Seven Years a Solopreneur

Lessons, mistakes and insights from my time in business

I started working on the concept for Integrated Fitness & Nutrition in April 2014 before launching in July that year. I had vague plans to build an empire, leading a burgeoning team to world domination in the fitness and nutrition coaching space when I first started.

But those plans changed a lot over the past seven years.

After taking a few months to reach profitability, a year to pay me anything, and almost two years for it to be even considered a wage, I had a much different ambition for my business. I realised that I enjoyed working with people, refining my craft and delivering a service to clients, and my business was an avenue to doing what I wanted.

I didn’t mind the administration and finance side of running the business, but it wasn’t onerous for a small business with steady clients, and I also used technology and automation to make it easier. It was enough to keep it from becoming burdensome. I had a good idea that I wanted to spend more time working with clients and developing my skills than doing finances and managing people.

In 2015, I reached the point where I couldn’t work with any more clients myself. So I had to bring new coaches to my team to keep taking on clients and building the…