Entrepreneurship has been on the rise for the past couple of years. According to a 2020 survey, there were more than 500 million entrepreneurs in the global landscape. In the US, small businesses make up 44% of US economic activity and employ about 60.6 million people. Even when the pandemic hit, the number of registered entrepreneurs increased as well. Technology has been crucial as well in the assistance of entrepreneurship such as no-code development. Estel Studio started in no-code development during the pandemic and founded by a female solopreneur who took the chance. After two years, we are a thriving no-code agency with a growing base of clients.
When building a business, most of the time people get business partners to aid them with capital and even expertise. However, a new breed of entrepreneurs is already growing right now. Meet the solopreneurs. Solopreneurs are people who set up, organize, manage, and assume the risks of a business without a partner. They have the same responsibilities as an entrepreneur but they handle all aspects of the business on their own. So essentially, solopreneurs are entrepreneurs but not all entrepreneurs are solopreneurs.
Technology has been aiding entrepreneurs by making their businesses digital. Digitization of the business means faster deployment without additional costs like overhead and expensive manpower. No-code development has been a valuable tool for solopreneurs who have limited budget, time, or manpower to launch their businesses for now. No-code has come into popularity for its visual programming feature allowing more people to easily make apps, websites, or software. By utilizing this, people with limited technological backgrounds can either start a business, digitize their side hustle or even shift to freelancing.
How is no-code changing the way solopreneurs do business and if this is just a trend or a long-term solution?
Even if being a solopreneur is a lot more challenging, many people still do it. Here are some good reasons why you should start one too.
Many people shift to entrepreneurship for the autonomy to do business. With partners, business decisions have to be made and sometimes some of your values might be compromised. Being your own boss means deciding how the company will grow and where it will be headed.
With the help of no-code development, artificial intelligence or AI, automation tools, and other technology, it’s easy to have a digital strategy. You can now set up a business even without a physical store and even with no staff to help you. This makes the overhead, research, and development cost more practical than before. With no-code tools, you can have your own secretary, marketer, and even salesperson to kick-start your solopreneurship.
Of course, being a solopreneur also means getting profits solo. We won’t sugarcoat it, but the first phase will be very difficult. Just look at the startups and entrepreneurs thread on Twitter and you will see a myriad of challenges as a solopreneur. HOWEVER, when you finally pass that storm and establish the business, you get to have the earnings as well.
This can be an advantage and a disadvantage for a solopreneur. Being solo means, you get to wear all hats for the different aspects of the business. You can be doing sales in the morning, marketing at lunch, or logistics at dinner. With a partner, you can have someone share the workload and even their expertise in these areas. In the long-run though, learning these skills makes you familiar with the business inside out.
Depending on what business you are building in, there are a lot of no-code tools out there. Here are some of our trusted platforms today
Website and Web App Development - Bubble
Bubble.io is one of the leading platforms that let you web applications without needing to type code. Bubble has a complete ecosystem that provides users a variety of features, tools, and plug-ins tp help you launch your website or web app.
With Adalo, you can create native mobile apps easily through drag-and-drop functionality. You can also choose from a wide range of components in their marketplace to set up your internal app or even you SaaS business.
SquareSpace is a one-stop e-Commerce solution for solopreneurs who can do website building to payment solutions. They have hundreds of customizable website templates to launch your online store up and running within 24 hours.
Mailchimp is one of the leading names in email marketing. It can help you with audience management, segmentation and even A/B testing the right content.
This no-code tool helps you easily build, design, and launch SaaS applications. What makes it better than the others is that Budibase is open-source and free to download.
Is solopreneur just a cheer word for those who want to venture on their own? No, it’s not. There are solopreneurs out there who are really killing it out there.
Marie Forleo is a leading female business coach who runs a multi-million business. She has launched a series of books, an online business school, a Youtube channel, and even runs a podcast show.
The owner of Spanx who made women’s inconvenience into a billon dollar, industry-changing idea. She was listed in Forbes’ 2019 Billionaire List. Her past experience as a door-to-door saleswoman has helped her develop the knack for venturing solo. In her first year of business, Blakely made a whopping $4 million thanks to a mention by Oprah.
If you like makeup, chances are you've heard of Anastasia Beverly Hills. The makeup brand is the second most followed beauty account on Instagram, placing her ahead of Kylie Cosmetics, and interestingly manages the account herself.
No-code development lets everyone tap into new technology and utilize it to start their entrepreneurial journey. As we mentioned in our past article, The Rise of No-Code Entrepreneur, no-code can be used as MVPs, internal tools, and even automation programs. These can definitely aid you as you develop the business and your experience. It also helps in keeping costs down so that even if you run into financial challenges, you know that these tools won't get you bankrupt and you can use them again for a new project. No-code is the future and it will help more people become solopreneurs.
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