The Psychology of the Solopreneur

By Kelsey Baker, WEV Program Assistant

How do you sustain the daily motivation and positive mentality to overcome challenges when you work alone in your business? Many WEV clients and small business owners are solopreneurs and face unique obstacles that accompany running a business alone. Whether working from home, a rented office space, or in a coffee shop, every business owner needs to find the environment and support system to help them succeed. At our recent Santa Barbara and Ventura WEV Connects events, a diverse panel of business owners shared their personal strategies for staying motivated, accountable and inspired in their work as solopreneurs.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the responses of our WEV panelists:

1. Create a space dedicated to your business for better productivity and work-life balance.
Paula Parisotto noted that while she primarily visits clients in their homes, the actual principle of being able to shut her office door in her own house helps distinguish work hours from personal time. And while Lisa Amador originally met clients in coffee shops, she found that renting an office space helped provide a safe space for collaboration with her clients and increased her professionalism.

2. Discover ways to sustain inspiration and passion for your business.
Creating a list of accomplishments to reflect upon is a way that Adriana Perez measures her business growth and helps her remember her strengths when challenges arise. Paula Parisotto shared that her vision board, motivational sayings on her computer screen, and writing in a gratefulness journal provide reminders of her business’ big picture and necessary prospective when large goals seem daunting. Helping others in their own business ventures is a rejuvenating way for Lisa Riolo to get inspired about her own business.

3. Find people to keep you accountable.
Verbalizing goals with friends and family is an important way to allow others to support you and hold you responsible for things you want to accomplish in your business. It is harder to back down from ideas and goals that you have shared with others who are invested in you and your business. Becoming a part of a Master Mind group (peer accountability group) is how Laura Dunbar and Kathy Wertheim process through business challenges and set goals on a continual basis.

Thank you to our Santa Barbara and Ventura panelists: Lisa Riolo of workzones, Paula Parisotto of Dettamoda Personal Styling, Lisa Amador of Santa Barbara Matchmaking, Kathy Wertheim of Werth-It, Laura Dunbar of The Madison Method and Adriana Perez of Skincare by Adriana.