Happy Sunday folks, back with another solopreneur blog update. Let’s get into it!
Wanted to start this week off with a simple update of where I’m at on two fronts.
On the main front, the big focus for this week for Visto will once again be tech testing.
We have our new immigration tech tool in internal testing mode, meaning our team is testing it and fixing initial bugs before getting it out for a beta test.
Beta for us will mean getting it into the hands of some other users to let them try to break it, give us feedback, help us understand needs/wants/value of this tool before launching.
Suffice to say, it will be a busy, hectic and fun last few weeks of the year before the holidays.
It’s also taking up even more of my time, because we want to be live with this product in the new year, which means a lot of internal and beta testing to be done in a short period of time.
Luckily for me, the weather gets crappy so going outside isn’t fun in Canada right now – better excuse to stay at the computer and work!
On the secondary front, Solopreneur Grind, I’m continuing to pump out this content and strategically thinking about how to optimize it and continue to grow our following.
I know I want to continue writing these updates, repurposing them into other forms of content, and growing my personal brand as a solopreneur.
But given how busy I’m getting with Visto, am doing some thinking about how to do so in the least time possible, while expanding reach and getting even more email subscribers.
I’m always open to ideas if you have any, and I also may ask for some testimonials soon for any of you who enjoy these business updates and might be willing to write 2-3 sentences on why you enjoy it (and letting me share those sentences, plus your first name, on my email list landing page!).
So yeah, those are the two key focuses for right now.
As you can tell, keeping things very simple and focused on both fronts – by design.
That’s probably a lesson right there, that I’ve realized over the years, is that no matter how busy or “big” things get, do your best to keep them simple, focus on the most important elements, use the 80/20 rule.
This week I also finished an activity I do every month that I mostly don’t enjoy.
But it’s a very important one that I recommend most solopreneurs do, at least at the beginning of the journey, until you get busy enough to outsource it.
It’s an activity that for most, including myself, is extremely boring, but also helps you understand your business even better, month after month.
And that activity is bookkeeping.
For those who haven’t done it before, basically going through your finances, expenses, invoices, etc., recording it all down (in my case, using software which saves a ton of time) and making sure it looks clean for the month.
Not only does that make filing taxes at year end much easier, I also find it’s a great way to keep close tabs on your company and how/where the dollars are flowing.
I still do all of the bookkeeping for Visto and my law firm (not too many transactions for the firm these days which makes things easier), and while I don’t like doing it, I do like keeping a close eye on every dollar going into and out of the company, and also I find it very helpful to look at the monthly reports when it’s finished to see how we did – revenue, expenses, profit, etc.
Luckily for me I did my undergrad in business and we had to take a full year of accounting and finance, so it isn’t too complicated.
But I’d highly recommend doing it for your own company, at least at the beginning, because:
- it will teach you to be more comfortable with finance and accounting, which is extremely valuable for any solopreneur, and
- the more you know about every nook and cranny of your biz, the better (imo)
Knowing how much you make each month, how much certain things cost, your average monthly profit, etc., is a good thing.
There are also so many resources out there, both software to make bookkeeping easier and also videos/guides/blogs so you can learn everything you need to do it on your own.
The other benefit is if you eventually decide to hire a bookkeeper, you’ll be able to actually understand what they’re doing and figure out if they’re any good to begin with.
Because I’ve worked with a few bookkeepers before, and some of them aren’t great. But I never would’ve known if I didn’t know how to do it myself.
That’s it for this solopreneur update. Have a great day, make sure you’re following along on my daily journey here, and keep grinding.
