I’m self-employed. I work so hard, but feel like I can’t get ahead. Do you have any advice? Yes! Not only owning my own business for 8 years, but also working with solopreneurs, has provided me with insight as to some common challenges.

 1. Planning is key. I don’t mean a To-Do list. I mean spending hours really digging into your goals, challenges, crafting a budget, and how/what you can delegate.

 2. Delegate.  Most entrepreneurs struggle to delegate, and it make sense for a couple of reasons. However, you’d be surprised how much you can delegate that increases your productivity. You should be focusing on client facing and revenue generating activates. You also don’t need a massive budget to be able to delegate. Think about it this way, doesn’t it make sense to pay someone say, $15.00/hour so you can focus on tasks that generate several times more than that?

3. Check in with your budget and stay accountable. Putting your expenses as a percentage of revenue make sense in many instances…and it’s simple! Say I determine to spend 15% of revenue on marketing. Well, in dollar amounts, that will fluctuate, but it remains a constant as a percentage. Tracking can be a huge eye opener as to your forecasted vs. actual expenses.