Make a Space to Jump from Freelancer to Solopreneur

$1000 a month is more than enough as a freelancer who is based in Indonesia. Living expenses here are so cheap. I can save more than 50% of my income for retirement (if the virus of impulsive buying does not pass to my brain).

Well, just read a single article on Medium and it can change your mindset. Solopreneur seems like a great vocabulary to have rather than calling yourself as a freelancer. Hope this valuable word unlock your door to 7 figures income.

So far, my stream just comes from one source, freelancing. I will not leave my job just yet until I am all set for my solopreneur journey. Flowers need time to bloom, right?

Why I start freelancing and why I want to quit

I was an athlete and got paid monthly to be a cricketer for Jakarta. After I get married, I have to move to another province and live with my husband. So, I need to say goodbye to my career there and meet my new reality.

Leaving cricket for $500/month is not a regret. The team environment rapidly turned into a competition arena where those who love money more could stay longer. It could be seen as a team from outside, but inside it has been broken since everybody knew about the prize.

I learned Japanese but becoming a Japanese teacher seems not a right choice that I want to make. Teacher’s salary is not even better than my previous career as an athlete.

Be a teacher = low income. Plus, it burdens you to d*ath. 7–4 at school plus another extra work with no working time being counted.

After getting married, my new status is a housewife. I have never ending housework to do and those are life basics. I can’t leave it or life will be a chaos. So, I try to look for a job where I can still do my housework as a housewife.

I found freelancing as a name.

It took me a month to really get my first $5 of a short app translation project. Until now I can earn up to $1500/month (not stable but worthy).

Freelancing = the more projects you handle, the more stream flows. The more time you need to be wasted for someone’s project.

Freelancing took away your time. You can work harder and also lose more time. No capacity to be considerate as a human. Sometimes I only sleep for 2–3 hours.

You are not a robot. You are a person who wants to live your life as human. You need your time to spend for a high quality of life and bring back your humanity.

We do need money but I don’t think freelancing is the only way. Then, let me introduce you to Solopreneur.

Be a solopreneur who run your business alone

So what’s the difference between freelancer and solopreneur? Freelancer offer their services to work on project-to-project and focus on client satisfaction. While solopreneur can sell products, services or both and focus on growing their business.

If you want to be a solopreneur, you have to know that you are the one who will handle all aspects for your business. You are the one who takes control. It’s a freedom for you to make your decision.

Many successful solopreneur have a strategy to manage their task. They often rely on technology including AI. As a solopreneur you need to stay focused and time-efficient, work-life balance.

Solopreneur seems interesting but you need to consider these things.

Running a business alone is a challenge.

How will you handle your workload without being burned out?

How will you cover the area of your non-expertise?

Less support from others compared to working in a team.

Some ideas for solopreneur

Service and product. These two are the main characters in the scene. You can sell your service, product or both.

If you sell service then you will need a funnel so clients can come to you. You can get your client from anywhere including freelancing platforms. If you choose to sell products then you will need e-commerce to be partnered with. You can sell everything from offline products to digital products.

You can also try the create once and sell forever method by creating recorded products. From books to courses. You can sell your skills. You can also create free content for ads and sponsorship.

You can slowly say goodbye to deadlines from clients but still good time management is needed to keep you stay beside the boundary of humans who need around 6 hours sleep.

In the end, it’s so easy to step on this solopreneur milestone. You just need to keep it in mind that you are now a solopreneur, not a freelancer. Your time, your responsibility.

Meet the author

Hi everyone, I am Vegy. I’m a mom of two who love making money online and enjoy doing sports. Let’s be friends! https://vegyjanuarika.medium.com/