Do You Have What it Takes to Succeed as a Solo Entrepreneur?

An ever-increasing number of people leave the office and turn on their computer as a way to make enough money to pay their bills. If you are one of them, and you want to learn what it takes to succeed with Internet marketing in any industry or niche, there are certain questions you should ask yourself first. Perhaps the most important is, “Do you have what it takes to succeed as a solo entrepreneur?”

 

Many people peruse online websites and social media pages looking for the perfect opportunity that they believe will lead them easily down the path to riches. So many report making big money online, often from a beach in some tropical paradise, and you want the same thing. So, you explore different opportunities, invest in various schemes, roll through a few tutorials about how to advertise, and completely fail to make a living.

 

This is not what being entrepreneur is all about.

 

What is a Solo Entrepreneur?

 

The definition of the word “entrepreneur” is a person who creates, organizes, manages, and accepts all risk for a particular company, organization, or professional entity. It comes from the French word for undertaking.

 

Buying into a plan created by someone else and throwing up a few ads in hope of recruiting a downline or making sales has very little to do with creating, organizing, managing, or accepting risk. Instead, an entrepreneur, especially one that plans to operate alone, is responsible for all aspects of their business.

 

What Makes a Quality Online Opportunity?

 

If you do not already have an idea about what you are going to do to make money, which is, by the way, one of the top qualities of a person with entrepreneurial qualities, you need to understand what opportunities are made up. You want to make money just like all the other millions of people constantly searching for ways to earn on the Internet.

 

Getting an idea or at least a topic of interest to form an idea around is relatively easy. Determining how to make money with it is the next step. Finally, you need to figure out how to attract other people who want to give you that money for whatever it is you offer.

 

These three rules of quality opportunities apply for all entrepreneurial efforts:

 

• You need a product or service that people will spend money on.
• You need a way of introducing the product or service to those people.
• You need a strategy for expanding your business for long-term success.

 

If you are uncomfortable selling things to people, approaching people with information or ideas, and have no knowledge of best business practices, customer service, marketing, or personal and professional finance, you may not be ready yet to be a solo entrepreneur. Luckily, all of these things can be learned in time.

 

A Plan and Goals From the Start Determine Your Future

 

While it is possible to make changes along the way, and even completely revamp or revitalize a flagging business, creating the best plan and strategy from the start is a very important step for every entrepreneur. Why waste time with an ill-conceived plan when you can hit the ground running on a path that you know will lead to success?

 

The ability to plan and organize our essential for quick and ongoing success when you are starting a business or money-making plan on your own. You can start by answering these questions:

 

What need am I trying to fill?

 

No matter what you end up selling, it has to be needed or wanted by someone else if you want to make money. If you want to solve people’s IT problems, you may sell computer repair services. If you want to fill the need for people to have healthy pets, consider an organic pet food e-commerce shop.

 

How am I going to fill it?

 

Who will provide the computer repair services for your business? What will be your source for organic pet food? Besides the basic questions of asset acquisition, you also need to determine the method for providing them to your customers or clients. For example will your computer repair expert give advice and directions over a virtual chat platform or do you operate locally in the community?

 

How will I convince people they need my solution enough to pay for?

 

There are many IT specialists and many dog food brands. If you do not come up with a reason why somebody should buy yours instead of competitors, nobody else will either.

 

Even if you answer all of these questions excellently, and create a detailed business plan and marketing strategy, you still may not succeed right away or at all. Sounds dismal, right? The truth of the matter is, that the vast majority of online businesses fail or are abandoned within their first six months or year.

 

Some of this is because entrepreneurs simply can’t afford their plan. Either they schedule too much paid marketing then they have financing for, or they need an additional income to pay their everyday bills and therefore lacked time to orchestrate their plan.

 

You either need to have everything in place first or become highly adaptable in both your professional and personal lives.

 

Remember the definition of “entrepreneur?” It involved being someone who assumed all the risk for a new venture, not just the rewards. If you are not prepared to do that, it might make more sense to start a different opportunity or stick with your day job.

 

That might seem harsh, but the Internet landscape for new small business owners is quite the same. With excess amount of competition in almost any industry or niche, you must struggle harder to find your unique selling position. With the proliferation of scams and fraud, you have to work harder to convince people to trust you. In the long run, becoming a solo entrepreneur is almost more a test of character than of business management and marketing skills.