May

14

Go Your Own Way? Musings on Fleetwood Mac, Collaboration, and Solopreneurship

May 14th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Collaboration and Partnership

As solo-business owners, we embrace the “solopreneur” lifestyle — we treasure the independence and flexibility that it gives us.

But being a solopreneur doesn’t mean you shouldn’t collaborate with others. Look at the music industry, for example.

Fleetwood Mac at their zenith in the 1970s: Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham

I’ve always thought of musicians as solopreneurs. They learn their crafts individually and often in isolation, but they come together to form groups of varying sizes and longevity.

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May

14

The Biggest Sales Challenge That Solopreneurs Face

May 14th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Sales

There used to be a saying in American business: “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”

The saying meant: IBM was the safe choice; you could count on IBM products to do a good job; IBM products might (or might not) do a great job, but they wouldn’t be a disaster.

In a recent report titled “What Sales Winners Do Differently,” the Rain Group found that minimizing risk continues to be critical to buyers.

The Rain Group studied individual purchases in industries with complex sales, such as technology, consulting and professional services, financial services, and industrial products.

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May

10

Featured Soloist Krista Stryker: “I Nearly Tear Up From Happiness”

May 10th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Featured Soloist

This is “Featured Soloist,” a ongoing feature that gives all of us a glimpse at how other solopreneurs operate their small businesses.

Krista Stryker

Today we meet Krista Stryker, who is based in San Francisco. If you would like to be the “Featured Soloist,” please send me an email.

Name of solopreneur:
Krista Stryker

Name of business and city:
12 Minute Athlete; San Francisco

Type of business
I run a website called 12 Minute Athlete that provides free, incredibly effective, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts and awesome fitness motivation for athletes of all levels. I also recently launched Fitter Faster Stronger, an interval-training workout program that helps people get in the best shape of their life.

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May

09

Share Your Turnaround Success Story

May 9th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Uncategorized

Have you ever brought your solopreneur business back from the brink? Do you have a business-turnaround success story you’d like to share? Then send me an email. I want to talk to you!

The Solopreneur Life has been doing a LOT of consulting lately for solo businesses that need to make things happen in a big-time hurry.

In response to this need, and recognizing that many solos can’t afford coaching or consulting at this time, I’m working on my first new product in 2 years.

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May

09

A Quick Solopreneur Survey: How Is 2013 Going For You?

May 9th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Surveys

The Solopreneur Life has been doing a LOT of consulting lately for solo businesses that need to make things happen in a big-time hurry.

In response to this need, and recognizing that many solos can’t afford coaching or consulting at this time, I’m working on my first new product in 2 years.

The tentative name is “The Solopreneur Emergency Turnaround Program,” and the program’s goal is to help out solopreneurs whose businesses are really struggling to stay afloat.

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May

07

You’re Not a Bank: Don’t Let Your Accounts Receivable Slide

May 7th, 2013 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Accounting

Several years ago I was providing marketing-communications services on contract to a very large B2B publishing company. I had worked for the company for roughly 8 years, and they had paid my invoices like clockwork, at 20 days. Life was great!

But then the company hit hard times. Advertising revenue plummeted for their print publications, and online revenue didn’t replace it. A company sales rep told me at the time, “For a print-ad order that brought in $5,000, I now have to work 40 times harder for an online ad that’s worth $500.”

That’s when I knew old media was dead.

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