes or new competitors.
5. Stagnation – growth stalls or customers start slipping away.
6. Execution failure – not delivering quality results to clients.
7. Psychological barriers – mindset issues like fear, procrastination, or undercharging.

Recognizing which one you’re facing is the first step toward fixing it.

How do solopreneurs know when it’s time to reimagine their business?

It’s time to reimagine when your business stops serving your life. Even if it’s profitable and running smoothly, if you’ve lost enthusiasm, feel misaligned, or your personal goals have shifted, that’s a signal to step back. Sometimes improving your business isn’t about fixing broken systems—it’s about reshaping it so it supports the life you want today, not the one you wanted years ago.

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Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Well, we've made it to the improving phase of the

(00:02):
Solopreneur Success Cycle, andthis is where the real
transformation happens. In thisepisode, Joe and I unpack the
seven failure modes that cansneak up on solopreneurs, from
overload to stagnation to thepsychological barriers that keep
you stuck. Whether your businessis facing an existential threat
or just feels misaligned withthe life you want, we'll help
you spot the red flags and startmoving towards solutions. So

(00:24):
tune in and find out how torefine, reimagine, and rebuild
so your business serves you, notthe other way around. You're
listening to The AspiringSolopreneur, the podcast for
anyone on the solo businessjourney, whether you're just
toying with the idea, takingyour first bold step, or have
been running your own show foryears and want to keep growing,

(00:44):
refining, and thriving.
I'm Carly Ries, and along withmy cohost Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
of one. As part of LifeStarr, adigital hub dedicated to all
things solopreneurship, we helppeople design businesses that
align with their life'sambitions so they can work to
live, not live to work. Ifyou're looking for a get rich

(01:06):
quick scheme, this is not theplace for you. But if you want
real world insights fromindustry experts, lessons from
the successes and stumbles offellow solopreneurs, and
practical strategies forbuilding and sustaining a
business you love, you're in theright spot. Because flying solo
in business doesn't mean you'realone.
No matter where you are in yourjourney, we've got your back.

(02:09):
Joe, I cannot believe it. We arefinally in the improving phase
of this solopreneur successcycle. I feel like it has been a
long time coming for this. Everyevery component is important in
the solopreneur success cycle.
Improving your business is soimportant, especially if you
need it, but it's good knowledgeeven if you don't think you're
there yet. So let's kick offtoday. Let's talk about refining

(02:32):
and reimagining your business asit relates to improving your
business in that face of theSolopreneur Success Cycle.

Joe Rando (02:38):
Cool. Yeah. So last time we talked about documenting
the issues, And every once in awhile, you come across an issue
that you need to think aboutright away. sometimes it's just
some stupid little thing that'smaking your life miserable, but
there are existential threats.
I just wanna start with those. alot of these changes could just

(02:59):
be tweaks, improvements, makingthings better, fixing some
annoying thing. But,occasionally, there are
existential threats, and youdon't wanna ignore those. You
don't wanna hold off on those.So if it's something that's
going to destroy your business,either something isn't working
from the start or somethingchanged, you know, some chat GPT
came along or some newcompetitor came on the horizon

(03:22):
that's, selling for a tenth ofwhat you're selling for because
it's a big company, whatever.
You know, if you find yourselfwith one of these, you don't
really wanna be thinking aboutthe tweaks. I mean, obvious to
say that, but it's justimportant. So first and
foremost, if there's anexistential threat, tackle that
first. Ignore everything else.Moving on from that, we have

(03:43):
identified kind of what we callthe seven failure modes of
solopreneurs, things that thesemight may not be existential,
but they may be things thatjust, are making the business
fail in the context of notserving your life. So when we
talk about successfulsolopreneur businesses, we're
not talking about, seven figuresolopreneurs. We're talking

(04:05):
about businesses that serve yourlife and your goals. So
there are different ways theycan fill. I'd just like to walk
through those.
I think it's important. So,sometimes things happen where,
the business is fine, but you'vechanged. We have people that
come along and say, you know,I've been doing this for for
seven years. I wanna dosomething else. And they just

(04:28):
have a change of what they need.
So you need to keep that inmind. That can be something
that's wrong with your business.It's not really wrong with your
business, but it's now no longerserving you. these failure
modes, as I said, there areseven. I'm gonna just walk
through them briefly.
And the first one ismisalignment. It might just be
something isn't quite rightabout what you have to do, what
you're doing in your business,and what you want, and that can

(04:50):
lead to burnout. So you wannalook at a business and say, hey.
You know, I'm bored or I don'thave any enthusiasm.
There's probably something aboutyour business that's not really
matching your needs. So keep aneye for that.

Carly Ries (05:06):
And you'll know. It's not like you'll be
surprised from it. You will havethis feeling that things are
hard.

Joe Rando (05:12):
Yeah. I mean, I don't know about anybody else. If
you've had a job or I had abusiness that morphed into
something I didn't wanna run,and you just don't wanna go to
work. You're just not excited.You know? And it's not like now
I get up. oh, I get to do this.because I love what I'm doing.
Failure mode two is overload.you're working too hard. And

(05:34):
that's an obvious one. You know?You're just putting in too many
hours a day, can't get all thework done.
There's no time for strategy.Maybe your health's suffering.
Those kinds of things. That's areally important one to address.
And we don't have time in thisSoundByte episode to go into all
the ways to address this, but,you're never gonna be able to

(05:55):
scale chaos. So if it's notletting you have a life around
the business, at least after thebeginning sometimes the
beginning can be hard. But afterif the day to day

(06:16):
know, this is happening, butyou're you're either not getting
customers or the customersaren't profitable enough to to
pay the bills, and you're notmaking enough money to survive.
Obviously, an important one toaddress. Lots of ways to do
that. As I said, we're justgonna cover the concepts here.
All the other stuff is in thebook, or, if you join us over at

(06:37):
LifeStarr, we get into all thisstuff.
Failure mode four is externalrisks. So a real good one of
those recently was ChatGPT, anda lot of people that are
freelancers are like, uh-oh.what am I gonna do now if
ChatGPT is a pretty goodcopywriter, for example? What am
I gonna do as a copywriter? Andyou know, there are ways to get

(07:00):
around this. It can be thingslike, you have a big following
on Instagram, and your accountget suspended. There are lots of
different things externally thatcan come along and mess you up,
and you didn't do anythingwrong.
So, the next one is stagnation.The business was growing, all of

(07:23):
a sudden, it just starts tostagnate. it's not growing the
way you wanted it to, or it'sgetting to the point where you
start to feel like you're gonnastart losing customers. You
know, it feels stale. That'ssomething that you need to worry
about. Failure mode six isexecution failure. You're not

(07:45):
delivering properly. It's notgoing the way it should in terms
of the product, the results thatyou're delivering to your
client. And this is on you.You've got all these ideas, but
you're not putting something outthere that's actually working
for your customers. And that'sobviously a real problem.

Carly Ries (08:01):
That's the whole overpromise a deliver syndrome.

Joe Rando (08:04):
Yeah. don't do that. Absolutely. And then, the last
one that we've identified ispsychological barriers. You're
not doing things that you knowyou should be doing. You're
avoiding, going out and tryingto generate leads doing the
prospecting, or you're notcharging enough even though you

(08:26):
know you should be chargingmore, overthinking or feeling
isolated. These kinds of thingsthat can come up and you know,
these psychological barriers toyou doing what you know you
should do. And those are thekinds of things that you really
need to think about. Now none ofthese are quick fixes, but all
of them are things that you canaddress if you understand first

(08:48):
and foremost what the problemis.
And it makes it so much easierto think about solutions when
you know what the issue is. So,try to figure that out, and
you'll be much much closer to asolution to the problem once you
can at least name the problem.

Carly Ries (09:02):
in the next episode, we're gonna be talking about
deciding which changes to make.So listeners, be sure to stay
tuned for that. But for thisepisode, thank you so much for
tuning in. As always, leave thatfive star review for real. Share
this episode with a friend andsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform.
And we'll see you next time onThe Aspiring Solopreneur. You

(09:24):
may be going solo in business,but that doesn't mean you're
alone. In fact, millions ofpeople are in your shoes,
running a one person businessand figuring it out as they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
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

(09:45):
community.lifestarr.com.