Small Business and Solo Business are labels lobbed about with little thought in our business conversations. And, it is this little thought out thinking that we can now realise a real opportunity to lean on and leverage these labels to do some of the heavy lifting in our front and back of business thinking.

It is simple, buildings are built for a purpose, and while that purpose may change with future custodians, the walls are where they are, the floors are fixed, and ceiling keeps everything contained and concentrating on meeting that business purpose.

A Solo Business needs more set structure. The idea of fixed flexibility kinda feels more like flapping in the business breeze to make something already made work.

Instead we grow an idea, just one, where maybe the mobility of growing in contained containers concentrated in a fixed footprint lends itself to work more for Solo Business. Enjoy.

So many Solo Businesses start from the self selected label of being a solopreneur (a nod to stepping out of the ever crowded crowd of entrepreneurs and being chuffed where all is done by one).

Here we expand on the existing and open an option to a knowing know of when to name yourself a solopreneur and when to shift the focus to your Solo Business. This is where you having a strong sense of self in your role in your Solo business in your Strategic Direction (specifically, your Niche and Business Model-Network) come to play their part in your business ways and days.

In the context of conversations in business, scale says ‘more’ to many.

What is commonly confused is the tendencies to talk to size being about headcount, assuming that more people means more capacity, more capability, more more to do more, to be more.

Now some will trust when there is more, and they are right, there is a time when you need more business bums in seats to hold and have confidence in continuity of supplying a service or producing a product.

And then, there are a growing number of ‘others’.

Here we circle back to move forward with the focus of ‘all done by one’ and building the belief that ‘size matters’ to welcome the curiosity of the strength of working with a Solo Business. But, before we do, it is up to us to be comfortable in our own business skin to say ‘we is me’ 😁

The funny thing about taking what works in big business and popping it to play a part in Solo Business that sometimes it looks a little very different. Here we draw the focus to a frame of connecting your Solo Business to resources through specific relationships, specifically those relationships assigned to exisiting business role names.

In this conversation we work with business roles as a bridge between the different business makeups to make what we have work harder for us.

While there is no one way to get our foot in that door, to get our name out there, or to get the needs we need met through who we know and who knows us, we certainly can leverage the already embedded assumptions of these common business role labels to get us what we need with purpose on purpose easier.

We are putting forward the idea that maybe the middle can be less messy or muddy and16 be more magic with the clarity cleared up when working with a couple of key Business Role Lenses, specifically the Manager and Director.

Through a real world example we share an application of how the Manager and Director can both connect and correct working in Solo Business.

Some lenses feel more familiar, while others feel forced and foreign, so they are not always picked up until they are deliberately designed to be picked up.

For now, the idea is to pick up the idea of Business Role Lenses in Solo Business. Then when you are ready, you can note and notice how you work with your lens(es) now. And then, by design 😉

Business role lenses are so light and so little they are easy enough to pull out in our days and ways. Growing on what we are already knowing about Business roles Lenses, we keep going growing.

Really leaning in to learn what we can learn, what we can leverage, and where it can lead us (on and off track).

The point is in the persistent practice of pulling out the aligned lens for you to direct, decide, or do what needs doing, or to catch yourself when you find you are leaning on one lens just because it feels more familiar and friendly 🤭

In big business layered layers of levels make sense. It makes sense to move the deciding, directing, and doing to be done on different floors (metaphorical and actual). In medium and small business these levels work too. In Solo Business…not so much.

Here we continue to grow the idea into Solo Business ways and days where ‘all can be done by one’ by building in the Business Role Lenses.

Same level, same you, different view.

The view that tells you what you will can do next.

Groan, another game changer 🫩 Bear with, maybe this one really is 🙃

Remember a couple of convos ago where we dared utter aloud the idea that ‘all can be done by one’ in Solo Business and said it again that we can work towards ‘all done by one’ as a normal norm by shifting your knowing of a business day away from what you may know, or is normal for the many, and instead of filling out the day to sooth that itch to be growing the business…remember that ol’ chestnut, well, we are going a little further to make ‘all done by one’ more less ‘possible’ and more ’practical’ with a little language thang (aka Language Device) we call Solo Business Business Roles.

(…and yes, we know that’s a crazy long sentence, we get so chatty Kathy when we get excited…you’re welcome 😅)

Okay, we don’t call this actually workable way that actually works Solo Business Business Roles, even in the excitement we too think it is all round unpleasant looking to say, so we just know them to be Business Roles Lenses, or Lens for short (your part to play is to assume the silent parts, please and thank you).

Business Purpose🔗 https://littlelanguagematters.com.au/in-business/in-solo-business/dictionary/business-purpose

Update: Since building out the Business Role Lenses from idea to actually being a thing, they are fully embedded and working hard in our ways and days. The downside, the tickles of not soothing our deliverer to play with the words is almost every time loved out loud by our Manager and Director in moving our ideas to be pick-upable by you.

Talk about things that you can pick up, at a pace that is practical for us, we are publishes Solo business Projects that are designed with only one thing on our minds…Solo Business…and Strategic Direction!

Update

Regarding the mention of Solo Business Projects, these have since been retired and are now being delivered as part of the 1:1 Kathy offers to business owners based in Australia (see https://littlelanguagematters.com.au/home#workwithkathy for more details).

If you’re not ready to work with Kathy or just have a question you’d like included in future podcast convos, please send your question to Kathy at [email protected]

Lastly, if you’re keen to learn a little of the thinking about this business shift, then it’s covered in Episode 49. Enjoy.

Knowing your Solo Business Niche is only the beginning…working out where in your days and ways you actually use your Niche to navigate what we do, to indicate what we need to (and do), and to extricate us (from what we really don’t need to be doing 🤭).

Yes, your Niche names who you do and what you do for/with them.

And yes, your Niche ties you to that something bigger than your business.

Your Niche lends itself to the little things leading you to and away from your part to play in the big picture.

Your Niche is the kindest of kinds that lets you know that that thing is ‘enough’ complete for now, no that draw is not the most important thing to sort through now, and yes, stepping outside with a cuppa to collect a little sun before moving onto the next task. Enjoy.

🔗 https://littlelanguagematters.com.au/resources/solo-business-dictionary/business-niche