WORK/LIFE BALANCE FOR THE SOLOPRENEUR

What is Solopreneur?

Being a solopreneur means being an entrepreneur that runs everything themselves. There are countless advantages to this kind of business model, and thanks to the web, it's now more feasible for more people than ever before.

The notion of running an entire empire single-handedly would have seemed like an impossible pipe-dream only a few years ago. Today though, this is what more and more people are living as their reality. The internet is such a powerful force multiplier that it allows many people to truly become "digital polymaths."

Take video game development as a perfect example. Once upon a time, during the days of the ZX Spectrum and other early hardware, it was possible for a single developer to create a game in their basement and release it to the world to mass acclaim. But then computers developed further, and computer game graphics became photo-real. Today, the budget for a "AAA" title is gigantic, and the projects require thousands of people working around the clock for years.

For many years, it was impossible for a single developer to compete with the major game studios. But then things changed.

Tools like Unreal Engine and Unity provided ready-made physics and graphics rendering pipelines, even providing drag-and-drop interfaces for developers to streamline production. Then came freely available assets such as 3D models, music, textures, and more: created by the community and distributed with a creative commons license. Often these were free.

Suddenly, a single developer could leverage powerful tools and the hard work and creativity of the community to develop a game that would look almost as graphically impressive as something built by a much larger studio.

And slowly, the industry saw the rise of the "indie developer." Solo projects like Hyper Light Drifter, Undertale, Minecraft, Thomas Was Alone, Stardew Valley, Spelunky, Braid, Cave Story and others have gone on to sell millions of copies!

Then there are the distribution platforms that allow individual creators to upload their projects to be easily discovered. There are video and photo editing tools that make it easier than ever before to create marketing materials. And there are forums, social media platforms, and SEO, that help creators to reach a massive audience.

A single person can be an entire games business. And by taking this route, they can potentially reap HUGE rewards. Not only do they get to bring to life their creative vision, but they also get to take home all of the profit for themselves.

Building a game is not an easy project, though. It still requires a huge amount of hard work, coding skill, passion, and creativity. The most successful indie games also manage to sidestep the issue of "photorealism" with striking graphical styles that help them to stand out, while also reducing the amount of work necessary for the creator.

But this is just one example of how tools can empower individuals to take on much larger organizations. There are countless other examples of this: from owners of successful blogs to creators of highly popular YouTube channels. You can be an affiliate marketer. You can make money reselling hats or any other physical product.

The latter is a business model that has been particularly transformed by the power of the web: thanks to sites like Alibaba it's now possible to work directly with manufacturers that will produce your products and then deliver them directly to your customers. The best part is that they don't even reveal themselves, meaning that, as far as the customer is concerned, you have your own factory!

Any of these business models are available to the proactive individual who is willing to learn and who knows how to spot an opportunity. With a little creativity, you can even create your own business model that simply didn't exist before!

Challenges of the Solopreneur

But while the solopreneur lifestyle is liberating in many ways, it can also be extremely challenging. That's because it requires you to wear a lot of hats and to take full responsibility for every aspect of your business.

Even if you are simply running a blog and selling affiliate products, this can be a surprisingly challenging lifestyle. Suddenly, there is no employer. There is nobody who is going to take responsibility for your business. There is no one to blame if things go wrong.

Likewise, there is no guaranteed paycheck. There isn't even guarantee that you'll have work this time tomorrow.

Things can be going extremely well one day, and terribly the next.

What if Google removes your site from its listings and you can't sell any more products?

What if your one big client moves on and you have a quiet spell lasting for months?

What if a shipment of products goes missing?

As the solopreneur, you must be ready to weather all these scenarios. Not only that, but you must also make countless huge decisions.

You run a YouTube channel, and you want to sell an eBook from there. But how much do you charge for it? What eCommerce store do you use to sell it from?

What if your loyal audience finds it offensive that you are now charging for information, and thus they leave you?

What if the WooCommerce store crashes because you have an outdated PHP version on your server? And what if that means you lose thousands of preorders?

And do you let that other creator you met upload videos to your channel? What if those put off your viewers because it's not what they came to see? What if they like the other person's content more than yours??

Juggling work is also extremely difficult – especially if you want to maintain some semblance of a work/life balance. This is especially true for a service provider. In this scenario, there is no delineation between work hours and downtime.

That is to say, that you could work 9-5, but you could also work 9-9. That latter option would mean you earn a LOT more money! Do you really need to be relaxing in the evening when you could be getting closer to your goals?

What if you don't finish your work on time? Do you work a little more? What if there's something you want to buy?

Again, the number of variables is huge, and you are constantly forced to make these decisions. Even when you are "relaxing," you will still be questioning whether you could be doing something more useful. You might still be worrying that that work wasn't done to standard.

Then there are the emails from customers who couldn't download/didn't like their products. And from clients who don't like your work. There are the comments on your YouTube videos from people who don't understand what you're trying to do and seem to have a vendetta against you.

It's stressful!

You are, after all, a pioneer. And with a new type of career, we need a new approach to health and productivity.

But here's the thing: it's not just about trying to "survive" in business. The truth is that the more we improve our focus, energy, creativity, and health, the more we will produce. As a solopreneur, everything you sell and everything that earns you money comes from you.

If you want to be more successful, that means that you need to produce more. And if you're going to produce more, then you need to manage your energy levels and focus. You need to learn how to get the most from your brain and body.

And this can result in a HUGE increase in your productivity and profits. Because when you're a solopreneur, learning how to double your output, means doubling your profit!

Work/Life Balance for The Solopreneur: Getting it Tight! 

If you are going to succeed as a solopreneur or really as any kind of professional who works from home, then you need to manage your work/life balance properly. This is one of the biggest downfalls for so many people who start working online.

The problem, as outlined in the introduction to this book, is that it is all too easy to bring work home with you when you work from home. This means that you never get to switch off. The body works in a series of cycles and requires balance. If you are always on, then eventually you WILL switch off. And this is the crash that we associate with burnout.

Not only that, but this can also work the other way around. That is to say: if you can't switch off from home when you get to work, you will struggle to focus, and you'll find you have even more stress as your mind is pulled in multiple directions.

So, what can you do?

Understanding Decision Fatigue

Let's start with 'decision fatigue', a phenomenon that sees the quality of our decision-making start to decline over time. This shows us that decision making requires energy and that with time, we can exhaust that energy. In other words, your ability to make decisions is finite, and so it's important that you apply a little resource management.

This is hard when you consider the huge number of different decisions that you face on a daily basis: from what to have for dinner, to what to wear, to whether or not to go out. Expending energy on these smaller, meaningless decisions can actually leave you with less capacity to make the decisions that matter.

How do you avoid this? Cut back! Famously, Steve Jobs attempted to reduce decision fatigue by actually wearing the same outfit every single day, thereby giving himself one less decision to make!

Reduce the number of decisions you make at work and during the day by finding routines that work for you and attempting to stick to them. You'll find this gives you more mental clarity and energy at work and helps you to leave at the end of the day without stressing.

Information Overload

Information meanwhile comes at us from every angle though. Your phone is constantly ringing and beeping, you're probably working on a computer for a big part of the day and walking down the street you probably see a ton of billboards, ads and screens.

Every time this happens, your body is 'aroused' and your attention diverted. This prevents you from enjoying a calm state of mind and means that you're that much more likely to feel exhausted and overwhelmed by the time you even get in to work!

One tip? Try turning down the brightness on your phone all the way. This can help you to cope with the addictive nature of pulling it out of your pocket to look for notifications. Another tip is to spend some time meditating each day – you can counteract all that noise and stress by taking a few moments every day to just let your mind be still and calm.

Having multiple devices can also help a lot. That means one phone for work, and one for downtime. Leave the work phone in the office when you're not using it!

Be Strict

You NEED to be strict with yourself as a solopreneur about when it's "work time" and when it's "downtime." Think of it like switching between two different mental states: a work mode and a relaxed mode.

This is one of the big benefits of creating a designated work environment – and especially adorning it with iconography and imagery and places you in a productive state of mind.

You can even try taking on a "role" and adopting another personality. Frederik Nietzsche would reportedly accomplish something similar by taking on another persona during the writing and imagining himself talking with great philosophers from history. While that might be a little grandiose for your liking, using ritual and altering your mindset, this way can be a powerful tool.

Just as important, though, is to leave behind that side of yourself when you turn off the computer.

Of course, deciding that you are "not going to think about work" is easier said than done. But that's where the skills learned in the next chapter will become essential.

What is Success to You?

Many of us have a certain idea of what makes someone successful. We consider successful people to wear suits, for instance, and we probably expect them to stand gazing out of the windows of high-rise buildings onto the streets below.

Of course, these people are highly paid – that's how they afford such nice suits and such high up offices. And of course, we know that with this financial success comes a lot of responsibility. Our picture of someone who is conventionally successful will also be of someone who is constantly on the phone, constantly sending emails and likewise often running board meetings.

But while this might be what we picture when we consider success, it's important that we separate this notion from what success means to us.

Otherwise, you can end up highly stressed, highly overworked and potentially making yourself ill.

Traditional Notions of Success Vs What You Actually Want

The reason many of us picture success the same way is that this is the 'cultural norm' and this is what we have been brought up to think of as success. There are a few different versions of course, which include being a doctor, or perhaps a lawyer. Either way, these are high-stress, high- pressure jobs that come with high salaries and status, and that would make your Grandma proud.

And this is the kind of work that many of us will end up falling into. We leave college or University, and we find that jobs aren't being offered up on a plate in quite the way we perhaps thought they might be. As such, we find ourselves lacking any stable form of income and probably wanting to get out of parents' basements ASAP.

After looking around for work that inspires us and giving up, we start looking for work that will provide a stopgap. Work that will put food on the table while we wait for something even more exciting to come along.

Maybe we work in logistics. Maybe sales. Maybe we work in a high street store.

And then opportunities come along, and we take them. That might mean training to become a team leader, which leads to manager. Which leads to area manager. Which leads to the suit and the high-rise office. Maybe a flashy car to go home in.

And while it's not anything we were ever particularly passionate about, it is enough to make us feel accomplished, and it's enough to make Grandma proud. And if you were to follow your dreams of becoming a painter, an actor or an entrepreneur at this point, then that would mean giving up everything and starting again from scratch.

This also becomes harder and harder op even think about once you are supporting a family. Once you are thinking of buying a house with your wife/husband. Once you have bills coming in that you need to pay and a credit card loan because you bought that car. And the massive widescreen TV.

This is only one way it comes about. The other way is that you decide young that you like the looks of being a doctor, or a lawyer, or a CEO. You think it looks glamorous, and your parents really like the sounds of it too, and so together you push to get you into the right school, the right college and the right apprenticeship early on. You grow and develop yourself and climb the ranks.

You realize it's soul-destroying, sure. But now it's kind of a bit late, isn't it?

This is the exact same thing that happens to the solopreneur who views the "end goal" as being to build as large an empire as possible. To earn huge amounts of money while hiring more members of staff and taking on more and more responsibility.

Knowing What You Want

The problem comes from the fact that very few of us know what we really want. Worse, we don't know what we really need in order to be truly happy and inspired. We think that we should push ourselves to go after the traditional signifiers of success and accomplishment, and we think that we should stick to wanting the things we always used to want when we were younger.

But the first separation you need to make is between the status and the idea of a particular job and then the reality.

Because a lot of people go after jobs that they really like the idea of. They love the sounds of being 'in charge', and they think it would be great to work for a really big company. Maybe they love law programs, or maybe they love technology.

But working as a manager in a big tech company has little to do with tech. And wearing a suit doesn't feel glamorous even the third time you do it. If your day to day involves making lots of phone calls, taking on more and more work and generally piling more and more stress on yourself, then perhaps you should reconsider it as a job. Being a doctor is great for some people, but for others, it means working ridiculous hours, with a huge amount of pressure, in an environment that can be seen as fairly unpleasant. And don't expect the respect that once came with the title!

Likewise, if you are already in a job that you don't love, you need to really think about whether taking a managerial role is right for you. It ultimately will amount to the exact same thing but with a lot more stress and pressure – which could be enough to drive you a little out of your mind!

On the other hand, you also need to consider whether the end result is something that drives you. Because if you love the work you do on a daily basis but don't feel you're contributing to society or building something you care about, it will ultimately be hollow.

For the solopreneur, the goal should be to maximize income while minimizing the amount of work and stress. By doing that, you can worry a little less about perfectly optimizing your sleep and diet: because your lifestyle isn't crushing you under the weight of your work!

Either that or you find a way to turn what you LOVE into your job. That's the true power of the solopreneur lifestyle, and it's one that can address MANY issues with taking on too much responsibility and work.

Lifestyle Design

It is very convenient for the economy if you keep killing yourself to take on more responsibility, but it's not so good for your health. If you are stressed and bored on a daily basis, working long hours with no time to exercise or spend with the people you love, then you will burn out slowly. You will sleep less, you will eat worse, and you will push your loved ones away.

Wearing a suit to work does not objectively make you more successful. If you would be happier working as a garbage collector so you could spend the whole evening with your family, then that is just as 'successful'. Successful means doing things that matter to you and living a life you think is fulfilling.

I'm not going to tell you not to go after your dreams and not to go after that highly paid job, or to pursue that medical degree. You might get huge reward from this work.

What I'm telling you instead, is that you should:

1. a)  Really think about whether this is a job you really want. Really ask yourself whether you will be happy in that career at the highest levels. Speak to the

2. b)  Think about what is important to you and what sacrifices that level of 'success' will bring. When you have a young child, will you really want to be working 12-hour days? Will you be upset at the thought of not having time to exercise? To spend pursuing hobbies? Are the sacrifices ones that you are willing to make?

3. c) Ultimately, make sure that the job you go after is something that YOU are truly passionate about. Don't do it because it is what you think you're 'supposed to do'. Don't do it because your Grandma will be proud. Do it because it is intrinsically rewarding.

I say all this as a cautionary tale. Two people, I know recently chased career paths that they had simply landed in and that paid well, and both of them ended up burned out and depressed.

On the other hand, I know someone who works 12-hour days every day. He just called me from America at 1 am his time to discuss work. But he loves what he does, and that's why it's not a nightmare for him.

If you're going to reach the top levels of success, it means sacrificing a lot of your energy, your relationships and your spare time. This only ever makes sense if you absolutely LOVE what you are doing: the day to day of it, the end result and the industry.

For the rest of us, there is actually a point where we reach diminishing returns and where we could be just as happier earning a little less but having a lot more time to spend with our families or to spend painting...

Don't define your success by your salary or by your responsibility. Define your success by your happiness. As a result, you'll be MUCH healthier as well.

As a solopreneur, you are in a unique position of being able to define precisely the work/life balance you wish to design.