For VCs and Angel Investors, there is one factor that truly decides whether or not a business idea is worth investment: the team. Ideas are important — don’t get me wrong. You need to have a good idea to have a good business; however, ideas are a dime a dozen. The members of the team will almost always be the deciding factor in seed/venture investment. It’s hard to argue against this stance since the team brings the idea to life. So, what happens when you’re a solopreneur and you are a team of one? You better be ready to perform a variety of different tasks at a consistently high level.
The importance of a team lies in the combined ability that each team member brings to the table. A solopreneur needs to be able to showcase those skills while being able to switch hats on the fly. This means being able to focus on marketing, then shifting to sales, then shifting back to marketing with an interruption for customer support, and then on to product development. That’s all within the span of a few hours. Forget about multitasking, you’re taking on all tasks at once and you need to be conquering those tasks in time-effective chunks.
Since launching Crowd Seats as a solopreneur, the single most important thing I’ve learned is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You need to be ready to learn and learn fast. Become a pro at finding what you need and fast. Don’t waste all your time learning however as you’ll need just as much time to apply what you have learned. Be ready to self-teach yourself. Remember, as a solopreneur, you’re wearing all hats, and if you want your company to succeed, you need to wear them well.
The Absolute Best Part of Being a Solopreneur: The ability to formulate and execute the business as you envision.
The Absolute Worst Part of Being a Solopreneur: The ability to formulate and execute the business as you envision.
It’s the same answer for both. You get to make all the decisions. Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing is up to you.
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