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“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”

—Richard Branson

1. Solopreneurs Have 100% Total Creative Freedom, Autonomy, and Independence

As a solopreneur, or entrepreneur, you get to choose your projects and goals. You are also completely in control of how you achieve the end product or result. Do you like working in teams? Do you enjoy being a manager/leader more? Do you have true entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy creating ideas from scratch?
The choice is yours. Not everyone is the creative, idea-generating type. I’m definitely not. These are the types that are traditionally seen as entrepreneurs. Some of us thrive more on different aspects of a project (e.g. leading a team, making the negotiator, or being the star). Our true passion shines when we are harnessing our innate, natural talents. Something Roger Hamilton of  Wealth Dynamics calls our true genius.
Others, like me, enjoy working with others—being a leader, an influencer, a mentor, etc. I look for ways to collaborate, while still holding onto my autonomy and creative freedom.

2. Solopreneurs (Can) Have Unlimited Vacation/Time Off

In the U.S. we receive a standard two weeks off per year. If you stayed at a company long enough, they’ll eventually toss you another week or two. This is miserable. It drove me nuts. Travel is a big part of my life and I realized I would never be able to see the world the way I wanted to, unless I made a major change.
If you take the right steps, you can give yourself the ultimate benefit—unlimited vacation time. Build a business that doesn’t require you to stay in one place. Most internet-based companies will allow for this. As your work and needs expand, you can build a virtual team. Even if you offer a people-facing service (like freelance or consulting) you can still have much more freedom.
A caveat: Solopreneurs are at risk of overworking and contracting ‘superhero syndrome’. This is a common problem that plagues solopreneurs. It causes them to think they can manage every piece of the work on themselves. This is bad. You should never try to do everything yourself. I learned this one the hard way. Remember, just like any company or venture this is all about scaling.
Solopreneurship does not imply working by yourself forever. So then, how do you define Solopreneurship?
1. a unique long-term strategy to self-employment. 2. generating income through independent businesses with limited individual investment and resources. 3. a form of entrepreneurship in which the lifestyle takes precedence, not the business.

3. You Report to You

It’s as simple as that—no more bosses. Period.

4. “YOU Inc.” (your company) is Better Than Any Other Company

Yes, even Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft. Even the smaller Silicon Valley darlings like Square, Salesforce, Twitter, Airbnb, etc.
Why? You have a unique talent, ability, and contribution that you can and must share with the world. We all do. It’s a given that you can’t compete with the major corporations or darling startups on many levels. You’ll never be able replicate the economies of scale that they can with a single quick re-allocation of resources. But is that even the goal? With your own solopreneur business, you’re not just a cog in a machine. Your company is completely unique—there’s nothing like it.
Creative self-employment, or solopreneurship, is the future. And that future is now. With “YOU Inc.” the opportunities are endless, and you will have unlimited fulfillment.

5. Work is No Longer Work As You Know It

I promise you, “work” will never be the same. One of the first things I realized after venturing into solopreneurship was that work just didn’t feel like work anymore. I didn’t feel obligated, or like I had to do certain tasks every day, for a certain amount of time.
In fact, I’ve been struggling to find a new word for it (work). At times, I refuse to even call it that because I’m so passionate about what I’m doing. I would say it feels like going back to school and studying a subject you’re absolutely fascinated with. What an amazing problem to have…
Another caveat: Being a Solopreneur means you, and only you, are the one that will push you to get the high-revenue or high lifetime value activities done. Priority number one is cash flow, and that requires strict dedication to what drives revenues. It can be easy to get distracted by interesting new ventures. You must implement a sound workflow from the beginning.

6. Contribution

As a Solopreneur you have the option to create something that can benefit the lives of others. Today, there are a huge wave of Social Entrepreneurs creating triple-bottom-line businesses. In other words, this means the traditional bottom-line—profit—replaces this concept of social entrepreneurship. These businesses are still for-profit enterprises, but they value people and the planet just as much as profit. The Three P’s: “People, Planet, Profit”.
Social Entrepreneurs aside, business owners are learning that the number one to create real success is: give away amazing value. Contributing your best work and being driven by an underlying passion to leave a real legacy.
When you have your own business you can choose exactly how to contribute and give back. Whether it be through the products or services the company offers and the problems you solve, or the work you do on the side with your new found freedom. Remember, the more you give, the more you will receive.
As I mentioned before, “a life without contribution is no life at all“. Above all, you reap what you sow—so you better start sowing.

7. Potential for Unlimited Income

With the right strategy, mindset, and preparation, your opportunities for income and wealth are unlimited. No one to negotiate your salary with. No one to prove yourself to. No one to assess whether or not you deserve a raise. No one to pay you an income that simply doesn’t meet your standard of living.
Let’s get real for a second: Money buys us the things we want—true. But more than anything, money can buy us time and freedom (if we choose to spend it that way). With that time and those material things we can make our wildest dreams come true.
We all want more, but we need to start getting specific about just how much more we want. As a solopreneur, you can set tangible, quantitative goals and easily crush them with the right focus and strategy. If something isn’t working, you shift your focus and look for new opportunities.
The potential for income as totally unlimited—the only person stopping you, is you.
Photo credit: Get free or die tryin’—CC License