Building a successful career as a Solopreneur consultant requires courage, resilience, possession of marketable skills, and relationships with people who are willing and able to recommend or endorse you for paid project assignments. Solopreneur consultants must have the talent to sell, the discipline to create and pursue business goals, a knack for big-picture thinking and strategy implementation, and an understanding of human nature and motivation. The ability to attract good luck and avoid bad luck also helps.

Very few Solopreneurs can just “go to the office” every day and delve into the regular job. In order to generate the preferred amount of business income, we understand that it may be necessary to create multiple streams of income, and to make this possible, we must recognize the marketing of our skill sets, together and in segments. Additionally, we must learn to package, promote, and sell our skills and value to potential customers.

Consider my sources of income, for example. When asked, in my short introduction, I say that I am a freelance third-party consultant providing business strategies and marketing solutions to mid-market for-profit and non-profit organizations. What that really means is that I have facilitated strategic planning meetings at non-profit organizations; edited a 100-page nonfiction book and also served as a photo editor and project manager; developed a curriculum for a series of 90-minute sales skills training workshops; and I regularly teach business plan writing.

I have been lucky enough to regularly win business strategy development assignments or marketing campaigns, but the fact is that there are often gaps, and in response, I have learned to branch out and offer segments of my skill set to clients or employers as a way to maintain my required cash flow and, whenever possible, also improve my brand. In my experience, it’s the ability to leverage one’s own, perhaps infrequently promoted competencies, that helps Solopreneurs build and maintain a profitable business venture.

My friend Adela is a busy educational consultant who works with college-bound high school students and their parents to identify colleges that are right for the student and navigate the application process. Adela’s business seems to be thriving, however she teaches Spanish at a local university (she was born and raised in Mexico and came to the US to attend the University of Notre Dame).

Jackie, a friend of many years, is the founder and manager of a small, full-service fitness center that has been very successful in that highly competitive market, yet she teaches a fitness class at another gym just a few miles away. away. Why? Because she is able to observe another style of gym management from the inside, she receives training in new fitness techniques that she can evaluate for inclusion in her own gym and earns a few extra dollars each week, something a mother of four always expects. can spent. Sometimes you can get paid to research the competition!

My friend Carole alternates between freelance marketing jobs at tech companies and corporate roles in that industry. She is a Lotus alumnus who also worked for tech giant EMC, honors that command respect and open doors in the tech industry. Between corporate gigs, Carole spends her time developing marketing strategies for tech startups. A couple of years ago, she was offered a position as marketing director at one of those startups, but when the inevitable reorganization occurs, she’ll re-enter Solopreneur life.

So, fellow Solopreneur, I invite you to put on your thinking cap and brainstorm how you can create additional income streams by exploring how certain segments of your skill set can be packaged and marketed to current and potential clients.

Thank you for reading,

Kim