Becoming self-employed. Many people dream of it. But while in your mind you can already see yourself enjoying financial freedom as a successful solopreneur, in reality you are struggling with a crucial question:
What do I start with?
It never ceases to amaze me how the search for the right business idea can be a huge hurdle on the road to self-employment. But why is that? From the experience of hundreds of coaching sessions with self-employed solopreneurs, I know that the reason is not a lack of creativity, too little imagination or even Lack of entrepreneurial spirit is. Quite the opposite. It's due to something completely different: Overly complicated thinking.
How to become self-employed: Ideas and proven concepts
Many prospective solopreneurs are under the misconception that the business idea for self-employment has to be something quite extraordinary. Something that has never been done before. Something so new that implementing it would turn the world upside down. And of course there are business ideas like this from time to time, but these are exceptions. The rule is simple ideas, but they have one thing in common: They work, they form a more than solid basis for a sustainably successful solopreneur business and it is not at all difficult to implement them. develop.
Successful business ideas solve problems and create added value
If you know what it takes to become self-employed and how to find them. And that's exactly what we want to look at together now. Before we go into the individual options, I would like to emphasize once again what all successful business ideas have in common:Successful business ideas solve problems, make everyday life easier, more efficient or more effective and increase emotional well-being.
Let's take a look at a few practical examples to illustrate what I mean by this statement:
- With a professional image video, the presentations of a Speakers & Keynotespeakers much better and thus lead to more inquiries and bookings in the long term.
- CRM software standardizes the sales process and makes targeted communication with leads and customers much easier.
- A fresh haircut ensures that you feel good again and go through life with self-confidence.
- A Leadership Workshop leads to a domino effect that results in a strategic transformation of the corporate culture.
- SEO optimization of the website brings visibility and increases traffic, inquiries and sales.
- A scanner app supports the digitalization and automation of processes.
- An online course imparts knowledge, know-how and skills for a specific specialty.
All of these examples have one thing in common: they help to resolve urgent pain points, create benefits and bring added value for the respective target group. And this is precisely what people are willing to pay money for. The result is a classic win-win situation. The rule of thumb is relatively simple: the higher the (subjectively experienced) added value, the higher the potential price of a product or service. Perfect for self-employment. It is therefore crucial that we keep reminding ourselves of one thing:
People do not buy products or services, they buy the result achieved by these products or services.
Here again are some examples:
- People don't buy the drill, they buy the hole in the wall.
- People don't buy the LinkedIn SalesNavigator for 59 euros a month, they buy the opportunity to get in touch with potential customers more easily and better.
- People don't buy the diet shake, the dietary supplement or the latest fitness gadget, they buy the feeling of soon looking slim and sexy again.
- People don't buy the services of a tax advisor, but the certainty that they don't have to worry about the correct execution of bookkeeping and annual financial statements.
Becoming self-employed - but with what?
Please keep these two key prospects in mind as we look at the most important areas where you can find business ideas to start your own business.
1. problems from everyday life
The first area is so obvious that many prospective solopreneurs often overlook it. The best ideas are often right under our noses. We just don't notice them because we don't look at them from the right perspective. To change this, you should regularly ask yourself the following questions:
- What am I dissatisfied with in my everyday life?
- What problems make my job harder than it needs to be?
- Which processes, procedures and activities are not working as well as they should?
- What am I wasting time, energy or money on?
- What really annoys me?
These questions will bring you closer to the problems that you repeatedly struggle with in your everyday (professional) life. And the probability is high that many others feel exactly the same way. If you are able to develop a working solution to these problems, you will create added value that others will be willing to pay for. Of course, it is even easier if there were problems for which you have already found a suitable solution. However, the formula is the same in both cases:
Existing problem + (unique) solution = demand for the solution
2. research in the target group
The next option for becoming self-employed is very similar to the first, but focuses on the problems of your target group. Once you have defined these, you can develop suitable solutions for people in the relevant industry. The biggest pain points can be identified through personal discussions, by asking your email list, through observations, by reading industry-relevant media or by building up multiplier contacts in online and offline networks. The chances are good that you will stumble across the same challenges and problems again and again. If you offer appropriate products or services, the people concerned will not only be happy to buy from you, but you will also make your brand known within your target group.
3. your expertise
This business model is very common among solopreneurs. If you have a long period of professional experience, it is very likely that you have become an expert or specialist in a particular field. This can include topics such as Leadership, Change management, The range of services includes personnel management, accounting, office organization, law, communication, design, marketing, search engine optimization, sales and distribution, product purchasing, body language, placing Google Ads and many more.
This unique expertise can now be used to develop a wide variety of business ideas, because the results that experts achieve are so valuable to companies and individuals that they are willing to pay a lot of money for them. This can take the form of consulting, training, Lectures, workshops, Coachings, online courses, books or even the development of software or apps.
4. a personal transformation
Have you permanently lost thirty-five kilograms, built up a fortune with shares, found your dream job, successfully stopped smoking, changed your diet or mastered something else in the past that has transformed your life for the better? Then you can use this experience to develop a business model in which you develop a product from the knowledge, skills and insider information you have acquired.
The reason is the same again: If it helped you, chances are very good that it will help others too. And the more extraordinary your results were, the greater the desire of other people to find out how they can do exactly the same. All you have to do is mold your individual experience into a universal framework, system or schedule so that the results you have achieved can be duplicated.
5. a hobby or passion
Starting your own business can be so easy. A lot of successful companies have grown out of a hobby. An activity that you pursue with so much heart and passion that you would prefer to do it twenty-four hours a day. Whether it's growing roses, creating databases in Notion software, collecting stamps, building muscle in the gym, building an Instagram channel or setting up a home studio, if you love doing something, you're bound to become an expert in that field over time.
Basically, we are now back at the same point as in the third area, but here the market research is much more crucial. Before you even think about whether you could turn your hobby into a solopreneur business, you should definitely check whether there is even a market for your knowledge, skills and strategies. And that works again with the same question:
„Does my offer, my product or my service solve an existing problem?“
6. adapting functioning models
Finally, another option that you can combine perfectly with the previous ones. You don't have to completely reinvent the wheel. A highly recommended strategy is therefore to adapt existing successful models. Please note that I didn't write copy, because copying a business strategy one-to-one is not only ethically questionable, it's simply not okay. Adaptation is something completely different.
Take a look at which providers there are in a particular market for a particular product or service. And then let yourself be inspired. From the type of communication, how marketing is carried out or the social media strategy. Take a look at how the processes work, what structure the companies have and what success factors make up the business. And then take these principles and implement them in your own way. This combination of a functioning business model and your unique personality will in turn create a new, individual company with which you can position yourself on the market in the long term.
Start your own business: The secret of good business ideas
As you can see, the best business ideas are neither complicated nor particularly unusual. On the contrary, they are all part of your life, your everyday life and your past. They are just waiting to be discovered and implemented by you. And if you just can't think of anything, or you reach a limit with your current idea, then it's worth thinking about the following question again and again:
„In what way can I help people within my target group even more/better/more specifically?“
I am sure that the thought processes triggered will ignite a real creative firework in you. I wish you a lot of fun and, above all, success in realizing your business idea(s). Let me know in the comments how it works out.
And if you would like individual support in setting up your own business, then take a look at my Coaching programs on. I will be happy to help you as a coach and mentor to get your business on a healthy footing right from the start.
German
English