Try to define “small business” and you can easily run into trouble. “Solopreneur,” on the other hand, is pretty clear.
Merriam-Webster pegs the first known use of the portmanteau of “solo entrepreneur” to 1992 but didn’t add the word to its dictionary until 2020.
“Solopreneur” has continued to gain traction since. Sources from Forbes to Reddit say there’s never been a better time to become a solopreneur. Elsewhere, articles offer tips on bookkeeping, avoiding burnout and when — or whether — to hire their first employee and leave the word behind.
Last month, Geekdom devoted an entire panel to the solopreneur during San Antonio Startup Week. It’s a pretty big niche. In Bexar County in 2020, 145,000 people identified as “non-employee, sole proprietorships,” according to a local small business ecosystem study, compared to about 34,000 small businesses, or those with at least one but fewer than 50 employees.
This year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that nationwide in 2020, women owned about 41% of what it termed “nonemployee businesses,” earning $308 billion. Hispanic-owned single-person firms made up 16.4% and pulled in $164 million in receipts, while veterans made up 4.8% and reported $57 billion in revenue.
Geekdom’s well-attended panel featured three local solopreneurs, including Sharon Gutierrez, whose startup, Pretty Simple, is an inexpensive lead tracking app aimed at other solopreneurs.
She also owns a marketing consulting business focused on the same demographic and founded what used to be called Geeks and Drinks, a meetup for those in tech. Gutierrez recently dropped “drinks” from the name, as it’s expanded in recent years to include other types of hangouts.
Gutierrez joked at the outset of the panel that “solopreneur” is still a new enough term that “my autocorrect keeps telling me I’m wrong. And I’m like, ‘No, it’s real, I promise!'”
Joking aside, Gutierrez said she has developed a passion for helping entrepreneurs who might not want to take the traditional path to building a business. There used to be a very specific formula for success, she said, which included an office, a growing staff and ever greater revenue — something she did for a decade.
“But in the last few years there’s been such a shift,” with more people recognizing that they want a better work-life balance. “I am an example of that. My heart is happiest when I’m working with entrepreneurs one-on-one. I enjoy running as lean as possible because it creates a lot of space for me to do other things.”
Panelist Alfred Mesquiti has for the past 11 years made pitch decks and presentations through his company DeckSavvy. He, too, chose the solopreneur path because it offered the freedom to work when and where he wanted. He said he could have scaled up his business to “agency level” but kept it “low” to prioritize the flexibility of being a one-man show.
But Mesquiti was also frank about another aspect of the life of a solopreneur: fear.
“It’s really scary to be out there on your own, and there are a lot of roadblocks and challenges,” he said. “But I’d like to talk more about that fear, because I think a lot of [people] are scared to make the move.”
In a later interview, Mesquiti said he thinks of the term solopreneur as something of a mindset. He said he learned early on to avoid the word freelancer, which he believes comes with the connotation by prospective clients that freelancers can be paid less, or that the price is negotiable.
Matthew Espinoza, executive director of the small-business one-stop Launch SA, said they see lots of people who want to quit their job and start their own thing, attracted to the idea of being their own boss. He said many assume they will add employees as they grow, only to find that they like the lifestyle that comes with keeping the business sized to one.
Artificial intelligence and other low cost digital tools are also helping solopreneurs.
Mesquiti and Gutierrez described some of the tools they use as solopreneurs, from basic free options like Google spreadsheets to project management software like Asana and automation tools like Zapier.
Joining them on the Geekdom panel was Laura Ruiz-Roehrs, the founder of CodeFlight, a self-paced, online coding platform that uses AI to help direct students’ learning paths. In addition to a variety of online tools, she’s a big fan of the good old-fashioned whiteboard, as well as the Pomodoro technique, which sets 25-minute working intervals.
“I am such a fan,” she said. “On days I don’t have calls, I just do it literally all day: 25 minutes, 25 minutes, 25 minutes. It’s amazing what you can get done.”
As with any startup, the risk of burnout is real. That can take the form of exhaustion or loneliness and isolation. The panelists recommended all the things you think they would: rest and exercise, time away and connecting with friends and fellow entrepreneurs.
For those considering taking the leap, Ruiz-Roehrs offered a bracing bit of advice: Make sure you know what your potential clients want — and are willing to pay for.
“We have to remember: Follow the money.”
