Here’s a brilliant article by Peter Crocker of Flying Solo (www.flyingsolo.com.au) – a fantastic online resource for small business owners who are working on their own. It really spoke to me when I read it…hope you like it too!
We are the soloists.
Describing a ‘typical’ solo business owner is like trying to describe an ‘average’ person. But as diverse as we are, those in the flourishing soloist movement share many tribal similarities.
We are the third bedroom dwellers, the kitchen table perchers, the café lurkers. We are the CEO, CFO, CIO, COO, cleaner, accountant, IT fixer, debt collector, sales manager and strategist. We are front of house, leading role and backstage hand.
We are the name on the van, the bottom line, where the buck stops.
We are the corporate escapees, the Branson wannabees, the little doers, the big talkers, the quiet achievers, the hired guns. We are top of our game, but under the radar.
We are plan A, B and C. We have no safety net, no expense accounts, no war chests, no slush funds, no parent companies, no casual Fridays and no fall back positions. We are familiar with the smell of oily rags.
We are proposals at midnight, invoices at dawn and mowing on Mondays. We are the soul traders – one email away from elation, one phone call from dejection.
We are the red hot go. The crazy dream. The shot at the title. We are the epic fails, the rising from the ashes, the self-made stories.
We are the outside of the box, the other side of the coin, the path less trodden.
We are something from nothing. Mind over matter. We are masters of our own universe. We are the nimble fish in the shark-infested pond.
We threw in the day job and made the bed that we lie in. We are the boss they bitch about.
With more than 1 million of us across Australia, we are the nation’s largest business sector – and the stampede to soloism gathers pace every year.
Welcome to the soloists century. You may be Flying Solo, but you’re not alone.
I am proud to be part of the soloist movement. Are you?
PETER CROCKER (www.flyingsolo.com.au)
