The Definition of a “Solopreneur”

Lately, we have spent a lot of time discussing the concept of “solopreneurship,” which originated from the term “solopreneur.” This newly evolved buzzword was born from the many discussions we’ve had on our radio show, The Consultant’s Corner, about the nuts and bolts of running your own business. This subject has stimulated a tremendous amount of interesting conversations! The idea of solopreneurship has taken hold and created a lot of motivational interest for some, but others are a little hesitant to take that leap.

Currently, I am in the process of writing another book as a follow up to Gen Y Now. While doing the research for this project, it occurred to me, as I have mentioned before, that English is a living language, and words tend to take on different meanings as time goes by. One of the concepts I have challenged, based on the idea of entrepreneur or solopreneur, is that “preneur” could be considered a kind of phraseology that equates to risk taker. Going back to the turn of the century, entrepreneurs have been people with big, bold ideas. These were the huge risk takers willing to work 24 hours a day to get things done. When you talk about entrepreneur or solopreneur, I think there is an assumption that they are risk takers putting everything they have on the line. To define solopreneur this way may be true in some instances, but it’s certainly not true in all cases in today's modern world.

The solopreneurs we are talking about are people who are their own businesses. In the past, running your own business required an awful lot of support. It required a tremendous amount of investment just to get that started, but that’s no longer true today. You can get virtual help, virtual bookkeeping and virtual administrative support just about anywhere. Just having a smart phone can be enough of an investment, in many cases, to get your business up and running.

Another point I would like to make is that there is a huge trend of vanishing knowledge capital in today's market place. The first Baby-Boomer officially turned sixty-five on January 1, 2011. For the next 18 years they will be marching toward retirement and taking this tremendous amount of knowledge capital along with them. In my next post, I would like to dive a little deeper into the concept of “solopreneurship” and discuss how you can turn years of valuable experience and knowledge capital into a thriving and successful business moving forward.

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