This content was created by Kelly Alhooie. This content was uploaded by Kelly Alhooie. This is a podcast episode titled "Why Being a Solo Entrepreneur Is More Challenging Than You Think" (contenttype: PODCAST) created on 2025-11-29. The excerpt is an advisory monologue by SPEAKER A about the difficulties of solopreneurship—having to perform every role, risk of burnout, revenue and time caps, and the importance of hiring early (including practical suggestions like outcome-based pay). SPEAKER A also notes personal experience building seven-figure online and brick-and-mortar businesses and offers guidance on building systems and teams. SPEAKER B provides brief interruptions with a listener call-to-action (personal phone number), episode closing remarks, and a sponsorship thank-you. The piece is instructional/entrepreneurial in tone and appears intended for solo entrepreneurs seeking growth and operational advice. Metadata: podcast title as above, createdtime 2025-11-29, last edited 2026-01-21.
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Why being a solopreneur is more challenging than you think. People do not realize solopreneurship is super, super challenging because you are actually doing everything. And most people think they have made it when they are a solopreneur because they just aren't working for someone else. But the reality is you are still massively in the grind and it is energy draining, it is life sucking, and it can really burn you out and make you think, I can't continue. So I would say why being a solo entrepreneur is very challenging is because you are the schedule, you are the provider, you are the person that's doing the marketing, you're the person that's doing the sales. You're the person that is answering the questions at night when patients, you know, are messaging you in and you. They have problems. You're the person figuring out, you know, the telephone situation or, you know, Instagram and trying to put out an Instagram post. You're the person doing all the things. So you don't have 12 arms, so how are you supposed to do all the things? It's very, very, very challenging. Now, some of you guys, when you start is you have a lot of time, so you potentially do have time to do those things. And what you don't realize is you just know a little bit about all those little different things, but you never become an expert. And so the problem is the people that are the experts at marketing, well, guess what? They're going to take over your market. The people that are just focusing on sales and converting, they're going to take over your market. The people that just focus on keeping the clients and the client retention, they're going to take over your market. Because what you're doing is you're just knowing a little piece of the puzzle of each one of those because that's all you kind of need to get the business from here to here. And so solopreneurship is very hard. I mean, it's the worst. It's just as hard as working at a job you absolutely hate. Maybe even harder, because you have to get the momentum to get up off the ground. And it's not until you get the momentum that you're gonna be like, oh, yeah, I guess I can hire. And most of us are so scared. So we stay as a solopreneur. And I'm telling you this, I stayed nine months as a solopreneur and I should have hired within the first three months, but I was just terrified. Terrified. So I'm saying this from a loving heart of like most solo entrepreneurs need to hire before they're even ready, but they don't. They're scared. They don't have the fund, so they claim. But the reality is if you can borrow money and get someone to do the job that actually does it well, then it won't be costing you, will only be making you. That's key. And, you know, understanding this is what I didn't realize when I first started out as a very solo entrepreneur. I just thought I need to learn all the things. And there are positive benefits to that. You knowing everything, you kind of then start to know how these systems work. You start to know and understand, like, how things operate, like you having your hand in it. At first there is positives because then you can build systems that are better to help the next person so that they're not struggling the way you were struggling. The negative is, again, you can't be at peak performance because you have to have know everything about everything. And you also can't delegate. So it takes up all your time. And it. You're just not proficient. You're just. You end up not being proficient. And so if I could give any solopreneur advice, I would say hire before you're ready. Even if you're scared and terrified to death. If you can pay these people and basically you can start with a lower entry point of like, pay based on outcomes. And then that way it's not so scary. So you don't get the outcomes, you don't get the pay, and that way all the risk isn't on you. It's distributed through everyone. And I would say that's key because the faster that you can hire the right people for the right position.
Quick interruption. For those that have questions on today's episode, please text my personal number. It's 703-783-2388. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have to get you unstuck. Let's get back to the episode is.
How you're actually going to grow because you're going to grow as a team and you're never going to grow as a solo entrepreneur. People don't tell you this. If you are a solopreneur, you are maxed out. You are capped out. There is only so many hours you can work. There's only so many. So how much money you can make. So why do you want to stay a solopreneur? You never want to stay a solopreneur because that's technically, you don't have a business I don't think solopreneurs realize this either. If you are a solopreneur and you get sick or your kid gets sick or maybe your spouse gets sick, how do you keep your business in business? It immediately that day goes out of business because you can't bring in revenue and you have expenses that go out. So you technically, as a solo entrepreneur, you technically do not have a business. And I know some of you guys are going to be hurt by that, but you don't because it's built all based on you. And you cannot build a business that just runs off of your. You. You have to have a team of people that helps you with the business and that allows the business to run even if you physically can't show up and be there. That's a true business. And so I think the mistakes that, you know, most entrepreneurs make is thinking that they have a business when they don't and thinking that I'm just going to stay at this level because it feels the most comfortable. Because when you're a sole entrepreneur, you can make up to like 30k a month, which feels like you were the richest person in the world. But the reality is you can only sustain that for a couple months at a period of time before you're like, I can't work 7 to 7 anymore. I'm done with this. And then you got to go back to the drawing board and be like, how do I do it differently? I can't tell you how many business coaches offer one on one, you know, what do you call it, one on one consulting. But, but the problem is they end up staying on zoom calls all day long, hating their life. And if you hire that coach, they can't, they don't have the opportunity to learn because they're constantly talking to you on the Zoom call 24 7. Just talking, talking, talking. So how are they going to learn and get you new skills so that you can grow your company? They can't. So you do not want to hire someone that's constantly doing one on one zoom calls because they're actually not growing as a coach and they're stuck. Now they're going to make some money because people want that and so they're attracted to that. And so they know that from a marketing aspect that that's going to hit. But the reality is they cannot build themselves up if they're constantly pouring into you. So a true coach actually has to have time where they do group coaching and be able to step away for time for learning so that they can bring that new information back to their clients or, or new ways of doing things or have time to think and process so that their clients get the best frickin outcomes. That's key. Okay? And so this is the lesson that I want for you guys as solopreneurs that are thinking you, you have it, you're content, you got it all. Whether or not you're online or brick and mortar doesn't matter. You must hire. You must hire. I've created a seven figure online business and I've created a seven figure brick and mortar business. I can tell you how to do both and manage teams online, manage teams in person, all the different things. But you're gonna hire, you're gonna have to hire if you wanna do something great and not be capped. And that's just the reality because then you actually have a true business. So hopefully this helps. Guys, for those solo entrepreneurs out there, this is a quick episode, but I just wanted to come on and talk about solo entrepreneurship and the challenges that some of you guys may not know of it right now because everything feels good, but these are the challenges that you're going to face, especially when you don't feel well or your family doesn't feel well. So hopefully this helps and we'll talk soon.
Thanks so much for listening. And you guys can text me at any time. It truly is my number if you feel that you have questions or that you feel stuck. So text me at 703-783-2388. Text me at any time and I will respond. And yes, it is me. So hopefully we'll talk soon so we can get you unstuck. Thanks guys for joining and thank you Jane for sponsoring Pelby Biz podcast. We can't thank you enough so that we can help more providers across the world.
