Solopreneurs, Stop Winging It and Get Your Systems Together

Watch the Episode on YouTube

Ready to stop reinventing the wheel every time you work? In this episode, Carly and Joe are talking about why solopreneurs need to embrace systems from day one!

Whether you're managing your social media, responding to client emails, or handling finances, consistency is key. And trust us, it’s not just about saving time, it’s about building a business that runs like clockwork.

Hear how documenting your processes can free up your schedule, boost your brand, and give you more time for what matters. Tune in for the must-have tips to make your solo business smoother and stress-free!

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

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, click here to check out LifeStarr Intro!  

Episode Transcript

Carly Ries: Absolutely. And let's say you do have a photographic memory, and you can remember everything you do for every single task. If that is you, good on you, and I would love to have a conversation because I am envious of that skill set. But I think the other thing and the other important reason you wanna document all of this is because if you wanna scale your business and not hire employees at some point, you're gonna have to outsource. And if you outsource, it's gonna be so much easier to do that if you bring on somebody to do your marketing, if you bring on a VA to handle your emails.

If you already have those processes documented, you can just say, hey, this is how I respond to this email. This is how I create social media posts. This is how I do x y z. And it's already there. And as you do these things, jot it down so you're not taking really any extra time.

It might be a little bit of work at the beginning, but oh my goodness, it'll save you so much time on the back end. And let's say writing these processes down isn't your thing, record it. There are tools like Loom where you can just record what you're doing while you're doing it. With whoever you pass it off to, they can just watch the video and there's no extra time involved because you're just documenting it on your screen for somebody else. So I think that is another really big reason to document early and often, so that eventually you have the ability to hand that task off to somebody else, should the time ever come, which for a lot of solopreneurs it does.

Joe Rando: Absolutely. It's a great point. Plus, you know, you can tweak it. You get better, you figure out what's working better and you tweak it and it gets better over time, and then when you hand it off, you've given them an optimized system.

So, yeah, I totally agree

Carly Ries: Well, the other thing is if you document things that are client facing, the consistency and the repetition will really help build your credibility. It'll separate you as a solopreneur from you as a freelancer. You will look like a real efficient business as opposed to just sending one off things and being inconsistent. I mean, people look at your brand, they want that consistency. They want to know what to expect from you.

And if you have these processes in place, that's a really great way to do it, to build rapport.

Joe Rando: Yeah. you think about it like McDonald's, right? It's by no means close to anything near the world's best hamburger. I mean, one might argue it is well below average, but it is consistent. You can go to McDonald's in Hoboken or Tokyo, and you're gonna get a very similar product so people know what they're getting, and that consistency builds trust. not that I'm suggesting you have a below average product, but clearly there's a benefit to being consistent in what you deliver to your customers and having these, standard operating procedures and templates really helps to achieve that and can really help build that trust.

Carly Ries: Joe, it's so funny you mentioned McDonald's as the example for that because I'm not a huge McDonald's person. you won't see me driving there on a run Tuesday night to grab a burger. However, my family and I road trip all the time. We love seeing the quote unquote flyover states. it's just kind of our jam.

And when we're on the road, we always stop at McDonald's for bites to eat because they consistently have clean bathrooms. I know that is like wild, but when you go to a fast food place when you're on the road, it's a wild card. You never know what you're gonna get. And for us, McDonald's always has the cleanest bathrooms across the country, which is so weird. Because of that, we end up getting a burger when we're road tripping.

But it is that consistency. They obviously have a process in place, like go check every thirty minutes or whatever, but you know what to expect. And so taking that analogy and applying it to your business, whether it's digital or brick and mortar, that's my connotation now with them. it has nothing even to do with the burgers.

Joe Rando: It makes sense. It makes complete sense. You just know what you're gonna get, and if you know you're gonna get is something you want, you're there.

Carly Ries: Mhmm. And Joe, in my opinion, perhaps the most important reason to set up systems and processes is that everything will start to seem like clockwork. And as a solopreneur, a lot of you got into this type of business because of lifestyle, and you want to be able to pick your kids up at a soccer game, or go on a hike with your dog whenever you want. And if you can predict how things are gonna work because you've documented it, and because you have it all down to a science, it really frees up that time to achieve that solopreneur lifestyle that a lot of you are looking for.

Joe Rando: You know, I think about when we first started doing the free events we do for solopreneurs, and do you remember how much work and stress it was in the early days? I was like, oh, and all this planning, but we figured it out, we put together a whole process, we've got two different events, and we have a whole process for how it works. And now it kinda feels pretty I mean, it just feels like kind of, riding a bike.

Carly Ries: I mean, to the point, we had an event today, and while the event was going on, I knew what stuff I had to do that needed to be done after the event. And I was doing it during the event because I can anticipate it and I know what steps are in place and what my responsibilities are because it just becomes such repetition. So, yeah. Great great point.

Anyway, solopreneurs do not neglect this. We know so many of you do. I have in the past. We are not immune to it. But please do not forget to document these systems and processes.

And don't forget to join LifeStarr Intro. It's lifestarr.com/intro

We have an awesome community of solopreneurs. We have awesome resources for solopreneurs, events, and it is all free, and it will be free forever. That link is in the show notes as well.

And be sure to leave that five star review. Share this episode with a friend. It helps with our rating so that more of you can find these episodes. we will see you next time on The Aspiring Solopreneur. You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone.

In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.