Welcome To The Freedom Formula!
Jan. 27, 2022

Moving from Solopreneur to CEO

Moving from Solopreneur to CEO

Yet another advantage of the Remote Local lifestyle is that you’re in charge of when you level up.  Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you need to, like when that solopreneur life is giving you everything you want and need.  And that’s fine.  But what I’d like to do in this article is to give you some insight into why and how you might want to transition out of that solopreneur life at some point in the future.

Why Solopreneur Life Is Good

A lot of people are running 6 and 7 figure businesses with a VA or two.  They get to keep a lot of the income they generate and they can see a direct relationship between how much they work and how much they make.

But at some point, they are going to hit a lifestyle or income ceiling.

There are only so many hours in the day, even if you love to work.

There are times you’d really like to take an extended break with friends or family (or even just by yourself) but a solopreneur biz doesn’t really allow for that.

That’s when something has to change.

Why CEO Life is Better

A solopreneur owns a job.  It can be a very lucrative job, but it is a job, nonetheless.  You don’t work, you don’t make money.  This severely limits who you could sell that business to and/or what someone would be willing to pay for it.

I don’t know about you, but I’d take 50% of the profitability for 10% of the work all day every day, but you can only get that kind of ratio if you are willing to put up with some short term pain for some long term gain.

Example?  One of our MaidThis franchisees recently turned off their marketing, meaning they were intentionally doing less business, in order to properly hire and train someone.  Some income might have been lost for a little while, but the business will be more resilient as a result.

Another example?  I’m really good at closing sales for our company, in part because I’m the founder.  But I can’t spend all my time closing sales.  I have to have trust in my sales team and let them close at a lower close rate, while I put systems into place to get them more leads.  I can close a high percentage of a small number of sales all by myself, or my team can close a reasonable percentage of a great number of sales with the help and training I give them.

How to Transition

I often say that if you’re side hustling, you’re going to start making the transition away from solopreneur early, as you’ll simply need to (we needed a call service to handle calls while I was at work).  Get creative!

Other times you may have a major life goal or transition coming up, like my friend David Lahav who is currently away on a three month meditation teacher training program.  He did something I very much believe in to prep for not being available for his team for 90 days: he was less available.

Solopreneurs have to be willing to let things go, be uncomfortable, spend some money, and make some changes if they ever want to become CEOs and have a business they can sell for a strong multiple and a lifestyle that gives them flexibility and good income.  But that means they need to be willing to get away from too much self-reliance and start building a team.  If they’re afraid of managing a lot of employees, remember that software and systems can make a small group of A-players go really far.  Hire people, let them flounder or flourish, and repeat those two steps until you’ve got the team you want.

Photo by matthew reyes on Unsplash

This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rate race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.