It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I made a major pivot from corporate leadership to independent business. Wow.
A year of learning, challenge, creation, connection and above all โ re-finding what I love to do in the world. I truly love what I get to do every day now. I love to MAKE things out of nothing that support, educate and grow fellow humans. And I'm extremely committed to making work suck less for everyone. โ Here are a few learnings and takeaways from the past year of making things for ya'll.
Designers make Ah-mazing Solopreneurs
Forget needing an MBA to hold my own in a room of corporate leaders, I'm running my own entire business now from marketing to finance, sales to operations. Maybe I'll still get an MBA at some point for funsies, but I have built confidence in myself again that when I don't know how to do something, or it's not my strength, that I am really good at building a team around me to fill my gaps.
Gif of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde saying "What, like, it's hard?" about getting into Harvard Law.
As a trained designer, all of my skills have come to the forefront. Thinking in experiments and validating my assumptions, deeply listening to my audience and exploring the problem space. Coming up with VALUABLE solutions for the top problems I have the expertise to help with. And then dusting off my old marketing skills and iterating on copywriting for clarity. It's been ALOT.
Designers can learn anything. And make anything. Our ability to hone in on market opportunity and just get building with low overhead is truly amazing.
Finding a community of lovely humans experiencing the same things I am has been an absolute gift. I did this in two ways โ first I started up a "business breakfast" of a small group of folks I had met all in boot up or reinvent mode. Secondly, I joined an online community of independents called Pollen that has been an absolute game-changer! Pollen gave me the structure, support and continuous education on all things business that i needed. From quarterly planning, getting better at sales, to mindset work, the team at Pollen has accelerated all my progress and brough much joy into my world. โ I also became a founding member of The Coven in St Louis Park, Minnesota โ an inclusive coworking space focused on belonging. I'll be jamming from there one day a week and invite all my coaching clients to meet me there.
Tech & Ops Stacks are complex but critical โ here's mine
Don't get distracted by the constant rumble of tools, software and tech-stack opinions. There are soooo many options, and everyone has an opinion. You can read all about my current choices and stack here on the blog.
The most important thing is to keep your starting costs low, and mvp your way to fancier automations to scale. You can keep things manual for a time, until you are ready to commit.
Perhaps the most important thing to begin with is thinking in a hub and spoke model for where you'll be driving traffic to most โ typically a core website. Pick a website tool and hosting provider that you are most comfortable with and can update on your own. Some of these have specific email marketing tools built in, or partnerships and integrations.
p.s. Communities like Pollen offer discounts on many of tools that instantly mean the community cost pays for itself!
What else do you want to know about one year in of building a business? What lessons have you learned and would share with me? I'd love to know if you have a dream brewing and how I can cheer you on! โ Alison x
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