🎁 Avoid This Popular Time to Evaluate Your Business

This week’s issue is a 3.5-minute read.

Hi there, Solopreneur! 

🎁 Birthdays bring a bag of mixed emotions.

You reflect, celebrate, and imagine what you’ll do with your next year on Earth.

My birthday arrives during these year-end holidays.

Some years I dive into my birthday celebration with boundless energy, and other years I take a more subtle approach.

Every birthday, I spend quiet time reviewing my victories, mistakes, and goals.

This year, I celebrated my birthday with a sensational donut (my dessert weakness) and took a long walk through my Victorian hometown to reflect on my business progress in 2023.

The Victories

• Launched, re-built and re-launched my website: erikduncan.com

• Started the Solopreneur Doorway newsletter (this is issue #18!)

• Posted every day for one full year on LinkedIn (OCT 2022 - OCT 2023)

• Wrote multiple blogs on solopreneur strategy, virtual assistants, bookkeepers and business plans

The Mistakes

• Wrote all the copy for version 1 of my website

• Created lead magnets without fully understanding my customers

• Built a digital course before testing the idea in public

2024 Goals

• Reach 1,000 newsletter subscribers

• Write 8 blog posts per month on strategy, operations and finance for solopreneurs

• Secure 5 guest spots on business/solopreneur podcasts

• Launch a YouTube channel to help solopreneurs convert their skills into solutions people buy

As a solopreneur, you want to move forward with positive progress and momentum.

You tackle new obstacles, strive to drive more revenue, and tweak your strategy so you can win and maintain consistent business.

While November - December are common times to reflect on your annual business progress, I have a different strategy for you.

Rather than using the last two months of the year as your review and planning time, use your birthday!

Your birthday represents a milestone in your life adventure, and your solo business is an important component of your life journey.

Celebrate your entry into this incredible universe and the 365 days you worked to create your amazing business accomplishments!

🍰 On your birthday, you can have your favorite dessert and then celebrate what went well (and evaluate where you need to improve).

The common mistake I see with solopreneurs in years 0 to 3 is that they move too quickly (or too slowly) to accomplish specific goals for their business.

When they don’t hit the goal, their frustration grows, their energy dwindles, and they lose faith that their solo business dream will ever occur.

In addition, they spend too much time on the ‘wrong’ projects and ignore the ones that will save time and jumpstart success.

If you want to turn your skills into solutions people buy, it’s essential that you shrug your shoulders at FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and focus on the important steps.

Yes, it’s important to have lofty goals and go after them; yet, be careful not to extend too far into areas that don’t generate positive returns.

To simplify your annual (birthday business) review, here are a few guidelines on where to put your time, energy, and resources in the first four years.

⚠️ Caution: These guidelines are in sand. Not cement.

The Freshman Year

(You have a full-time gig and you’re starting your move to the solopreneur space.)

Strategy is the most important aspect of your business.

It’s essential that you test and improve your strategy each year to ensure you remain on the right track.

• Write your 1-page strategy statement

• Chat with your financial advisor to gauge your financial health

• Chat with a business attorney to make sure you follow the guidelines for your city, state and country

• Chat with an accountant about how to set up your financial accounts

• Determine which social media platform attracts your ideal customer and work to expand your presence on that platform

• Establish a basic website and be sure to include the proper disclaimers and policy language (check with your business attorney)

The Sophomore Year

(You still have a full-time gig and you’re earning revenue from your solopreneur business.)

• Review and refine your 1-page strategy statement

• Review the metrics for your social media platform (followers, leads, and conversions) and strive to grow your followers by 20 to 30%

• Review Google Analytics to understand and improve your website's performance (traffic, conversions, and downloads of lead magnets)

• Consider starting a weekly email or newsletter campaign to grow your visibility and bond with your audience

• Review your primary product-service offer and test a price increase (20 to 25%)

The Junior Year

(You still have a full-time gig and you’re generating 20% to 30% of your full-time employee income.)

• Review and refine your 1-page strategy statement

• Create a simple financial model to evaluate how you can bring a virtual assistant on to your team (chat with your accountant)

• Review Google Analytics to improve your website’s performance (you want to expand your reach and site visits by 20% to 50% over last year)

• Evaluate the return on investment for purchasing ads to increase your newsletter’s subscription list

• Review the financials for your primary product or service; should you increase the price by another 10%, and can you improve the offer to attract a wider audience?

The Senior Year

(You are in a position to stay with your full-time gig or take a slight reduction in income to pursue your solopreneur adventure full-time.)

• Review and refine your 1-page strategy statement

• Evaluate your financial performance and consider increasing the role of your virtual assistant(s). Can they address all your social media activity and interactions with clients?

• Review Google Analytics to improve your website’s performance (grow your site traffic by 20 to 25%)

• Meet with your financial advisor to see if you can exit your employee role and become a full-time solopreneur.

• Evaluate your primary product-service offer(s) and consider a secondary offer to expand your product line

• Review all potential income sources, including affiliate marketing and advertising on your website

If you skip a grade and get to your senior year faster, congratulations!

Every solopreneur moves at their own pace.

Happy New Year, and remember to celebrate all you’ve accomplished in 2023!

😀 Try the birthday business review model in 2024.

🔑 Stay curious and keep opening doors.

-Erik