by Suellen | Meeting the Challenges, Success
Being a solopreneur means you are an entrepreneur who runs everything in your business.
Whew! Everything sounds overwhelming!
Yet, there are countless advantages to this kind of business model, and thanks to the web, now it works for more people than you can imagine.
The notion of running an entire empire single-handedly would have seemed like an impossible pipe-dream only a few years ago. Today though, this is what more and more people are living as their reality. The internet is such a powerful force multiplier that it allows many people to truly become “digital polymaths.” (People who have knowledge in many different areas).
For many years, it was impossible for an individual to compete with the resources of larger companies. But then things changed.
Really smart people started developing and selling (or sometimes sharing) software, platforms, and apps which helped individuals accomplish things they never could before.
Now you can design your website, write for your blog, sell products, collect the money, and have them delivered. All by yourself. All from your home! Amazing, isn’t it?
But while the solopreneur lifestyle is liberating in many ways, it can also be extremely challenging. That’s because it requires you to wear a lot of hats and to take full responsibility for every aspect of your business.
Even if you are simply running a blog and selling affiliate products, this can be a surprisingly challenging lifestyle. Suddenly, there is no employer. There is nobody else who is going to take responsibility for your business. Or to accept the blame if things go wrong.
Likewise, there is no guaranteed paycheck. There isn’t even a guarantee that you’ll have work this time tomorrow.
Things can be going extremely well one day, and terribly the next.
What if Google removes your site from its listings and you can’t sell any more products?
What if you have one big client and they leave? Now you could have a quiet spell lasting for months.
What if a shipment of products goes missing? Or your links get messed up and you can’t seem to fix them?
As the solopreneur, you must be ready to weather all these scenarios. And you must be ready to make countless huge decisions.
You run a YouTube channel, and you want to sell an eBook from there. But how much do you charge for it? What eCommerce store do you use to sell it from?
What if your loyal audience finds it offensive that you are now charging for information, and thus they leave you?
What if the WooCommerce store crashes because you have an outdated PHP version on your server? And what if that means you lose thousands of preorders?
And do you let that other creator you met upload videos to your channel? What if those put off your viewers because it’s not what they came to see? What if they like the other person’s content more than yours??
Juggling work is also extremely difficult – especially if you want to maintain some semblance of a work/life balance. This is especially true for a service provider. In this scenario, there is no delineation between work hours and downtime.
That is to say, that you could work 9-5, but you could also work 9-9. That latter option would mean you earn a LOT more money! Do you really need to be relaxing in the evening when you could be getting closer to your goals?
What if you don’t finish your work on time? Do you work a little more?
What if there’s something you need to buy, but don’t have the money?
Again, the number of variables is huge, and you are constantly forced to make these decisions. Even when you are “relaxing,” you might be questioning whether you could be doing something more useful. You might still be worrying that your work wasn’t done to standard.
Then there is the customer service. Download problems. Negative comments. Etc., etc., etc.!
You get the point! It can be stressful!
But it can also be very rewarding.
You as a Solopreneur, are a pioneer. And with a new type of career, you need a new approach to health and productivity.
The healthy, happy, productive Solopreneur starts with a plan. And this plan must include not just work, but your spiritual goals and health goals.
You are not just trying to “survive” in business. You want to thrive. You want a happy personal life. A close-knit family or group of friends.
Planning for total health and well-being helps you include all of these things in your life. And planning for that well-rounded life increases your productivity.
The truth is that the more you improve your focus, energy, creativity, and health, the more you will produce. As a solopreneur, everything you sell and everything that earns you money comes from you.
If you want to be more successful, that means that you need to produce more. And if you’re going to produce more, then you need to manage your energy levels and your focus. You need to learn how to get the most from your body and your brain
And this can result in a HUGE increase in your productivity and profits. Because when you’re a solopreneur, learning how to double your output, means doubling your profit!
In the next few posts we are going to be discussing ways to increase your energy levels, your focus, and your productivity.
Remember, it’s the whole you and not just the working you that makes your Solopreneur lifestyle so productive.
So take a deep breath. Pray and ask for God’s guidance.
Get in a quiet place and write down your thoughts. Which areas of your life need improvement?
Are you battling confusion? Overwhelm? Lack of Confidence?
God will help you see some things which need to change. And which areas need growth.
As always, it’s one step at a time. Patience and perseverance.
You will get there if you don’t give up.
by Suellen | Join the Mission, Reach the World,
We have entered a new era, and it’s here whether we’re ready or not. A few years ago, I wrote my first book, and at the suggestion of some savvy people, started a blog to promote it. Little did I know where this would take me.
As I roamed around the internet, looking for like-minded people, I found something very interesting.There are some really great Christian blogs, podcasts, etc. out there, but over all, we don’t have the representation we need – or that our Father wants. Sure, there are some Christian ministries, but we are greatly outnumbered. There are many voices out there, but relatively few Christian voices.
Our presence is sadly lacking.
I have continued to pursue my own presence online, and have learned a few things in the process.
First, I have learned (as you may have also) that the digital world has totally taken over our culture. Just as TV changed the lines of communication several decades ago, the internet and wireless devices now hold the keys to communication in our world. People in their 20’s and 30’s are not watching Christian TV; they are surfing the web – and usually on their phones or tablets.
Second, I have learned that mastering the tools of the digital world is not as hard as you might think. There are so many software programs now which simplify the process. It’s often a matter of discovering which ones to try.
Third, in the process of learning, I have found some great instructors, who are eager to share what they know. Some people who have been online since the inception of the internet are more than generous in sharing how to get the job done. And the numbers of experts who are willing to share their information is growing by the day..
Fourth, I have learned that the internet is inexpensive compared to other means of communication. To my surprise, many applications are totally free.
I am convinced that God had the invention of the internet put into our hands at this moment in time for us Christians. I am convinced that the internet is here for us to reach the multitudes, worldwide. Let’s not miss this opportunity to saturate the web with God’s message and His presence.
Perhaps you already have a thriving blog or internet business. The rest of us could learn from you.
Or you might be saying, “I would like to, but I don’t even know how to start.”
There are plenty of people who would love to help you.
Our new mission is to help you as a minister or lay person fulfill your purpose. We know that you have a message, and we want to help you get it out to the masses.
When you speak to your audiences in person, you can reach hundreds – or even thousands. When you go on TV or radio, you can increase your audience to millions. When you take your messages to the world wide web, you can reach hundreds of millions – and even billions. (Yes, I said, “billions!”) Digital technology can go into places which don’t have TV or radio.
God has provided this golden door of opportunity for us to reach the world, so let’s do this. We hope you will join us in taking up this torch.
We have a world to reach.
We can do this!
by Suellen | PLR, Writing Tips
Whew!! You don’t have to be a know-it-all!
It’s important to be an expert in your field when people are paying you for what you provide. I’m sure that you are very good at what you do or what you sell, but running a business is so much more than what you do and what you sell.
You are more effective when you are knowledgeable in related areas of your business.
And these related areas can cover a broad base. That’s where PLR comes to the rescue.
It’s impossible for you to be the expert in every facet surrounding your business, so let other experts fill in for you.
PLR content comes in a wide variety of types. Audio, video, and written content on anything you can imagine… Yes, there’s PLR for that. That means you don’t have to be a know-it-all to run your business and do what is right.
Using PLR makes it possible for you to share important and timely content with your audience without having to do research and invest time and money into writing content. PLR is a great way to expand on what you offer as well as drill down deeper and add value to whatever you already provide.
Let’s look at an example:
You sell products to Homeschooling Moms and Dads. And you really know your stuff.
But think about how your customers can benefit when you provide related materials as well. Such as:
- Emotional aspects of Homeschooling
- How to organize your school day more effectively
- Dealing with different learning styles
- A 30-Day challenge for increasing math skills
- An eBook filled with advice from other homeschooling mothers
- A video series about preparing your children for college
- Exercises to keep children fit
- And more
In this case, you don’t have to be a know-it-all about psychology, time management, health, or even education. Yet you can impact your audience with valuable information thanks to PLR.
You can arrange this content in whatever manner helps your audience best. Use the content as a freebie or use it as part of an exclusive membership that gives extra advice for those willing to pay a small premium each month. You can choose the best way to share the information in a way that educates and creates income.
Let the content creators be your experts and you can glean the best topics and delivery systems for your audience. Your status as a know-it-all will expand with the offerings you make to your tribe while you save time and money providing excellent content for your site.
by Suellen | PLR, Success
Your business has a lot of moving parts. Even if yours is a side-hustle, you need to regularly attract new people and keep them coming back for more. PLR is an excellent way to offer your visitors high-quality information that doesn’t cost a lot of time and money to produce.
There are many reasons for tapping into this resource. Right now I want to mention five.
- PLR is affordable Large companies employ staff writers and marketers whose job is to create their content. These staffers plan the subject matter, do the research, and write as employees of the business. Their material is the property of the business and the writers are paid hourly or salary for their time at work.
Most small businesses can’t afford to hire a writer to create unique content just for their business. So most often, the business owner is left with the job of writing for himself. It can be very time-onsuming.
Since a lot of the copy is used for give-aways, it isn’t necessarily a money-maker.
Buying PLR is an affordable way to get great content written for your audience without having to pay for a writer or taking the time to write it yourself.
- PLR is plentiful: There are many ways to buy PLR. Some PLR is exclusive, which means fewer copies are sold. This means the content is less likely to be widespread. This PLR may be more expensive, but it can be a wise choice for certain items like eBooks or challenges.
Other PLR is sold in larger quantities, which reduces the price point and makes buying PLR an easy yes for your budget. There are multiple places to source PLR. A simple search for providers will yield lots of results.
- PLR is customizable: PLR is formatted in ways that allow it to be changed. You can add your own branding and add your name as author. You can also edit the copy, gving it your voice and your message.
In some cases, you can hire a virtual assistant to help you modify your content for far less than having new and individual content created. In the moments it takes to brand your PLR and upload it to your site, you can reach your tribe and add value to their lives.
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- PLR is engaging: Good PLR has engaging content that encourages your tribe to reach out and connect.
From high-quality emails to calls to action in an eBook, great PLR will have your customers reaching back to you for engagement where you’ll be ready to connect.
- PLR is educational: Many times, PLR can do a lot of the sales or the education for you. Strategic use of PLR can educate your audience about what they need in order to work with you or offer collateral information that supports your sales goals.
The quality information is useful for your clients and helps make you an expert in your field.
So you can see that using PLR saves time and money. It allows you to offer high-quality information to your customers, while freeing you up to focus on money-making or other important tasks.
Using PLR to support your site and add value to your client’s experience is a great way to offer more for less… time and money.
by Suellen | Join the Mission, Vision and Goals
Which Mountain are You Climbing?
Now you may think that this is a strange question. We have been focusing on influencing the world for God. Why would I suddenly start talking about mountains?
To understand where I’m coming from, let’s go back a few years. In fact, let’s go back to the year 1975.
In that year, Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission (YWAM), had some visitations from God. His heart was sold out to the ministry to which God had called him, as he was sending missionaries into all areas of the world. These ministers were bringing people to Jesus and helping them to grow in their new faith. There was tremendous fruit being produced for God’s Kingdom.
However, he realized that forces were working against his mission in a mighty way. Many times discouragement would hit when he would see the new converts being swept back up into the current thinking of his or her society.
During this season, Loren was getting a revelation of the many forces of darkness – coming from many different areas of life. It was the “secular world” coming against the “sacred world” he was living in as a minister.
As Loren sat pondering, the Lord took him to Acts 10:9. It’s the episode in which Peter received a revelation to go to the Gentiles. The Lord gave Peter a vision. Three times a sheet came down from heaven containing animals, reptiles and birds. A voice said, “Rise, Peter. Kill and eat.”
Each time Peter would say, “No, Lord. Never have I eaten anything which was unclean.”
After the third time, the Lord spoke. “Do not call anything impure which God has made clean.”
Then the Spirit said to him, “Peter, three men are looking for you. Go downstairs and go with them. For I have sent them.”
So Peter went with the men to Cornelius, a centurion in the Italian Regiment. And he led the officer and his entire family to the Lord. As Peter stood there, the Holy Spirit fell on these people – just as He had done for Peter and the apostles in the upper room.
Thus for the first time, Peter realized that God was calling gentiles to receive Jesus – and not just the Jews.
This was a transforming time for Peter. And also for the Jewish leaders of the early church. They were just learning that God was a God of all the believers in the world. A revolutionary thought.
Well, on this day in 1975, as Loren came to that passage, the Lord said, “Do not call anything impure which I have made pure.”
Of course, the minister’s mind first raced to food restrictions. But the Spirit said, “No. I am talking about things you call ‘sacred’ versus what you call ‘secular.’ You consider church and Sunday “sacred.” You consider every other area of society to be “secular.” Then the Lord said, “I have created it all. It’s all for My glory.”
This required some pondering, indeed! Loren had never thought in those terms before.
As he sat in the stillness, Loren heard God begin to list for him the seven spheres of influence in a society. Then he began to see that these seven were in existence in every culture where his mission teams had gone.
The seven: Religion, Family, Government, Education, Commerce (Business, Science, and Technology), Media, and Celebration (Arts, Entertainment, and Sports).
Then came the realization: these seven areas of culture bear such a great influence on people that a nation will never be truly discipled for Jesus until all of these areas have Christians involved at high levels.
When Loren Cunningham received this revelation from God, he wrote the areas down on a yellow pad and started praying over them. He was on vacation in Colorado at the time.
A dear friend of his, Bill Bright, who had founded Campus Crusades for Christ was also vacationing at a log cabin in the area. When Bright heard that Cunningham was nearby, he invited him over. Loren tucked the list of seven spheres into his shirt pocket, and headed for the visit.
Was he ever in for a surprise!
As he walked in the door, Bill Bright said, “I want to share with you something which the Lord just spoke to me. It’s about seven spheres of influence in society which hinder or help the discipling of a nation.”
Wow! Was that ever confirmation! They compared notes and they had received the same list from the Lord.
About a month later, Darlene Cunningham, Loren’s wife, was listening to an interview with Francis Shaeffer who was speaking from his ministry, L’Abri, in Switzerland. He had recently received a word from the Lord in which he was given seven “Molders of Culture.”
Do you think that it was the same seven?
Yes. It was!
Fast forward a few decades, and a minister/marketplace apostle named Lance Wallnau enters the picture. The Lord gave him some insight also. He had a revelation of the cultural influencers which make or break a society. He called the seven spheres, or molders, the Seven Mountains. But the message is the same.
Individuals can be brought to the Lord throughout the world, but cultures will never change as long as the Seven Mountains are dominated by unbelievers. Only a saturation of believers in every sphere of society will bring true discipleship to a nation.
Nations can’t be discipled properly until these seven mountains are dealt with.
And that works both ways! If Unbelievers dominate those mountains, then the prevailing attitudes will work against God and His plans. If Believers are prevalent and high profile, then Godly attitudes will prevail.
Now think about our modern western cultures. Can you see where we are on this scale?
Most Christians have noticed a decline in the American society over the last decades. But just sitting around playing the game of “Ain’t it awful,” is not enough. (You know. The game where we say, “Ain’t it awful what they did, or said, or voted for?”)
No.
In fact, God has created you to be on one of the mountains. Whether you are a teacher, an actor, a businessman, or a stay-at-home Mom, you are on one of the mountains already.
Let that thought soak in. You will start to see how important you are in God’s big plan.
Think about it for a moment. Think about how different our culture would be if actors were speaking out for Jesus. If journalists were speaking out. If educators and doctors were influencing the world for Jesus.
When we notice the charge of Jesus to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel,” (Mark 16:15), sometimes we might think in terms of going to other countries. Well, of course, some do that. Yet every day we are “going into the world.” We are going to our jobs, or our neighborhoods, or our committee meetings. Wherever we go, we are to shine brightly for Him.
We are ministers. Every born again believer.
A lot of your success in your position is for you to appreciate where God has you. It’s an important position. The gifts and callings He has put within your DNA are what you need to accomplish His will for you in that place. God’s Spirit will guide you and empower you to bring influence for Him – right where you are.
Do you need to change positions? He’ll let you know and make a way for it to happen. He’ll direct your steps.
The keys for you to accomplish God’s will for you are:
First, spend time with God. Read His Word, pray, and listen for His voice. Be ready in season and out of season.
Second, When God shows you someone to pray for, or to share with, do it. When you bring a person to the Lord or encourage them in their walk, the ripples of your ministry are felt beyond what you can imagine. As they are encouraged, they will encourage others – and the effects will be seen beyond your expectations.
Third, Stand for righteousness. Make sure that you bring to your position honesty, integrity, and diligence. The world has become slack in these things, and when someone shows up with a different set of standards, people will notice.
Finally, be strong and courageous. Just as God spoke these words to Joshua on entering the Promised Land, (Joshua 1;6,7,9), He speaks these words to all of us.
Wherever we are, we are taking territory for Jesus. As we are strong, courageous, counting on God and seeking His plans, we will see great victory in our lives.
So you are important in God’s kingdom.
Go climb that Mountain. Your Mountain.
Do it with faith, God’s wisdom, courage , and great joy. Thanking and praising your God every step of the way!
You have an assignment from God. You are to influence the world around you to know Him and to live according to His purposes. He has great things in store for you!
