The hidden tax of doing everything alone
RUNNING A SOLO BUSINESS MEANS MAKING HUNDREDS OF DECISIONS BY YOURSELF.
When we imagine running our own business, we think about autonomy. The freedom and the ability to choose what we work on.
And that part is real, but it has another side. How much this freedom multiplies the number of decisions you suddenly have to make.
Compared to being employed, the difference is massive.
Inside a company, decisions are distributed. Someone defines the strategy, sets the priorities and decides pricing, positioning, direction.
Even in leadership roles, responsibility is shared.
When you run a solo business, all of that collapses onto one person: you.
Yes, you, my dear reader.
Suddenly you’re deciding things like:
What exactly you offer
Who you want to work with
How you price your work
Which opportunities to pursue
Which ideas are worth investing in
What kind of marketing you should even be doing
And most of these decisions don’t come with clear answers. Add to that the infinite amount of guru noise and predatory advice online, and things can get overwhelming very quickly.
This decision load — the constant weight of needing to think clearly about your own business — is brutal.
Not once, not just every week. Most of the time… every single day. (laughs nervously)
For many of us, this becomes one of the most surprising parts of going solo. We expect to work with the clients, maybe do some marketing, sure there’s admin. What we underestimate is how much strategic thinking and decision-making this life demands.
Because when you’re building a solo business, you’re not just delivering work, you’re designing the business itself. And that design keeps changing as much as the music styles of my Spotify when I play my saved songs.
When you are alone decisions take longer than they should. Ideas bounce around in your head, you rethink the same thing over and over again. Progress slows down because you’re thinking about everything alone.
The people who eventually build strong solo businesses usually have one thing in common: they don’t carry the decision load alone. They talk things through, they test ideas with others, they expose their thinking to different perspectives. They don’t try to build the entire thing inside their own head.
Because doing that is exhausting, and like my playlist, borderline psychotic.
If you’re navigating these kinds of decisions in your own business, sometimes it helps to have someone outside the situation look at it with you.
I offer a Free Business Strategy Calls for exactly that reason.
It’s a 45-minute conversation where we look at your business, the decisions you’re facing, and what your next strategic step might be.
You can book one here.
Out of curiosity:
What business decision has been occupying your mind lately?
Hit reply and tell me.
I read every response.
