The Future Of Work Is Building A Solo-Business To Create Personal Wealth w. Liz Steblay

What if the key to wealth isn’t scaling a huge company—but going solo with strategy? In this episode, Liz Steblay reveals a powerful blueprint for building a freedom-filled business without employees, stress, or overwhelm.

🔍 Inside This Episode:

• A behind-the-scenes look at building a solo business that thrives
• Why traditional growth models don’t work for every entrepreneur
• The biggest misconceptions about wealth creation in small business
• How Liz turned expertise into a high-profit, low-complexity business
• Keys to keeping control, freedom, and purpose at the center of your work

📚Succeeding As A Solopreneur: Six Keys To Taking The Leap, Winning Clients, And Building Wealth by Liz Steblay 

Learn more about Liz at https://www.lizsteblay.com/

Simple & strategic marketing solutions for the busy coach and consultant. Visit www.reinventingperspectives.com

Transcript

Liz Steblay: [00:00:00] The world of work is changing. AI is making a big difference in full-time jobs. I can't even guesstimate a timeframe, but. more companies are being used to hiring people either part-time as consultants or part-time as executives, like the fractional executive role.

We're going to see a lot more fluidity with how work gets done. You might be hired as a director of content marketing for a company for a period of six months. In the old days, companies would just hire a full-time person for years and years. 

It's.

Priscilla Shumba: Welcome to the Lessons of Entrepreneurship, the Journey of Reinvention. Today, I've got a special guest for you. Liz Steblay . Liz, please tell us what is your mission?

Liz Steblay: Yes. Took many years to figure it out, but my mission [00:01:00] is to help individuals launch and grow their own micro businesses as solopreneurs so they can live the career of their dreams. 

Priscilla Shumba: You said it took you a long time to figure that out, and that's a really interesting thing. 'cause sometimes when you're studying out, you think you should know all these things and, I'd love to know more about that,

Liz Steblay: Yes. My career looks more like a jigsaw puzzle in that I would do something over here and to turn over a piece and then I do a job over there and turn over a piece. And it wasn't until I was like 50 that I realized. They were all coming together to make a beautiful picture. Jumping ahead though, I fell into being self-employed when I got laid off in 2004, over 20 years ago. And I managed to land my first client literally with one phone call because I had been in consulting in a prior job. And I called a former client and he said, how soon can you start? And so that first year I made more money, worked fewer hours.

Had a lower tax rate, and more importantly, had more quality time with [00:02:00] my 3-year-old daughter. And I said, that's it. I'm never going back to work for a large company. I'm gonna figure this out and make it on my own. And I did. And then five years later, I launched my first business, which is really how I make my money.

It's a talent agency that matches HR consultants with Fortune 500 companies. And then about eight years ago, I launched my Passion project, which is now really what I do, and that's called the Professional Independent Consultants of America. PIKA for Short. And it's an educational organization and community to help people launch and grow their own businesses. 

Priscilla Shumba: I'm excited to have you here because there are many entrepreneurs who maybe they don't want to build this big thing with lots of team members and lots of employees. They just wanna have a solo business, a solo practice, something that they can take control of themselves and direct their own destiny.

Liz Steblay: Absolutely. 

Priscilla Shumba: Liz is the author of the book, succeeding as a Solopreneur, six [00:03:00] Keys to Taking The Leap, winning Clients and Building Wealth. Many people dream about leaving the nine to five. What's the one thing someone should do before they take the leap?

Liz Steblay: I have , two things. One from a more of a marketing angle and one from more practical sanity. Angle. So the marketing angle before you leave your full-time job, if you have a choice. And don't get laid off like I did. Set yourself up as an expert. Not just within your company, but within your network and externally, if at all possible.

And there's many ways to do this, but let's say that you're an expert in organizational design and you do this for a Fortune 500 company, but you're thinking maybe I should strike out and just do this on my own . And be an independent consultant. There's things that you can do to set yourself up as an expert without leaving your full-time job.

You could speak at conferences, you can start a blog post, you can be a guest on podcasts. Definitely reframe your LinkedIn [00:04:00] profile so , when people look at it, they perceive you as an expert in org design, not necessarily. All things related to organizational development, but this is one of the hardest parts, and there's two chapters in the book about this.

When you step into being self-employed, you need to have a niche and become known for something. a lot of people think that they should go to market as a jack of all trades or a Jill of all skills so that they'll be open to more business. But if you put yourself in your client's shoes, they wanna hire an expert.

So that's one of the toughest things, is to figure out what am I an expert in? What kind of work do I love to do? What is there a market for? Because you might be the world's best person at underwater basket weaving, but nobody's gonna pay for that. You need to find that intersection and that you can do before you leave.

Your full-time job. The Other more practical thing is if, particularly in the United States, if you own your own home or condo or something, take out a home equity line of credit while you're still a full-time employee because it's very difficult to qualify for a loan, [00:05:00] even a car loan when you're self-employed.

That will give you. Safety net help relieve the stress of not having consistent income, just knowing that in case of your emergency, you've got that home equity line of credit on the back burner in case you need it. Of course, you should also have anywhere from three to six months of savings to cover your day-to-day expenses.

'cause not everybody's as lucky that they can just fall into their first contract. So there are things you can do in advance and there's lots of other tips in the book.

Priscilla Shumba: Keeping your sanity and taking the leap. You don't wanna take the leap and lose your marbles while you're doing it. 

Liz Steblay: That's the first of the six keys is be prepared to Vanquish fud. And FUD is an acronym that stands for fear, uncertainty, and Doubt. And I call it the FUD monster, this little gremlin that sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear that says, what do you know about negotiating a contract?

What do you know about marketing or doing sales or any of these things? Who are you to quit a full-time [00:06:00]job and step out on your own? That's nuts. So that little gremlin is always whispering in your ear. That's why it's the first chapter of the book when you're thinking about taking the leap to being self-employed.

That lie is larger than life, and now I've been self-employed for over 20 years, and I'm here to tell you that the FUD monster never really totally goes away. You just learn how to manage it and keep it at bay. 

Priscilla Shumba: Liz, you mentioned don't put yourself out there I'm looking for like a practical example. Would you just say, I'm an HR person on your LinkedIn, giving your, shifting to expertise or within hr?

I'm just thinking what does that look like?

Liz Steblay: it can depend on what type of work the person does and is really good at, and what the market is willing to pay for or hire. For example, there are a lot of independent consultants who specialize in. Change management or user adoption of new technology especially, or there's people who specialize in the HR side of mergers and acquisitions.

There's a lot of independent consultants that do that. I already mentioned the [00:07:00] org design example. It really could be any subset of HR. That said, there are now more and more people stepping into being self-employed who are. HR business partners or fractional head of HR for small and, medium sized growing companies who may not be able to afford a head of HR full time.

So they hire a person maybe for, 20 hours a week or 10 hours a week. That new term is really catching on fractional leadership. That's when you do have. A Lot of experience leading an organization, whether it's HR or marketing or finance or I.T., and you can oversee the strategy and implementation of those strategies, but you're not the person really doing all the heavy lifting yourself.

So there is a case for also not necessarily having. A niche within a niche, right? Not necessarily like org design within the HR space, but you could be an HR generalist , who can go to [00:08:00] market as a fractional HR executive. 

Priscilla Shumba: It's such an exciting time. You hear all these options and you're like, wow, work just got exciting. 

Liz Steblay: I was talking to two entrepreneurs on a different podcast a couple days ago, and I was telling them, it's possible to grow a company without full-time employees.

I. Because you could hire fractional talent and or consulting talent for what you need or independent contractors, as long as you don't manage and control how and when they do their work.

And these two guys that I was talking to, they said, wait, you're blowing my mind. I could build an organization and a company without full-time employees. And I said. If you're careful about it with the legal requirements in the United States, yes, you can. I run a multimillion dollar business in the United States and I don't have a single full-time employee, so it is possible. 

Priscilla Shumba: In this day and age it works. Everybody's happy. You're happy to not have to manage a lot of people. They're happy to have variety of work and not be doing the same thing, and, being able to control their income. [00:09:00] So it's a win-win for everyone. Now I sorry, Liz. the first thing I've gotta ask is I know people are like, okay, Liz, my first client? I think that's a big one. 

Liz Steblay: It is a big one. And it's I mentioned the fear, uncertainty, and doubt. That's probably one of the biggest ones anybody ever faces. And quickly followed by how do I get my second client and can I really make a living doing this? So nearly all, I'd say a large majority of the people that I coach through my educational organization, PICA find their first project through a referrals.

And so there's certain ways that you can reach out to your network. For example, here's one of my favorite tricks. I call it the flattery approach. So let's say, Priscilla, that you were thinking about making the leap to being self-employed. I'd encourage you to reach out to five people who you've worked with in the past who will give you straight answers and you'd reach out to them and say, Hey Joe, I'm thinking about doing something a little bit different with my career and I really value your perspective.

After we [00:10:00] worked together on that project three years ago, would you be open to a virtual cup of coffee or just spend 15 minutes on the phone with me? 'cause I really wanna pick your brain about something. A couple reasons why I love this flattery approach is you're saying, I really value your opinion.

And that's the flattery part, right? The other part is it's good excuse to reconnect with people in your network that maybe you haven't been in touch with in the last two, three years, or even before Covid, right? Because time was weird with Covid. So it's a good opportunity to reconnect and warm up your network a little bit.

Plus you're not really committing to taking the leap to being self-employed. You're just on a fact finding mission. What skills do you think I'm really good at? And do you think that there's a market for somebody with these types of skills, or what do you think my niche would be? I'm thinking of this.

Do you think that sounds right? So any of these general questions and then. When you do take the leap two months, three months, six months from now, you can go back to that person and say, I really listened to what you had to say and this is what I've [00:11:00] decided to do. That person becomes one of your champions because they've been involved in the decision making process early on.

The flattery approach I love. That's a way to warm up your network. You're not committing to anything if you decide not to go independent. So what, you've had a great conversation with somebody you used to work with. One of my, favorite blogs I've ever written is business development equals relationship development.

So you don't have to do sales. It's about establishing, trusting relationships with people who understand what you're good at, what your niche is, so that when the need for your services comes up. They think, oh my gosh, you should call this woman Priscilla 'cause this is exactly what she does. So there's really no selling required, but to find your first client the flattery approach, probably the best way to go.

Also, I do encourage people when they're first starting out, ' cause it can take a while to build awareness and to strengthen those relationships. Takes a while to get momentum. Consider subcontracting. Global platforms that make this [00:12:00] a lot easier. One, the biggest one I think globally is called Catlan, C-A-T-A-L-A-N-T, 

And these platforms match. Independent professionals with opportunities with companies. And so that's a great way to try it out, get some cash flow going because you don't have to deal with a lot of the contracting, you don't have to find the work, et cetera. It's a short term solution because the platforms are gonna take at least 25% of the revenue, and that can be a lot of money over time.

But when you're just starting out, it's a great way to start to run some water through the pipes, see if this is work that you really like, get some cash flow going while you're still building up your own pipeline and your own network. 

Priscilla Shumba: When I listened to you talk about the flattery approach, I wonder why more people don't do this. Why do you think people don't do that? Because you see sometimes someone who is an expert and they've got many years, corporate career and then. They don't reach out to the network to get things started.

Liz Steblay: we get in our own heads [00:13:00] that FUD Monster takes over and says, that's too awkward to reach out to somebody you haven't talked to since 2019. Who cares? That's just in your head. Like I said, COVID time was weird. We've all been busy. We've been reevaluating our lives since then. So what if it was five years ago?

Get out of your own way and try it. What's the worst thing that can happen? They don't reply to your email, they don't return your phone call, or they do reply and they say, Priscilla, really, you're reaching out to me after five years? Nobody's gonna say that. So Yes. Just get out of your own way.

Priscilla Shumba: Oh, absolutely. I'm like, probably all the things in your mind that you think are gonna happen are not gonna happen. They might be actually happy and wonder why you didn't keep in touch all this time. So at the end of the day, you lose nothing. 

Liz Steblay: And it's actually, you find it becomes really fun to reconnect with people you haven't talked to in a long time. 

Priscilla Shumba: especially when the stakes are not high, you just wanting to connect and it's the perfect way. The energy's good. Why 

Liz Steblay: not?

You are not? selling them anything, [00:14:00] right? You're just asking for their advice. Yeah. 

Priscilla Shumba: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. It's so good. We talk about having that runway before you take the leap and then, taking these steps to make sure you get that cashflow going really quickly.

What do you think are some of the biggest financial mistakes that people make when they're new entrepreneurs?

Liz Steblay: Oh, I'll tell you the number one financial mistake people make. Okay, two, 'cause I can't help with myself. Okay, so the biggest one is they don't charge enough. 

That's the most common thing that I see when people are struggling to make it as a self-employed professional. They're not charging enough for their services.

And there's lots of different ways to price for your services. I talk about them in the book. A lot of people think I'll just charge hourly because that's the easiest to figure out. And that's true. It is the easiest to figure out. When a lot of people do the math. They forget to add 30% to whatever that magic number is because. You need to pay for other things that you didn't use to pay for before. Like in the United States, you have to pay for self-employment tax, okay? That's a big [00:15:00] chunk. You have to pay for your own health insurance. You have to pay for your business insurance, you have to pay for your website hosting. You have to cover all the time that you spend doing billing and invoicing and marketing.

So you need to uplift whatever that magic number is that you think you should be charging by the hour. And then for more experienced people. If they continue to charge by the hour, they're actually making less money because you're faster at what you did before. So the more times you do something, the faster you get, particularly when it comes to consulting or executive coaching or financial planning, or what a lot of solopreneurs do.

So if you're charging by the hour, it's only gonna take you three quarters of an hour instead of the hour it took you six months ago. So you're actually making less money because you're only working forty five minutes. You need to charge for the full hour. So that's when it starts to make sense to switch to a fixed fee pricing or hybrid pricing where a part of your project is fixed fee, and then the other part is by the hour.

There's lots of different ways to price for your services. [00:16:00] So that's the number one mistake I see people make. The other. Particularly in the United States is that they don't set money aside for quarterly taxes. And this is a mistake that is very painful happened to me that first year I was consulting, I had to pay quarterly taxes and I hadn't been saving, and I forget what the amount was, maybe $10,000 and I thought, oh, shoot, what am I gonna do?

I don't have $10,000. I think I borrowed the money from my brother, but from that moment on, I said, I am never gonna be stuck in this situation again. So I used to take. 40% of every client invoice. That was paid and I would put 40% of it into a different bank, not my normal bank where my checking and savings are.

'cause if I log in and I see there's $8,000, I'm gonna start planning a vacation. I have no fiscal discipline whatsoever, so I literally hide the money from myself into a different bank. And then when quarterly taxes are due, I transfer it back to my regular account and I pay my bills. And [00:17:00] then when it's time for my annual tax return.

There was usually 20 to $25,000 left over that went into my retirement planning accounts, lowered my effective tax rate, and then of course I invested it and that grew. That's my longer term tip is don't be caught short when it comes to paying taxes.

Priscilla Shumba: That's a good one. ' especially you're looking at all this stuff online. Nobody's talking about taxes. Everyone's telling you, oh, top line. Top line. They don't even call it top line. They're saying, I made a million dollars. I.

Liz Steblay: Yes. 

Priscilla Shumba: And then you forget, oh, you have to pay taxes and you have expenses, and you have to take care of yourself, and are you compensating yourself for all the admin work that you're doing without actually, face-to-face client work.

So those are really good.

Liz Steblay: That's why part of the subtitle of the book is Building Wealth. Because you wanna keep more of what you earn. So that's one of my guiding philosophies. One is pay less tax. That's one of my favorite hashtags. Pay less tax. And the other is, pay yourself first. Invest in your own retirement accounts.

Lower [00:18:00] that effective tax rate, invest that money, and that's how you build wealth over time and keep expenses low. 

Priscilla Shumba: Yeah that's a really important one because so many times people get into business and they get very poor

Liz Steblay: Yes, but you don't need, everything. Like for example, particularly these days, you probably don't need to rent office space. People are used to doing Zoom meetings. So if you have a nice Zoom background you can probably talk to your prospective clients via Google Meet or a Zoom call, .

So you probably don't need to be paying rent, , yeah, you don't need to invest a lot of money particularly, if you're gonna step into a knowledge based business, like executive coaching, independent consulting, financial planning, things like that. 

Priscilla Shumba: People think about consulting and about the business model of consulting, and I just wanted you maybe to talk us through that because, sometimes you're. An expert in this, in an area, but you don't really understand the idea of a business model for consulting and what does that look like 

Liz Steblay: yes. That can take a lot of forms and varieties too. I'd say the [00:19:00] most common is to, start with a conversation. Nobody's gonna hire a solopreneur without a conversation. I don't care if you're a consultant, an executive coach, financial planner, , everybody's gonna at least wanna have one conversation before they hire you.

So your LinkedIn profile, your website, all of your outreach materials should draw people into a free 15 minute conversation or whatever. 'cause you need to build that trust. And more importantly, you need to understand what their situation is. That initial call, you're gonna ask a lot of questions, find out what their needs are, what's keeping 'em up at night, , what's their sense of urgency now, like why do you need to take action now?

Because that'll tell you a lot about whether this is a real prospect or they're just fishing around or doing some window shopping. In consulting, that conversation is particularly important. And then you can say, given my years of experience and all these projects that I've done related to this before.

Here's how I would generally approach this. , I love the idea of sharing samples. This is a strategy document I did for another client. This is a roadmap that I did for [00:20:00] this client. Now, I wouldn't leave these behind. But you can show them. 'cause that helps to demystify what you're gonna be providing to them.

You can say and this is a communication plan I created for this merger situation. you can see it had multiple different angles and methodologies, whatever. Because when people can see samples, it makes them feel like they're gonna be getting something more tangible and not just a lot of hypothetical advice.

And then you can write up a proposal and then. I've done this many many years with good success. It doesn't say proposal, it says statement of work, draft for discussion at the top, because that's literally what becomes the contract, is this statement of work. I don't ever label things as a proposal.

I say this is a draft for discussion, but before you send that, set up a meeting so that you can discuss it with the person. So you're not chasing the person for follow up. So Priscilla, if you were gonna my potential client, I'd say, great. This is amazing. This is right in my [00:21:00] wheelhouse.

Let me put together my thoughts into a proposal so you get an idea of what the timing and pricing, what the phases might be. How about I get that to you the day after tomorrow. But before that, let's go ahead and set up a call for next week, even just 30 minutes so that I can walk you through it , 'cause I know I'm gonna have questions when I do this too.

Let's get that on the calendar now. So then you already have a follow up call scheduled. 'cause a lot of times you'll send the proposal and then they don't answer your emails or they don't call, or they stall. You need to line that up before you send the proposal too. Another super practical tip, 'cause I'm currently writing a blog about cash flow that top of mind for me. Ask for a deposit payment. I don't care who the client is. It could be, general Motors or Google or Microsoft, any big company submit an invoice upon the signing of the contract, even if it's for $500, a thousand dollars, whatever, because it can take a long time.

With larger companies to get through their accounts payable cycle, you want to lay down some grease and go through those [00:22:00] paces early so that when you later submit an invoice for $25,000, it sails right through and it doesn't get all caught up in their systems and everything. So ask for a deposit, upfront 

Priscilla Shumba: Thank you for those really practical tips. I'm interested in this because you help HR people to get Fortune 500 clients.

Liz Steblay: That's what my other business does. Yes. 

Priscilla Shumba: , my question around that is the marketing of consulting work. I remember someone saying to me that it's different than traditional marketing and I didn't really get it.

Liz Steblay: I take a different approach to this than probably many larger consulting firms would, but I do not like the idea of trying to sell ice to an Eskimo. I like the idea of keeping my name or my consultants names fresh in people's minds, so when the need for their service pops up. That they call my company or they call this consultant.

That's why I think business development equals relationship development. 'cause you're not trying to sell somebody. , as a consultant especially, you're a problem [00:23:00] solver. If they could solve the problem itself, they wouldn't be contacting you or they wouldn't be looking for a consultant. So the better you can understand the problem, the more likely they are to hire you.

That's one other reason why having a niche is so important. It's not necessarily about selling a solution. , okay. Let's say that you're a financial planner and you specialize in , estate planning, so that. Your heirs don't pay as much tax when you die.

That's a specific niche, right? The problem that you solve is people who are worried about inheritance tax. 

So whenever that might come up in a conversation, that person wants those key words of inheritance tax to equate with them.

The consultant or the financial planner, so that work flows to them so that they get referred. That's how you get referrals is you have to have some keywords that pops into people's minds until they know, oh, retirement planning, I need to talk to Joe Smith. Or, oh, work [00:24:00] Design, I need to talk to Priscilla Shumba. 

Priscilla Shumba: It totally makes sense Now , where do you see the future of consulting? For those who are thinking of, getting into this what does it look like? 'cause there's so much change happening and I'm interested to have your perspective on that.

Liz Steblay: It's not just the world of consulting that's changed. The world of work is changing. AI is gonna make a humongous difference already is making a big difference in full-time jobs. I can't even guesstimate a timeframe, but. more companies are being used to hiring people on a part-time basis, either part-time as consultants or part-time as executives, like the whole fractional executive role.

And I think we're going to see a lot more fluidity with how work gets done. Like you might be hired as a director of content marketing for a company for a period of six months. And then you get the strategy in place and then you leave it to the lower level employees to actually implement. And maybe you check back with that client once every three months to make sure things are on [00:25:00] track.

But in the old days, companies would just hire somebody full-time and that would be a full-time person for years and years. And I think that model is changing. 

Priscilla Shumba: What does that mean to the person who is in the job market or has a, permanent role right now? What should you be thinking about ? 

Liz Steblay: They always used to say okay, , I went through college and grad school in the last century. But the rule then was always to keep your resume current. I would say . At least once a year. Update your LinkedIn profile. Make sure that it's on brand for how you want to be perceived in the type of work that you want to do.

Include some business case, either into your about section or even better upload a white paper as featured content just put it in a PDF, add a little color and upload it , as a featured post or featured content. And keep your network warm.

It has nothing to do with being an extrovert or an introvert. It just means keeping in touch with people. 

Priscilla Shumba: Mm.

Cause you [00:26:00] never know what's gonna happen when you're gonna get laid off or when you're gonna be just so tired of that commute in and out of the office all the time. Or maybe you just had a baby and you're thinking, I wanna work from home so I have more quality time with the kid.

Liz Steblay: Maybe I should consider independent work. You never know what life is gonna throw your way. So yeah, I would be always be thinking about what's the work I love? And what's the work that makes a difference for people or for organizations and what is the market looking to buy? 

Priscilla Shumba: , wise words. Thank you so much, Liz. , Liz is the author of the book, succeeding as a Solopreneur, six Keys to Taking the Leap. Winning clients and of course building wealth. So I'm excited about that, Liz. Please let us know where people can follow you or where they can learn more about you.

Liz Steblay: The easiest way because succeeding as a solopreneur is not easy to spell. The easiest way is to go to the website, six keys info. 

Can be the number six. It can be the word six, but [00:27:00] six keys info, not.com, because that was very expensive to purchase. Do Info is a lot less expensive, and I'm all about keeping expenses low.

So six Keys Info is the landing page for the book, which is also available as an ebook or audiobook on Amazon or wherever books are sold, but that's also from there. You can learn more about me on LinkedIn or. It links to my other website or it links to professional Independent Consultants of America where we have a whole online library and on-demand asynchronous courses.

So anyway, six keys info. 

Priscilla Shumba: Thank you for that. Please get that book and start preparing yourself.

Liz Steblay: Yes. 'cause you never know. 

Priscilla Shumba: you never know.

what you need, but you have the opportunity to prepare yourself. Thanks so much, Liz. I appreciate your time and your experience.

Liz Steblay: My pleasure. I.

Priscilla Shumba: I.