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Automation is especially important to solopreneurs.  As the business owner of a solopreneur business, you have a lot of different things to do.  Time is always at a premium, and you have to use it wisely and get a lot done in order to be successful.  Automation can help you be more efficient by doing things for you.  When you can set up a tool to do things for you, you save time and money as well as your mental bandwidth.  Here’s a few of my favorite automation tools for solopreneurs.

• Aweber email service.  Aweber is an autoresponder service, meaning people can sign up to your email newsletter, change their email address and unsubscribe without you ever doing anything.  You can also set up emails to go out on a set day or on a schedule based on when the subscriber signs up.  Aside from delivering your newsletter, you can use the service to help you deliver products and services.
• Mint.com bookkeeping software.  This is a free software that connects with your bank account and other financial accounts (credit cards, loans, Paypal, etc) and imports the transactions so you can generate financial reports.  The software will guess at how to categorize things, and at the end of the month you can go in and correct anything the software got wrong and add a category to anything it missed.  Once you’ve categorized everything, you can run a variety of reports to help you manage your business.  You can figure out things like how much revenue are you taking in, how much profit are you making, what are your biggest sources of revenue and what are your biggest expenses.  I like this software because most of what it does is automated.  You only need to intervene when it gets a category wrong or doesn’t apply a category.  Neither of these things happen often.
• Social media automation tools.  There are a variety of tools in this category and many of them have free options.  You definitely should be on social media for your business, and you should be interacting live with your connections but some of what you do can be automated.  I like the idea of having a solid undercurrent of automated posts with a healthy amount of live interaction mixed in.  One of my favorite tools is Hootsuite.  Hootsuite lets you pre-schedule single posts and save drafts of posts so they can be repeatedly posted.  There’s loads of other features, and you can connect multiple social media accounts.

I use a lot of other automation tools, but these are a few of my favorites.  Note that some of the links I share are affiliate links.

What are your favorite automation tools for your solopreneur business?  Share them in the comments.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post called “Facebook” is not a strategy.  In that post, I described how people often confuse the tool (Facebook) with the strategy (what

you are trying to accomplish using that tool).  In this post, I’m going to explain more about the differences between strategies, tactics and tools.

A strategy is a way of achieving a big, over-arching goal.  Ultimately, all strategies are designed to increase sales and profits but there are numerous steps leading up to sales and profits.  A tactic is a way of getting to that goal.  A tool is something you use to execute that strategy.

For example, suppose a solopreneur business owner has an offer on their site that converts pretty well.  Conversion refers to the number of people who buy vs. the number of people who saw the offer.  One strategy to increase sales is to get more people on the page to view the offer.  The business owner has numerous tactics at his or her disposal to do this.  She could improve her search engine rankings so more people find her through search.  He might use social media to encourage people to click through to see the offer.  She might distribute coupons to get people looking at the offer.  There are many more tactics the business owner could use as well.

Each of these tactics has tools the solopreneur business owner could use to make it happen.  In the  social media example above, the tools are the various sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.  Also included in the tools would be social media management sites such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.  In the coupon example above, the business owner could put web coupons on coupon sites the relevant audience visits, have colleagues promote the coupon, hand them out in real life, post them on social media, etc.  There are numerous ways or tools to get coupons in the hands of interested people so they can view the offer.

Of course there is some overlap in these 3 ideas of strategy, tactic and tool.  The important point is not to confuse the tool or tactic with what you are trying to accomplish using that tool or tactic.  You can expend huge amounts of energy doing, doing, doing all sorts of tasks but without a strategy those tasks are unlikely to produce results.  The starting point for any activity in your business should be what you hope that activity does for your business.

How do you use and manage strategy in your business?  Tell me about it in the comments.

As a solopreneur, it is absolutely critical that you work as efficiently as possible.  When you wear all the hats in your business, every minute matters.  One of the challenges is knowing what to be doing and how to prioritize what you will and will not do.  There is an almost infinite number of things you could be doing to grow your business, so there’s no way to do it all.  The only way to be successful is to work smart and selectively and that’s where working strategically can help.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of just adding more and more business-building activities to your solopreneur business.  At every turn, there’s a different expert or even an average person telling you about something you HAVE to be doing or your solopreneur business simply won’t survive.  You can do more, work harder and spend more time up to a point, but after a certain limit something has to change or your business really won’t survive.

Beyond that limit is where strategy becomes critical to your solopreneur business.  Strategy will get you off the frantic treadmill of doing more and more and help you expend your efforts where they have the most impact.  When you are simply doing, you aren’t working in a smart and cohesive manner in a way that maximizes your chances of success.  When you are working strategically, you are focusing first on those activities that have the most chance of bringing you success.

Strategy isn’t that complicated.  Start with an educated guess at what will work.  Don’t just jump into something because somebody said you should.  Have some reasons why you think a particular tactic will be successful for you.  Before beginning any new activity, know what you hope to achieve from it and how you will measure that achievement.  Watch your measurements, and adapt as you go.  Pretty simple, eh?

Unless you are extraordinarily lucky in this respect, just jumping in and doing more and more activities will not lead you to success.  It is highly likely that you will have to try several or even lots of things before you find the recipe for success in your business.  By working strategically, you’ll always be moving toward the optimal use of your time and effort.  Be measuring your results, you’ll be able to tell what the highest priority activities are for your solopreneur business.

How do you use strategy in your business?  What have you learned by measuring your results?  Tell me about it in the comments.

A lot of people assume that solopreneur is synonymous with “startup,” and that nobody would actually have a solopreneur business over the long haul.  People

who aren’t familiar with this way of doing business assume that you’d only have a one-person shop until you could hire a second person.  This is far from the truth!

There are already lots of solopreneurs you may know – fitness trainers, massage therapists, hair stylists, consultants, artists, personal stylists, house cleaners, handymen/women, and dog trainers are just a few of the businesses that often operate as solopreneurs.  According the US Census bureau, over three-quarters of the businesses in the US are solopreneurs!  (source: US Census Bureau).

Some businesses may not lend themselves to the solopreneur model, but many do.  Some solopreneurs used outsourced help in the form of contractors.  The key to having a solopreneur business you can sustain over the long haul is in how you set it up.

Here’s a few ways to make sure your solopreneur business works for you over the long haul:

• Make sure you love what your company (you) do.  It’s hard to coast in a solopreneur business.  If you don’t love it, find something new.
• Focus on what you do best, both in what you do for customers and in your business activities.  Use promotion strategies you find fun and energizing.  Consider outsourcing tasks you aren’t good at or dread doing.
• Always be learning!  This applies not just to the skill or craft you do for customers but also to your business skills.  The world is always changing, and you have to evolve to keep up.
• Look for ways to systematize anything you’ll be doing more than once.  Write down your best guess at a process before you do the task the first time and revise it with each subsequent time you do the same task.
• Automate when possible!  The better you can use your time the more profitable you can be.

The bottom line is don’t discount solopreneurship as a destination, not a stopping point.  Being a solopreneur can be a journey that lasts many years.  There may be a limit to how big you can grow or how much money you can make with your solopreneur business, but those limits may be high enough that it doesn’t matter to you.

Tell me about your solopreneur business in the comments.  How do you keep your business going over the long haul?

Neither is “Twitter,” “speaking,” or “handing out coupons.”  These are all tools or tactics used to implement a strategy, not strategies by themselves.  Your

strategy may include one or more of these, but they are not strategies.

Way too often, I work with overwhelmed, overworked solopreneurs who don’t have any strategy in their business.  There are so many experts (and some regular people too) telling you to do so many different things to build your business that it gets to be too much just to keep up.  This is the problem of working without a strategy – you just keep doing more and more and hope that something works.  Eventually, you’ll run out of time or become fried. How might one of these tools fit within a strategy?  Using Facebook as an example, here’s how it might fit into a few bigger strategies:

• A business has an offer (something for sale or a free download) on their site, and uses Facebook posts to encourage people to click through and see the offer.  Other things being equal, more views should equal more sales or optins.  The strategy is to get views on the offer and make sales from your site; Facebook is one tool to get views on the offer.
• A business offers something unique that most people don’t know exists and uses Facebook to educate people that this product or services is available.  Making sure the right people know about the company and the problems it solves can help generate sales.  People can’t buy what they don’t know about, so the strategy is to educate people so they can buy if the product is right for them; Facebook is a tool to educate potential customers.
• Facebook can be one way to gather interested and targeted prospects and communicate with them.  The strategy is to stay in touch with interested people; Facebook is a tool for that.

There are many more examples of how Facebook can be a tool you use to implement a strategy, but the point of these examples is that the tool is not the strategy.  If you are using Facebook, you can’t expect to generate sales just by being on Facebook.  The same can be said of any other tool you might use to implement a strategy. Before you add the next activity to your workload, make sure you have a clear strategy for this new activity.  Don’t ever add something without knowing how it can help your business. In the comments, tell me about one strategic activity you do to build your business.

I make it a point to do a lot of training.  For years, I’ve listened to experts tell me “people don’t care what you do, your credentials or how long you’ve been in business they just want to know if you can help them.”  I tried to internalize this and believe it – after all, so many experts say this, but I just couldn’t bring myself to believe this.  It’s so far from what I think – I care a lot about these things, and make it a point to investigate them before I hire anyone or buy their products.

I do care what people do (i.e. what methods they use to accomplish what they promise).  If somebody promises to help my skin look better, but it’s through a risky surgical procedure then I’m not interested.  If it’s through natural, plant-based, organic skin products then I want to know more!

I also care about people’s credentials.  I care not only about formal certifications but also life experiences and past successes.  I don’t think people necessarily need a formal certification if they have a track record, but I do want to see some assurance that the person I’m thinking of hiring or buying from has some experience and success in what they do.

I care how long a person has been in business.  My thinking is that a business that is dishonest or provides bad service won’t stay in business very long.  If I’m buying something for my business, I want to see that the business I’m buying from has more expertise in this area than I do.

Given that I care a lot about all of these things and that they figure prominently in my purchase decisions, how do I reconcile my beliefs with that of other experts who know enough that I opt to learn from them?

I think the answer is in the order in which people care about these things.  Before I look at any of these things, there is a first, cursory check to see if the business has something I want.  It’s only after the business has passed that step that these other factors become relevant.  Once I know I’m interested in what they sell, then I begin the process of checking them out in these other ways.

This is critical point of all this – people DO care about your credentials, but not until they know you have something they want.  There’s no point in checking out how qualified someone is until you know there’s at least a chance of doing business with them.

What does this mean for you, the solopreneur business owner?

Whenever you are communicating about your business, make sure to first communicate what you do for people.  Once someone knows you have something they want, then you can start talking to them about why they should pick you.

In the comments, tell me how you pick someone to buy from.  Do you care about their credentials?

I’m the featured blogger today on the Coaching Confidence blog!  Read this article to learn how to measure if your business building efforts are working.

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I was so touched by this response to last week’s Boston tragedies that I wanted to share it with you.  If you’re not familiar with the tradition, Boston Red Sox fans sing the Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline” at every game.  After the awful events of the week, Neil Diamond himself showed up to sing his song with the fans.  Here’s a video to see it for yourself (and I do recommend you take just 4 1/2 minutes to watch it – it’s very uplifting and inspiring):

What I love about this performance is that he just showed up and did it.  If you noticed the lag between his voice and the PA, it is due to the lack of proper audio being set up.  He was actually singing along to what was being broadcast instead of getting the sound track through an earpiece.  Instead of detracting from his performance, I think it actually enhanced it.  Instead of acting like a mega-star and demanding that the equipment be just so, he saw a chance to do something nice for people and took it.  He wasn’t concerned that this less-than-perfect performance would be widely broadcast and live forever, his mind was on the people who were benefiting from his presence.  Like a true professional, he even adapted to what he had and by the end of the song he sounded pretty good!

This is a great example of focusing on how you can help and serve others without worrying about making yourself look perfect.  As solopreneurs, it’s easy to be so invested in your business and how you represent yourself that you don’t end up releasing products and services that people could benefit from.  How sad that is!

What would happen to your business if you simply stopped thinking about how you look to others and stopped worrying about looking stupid?  What would you do?  What products and services would you launch that have been languishing in the wings?  Consider taking a leap and releasing those new ideas today and tell me about it in the comments.

I invest a lot in training and one of the things that is a big red flag to me is when someone promotes a technique or idea as the single right way to do something.  I love systems, blueprints, processes, etc. but the beauty in most of these is that there is choice.  There is leeway for an individual business owner to pick something that is right for his or her business.  Of course, there are situation when there is only one right way – for example, you should always have permission before adding someone to your email newsletter.  This is both the law and a good business practice.

What I think can be harmful is when someone promotes something as a single right way for all businesses.  It’s usually part of a sales offer and there’s usually something you “have to” doing or your business is doomed.  When someone who has never met you or examined your business tells you that they have something new that you have to add to your business and that there is only one right way to do it, take an extra look at what they are saying and make sure it really is a good fit for you.

One of my favorite ways to avoid doing this to my clients is to explain why I make the suggestions I do.  By giving the other person an understanding of why I suggest what I do, I give them the ability to assess my choice and make sure that my reasoning is sound for them and their business.  I also believe this is a high level of service – to not just tell someone what to do but to educate them so they can move on to the next level of learning.

Another reason to provide background and context to what I suggest is that the other person can assess whether the new information is a fit for them in various personal ways.  Is it a good fit for your personality?  Is it a good fit for your lifestyle goals?  Is it a good fit for your business goals?

So how can you assess whether something promoted as a single right way is a good idea for you?  First look for the person’s reasons for suggesting what they do.  If they have good reasons they usually won’t mind telling you what they are.  Beware of someone who gets upset or vague when asked why they think what they do.  Second, trust yourself and your knowledge of your business.  If someone says you have to be doing something you hate doing, it may not be a good fit for you.  There’s lots of right ways to build and promote a business and you probably can avoid a lot of things you don’t like if you have the right plan.

How do you assess whether someone’s “one size fits all” solution is for you?  Tell me in the comments.

Google and all of their related free products are some of the best resources a business owner can have.  One of my absolute favorites is Gmail.  I use Gmail for my business email even though my correspondence comes to and from an email address at my domain.  (I tell you how to do this in my system The ABC’s of a Successful Solopreneur Business if you want to use Gmail for your business.)

One of the best features of Gmail is that it comes with an abundant amount of free storage.  It also comes with an archive feature which is how you can create your own searchable archives for free.  Your own archives can become something like your own wiki.

In case you are wondering about just how much storage there is, it’s probably more than you’ll use up any time soon unless you are an exceptionally heavy email user.  I’ve had mine for over 2 years and I’m only using 4% of my available storage.  At this rate, I could double what I store and still have 24 years of space.  This doesn’t even count the fact that they increase the amoujnt of storage you get over time.

The archive function is brilliant.  It solves the problem of wanting to keep email for future reference but not have it in your workspace when you don’t need it.  It’s also let’s you instantly search for any email by sender, recipient or keywords found anywhere in the email.

How this might help you

You can begin practicing “inbox zero,” where you make it a regular practice to empty your email inbox.  I’ve worked with numerous business owners who have hundreds or even thousands of emails still in their inbox because they have no place to store them.  With the archive feature, you can keep all those emails “just in case,” but not ever see them unless you need them.  When your inbox only contains current, incoming mail you can see right away how much you have to process and what still needs to be acted on.  If you work in a business where you might be called on to document something, you can keep emails for that purpose.  I use my email archive to store information in  way that will support ME when I want to search for it.  I email myself a link or note with the keywords I would look for it under.  When I’m ready to act on it, a quick search finds the information I want.  My email archive has become my own personalized reference library.

How to do it:

• Start by creating a gmail account just for your business if you don’t already have one.  Your address can be your name, your business name or some variation on either but make it professional because other people may see it someday.
• Set your domain email (the email address that ends in “yourdomain.com”) to forward to your gmail address.
• In gmail, set your emails to come from your domain email address.
• When you have an email to save, use the archive button to archive it.
• Consider installing the “send and archive” button from Google labs.  As the name implies, it will send your message and archive it in one shot.
• When you find something you might want someday, email it to yourself using keywords you’ll think to use when you are ready for the information.  Archive the message from your inbox.

That’s it!  You can have this set up in very little time, and I’d love to know what creative ways you find to use your own searchable archive.  Tell me about it in the comments.

PS – if you need help setting up your domain email to work with your gmail, that’s just one of the many topics I cover in my complete business set up guide “The ABC’s of a Successful Solopreneur Business.”