Beyond Solo

Thereâs more than one way to grow a business. But too many small business owners get trapped in an overwhelming cycle of stress, and lose sight of the reason they started working for themselves in the first place.

Sara Howard has learned this the hard way. She wrote Beyond Solo to explore all the other paths to business growth, creating the guide she needed when she started her creative agency 18 years ago.

Part memoir, part coach, and part how-to manual, this commercial non-fiction book guides readers through five different models for business growth â" being the boss, running a hybrid outsourced model, starting a collective, building an A-Team, and creating products for set-and-forget income. It explores the most important decisions every owner should make before building their business model, including how they exit the business with tangible value. And it provides a practical framework every business needs at its foundation â" a proven tool for good business growth.

Because not all growth is good. Growth always comes at a cost, and unchecked it can be unprofitable as well as unhealthy.

The book is packed with real-life insights and practical advice drawn from interviews with dozens of business founders and solopreneurs in Australia, the UK and US. People whoâve been there, experimented, made mistakes, and found a way of working that works for them. It goes behind the scenes on what it really takes to shift from being a solo operator to running a successful independent business. One that is energising, rather than exhausting.

Beyond Solo is a must-read for anyone already running a small business, as well as freelancers, consultants, coaches, designers, health practitioners, and anyone in the business of trading their time for income. Ultimately, it answers a universal challenge: how do we get more from our work â" more income, more freedom, more control, more opportunities to learn and grow â" without adding more to our workload?