4 Must-Do Steps to Succeed as a Solo Professional…Plus Advice on What NOT to Do

Congrats! You’ve joined the ranks of independent worker or “gig worker.” This is a No-Judgment, No-Preconception Zone.

It doesn't matter how you leapt (or tiptoed) into solo work as an independent contractor or consultant. You might have chosen the freedom and opportunities. Or you may have been pushed out or laid off in a round of corporate restructuring. What matters is what you do next, what you are willing to learn, and what you are willing to try.?

Let me share with you some hard-won advice for surviving and thriving in the gig-work game. It’s advice I wish I could give my younger self.

What to Do When Going Solo

The hardest part of gig work is getting the work. So, let’s cut to the chase here.

You probably have a lot of skills. But you don’t have the same clout, unfortunately, as a prestigious firm (even if they are selling juniors with a twentieth of your skill level). It’s not a fair game. Accept that the rules are skewed. Jump in and get going.

To get momentum and build up your business as quickly as possible, here are the four things that I recommend you focus on:

1. Do more (paid) work.

The best way to win more work is to do more work. When you are starting out, you probably won’t be getting calls from Walmart or Imperial Oil for your first assignment.?

Start with the smaller clients. They care less about your history and credentials, and more about what you can do for them immediately. I still work with lots of smaller clients because I love it. With smaller clients, where there are fewer people and layers of management, the projects move faster, and I can make an impact sooner than with the projects I do with the big guys.?

Don’t stress about the perfect first client. Or the perfect first project. Or the perfect team. Just go. The better projects will come if you dig in and work with what you have.

While there’s a trendy belief that you need to “demand what you’re worth” for every project, I’d caution against this advice. I’ve watched many consultants sit on the sidelines because their prices are too high when they start. The more you sit on the sidelines, the lower your price will go. Sometimes you do need to take lower rates to get experience in valuable areas. (You can think of it as “getting paid to learn.”) This is an investment in yourself and it’s a lot cheaper and more fruitful than formal training.

Build your experiences in solving problems for different companies and completing a range of deliverables.

When I was first starting out, I’d create websites and execute documentation clean-ups along with writing for clients, accounting for clients, and marketing materials that they needed. In addition, I’d manage projects, proposals, audits, and internal control testing. I taught courses to CPA students. Frankly, I wasn't that picky.

Now, if you are at a more mature stage of life and have more in the bank than I did, by all means, be choosier. But selectiveness is not a requirement for getting started!?

I am not going to pretend that my approach was perfect. But I gained the invaluable skills of solving problems, jumping into work, learning things quickly, and wrapping projects up.

2. Do good work and great work.

In my business, over 95% of our business is from repeat customers or else people we have worked with who move to new companies.

All our money and efforts with social media, newsletters, coffees, lunches, articles, events, conferences, dinners, speaking at events, involvement in professional circles COMBINED do not come anywhere close to bringing in the business we get from people we have worked with before.

Most of you will be in a similar position, especially if you are in professional services or consulting. That means that you need to deliver on your work.

There’s a concept I love for how you execute work that comes from writer Michael Bungay Stanier (affectionately called “MBS” by his fans). This is the concept of doing “good work” and “great work” (and, of course, minimizing unnecessary, draining “bad work”).?

• Good work – This is the familiar, useful, productive work you do, that you do well and that’s probably paying your bills. We spend most of our time on Good Work, and that’s ok.?
• Great work – This is work that is meaningful and makes a difference. When we are doing Great Work, we can be inspired and in the “zone” but, on the other hand, it’s also where we experience the most uncertainty and discomfort.

Realistically, not all work needs to be (or should be) “great” for your clients or you risk exhausting yourself and overkilling your effort in areas that don’t matter. We don’t aim for the blow-your-socks-off effect for every working paper we hand back to our Risk Oversight clients, for example. (Most of them are never looked at.)?

On the other hand, we do pick our battles. We always aim to make our reporting amazing along with a few key deliverables that our clients care about. I recommend that you always push a few key pieces of work to the “great” category to make your work more memorable.

You can also think of it as using your perfectionist streak to your advantage. While I agree that perfectionism as a permanent state can lead to unhealthy and undesirable behaviors, a bit of it is a great thing. Perfectionism is like salt. Use it sparingly. But use it or your work will go bland. What are the few assignments, projects, articles, that you can give a little salt or WOW factor? What do you want to be remembered for??

3. Get out of the house.

This is a controversial topic nowadays with WFH (work from home). As a gig worker, you are now a full-time salesperson. (Another congrats!) Getting more clients and more business will be an enormous part of your work going forward.

This means you need to get out of the house more.

• Go to your university’s local alumni event. (I met my husband at one, BTW.)
• Meet your old coworkers for lunch.
• Attend the events for your professional group.
• Get involved in your kid's hockey team.

Count at-home, online events as “semi” going out. They can be impactful too but typically are not as successful in converting connections into clients as getting out of the house.

The more people you meet with, the more you open your chances for more work.

I have a friend who goes to seriously twenty events a week. Do you think she runs a successful, growing business? Darn right she does. Her access to so many people and enthusiasm for going out has opened countless doors for her and her business. (I, on the other hand, do not have the energy for that kind of schedule…but I do my best.)

4. Get to know your (basic) CRM.

I am embarrassed that it took me so long to take this step. CRM stands for Client Relationship Management. Of course, you do need to meet and connect with people. But you also need to “manage” your relationships over the long-term. This means managing a wide range of connections, not just your few work-besties from your last job.

CRM is not about your system or tool, it’s about the long game for business connections.?

It’s easy to stay on top of your immediate opportunities, especially if your business is newer. But the game gets harder the more balls you have in the air. You absolutely will forget to stay in touch with the person you chatted with at the conference six months ago or last year.?

From my ample experience, there are so many opportunities that don’t work out in the short-term (e.g., timing that’s not right, proposals that are lost, canceled projects, clients that move on), but they turn into new opportunities when those doors are kept open over the long term.?

A lot of us get tripped up on the idea of CRM technology and tools rather than the actual purpose of the system–to manage business contacts and the related follow-up. But I’ve discovered that a strong CRM system —however rudimentary— is more about the habits. (For more information, I have an article on CRM that might help you.)

What Not to Do When Starting Gig Work

Ok, so here’s some tough-love–my advice on what to avoid at all costs when you’re starting out!

1. Take too many courses.

I have seen new gig workers obsessed with courses. If you have downtime, courses are great, especially ones that are free or inexpensive. But don’t obsess over them. They make a minimal impact, especially if you are already a skilled knowledge worker.

2. Get your MBA.

I have never personally seen having an MBA help with gig work in the consulting world. MBAs are better suited for big corporations or management positions.

3. Spend all day on social media.

Don’t get me wrong. I spend time on LinkedIn which I treat like a 24/7 ongoing business conference. That’s a good thing. But social media does not “sell” professional services as well as actually talking to clients or prospects about their actual business.

4. Set-up fancy internal processes and administration.

When you are starting out, you don’t need a complicated invoicing process. Your “CRM” can be a spreadsheet. Internal processes can be simple. You scale them and make them more sophisticated as you grow.

5. Spend too much time in peer groups.

I am also a member of a peer group for business owners which I love. But it’s important to focus on the money. You need to spend more time talking to people who can hire you or open doors than with peers.

6. Spend too much time on your branding or your website.

If you are a solopreneur, it’s great to have a brand and website. But your branding and website won’t matter that much at the beginning. I have watched too many gig workers obsess and redo their sites continuously waiting for some magic branding to take-over. Branding and websites should look professional, but they shouldn’t be your focus until you have done more work.

So, there you go! My hard-won, tough-love advice for what to do and what NOT to do when you are starting out as a solo professional. I hope that this advice helps you in some way. If you have learned any other lessons from going out on your own, please share in the comments. I'd love to hear what has worked (and what hasn't) for you.

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You are reading the second article in my mini-series (within a series!) on gig work and independent contracting. For the first article in this mini-series, check out Ready to Leave Corporate Life? 3 Reasons to Go Solo… and 7 Reasons NOT To

Thank you for catching this latest article in my latest series on the New World of Knowledge Work from my Leverage Your Knowledge newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed already, please click at the top. For the complete list of articles in this series, see below:

New Rules for the New World of Knowledge Work: 5 Must-Have Skills

The Myth of Self-Promotion for Professionals: Why It's a New Requirement for Success

The Art of Selling for Knowledge Workers: 3 Lessons from the Frontlines

Do You Want to 10X (or 2X) Your Growth? Applying the Marshmallow Principle

Embracing Rejection and Failure: My Hard-Won Lessons (and Strategies We All Need)

Putting “Intimacy” Into Your Professional Plan: How to Grow and Deepen Connections in 2025

Make Learning a Goal–and a Requirement–Why Traditional PD Is Not Enough

Ready to Leave Corporate Life? 3 Reasons to Go Solo… and 7 Reasons NOT To