Examples of successful solopreneurs

[cheksbry]

I think it says something that it is so hard to dig up successful solopreneurs. As a lifestyle choice it probably means remaining somewhat anonymous. I think it must also drastically reduce your chances for success.

OP - are you opposed to employees? I love employees because they give me scale and lifestyle.

Hello Get right! Have you setup a system( inclusive of employees) that can run without you?, that's quite some challenge for someone building a business from scratch

 

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[Ronnie]

The very man that runs this forum and wrote the greatest business and self improvement book of all time....

 

[Get Right]

Hello Get right! Have you setup a system( inclusive of employees) that can run without you?, that's quite some challenge for someone building a business from scratch

Yes, this is one of the keys to building a salable business. I had to get some scale going to make it happen though.

That's a great question BTW. I will make a thread showing how I did this.

 

[rkmalo1]

Online:

Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Tim Ferriss. Jason Calacanis. All have very small teams (mostly virtually)

This guy: http://www.mrmodem.net/ - EXTREMELY successful selling a $5/month email newsletter teaching seniors how to use technology - started in the 90s.

Offline:

This guy: David Abrams. Billionaire. 3 person team. http://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-worlds-one-man-cash-machine-1401747769

I don't think running at it solo or near solo limits your income at all. Look at MJ, small team, multi-millionaire. Instagram = 100 million users, 9 or so person team when sold $1 billion.

He's the only successful solo-app-developer I can think of who's still making apps all on his own, when the market is dominated by large companies today.

I beg to differ (ie chad muerta, Nick D'Aloisio, Dong Nguyen (flappy bird - solo guy making $50k+/day) these examples: http://www.slideshare.net/impigermobile/7-iphone-app-millionaires, etc, etc). I think it's still very possible for an solo app developer to make a hit app alone.

Let's be honest, most successful people don't write books and/or actively participate online.

I'd argue that besides MJ, Allen Wong and few others who actively promote their philosophies and share their skills online, it's much better to find or at least pay attention to businesses/people who are not promoting something, many of which are solo-entrepreneurs kicking a$$ alone. They may be hard to find, but you can find them.

 

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[Andy Black]

I will make a thread showing how I did this.

Looking forward to that. I suspect I'm fast approaching this point...

 

[Get Right]

Looking forward to that. I suspect I'm fast approaching this point...

For your use and enjoyment https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ur-business-with-an-organization-chart.57222/

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Yea, I was just gonna say I've been a solo entrepreneur running a publishing business and this forum for that last 7 years and I love it. Income's not bad either.

 

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[eliquid]

I know a ton of people that solo and have made anywhere from $0 to several million on their own.

I was a solo for years as an affiliate and digital marketer and did rather well on my own.

I currently have a partner on a SaaS project, but I've been solo for a long time and made a good life out of it.

 

[jazb]

You want to go fastlane without the use of employees? with the internet, its very possible. but theres always gonna be a cap on it

 

[davedev]

You may find this interesting

http://www.startupsfortherestofus.c...launched-a-7-figure-saas-app-with-nate-grahek

http://blog.leadpages.net/nate-grahek-stickyalbums-interview/

 

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[Ninjakid]

Online:

Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas, Tim Ferriss. Jason Calacanis. All have very small teams (mostly virtually)

This guy: http://www.mrmodem.net/ - EXTREMELY successful selling a $5/month email newsletter teaching seniors how to use technology - started in the 90s.

Offline:

This guy: David Abrams. Billionaire. 3 person team. http://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-worlds-one-man-cash-machine-1401747769

I don't think running at it solo or near solo limits your income at all. Look at MJ, small team, multi-millionaire. Instagram = 100 million users, 9 or so person team when sold $1 billion.



I beg to differ (ie chad muerta, Nick D'Aloisio, Dong Nguyen (flappy bird - solo guy making $50k+/day) these examples: http://www.slideshare.net/impigermobile/7-iphone-app-millionaires, etc, etc). I think it's still very possible for an solo app developer to make a hit app alone.

Let's be honest, most successful people don't write books and/or actively participate online.

I'd argue that besides MJ, Allen Wong and few others who actively promote their philosophies and share their skills online, it's much better to find or at least pay attention to businesses/people who are not promoting something, many of which are solo-entrepreneurs kicking a$$ alone. They may be hard to find, but you can find them.

Agreed.

I can think of

Crucial element.

 

[teabag]

It depends on the business and the product/service provided.

Everyone starts on their own until they need help to expand. I couldn't imagine packaging 300+ products a day, dealing with walk in customers, maintaing website, adding new eBay ads, answering eBay questions, answering phone calls, meetings with suppliers...

Yikes, the list is endless!

Yes you may start off solo, but being an entrepreneur doesn't mean working on your own only. It's about creating a need to satisfy a market essentially...

And sometimes you will need investors, employees and even a partner to satisfy that need. Remember, it's not about YOU as an entrepreneur. It's about what value you can provide to the people.


BUT I do understand where you're coming from in regards to your question... I guess I'd say a freelancer filling a few needs, wants, good or services solopreneur

 

[ThinkDifferent]

There are no special details . I'll just answer here, maybe it helps somebody else too.

I use http://www.ebuero.de (German company, but they also offer English and French speaking secretaries, which I'm not using right now). I use the standard (mid-level) pricing option with a few addons (toll free number, 24/7 service, additional number with different instruction that I use for my business partners). Maybe I'll change to the higher option soon, because I think with my volume it will be cheaper.

The setup is really a breeze. They give you a new phone number and pick up calls in your name at that number immediately. My main number is a VOIP number, so I just forwarded it to the new number and set it up in the backend so that they see that thats my other number.

You can set up basic instructions in the backend, like "never forward, I'll always call back. tell them I'm on the golf course" or "always forward after greeting, except from 2-4pm".

For more detailed instructions just call them and they can set up a lot for you. For example I have different instructions for day and night, and some FAQs that save me a lot of emails. Also for each request category I have a 2nd set of instructions, e.g. for technical problems they ask what exactly the problem is, which OS, which browser, etc or for order status requests they ask for the order number.

I'm constantly refining this, for example in the future I want to add an option in my order backend for the secretaries to check order statuses or make basic changes like order address corrections. So they can do some simple tasks of a virtual assistant too.

If you want to know something more specific feel free to PM me.

Why are u such a boss?
Very nice information man, thanks for that.



On topic:

Yes its possible to be a solopreneur, I was this in my last venture, lemme tell you: NOT FUN.

Was selling 8-9k euro of orders daily. Only had some people in China Vietnam and Russia doing the production and some guy helping online to do stuff, but this wasnt an employee because he got paid for the amount of products he did.

In my next business that I will start in a couple of months I will do it very different, Ill do the production in Amsterdam, I calculate how many I can produce per day and find several people in advance who can help do it. Also I will find a very talented guy with accounting skills and will steal him away from a business by paying him more.

 

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[Jon L]

I know this is an old thread, but it was an interesting topic, so here's my contribution:

The guy that started the dating website Plenty of Fish was a solopreneur. Absolute genius (in all senses of the word...he had that nerd-genius weirdness as well). I saw an interview of him once. He made somewhere on the order of $1M a month....mostly profit.

That said, I have an employee and a few contractors. I couldn't do what I'm doing without them. The key is finding really good people. The people that work for me, and the clients I work for are all absolute joys to work with.

 

[MTF]

Just as a reference in case somebody stumbles upon this thread and is looking for more examples: https://thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/solopreneurs-doing-1m-or-more.60572/

 

[Ubermensch]

Every business development pro making $1,000,000+ is a "solopreneur."

 

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[Nomadic]

Pat Flynn is the first to come to mind for me