In today’s gig economy of portfolio careers and side hustles, more and more of us are working alone for at least some of our lives. We are the self-employed, the freelancers, the independent consultants and the one-man bands. Responsible for every aspect of our own professional lives, we need at least eight arms to keep the show on the road – we are the solo squids. But although you can work … alone, you may not know how to enjoy it.This book is about how to be a happy solo squid – how to run your business on your own and thrive on the experience. It is not a book about how to set up a one-person business, and it is especially not a book about how to expand that business to take on armies of staff and portfolios of premises. Staying solo does not mean that you are not good enough or successful enough or imaginative enough to run a larger business: it simply means that you have taken charge of your own destiny and have chosen to run a happy one-person business. If that sounds like something you would like to do, then this is the book for you – welcome to the world of the solo squid.
more
I offered to read and review The Solo Squid because it covers a subject close to my heart. I have been running my own one-person business for over 23 years now, and not always happily, so I was keen to find out what this author had to say on the subject. I received a copy of the eBook from the author but that does not affect my review in any way.
I don’t read a lot of non-fiction and I don’t read business or self-help books. I probably should but I prefer to use my reading time for escapism so this was something of a departure for me and one I found to be interesting and useful. The Solo Squid is also very well written, entertaining and easy to read, which is a must when you have enough on your plate already.
I really liked the idea of The Solo Squid as in order to run your one-person business successfully you have to take responsibility for every single aspect of the business. At times that can feel like you are having to do many things at once for which, of course, you need more than the standard two arms. Some days I feel I’m not doing any actual billable work at all because of all the other business stuff that’s claiming my attention, but that’s something you get used to.
The author is clear that this is not a book on how to set up your one-person business but if you are thinking of doing so it does cover whether the solo squid life is the one for you, because it is definitely not for everyone. I would therefore highly recommend this book for those people as it will give them a solid foundation on which to build their start up.
The main thing, I believe, to consider when wondering if the solo squid life is for you is that the buck stops with you and this book covers this well. Even after all these years, if I get to something tricky, I still have to tell myself that it doesn’t matter how many times I put off this particular challenge ahead of me, there is no one else who is going to do it for me.
The sub-title to this book is How to Run a Happy One-Person Business and that part was particularly appealing to me because getting the work life balance right when you work for yourself is a tricky line to find and one, I feel, I have consistently failed at. Having said that, I still like working the way I do and can’t honestly see that changing any time soon. Therefore, I was pleased to find that this book is filled with good practice, useful tips and advice on how to manage your work life better, squidology, if you will, and it has reminded me of some practices I should be firmer about which should improve things for me in the future. I won’t elaborate on what they are because where’s the fun in that when you can get your own copy to peruse and if you are a solo squid, struggling or not, or someone thinking of taking the leap into squidom then I highly recommend this read to help and/or to set you on the right path.