Build to Enough

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Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:00:06] Hello. You're listening to Build to Enough, a podcast for [00:00:10] entrepreneurs who want to scale at their own pace. I'm your host, Keyla Hill Traywick, and I'll be your chief storyteller and cheerleader in a world that glorifies endless expansion, we're tuning [00:00:20] out the noise and discussing the beauty of enough. Each episode will dive into inspiring stories, practical insights, and strategies to cultivate sustainable success on your [00:00:30] own terms. So whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or aspiring entrepreneur, get ready for a refreshing take on the entrepreneurial journey. This is build to enough. [00:00:40] Welcome back! I am excited to talk today about the topic that we have on hand, because it's really what kind of led [00:00:50] to us making this shift to build to enough. And speaking of that, if you are liking Build to Enough and you're enjoying the episodes and the podcast overall that we're putting [00:01:00] out, I invite you to rate and review us. I love seeing how much you're enjoying what we're putting out for you. I really enjoy making these podcasts, and so if [00:01:10] you enjoy listening to them, we would love to hear from you. All right, so as you can see by the title today we are talking about being a solopreneur versus building a team. [00:01:20] A lot of times I think in entrepreneurship we use that as an umbrella word that makes it seem like we're all doing the same thing, which we are not. Being a solopreneur is not the same [00:01:30] as building a team that you are working towards for a business.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:01:34] And so today we just want to jump into what that means. The significance of [00:01:40] the decision as you're trying to decide which direction you want to take and what that means for your own success, and talk about the pros and cons of each approach. As I like to say a [00:01:50] lot here, neither of them is the right way. We really just want to give you some insight into both of them so that you can decide what works best for you. All right, let's jump in. So [00:02:00] first let's talk about being a solopreneur. Now, to some extent, this is a misnomer. I don't really think anybody works by themself completely. If you do, more [00:02:10] power to you, but it is very hard and more than likely you do not have a team. So when I hear a lot of people say solopreneur, what they really mean is that I don't have any employees, [00:02:20] I don't really have any ongoing contractors, maybe a VA or somebody who kind of assists me, but nobody full time with me. And for the most part, I'm the person that's delivering [00:02:30] the work. Now, there are benefits to this. I have thought plenty about solopreneur ship. You have autonomy and independence. You don't have to answer [00:02:40] to anybody so you can make decisions quickly. You can also retain full control over operations.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:02:46] Everything that goes out of the door had to pass through your hands, and there's a lot of power [00:02:50] in not having to rely on somebody else to be able to do those things for you. There's also flexibility because you can pursue your passions and tailor your business to fit your own personal [00:03:00] life goals. You only have to worry about yourself. And so when you are not responsible for somebody else's livelihood, when you do not have to make a monetary or financial [00:03:10] decisions based on the people that you have to pay, you've got a lot more agility in deciding what projects you take on, what types of things you take on, and what type of work you ultimately want to do. [00:03:20] Finally, there's lower overhead. Obviously, the fewer people that you're paying, the fewer expenses are going out, so you get to hold more of your revenue as profit down [00:03:30] the line. That's the situation with taxes. But more money in the bank always feels like a good thing. The thing is, solopreneur ship isn't without its challenges. [00:03:40] I think one of the first ones that typically used to scare me the most was the dependability on myself. Now I know I'm going to work and I know I'm going to do it well, and I know I'm [00:03:50] going to correct when I don't. I know me, but if my work output is dependent on my ability, willingness, health, [00:04:00] insert whatever here, that is just me.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:04:03] It can be scary to know that when you're not at your best, the work may not necessarily get done. And hopefully we have [00:04:10] clients who are understanding and supportive of that. But it does mean that you have less of a backup. That leads to things like burnout and overwhelm [00:04:20] and isolation because you're wearing a lot of hats. All the hats in the business. And so when it's time for you to be able to switch gears or [00:04:30] think about what the next step in your business has to be, there may just be a lot of work on your plate beyond the work that you're getting paid for. That gets in the way of you doing that at your best. [00:04:40] I would say another thing to think about with solopreneurs is there's no one to check your work. And this was actually the scariest thing for me when I first started [00:04:50] Little Fish and it was a solopreneur. For all intents and purposes, it was scary to know that I was the only one that touched it. And when it went out into the world, nobody had seen it but me. [00:05:00] And like I said, I work hard and I care a lot, but also my ADHD doesn't always catch everything. And so it was really nerve wracking to review things [00:05:10] ten, 20, a million times in order to make sure that it was correct before it went out.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:05:15] It is my own perfectionism and I want to make sure that it's correct, but it would have been helpful [00:05:20] to have somebody to support or just back me up and have a second set of eyes on things. Finally, when you think about the fact that you can keep [00:05:30] more profit, you are also the main only person that can make money in the business. And so what that can mean is when you [00:05:40] want to take trips or when you want to take on a big project, there is no one to allocate that work to. You have to be really strict about your bandwidth, about [00:05:50] the types of things that you take on, and about the types of things that you say no to. So what do I recommend for solopreneurs? Because we have a ton of solopreneurs as clients. [00:06:00] Again, this is not a good or a bad decision. They are just different. The first thing that I recommend is to outsource tasks. Even if you're going to deliver the work yourself, [00:06:10] it doesn't mean that the business has to be run itself. And yes, even if you are a solopreneur or a sole proprietor, you're running a business. It is more than just [00:06:20] the work output that you do or the thing that you get paid. Y'all know there's accounting, there's legal, there's invoicing, there's contracts, there's emails, uh, there [00:06:30] are emails. And so you need to have somebody that you can outsource some of the bigger things to, so you can focus on the things that you're best at and that you love the most.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:06:39] Next, [00:06:40] build a support network. I will say that having an accountant peer community has done wonders for my confidence, for [00:06:50] my research abilities, for my resourcefulness. I just know more than I would have been able to know by myself. So even if you're going to run the business alone and work [00:07:00] in the business alone, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be meeting up, talking to, engaging with people who are doing the same thing as you. Finally, prioritize self-care [00:07:10] and work life balance. Now I say those words knowing that they've been co-opted in a lot of ways. But the main point here is that if you're the only [00:07:20] person that can do the work, you got to take really good care of yourself. You have to take breaks. You have to make sure that you're, um, not overwhelming yourself by the [00:07:30] number of clients or projects or work that you take on. You're the only one that can take care of you in a solopreneur. And so make sure that you're prioritizing yourself. [00:07:40] They say no one can pour from an empty cup, which is true, but this is even more important when you're the only billable person in your company. Now, let's shift gears a little bit to those who [00:07:50] are building a team.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:07:51] Now, you know, because this is build to enough that we're mainly talking about tiny teams. Usually this is less than ten people on staff that do both operations. [00:08:00] So the on the business work and client or project delivery, which is the client facing work. Of course, there are some advantages here. You [00:08:10] get to leverage diverse skills and expertise. There are other people on the team, which means there are other brains besides yours. This means that you can expand into new markets. [00:08:20] You can think bigger. That means that you could potentially scale your operations and take on larger projects. What you can do with multiple people is generally more than you can do by [00:08:30] yourself. You've also got the potential for increased productivity, innovation, and creativity. You have people that you can lean on. So not [00:08:40] only are you not just relying on your brain to do the work, the best practices that you have built, the ways that you thought the business should run that worked when it was just one [00:08:50] of you infinitely expands when there are a couple of you. I think about the fact that if you institute something when you've got three people on the team, a lot of times [00:09:00] that can carry you until you have ten, 12 people on the team, but the thing you did when there was a one person team usually won't scale that way. You might need [00:09:10] more tools, more information, just better ways of working with other people.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:09:16] The other thing, of course, is that there is overlap. There should be [00:09:20] some room for you to be able to take off or get sick, or need to be somewhere else, and the business not feel like it's crumbling because you're the only one that's there to literally [00:09:30] or figuratively answer the phones. Finally, the camaraderie of building a team just feels less isolating when you have a company where other people are [00:09:40] working with you towards a common mission internally with you, it just feels different than when you're doing it by yourself. But there are some complexities [00:09:50] of having a team, one you're generally not making decisions in a vacuum. There are people that work with you that are impacted by the choices that you're making, and as a result, [00:10:00] it can take a little longer to make decisions or implement things that you could do real quick when it was just you. You're also dependent on others to operate. This is one of the scariest [00:10:10] things for me about having a team, is that we only do great when everybody is working at their best, and some people aren't able to or don't [00:10:20] want to, and as a result, it can be really hard to feel like you have a team and. They're still the one that's potentially doing the work that can have personnel [00:10:30] issues. It can cause personnel issues, or it can be impacted by personnel issues.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:10:35] There may be people who are dragging the team down or building them up, [00:10:40] and you are constantly a manager of making sure that that is in balance. There's higher overhead. Same way that you had a higher profit when it was just you. That profit [00:10:50] can shrink if you've got more people to pay. Now, ideally, hiring more people allows you to make more revenue, but it's not immediate and it's not automatic. So it's something to keep [00:11:00] in mind when you're thinking about working alone versus working with others. Finally, hiring the right talent is hard. As a person who has hired, fired, [00:11:10] and seen people go, it's never an easy process and it is crushing to have to keep doing over and over again. That's just one of the things you don't have to worry about when you're [00:11:20] working by yourself. Because as long as you don't quit, you've got an employee on the team. So how do I think about navigating team dynamics? I think the first thing is, it [00:11:30] is imperative that you foster a positive work culture and work environment. I know that that can feel squishy because it is like I need people to work. I need [00:11:40] people to get their things done. But workers are human beings, and we need to put that at the forefront of everything that we do. What does that look like? It means determining what kind [00:11:50] of flexibility your team will have, making sure that they have space, which you all hear me talk about a lot, to be creative, to think about new ways to do the work.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:11:58] The idea is not just [00:12:00] that they're cogs in the machine to get things done, but that they're actually moving with you to build something bigger than you would have built by yourself. Set very [00:12:10] clear expectations both for your team and your clients. Everybody needs to know what they're walking into. They need to know what is expected of them and what happens [00:12:20] when they don't get it right. At the very least, it gives you some foundation, some boundary to start with. When you're having these conversations, that may be difficult down the [00:12:30] line. And it also allows you to really easily see when people are going above and beyond the call of duty. Next, make sure that you're promoting collaboration [00:12:40] and accountability. Everybody has to be great on a really small team, and they also have to be empowered to be able to do great. So you want to make sure that you have given [00:12:50] people the training, the resources, what they need to be able to be successful at your firm. Finally, don't get too comfortable. I know that's a scary part, [00:13:00] and it is a part that I am still dealing with too. But when we think about the type of work that we do and our dependency on other people to be able to support us, that has [00:13:10] to leave room for you to be able to jump back in or other team members to be able to jump in and support when everybody's not able to operate at their best.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:13:18] So don't get too comfortable [00:13:20] with being fully staffed and everything running smoothly, because chances are things are going to change. So when you're thinking about whether or not you want to do one [00:13:30] or the other, here are a couple of things to consider. The first is do you want to do the work or do you want to manage the work? It's not a clear cut line, but [00:13:40] what I found is that the bigger the team gets, the more you're managing the work versus actually having your hands in it. If you're a creative that wants to be responsible for the output, building a [00:13:50] team that does the work for you can feel a little challenging, and it may ultimately not be what you want to do. And don't forget that you can hire above you too. If what you actually want is to [00:14:00] do the work and you want to hire a CEO or whatever that job ends up being called at your company, do that so that you can focus on handling the work that you want to do. Ultimately, [00:14:10] just keep in mind that making those decisions is built partially on what you want to do, and partially what those roles will require of you [00:14:20] if you make a shift.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:14:21] Another thing to consider is your finances. Can you afford to hire? A lot of our first hires are what I call non-billable, [00:14:30] right? They're not doing work that is going to make more money for you. Think about somebody like an executive assistant or a operations person. [00:14:40] There's not a direct return on investment, and as a result, you want to make sure that you are actually making enough, that paying them isn't going to take more out of your pocket [00:14:50] than you're ready for. I would also say think about your strengths and business goals. You don't want to just pick the thing that seems like the cool way to handle [00:15:00] it. There is a lot of push in both directions online as being the best one for you, but only you know what's best for you and only you know what success means. [00:15:10] Finally, think about how much flexibility and adaptability you need, as well as how much control you want to retain. A lot of that gets moved around [00:15:20] deciding between working by yourself and working with others on your team, and you always have the right to change your mind. So if it turns out that [00:15:30] the way that you're doing it now, or the phase of your life now requires this, but later on you need to do something different, just know that you can come back, look at the pros and cons, [00:15:40] and determine how you make your next decision.

Keila Hill-Trawick: [00:15:43] At the end of the day, there's no one size fits all. Everybody has to make a decision for what works best for their business and for their [00:15:50] lives. Remember that your business isn't supposed to take over. It's supposed to be a part of what you do. And so you want to make sure that you're building one that actually emphasizes [00:16:00] the parts of your life that you want to take advantage of. Build to enough is all about how you reflect on your personal journey and determine what enough means [00:16:10] for you. Maybe enough for you. Is working alone, making the money that you need to make, and taking three months off in the year, maybe enough for others, is building [00:16:20] a team that can support you so that you can do less of the work, whichever is the right decision for you. Just know that you can always change it down the line. Decide [00:16:30] which decision best fits the version of success that you are striving for. Thanks for listening. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Build to Enough. If [00:16:40] you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the love with your fellow entrepreneur friends, and make sure to sign up for the Build to Enough newsletter. The link is in the show notes. Stay [00:16:50] tuned for more episodes as we continue to redefine success one intentional step at a time.