5 years into solopreneurship, I was making around $50K per year working 2–4 hours per day.
(Which, back then, was 4x the average income in Bulgaria.)
I’d made it!
I could travel anywhere. I could skip work one day and work a full day the next.
We paid off our debt, and we could afford premium medical care which helped me get pregnant after 4 years of trying.
Yet, 5 years into solopreneurship, I gave up.
I was burnt out, sick of client work, exhausted.
I had everything I wanted but I hated the work.
Not liking the work sounds like a silly problem to have.
But if you’ve ever been in that situation, you know living like that long-term is impossible.
And since I didn’t know what to do, I simply gave up. I paused all my Fiverr gigs, cancelled my regular contracts and waved the white flag.
I was already pregnant, so I decided I’d focus on my baby for a while and figure it out later.
Luckily, my husband stepped up, took my freelance practice and turned it into a copywriting agency.
I wondered back then if my dream of being a solopreneur was a stupid lie that could never work long-term.
I know now that I just didn’t understand the stages of solopreneurship.
Anyone who’s stuck on stage one of solopreneurship for 5 years would burn out and give up.
So what should I have done? Let’s go through the stages and figure it out.