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Solo Entreprenuers And Team Work - A Difficult Proposition

Guest post by: Sudhir Sachdev

Article Overview: Solo practitioners work many hard hours but do not team up with other solos to create an effective business and toil hard to sustain their practices. Team work is essential to greater success and a more rewarding small business enterprise.

Solo Entreprenuers And Team Work - A Difficult Proposition



The path of a solo entrepreneur is lonely and isolated by the very nature of their business. However, teaming up with other entrepreneurs is difficult for many solo practitioners. But teaming up, once done, can be a very rewarding experience.

Most entrepreneurs start their businesses alone, in their homes, garages, in shared offices and in coffee shops. Their goals are ambitious and they have been avid readers of how to start a business and also review many checklists. Once they have the basic knowledge, they invest in their businesses by working the action plan by getting beautiful business cards, creating a website, by placing themselves on social websites, and by attending many of the breakfast networking events in their communities. They toil away but find limited results and begin to get frustrated in their search for business. However, the one thing that can help them in their business is seldom mentioned anywhere, and that is creating a team from the very beginning.

Solo business owners, by definition, have to take on many roles instantly. Therefore, it makes sense to break up those roles and bring in a few people within their team to share the workload and also get a business established. Yes, many people would argue that teaming up is already a part of the design of many networking groups, where the CPA, the lawyer, the insurance person, the mortgage banker and others are available to share leads and help each other in the business. However, in my experience, I have found these networks to have been overused, abused and also placed a few people who control the rules of the game and everyone is supposed to follow the line. Who wants more pressure of dues, standing up and reciting what you do and generally hoping for a referral here and there?

A true team means working to find professionals in similar or complementary services, creating value by carefully looking at each other's strengths and weaknesses and seeing where the right fit would be for the other player. Doctors and lawyers follow some of this teamwork philosophy by specializing in one area or another and letting the other partner take care of their own expertise. However, these practices are highly defined in their roles and not easy to establish for many solos in their own fields.

However, for solo practitioners, this exercise of 'right fit' remains elusive for many reasons, Many solos spend a lot of time arguing that they would want to have a team built, but cannot find the right person for one reason or another, and 'trust' seems to be the number one or very close to it. They also feel that they have a privileged method of prospecting or delivering results that they are afraid to show or share with another. They become expertmicro managers,and fail to see where any change can help them become better business people and also increase their revenue to boot. Yes, they would also argue that they understand time management, delegating duties and have read all the self-help newsletters, listened to many audio tapes in their car, attended many seminars and conferences. However, they never seem to still find the solution to their low level of performance, which may actually lie somewhere else, and that would be creating a team of complimentary people, who can begin to take each other's load, share ideas, go to clients meetings together and consider each other an employee of one another. Driving solo is no fun but a business companion along the way can shorten the trip to the bank.

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Article Tags: share ideas to increase income, solutions for solos, team work



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