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To be a successful solopreneur, you need to be self-motivated; you must have good self-management skills and be able to rein yourself in when you’ve gotten distracted or started procrastinating.

These are givens. But there are also some more nuanced behaviors and traits that I think are important for the success of anyone who plans to be a company of one.

There’s a wide array of online solopreneur business models out there. So while the workload and goals might look very different across the spectrum, there are some common behavioral denominators that I think must underlie almost all solopreneur endeavors in order to achieve long-term success and stability.

4 Behaviors Of Successful Solopreneurs

1.) Budgets Wisely

One of the very first to-do items when making the transition to a solopreneur is to build up a sizeable financial cushion.

Because you’ll only have yourself to rely on, you need to be able to… well, rely on yourself.

Dave Ramsey calls this an emergency fund and he recommends having at least 3-6 months put back in the case that a job is lost. He figures having 3-6 months of expenses saved would be sufficient enough to sustain the person while they find a new job and get back on their feet.

As a solopreneur, I think 6 months of living expenses should be viewed as a minimum.

So, add up your monthly expenses—not just bills, but all expenses including gas, groceries, and other things you tend to spend money on each month—then multiply by six. My advice is don’t buy anything unnecessary or take vacations or anything until that 6-month minimum amount is fully funded.

From there, be sure to budget all income. Budgeting isn’t for poor people, budgeting is for smart people. Budgeting isn’t just to save money, it’s to control your money. Rather than your money just going here and there, you tell it exactly where it’s going. Every dollar should have a name. That name might be gas or this week’s food or new flip-flops or trip to Scotland, but it’s crucial for getting ahead in life that you learn this and sincerely implement it to truly have financial stability.

I recommend Dave Ramsey’s book Total Money Makeover for learning about this in detail.

2. ) Understands the value of organic seo and content development

If you’re running an online business of one and you don’t really get the value of regular content development for reaching your target audience, then it is beyond time to learn.

Organic SEO is one of the most stable ways to build and maintain an online business. It costs nothing other than your time and continues to generate return for years to come with little effort.

This is an area I specialize in. If you’re using the Squarespace platform, I recommend investing in my Squarespace SEO Expert course so you can really learn how to pinpoint your keywords and implement them all throughout your site.

3.) sets daily routines and to-do lists

As a solopreneur, my planner has become a true companion.

Every night, before beginning my evening routine, I make sure that the tasks I need to complete tomorrow are listed out in my planner.

Not just work tasks, but other chores and things I hope to accomplish, as well. Things like my exercise and cardio, stretching, walks, errands, social events and appointments.

I make sure to not only focus on duties geared toward my current client/project, but also to do something each day that contributes to passive income or future endeavors, such as blogging, course creation, learning new software, research, and that kind of thing.

Beyond to-do list task completion, a daily routine is also important. In Ayurveda, which I’m studying, this is called a dinocharya and is viewed as crucial to the well-being of a person. Daily routines can certainly have variation, but there are key factors that should be present to ensure a productive, healthy, well-rounded day.

So decide on a morning routine, a lunchtime routine, and an afternoon/end of day routine, and then an evening routine and try to abide by that as much as possible each day. I’ve found this helps keep my mind clear, sharp, and focused. I feel more relaxed because there isn’t anxiety about completing something on time, instead I have an outlined schedule, and so long as I stick to it day to day, everything gets done :)

4.) Has a long-term vision

And last of all, a successful solopreneur needs to have a long-term plan.

It’s one thing to be fruitful in the moment, but how do you plan to evolve and sustain this? In what ways do you see your business evolving?

Things will never go exactly to plan, but that doesn’t mean not having a plan at all is a good idea. It isn’t.

Take some time, do some research, and try to lay out at least a 5-year plan both for your business and your personal life. Usually, our professional life is a means for our personal life, so it’s important to focus on both.

What do you want to happen? What do you want to accomplish? What kind of lifestyle do you want to create for yourself?

Once you’ve answered questions like this, you can start creating a timeline. That long-term timeline will get accomplished by the day to day completion of tasks, so it’s a good idea to create an artistic rendering of this timeline and hang it somewhere so on the days when you’re feeling low or uninspired or overworked, you can remember what is being built and what you’re working toward.

Hopefully you’ve found this article helpful or inspiring in some way. Please feel free to contribute more in the comments section below. What do you think are important traits of a successful online solopreneur?

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll talk to you again soon. Take care~

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Tiffany

Welcome!

Hey there! I’m Tiffany ~ a Squarespace Web Designer & SEO Expert. I design beautiful & professional websites that rank well on Google, & I teach courses on becoming a Squarespace SEO Expert and Starting Your Own Squarespace Design Business!

Feel free to contact me at: tiffany@tiffany-davidson.com

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