As an anti-hustle Productivity Strategist and Success Coach for solopreneurs, I see so many solopreneurs making the wrong assumptions about solopreneurship. I TOTALLY get why you might believe some of these myths — because they’re very widespread, and at first glance, they *appear* to be true. That’s why today I want to clear up some of the biggest myths and misunderstandings that people unfortunately believe when it comes to solopreneurship!
One of the big reasons why we need to address these myths is because often, people don’t even realize that these myths are holding them back from their own success as a solopreneur. You might be (accidentally or purposefully) using these myths as an excuse to not take action… and that just leaves you feeling frustrated and burned out.
That’s why it’s time to dispel these myths, once and for all!
Watch the video version of this blog post:
(By the way: this is just the tip of the iceberg! Here are the top 10 productivity myths that solopreneurs need to STOP believing)
Now let’s get into 3 myths you probably believe about solopreneurship…
Myth #1: Solopreneurship requires a lot of “sacrifice” — Either your business is successful and your personal life falls apart, or else you can focus on your personal life but your business stagnates.
This also looks like: “I need to choose between my personal life and professional life; I can’t do it all,” or “Prioritizing my business vs. my personal life means I’m always going to be missing out on something.”
Oof, this one hurts, doesn’t it?
Sometimes it can feel like you’re torn between two worlds as a solopreneur. It might feel like your business or your personal life “needs” to suffer in order to prioritize the other. It might feel impossible to balance work and life!
…But here’s the beautiful thing about solopreneurship: As a solopeneur, you essentially ARE your business, and vice versa. This means that you don’t need to choose between one or the other.
It gets to be both/and.
The trick is to design your solopreneur business so that it fully supports your personal life values/goals and ideal lifestyle. You have complete control over what your solopreneur business looks like; YOU are the one calling the shots. You don’t need to make a bunch of sacrifices.
...You just need to be highly strategic about how you approach your business so that you get what you truly desire from both your work and your life, and so that they compliment each other fully (rather than being at odds with one another).
This, of course, is easier said than done, and it's where the vast majority of solopreneurs stumble — which is exactly why this myth is so widespread.
And that’s also exactly why I am so passionate about working with solopreneurs in a 1:1 capacity, so that we can…
- Dive deep into exactly what you want from both your business AND your personal life,
- Create high-level strategies in which your business and personal life fully support one another and are integrated in a way that feels really GOOD for you,
- Customize your systems, processes, action steps, etc to your personality and your beautifully unique brain so that you genuinely enjoy every aspect of your business,
- Do the deep inner mindset work to keep you on track and overcome any internal struggles/frustrations/obstacles you’re experiencing that might be holding you back,
- Set everything up for you to achieve the success you desire, be able to stay motivated and inspired and hold yourself accountable, explore the full potential within you and your business, and live the life you’ve been dreaming about.
Myth #2: You aren’t a “serious business owner” if your goal is to be a solopreneur.
This also looks like: “I need to hire employees/contractors if I want my business to grow,” or “If I’m a solopreneur, then I’m not a ‘real’ business owner.”
Solopreneurship is just as valid as any other business model! In fact, it requires a whole different skillset from other business owners, because you essentially “are” your business (and vice versa). Work/life balance can be much more challenging for you, and you juggle many different hats as a solopreneur.
This does NOT mean that solopreneurship is more difficult than other types of businesses, and it does NOT mean that solopreneurship needs to feel like “hard work.”
It simply means that you need to approach things differently than if you had an alternative business model.
For example: I do not have employees or contractors or even an assistant. I have an accountant, and at present, that’s the only person I outsource to in my business. And yet: I am very serious about my business (while having fun at the same time!). My business is a huge part of my identity. I care very deeply about my business. And moreover, I’m able to truly enjoy my business and have a lot of success with it, as a solopreneur.
Quite a few 1:1 clients, when they first come to me, tell me that they really hope I’m not going to “make” them hire contractors/employees — because that’s not what they want for their life/business. They’re so relieved when I don’t tell them to do that! And it’s so cool to see them make awesome progress on their businesses, with healthy work/life balance, as solopreneurs.
You can be a serious business owner, and you can grow your business as much as you like, as a solopreneur. You do not need employees or contractors in order to do that.
Myth #3: Once you achieve a particular threshold (e.g. six figures or multi six figures), you no longer need to worry about work/life balance because it happens automatically.
This also looks like: “Everything will be easy-breezy when I achieve XYZ financial milestone,” or “I don’t need to worry about creating a lifestyle business, because everything will fall into place after XYZ.”
This myth is a really sneaky one, and I want to caution you about it because I have seen SEVERAL influential (and financially successful) online business owners basically burn their businesses to the ground and start over in the past couple years — and every single one of them stated publicly that it was because they were no longer happy in their business, or they felt constricted/constrained by their business, or they were burned out and exhausted but unable to escape the cycle of “hustle and grind,” etc.
I don’t want that to happen to you. 
(On the positive side, it looks like they’re starting to take much better care of themselves, AND I’m seeing more and more people starting to talk about having healthier work/life balance. Love that!)
You do not need to wait to put strong business foundations in place that fully support your personal life.
In fact, the longer you wait, the more complicated and challenging it will be to start fresh with better foundations in place: the stakes will be higher.
That’s why I strongly recommend that you *start early* with designing your solopreneur business model so that it supports your personal life values/goals and ideal lifestyle.
And if you’ve already had your business for a number of years, that’s okay! Starting NOW is the next best time to do this work 😉
Your business frustrations and your productivity problems will not magically fix themselves when you hit a certain income level. You need to address those issues and resolve them yourself, or they’ll continue to escalate and become bigger frustrations over time.
Another variation of Myth #3: You need to have X amount of clients/month or $X/month before you can even think about adding in work/life balance or setting up strong foundations.
This also looks like: “Once I have XYZ clients/income, THEN I can start getting these other pieces in place,” or “I need to start my business and put in a bunch of HUSTLE before thinking about work/life balance.”
I wanted to address this aspect of Myth #3, because it’s kind of the other side of the coin from the first iteration of Myth #3. In this instance, you might think, “Anti-hustle productivity sounds cool, but I don’t have the luxury of doing that, because I’m just starting out. I’ll hustle hard now and once I’ve got things underway, then I’ll be able to figure the rest of it out.”
If that’s you, please re-read the section responding to the first variation of Myth #3!
Here’s the cool thing about anti-hustle productivity: It enables you to build and grow your business no matter where you’re at in your solopreneur journey. It helps you to make serious progress on your goals while having fun at the same time, and WITHOUT the burnout or overwhelm that can come with hustling too hard.
Anti-hustle productivity isn’t necessarily about kicking back on a beach or taking bubble baths every day. Instead, anti-hustle productivity is highly strategic and fully customized to your unique situation. THAT is the magic of anti-hustle productivity — and that is why you can’t afford *not* to incorporate it into your business.
(Remember: this is just the tip of the iceberg! Here are the top 10 productivity myths that solopreneurs need to STOP believing)
My heart aches when solopreneurs tell me that they believe these myths, because they are stopping you from taking action toward your dreams.
Are you being held back by one (or more!) of these beliefs, too?
Now that you see they are just common misunderstandings, I don’t want you to let them stop you from living your dream as a successful solopreneur!
I’d like to invite you to join me in Solopreneur CEO, my 6-month 1:1 coaching program all about how to design a solopreneur business that fully supports your personal values, vision, goals, and ideal lifestyle — while overcoming the obstacles in your path, dealing with internal struggles (e.g. procrastination, burnout, perfectionism, people-pleasing, etc) once and for all, and achieving the success you desire.