Greetings, this is Joanna Vaiou owner of this website and Professional Search Engine Optimization Services business under my personal brand (a one-person business or company OPC) at JoannaVaiou.com.

I have been running a single-person business solo, since early 2013. Do you fancy my profession? Learn from my experience if you want to learn SEO the DIY way, and become an SEO Specialist. What does SEO stand for?

As I write this today (29th of August 2021), this marks 8+ years of me having personal experience about the following:

1. What running a one-person business means
2. What the challenges and the advantages of this business setting are
3. How one can best prepare themselves to navigate this business lifestyle and operate successfully

After this decent period of my life, I feel compelled to share my personal insights, views, tips, and knowledge that I have accumulated since I started my own SEO Solopreneur business. I aspire you to learn something from my experience and see if this is something that fits you.

Starting a one-person business is a topic gaining accelerating interest from people around the world, who want to learn more about this option of starting their own solo business and become (1) one-person business owners. The uncertainty in employees’ jobs is only increasing with all the crazy events our world is experiencing globally.

For example, today you can lose your “secure” job if the company that employs you, requires you to get vaccinated for Covid_19, while you don’t plan to (for your own reasons).

There is no job security in our current times, no matter how hard and how many years people can work for a company that is not theirs. For the daring ones, there is no better time to venture out on your own.

What Running a One Person Business Means

A solo business (or a single/one-person company) is a business entity of some form (an LTD, or an LLC, or a sole-proprietorship business, etc) that is owned by one person.

For example, my business is an LTD and I am the only owner/manager. The setting that you will choose for your own 1-person business is completely up to you and the laws of the country your business is based in.

To get the optimal business setting or structure, my best advice is to find and consult with a reliable and experienced corporate accountant and lawyer, who will educate you on the best available options for you according to your custom circumstances.

A one person company does not mean that everything is executed by the sole-owner. As a solo business owner, you can have employees, vendors, services providers, and assistants (in-house or remote), if you want.

It is very common that when a person starts their solo business, they do many different things themselves, and wear many different hats.

Though, in my experience, as my business grew in time, I delegated more tasks to remote assistants who apply the custom SEO strategies that I design for my clients.

The truth is that as you grow, you will only want to do the things that you are best at and delegate the other tasks to someone else, so you can free yourself more time, to do what brings you more revenue.

To me, the activities I am best at and those who grow my business are the following:

1. Sales
2. My own personal SEO brand’s marketing (SEO, Social Media, Personal Branding, Online PR)
3. Client Support and Management
4. SEO Research & Analysis
5. Custom SEO Strategy Design
6. SEO Copywriting Consulting
7. SEO Team Coordination – Task Delegation
8. On-Page SEO
9. SEO Team Consulting

The activities that I delegate to my remote SEO assistants (or my clients’ equivalent team members) are the following:

• Technical SEO
• Copywriting – New content
• Link acquisition

According to your own personality and strengths, in time you must learn how to manage your time in a most productive way for your business’ success.

Solo Business: 1-Person Company Advantages

In my point of view, running a one person company is the best setting because I value my independence and freedom of choices more than anything else. I have a strong conviction of who I am, what I do, and how I do it.

I am a Personal Development student since early 2009 which has helped me build a strong self-awareness, acceptance, love, appreciation, forgiveness, and rock-solid trust in myself.

I trust myself more than anyone else to do the right thing for me, simply because no one knows me better than I know myself. The choice I made back then to go solo, has rewarded me greatly. Noone else ever offered me something better, a better potential than what I have offered to myself.

Summing up the pros of running a single-person business:

1. Freedom to set your own rules and live by them
2. Speed of decisions/operations (you are the only one you need to ask for approval :))
3. You set your own prices
4. You choose who you work with (if you don’t like your clients, your vendors, your employees, or remote assistants, you simply find new ones (The World is your Oyster  when you work for yourself)
5. You work the hours you want, according to your custom needs and different phases in your life

Single Person Business Disadvantages/Challenges

As mentioned earlier, due to the quality of the relationship I have with myself and what I value most (freedom of choices and independence), I don’t see any disadvantages in this setting. But that is just me.

According to your own personality attributes, the relationship you have with yourself and what you value most in your work life, you may experience some of the following challenges during your Solopreneurship journey.

1. A sense of loneliness or social disconnection: If you are introvert by nature and you generally love your life and your various interests, then you will not feel so much loneliness or social disconnection, especially if you work from home in your 1 person business. On the other hand, if you are an extrovert by nature like if you crave to be around others every day and your desire for social interaction every day with others is very intense, this work from home 1-person business model probably isn’t for you (and that is ok – each one is different). Personally, I am more productive working from home in the environment that I choose. When I feel like socializing, I simply make time to see the people I want to see.
2. Working more hours than you would as an employee: If you are in love, super passionate, and you don’t see your business as “work”, then you will not have a problem working more hours for your own business, because it will not feel like work. Expect to work more hours if you work for yourself especially if you want to grow your business significantly.

Best Advice to Run a Single-Person Business Effectively & Successfully

1. Constantly improve the relationship you have with yourself (self-awareness, self-respect, self-confidence, self-love)
2. Constantly develop your personality and your soft skill(set) so you can communicate better with your clients, partners, employees, assistants, service providers, etc
3. Constantly improve your hard skills and strive to bring better results by educating yourself and staying up to date with your industry’s developments
4. Establish your personal brand on Google and Social Media as the go-to brand, through the content you post there about you as a person and how you can help others through your business
5. Having a “how to market your business” plan and promote it to your ideal audiences (you must have a marketing budget and plan to spread your message, services, and products to the world, especially if you are not a marketing expert – without marketing, even if you have the best product or service, no one will know)
6. Hire a reliable and experienced business accountant and lawyer (this can make or break your business)
7. If you are transitioning from a 9-5 to a solo business, make sure you live under your means for some years in order to save enough money during the good days (i.e. when you have a job and for example, while living in your parents home not paying rent) – Having an initial capital is important
8. Before you start your own solo business, make sure you have calculated your monthly and annual expenses (personal and for your business’ smooth operation) and have closed the necessary client contracts that will pay you not less than your earlier monthly or yearly expenses – This way you will not have a negative ROI when you start running your business
9. I do not recommend you start your own solo business without the previous preparation
10. Improve your relationship and views about money – educate yourself financially in order to manage your personal finances (I suggest you subscribe to “Robert Kiyosaki’s (Author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad“) and “Sorelle Amore Finance” YouTube Channels)

Invest in Personal Finance Education

One of the most crucial factors for your business’ success is your money management skills. This is not an easy pill to swallow, I hear you. For many people, this is a taboo conversation.

The truth is though, that if you don’t educate yourself about how to manage, store, protect, and invest the money that you make, your future in business will be very challenging.

This does not have to do with how much money you make in your solo business, but with what you do with it to improve your current and future finances. Many people succeed when it comes to making a lot of money, but not all sustain or increase their wealth.

The reason why many people do not succeed in the long run (even though they were able to make fortunes with their businesses) is the lack of Personal Finance and money management education and knowledge.

Short take-away:

“If you don’t plan as a one-person company owner to become knowledgeable and reliable when it comes to managing your personal  and business finances, make sure you find a reliable Coach or Consultant that will advise you, protect you, and help you grow your wealth.” ~ Joanna Vaiou

For every single important thing, you don’t want to master, you must delegate, delegate, and then delegate some more!

A Bad Wealth Management Example

Imagine a scenario where you have made your first million in your own solo business in net profit.

What is the first thing you’d think to do with this newly available money of yours?

• Would you buy a Lamborghini?
• Or a luxury property for you to live in?

All the above purchases would be a bad decision for your financial situation as these are all liabilities, not appreciating assets.

A Lamborghini that you buy with your cash money to exhibit your new wealth status to others is a liability, and the same is true for the luxury home that you’d buy to live in,  and not use it as a rental property (in that sense, the same home could turn into an asset for you, if you did the proper research and the right moves, at the right time).

I suggest you listen to this free audiobook of Robert T. Kiyosaki – Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant.

This is a free audiobook that will open your mind. I consider it a great start to making you think “What’s next?” after you successfully start making money with your one-person business.

“Savers are Losers, and Cash is Trash” ~ Robert Kiyosaki

You read right. This is a famous quote by Robert Kiyosaki that has made many people dislike him. What he says though is absolutely true, literally.

Have you noticed that the prices of goods and services keep increasing?

How about the money printing going on from the governments?

The cash/money that we save in central banks is a depreciating asset. Its value decreases over time, regularly.

This means that we lose our purchasing power steadily, year after year by holding cash in our banks. We become poorer and poorer while we should make our hard-earned money work for us.

Personally, I want to know that the money I am saving builds my wealth and improves my financial future, not the other way around. In this sense, Kiyosaki is right when he says savers are losers. Of course, saving money precedes investing money. To invest it you need to save it first.

The best way to protect our wealth and create a better financial future is to learn how to store, protect, invest, and generally manage our money the right way.

This is doable by acquiring financial education and investing our money in appreciating assets.

Appreciating Assets

Appreciating are the assets whose value increases over time such as:

1. real estate
2. commodities (gold, silver, etc)
3. paper assets (stocks, bonds, index funds, etc)
4. digital assets (cryptocurrencies, NFTs, etc)
5. other businesses

In order to be able to protect and grow our wealth, we need to invest our money into assets whose value increases in time (and increases at a greater rate than the inflation’s/money printing rate).

What is Financial Literacy?

Financial Literacy is the ability to read and make sense of financial statements. ~ Robert Kiyosaki

Any person running their own business should understand financial terms and activities like the following:

1. Reading a financial statement
2. Cashflow
3. Income Statement
4. Budgeting
5. Personal Finances (knowing how much money you need to live, to pay your personal expenses such as when buying courses or hire a coach to educate yourself, to run your business smoothly every month or every year, to pay your debts if applicable, etc)
6. Saving money (or learning how to get investors to invest their money in you and your idea)
7. Investing your own savings or other people’s or banks’ money, whatever works better for you
8. Understanding the difference between what an “ASSET” and what a “LIABILITY” is: Kiyosaki teaches this – he supports that an asset brings money in your pocket every month, while a liability takes money out of your pockets every month
9. Calculating your net worth
10. Understanding Taxes (Kiyosaki emphasizes taxes and their importance – he shares relevant and valuable insights for people like me and everyone who has a one-person business [self-employed] and wants to transition from [or combine] the left side to the right side of the Cashflow Quadrant)

Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant (Video)

Summing-Up What it Takes to Run a 1-Person Business Successfully

To have the most chances to succeed in your one-person business you need to have the following:

1. A great relationship with yourself and intense desire and willingness to constantly improve in many important for you areas
2. A plan to regularly improve your hard skills and soft skills through constant professional and personal development education
3. A healthy and positive relationship and views about money
4. Money management skills that you can acquire through personal finance education online

Starting a One Person Company Ideas ~ Sorelle Amore

Before I complete my article, here is a great resource related to Personal Finance, Freedom and Starting a new one person company.

Subscribe to the Sorelle Amore Finance YouTube channel below. That is if you love freedom, having more options, financial independence and educating yourself about global structures and settings like I do :).

Enjoy your day.

I hope you start exploring the option to start a one-person company with a bright future and yourself, in the captain’s seat :).

Consultant SEO – Joanna Vaiou – Connect with me on Linkedin