By Nancy Gaskins
Solopreneurs are on the rise, but that description is a misnomer. Just because an entrepreneur has no co-founders or employees does not mean they don’t have help; they typically have a team of collaborators.
With the popularity of freelancer platforms like fiverr.com, entrepreneurs can quickly go online 24/7 and find someone who can help them with practically any job or project, no matter how big or small, for a very reasonable price.
Do you have a skillset that could be of use to small business owners? Try freelancing on one of these platforms as a side hustle. Need some work done? Hire a freelancer!
A Virtual Assistant is a person who provides various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location, such as social media management, following up on leads, setting appointments, database management, sending emails and other tasks that can free up the entrepreneurs to do what they do best; i.e. run their business. A great virtual assistant is worth their weight in gold.
Do you know anyone with great administrative skillsets, who understands and values excellent customer service, who’d like to work from home with a flexible schedule and earn great pay? Consider becoming a VA – virtual assistant. I think this would be a phenomenal option for stay at home moms. Contact me if you’re interested.
With the recent pandemic, businesses have been forced to look at their business from a different perspective and come up with creative solutions to stay afloat. Some have pivoted and are making more money than they could have ever imagined…by accident.
Another powershift that I’ve noticed is a significant increase in the number of collaborative projects and joint ventures being solicited among entrepreneurs.
A joint venture is a temporary business arrangement in which two or more parties agree to pool their resources for the purpose of accomplishing a task, project, event, etcetera.
You could be pooling cash, cross promoting mailing lists, sharing expertise across platforms or a myriad of other things to help reach a specific objective.
Here’s a great example: A few weeks ago, I was facilitating a global mastermind group of entrepreneurs online and was discussing the power of collaborating with one another. I mentioned that I live here at the beach; home of sugar white sand and emerald green water and would be hosting a mastermind retreat for entrepreneurs. How might we collaborate?
Within a few short minutes we had a promotions guy who offered to provide each attendee with t-shirts, a yoga instructor who would provide her services each morning on the beach, a coffee/tea/chocolate vendor who’d supply our beverages, graphics gal who’d handle our promotional material and a myriad of authors, trainers, coaches and subject matter experts who could supply the life enrichment content. We’d all pitch in to fund a social media ad campaign to promote the event and split the proceeds equitably among all those participating. It was amazing!
It doesn’t have to be a group effort; it could be something as simple as you have a complementary product or service offered by another small business owner. You could cross-promote your offerings to each other’s client base, and both walk away better off than before. Got any great ideas? Share them with me!
