Episode Transcript
Glenn Harper [:00:00:01
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Empowering Entrepreneurs Podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [:00:00:04
Julie Smith.Glenn Harper [:00:00:05
What’s going on, Julie?Julie Smith [:00:00:06
Well, you know, we had this great idea for this episode based on last episode. It was very, you know, organic. But I think we need to dive into, you know, a solopreneur versus an entrepreneur.
Glenn Harper [:00:00:18
Ooh, good question.Julie Smith [:00:00:20
And I just said, wait, you mean I just keep creating solopreneurs? I just keep creating jobs for myself?
Glenn Harper [:00:00:27
It’s the darndest thing. It’s a trap. But it is a wonderful thing to do, if nothing else, from a tax standpoint and a mental belief that you have in charge of your own destiny. But a solopreneur is somebody that says, all right, I have this real job doing. Let’s say I work for a landscaper and I go to work and I get paid a job, paid a wage to go do that work. And that’s what you do, and you have a real job, well, then you one day say, you know what? I can do this better on my own. I’m going to start up my own landscaping company. So you go out and start your own landscaping company, buy a truck, couple mowers, do your thing, and you’re the only employee.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:03
You are a solopreneur. You are doing all the work of the company.
Julie Smith [:00:01:07
That weight is heavy on those shoulders.Glenn Harper [:00:01:09
It is, because you’re not. You’re not only doing the work where you’re doing the grass and the hardscape and all the things that you were doing before, but now you got to build customers, you got to make payments on the vehicles, you got to do your marketing, you got to pay the bills, you got to do invoicing. You got to. You got to figure out who your next customer is. You got to deal with complaints. So you end up doing all the work of a company where you thought you were just doing. Gonna do. Just do landscape, and it doesn’t work that way.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:34
There’s nothing wrong with being a solopreneur. You’re kind of in charge of your destiny. You pick your customers that you want, and that’s perfectly fine. You’re as busy as you wanna be. But if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. That’s the hard part about being a solo parent. Just like when you have a real job, if you don’t show up for work, you don’t get a paycheck. So it’s opener.
Glenn Harper [:00:01:50
It’s the same concept. So when you transition, like you said to a entrepreneur, generally, that means you’re going to start hiring people to do some of those jobs that the solopreneur was doing. Maybe you’re going to hire somebody to mow the grass. Maybe you’re going to hire somebody part time to do your billing. Maybe you’re going to hire somebody part time to do your marketing, your ad campaign. And you can step back a little bit and not have to do everything. But, but you’re still running a nice, small, tight operation. You could do everything, right, but you’re choosing not to, which is a big deal.
Glenn Harper [:00:02:21
And then, hey, if you’ve got three ground screws going out mowing grass, if you don’t show up for work that day, you’re still going to probably get paid because you have people doing some work for you. But then you get the headaches of. We all say when you run a business, you got to deal with people, got to deal with customers, you got to deal with money versus just going out there mowing grass and being the happiest guy in the world.
Julie Smith [:00:02:40
So what do you say? In your sense, what’s the pro and con of staying that solopreneur, maybe, or. Or jumping to an entrepreneur or. Or vice versa.
Glenn Harper [:00:02:49
So the a pro of being a solopreneur is again, you don’t have to deal with those hassles. You’re the only employee, so you only have to deal with yourself. And then you just. The only thing you have to really deal with is the customer, right? And other. And you got to fix things and do your things, but you’re you. I’m going to eliminate all those things. You don’t have to worry about. The downside of that, though, is that if you get sick, you get the flu, you break a leg, you don’t get paid, and your customers want the service and you can’t provide that service, they may go somewhere else.
Glenn Harper [:00:03:19
So there you don’t, you don’t get paid anymore. And then when you ultimately want to sell your business, if you’re a solopreneur, it’s really hard because you are the brand, you’re the person. Julie Smith Lawn Care and you are the one out there mowing the grass. And you do it very well. You look good doing it. You’re out there, you know, cutting the weeds, and then all of a sudden you have your own touch that you do. And you go to sell your company, you’re going to step out, somebody coming in, they’re like, well, how does Julie Smith do? She’s not here no more. It’s really hard to sell Something that’s all you.
Glenn Harper [:00:03:50
So when you become a entrepreneur where you’re actually hiring other people and you can remove yourself a little bit, you can get a higher price and you can sell your business a little easier because you’re selling a process, a system, an ongoing business instead of just yourself.
Julie Smith [:00:04:05
It also sounds like scaling would be tough as a solopreneur where maybe scaling once you’ve got those systems and processes in place and, and some people you have the ability to scale as an entrepreneur.
Glenn Harper [:00:04:16
Yeah. Remember you’re when, when you make that decision that I’m going to be from a real job to an entrepreneur or I’m going to have a real job and I’m going to buy an existing business that has all that in place, those are two your choices you’re going to probably make. And either one of them is, is a hard decision. But one doesn’t really take a lot of money to start up because you’re just kind of do it on your own and starting from zero. And you can do that. Maybe you have the money saved up, you can do it. You go to buy a business, you need some money, but it’s going to be turning cash flow because it’s an operating business. You can jump in there and do your thing.
Glenn Harper [:00:04:49
But there’s. If you, if you’ve never run a company before and you jump right into that, well that’s a wake up call. That’s a little intimidating for some people. But those are kind of two options. You can do it. So most, some people start slow and grow it and do their thing and other people just go buy a company and put in their magic to it.
Julie Smith [:00:05:05
When I also think like being a solopreneur, you, if you want to scale right, you’ve got to also make that switch. So as soon as you hire your first person, you’re no longer the solopreneur you are now or you contractor or what have you. You now are building your team and you’re the entrepreneur in charge of that team.
Glenn Harper [:00:05:24
And remember it’s, it’s hard. Some people from a solopreneur standpoint, they don’t need to scale a business. They don’t need to make a million dollars a year. They’re happy to just make what they’re making and they’re happy to go in and they just want to nobody hassle them. They choose their schedule, they do their thing. They don’t really want to deal with all the things of running a business and it makes a nice little niche for them to just go do their thing. And other people, they start that way and they’re like, man, I can make a gajillion. And they want to scale it.
Glenn Harper [:00:05:51
And other people want to make the jump right from making a. A regular, real job, and they want to go right into a company and make a gajillion right there and scale it. So you’re right. There’s. It’s hard to decide. Some people are going to always stay as a solopreneur, and that’s great because they’re happy doing what they do. They don’t need any more than that. And they’re good.
Glenn Harper [:00:06:09
Other people start it and they’re like, I can’t. I can’t go mow grasses at 70 years old anymore. I better hire somebody to do that. And then that’s when they start to maybe scale it or hire some people.
Julie Smith [:00:06:19
Any other tips or tricks for solopreneurs or entrepreneurs?
Glenn Harper [:00:06:23
No. The only thing I would tell you is be prepared to work harder than you ever worked in your life. And you’re going to have to get the price of the education is you’re going to have to learn it all pretty darn quick. And back to that point is you generally want to try to hire an advisor that can help you navigate what is depreciation, how should I buy things? What’s my cash flow? What’s this look like? You got to learn these things of what is the financial side of your company. So you can not get blindsided where you think you’re making money, but you’re really not, and you’re spinning your wheels and you’re actually running at a very small amount, and you’re like, my gosh, I’m only making 20 grand a year. Over there. I was making 80 grand a year. What am I doing wrong? There’s a lot of things you want to think about.
Julie Smith [:00:07:04
Well, and I think you just want to get ahead of those things, not behind them. Because, you know, I know in our experience, sometimes we see them when they’re. It’s. It’s. We’ve too late, too far to. To go front. So just really being able to educate yourself on, you know, what, where you’re going, what you want to do. And I think that will help guide all those decisions.
Glenn Harper [:00:07:22
Remember the be before you make the jump, you got to do the analysis to say, well, if. If I’m going to mow grasses, I need to make X. Well, you have to back.
Julie Smith [:00:07:30
I say, just jump in.Glenn Harper [:00:07:31
With two feet, you should jump in. But you got to know your customers sometimes you’re thinking you can only charge 50 bucks, but you really need to charge 80 or you can’t make a profit. So you might end up going and paying, charging a customer 50 bucks for a year. And you’re like, why am I losing money? And then now it’s too late to change. So you really want to get your information, do your homework before you jump. And once you think it’s going to work and you got your model, then you just got to go execute. Then you jump. But you got to kind of know a little bit of what’s going to happen, because if not, you’re going to get burned.
Julie Smith [:00:07:59
Well, it was interesting. You know, I learned that I’m probably straddled the line between solopreneur and entrepreneur. The shiny object syndrome definitely gets me.
Glenn Harper [:00:08:07
Do you know why that is?Julie Smith [:00:08:09
Why?Glenn Harper [:00:08:10
I’m glad you asked. The reason that is is because most entrepreneurs not. It’s not solopreneurs. They look at their own little area they want to look at. But most entrepreneurs, everything is an opportunity. They don’t look at, like, oh, my God, that’s too hard. I don’t want to do that. That sounds terrible.
Glenn Harper [:00:08:26
They look and they see that I can make money at that. That’s a great service. That looks like that can happen. That’s missing in the industry. That’s what I should be doing. So. So we look at. As an entrepreneur, you look at things as opportunities where most solopreneurs or people that may have a real job, they don’t want to go take that risk and go solve that problem.
Glenn Harper [:00:08:44
They’re happy doing their thing, which is perfectly fine, but most entrepreneurs are just programmed different. We’re a little bit. I wouldn’t say unstable, but we look at things through a different lens.
Julie Smith [:00:08:53
I still need to call Kelly and make sure she puts some boundaries on me, huh?
Glenn Harper [:00:08:56
Pretty much. I think that would be important. Well, hopefully that was helpful. Another Hope positive episode of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [:00:09:05
Julie Smith.
