1. Duh – we pay in Pounds Sterling. Haven’t you heard we let you have your own currency when it became clear you were going to unleash a series of useless Presidents on an unsuspecting nation? No way are you getting our Queen’s ladybrows on your notes, bro. It would damage our pristine reputation
2. If you force me to do a conversion then I’ll use OANDA and I see that right now, I get £154.78.

Let’s break that down. Every time I flush my toilet, it costs me about 3p. Every time I turn on a light, about 4p. Every bowl of Fruit and Fibre, 26p (I’m afraid I’m not poverty-stricken enough yet to eat the Netto variant – give me time, that day is coming). The computers I run cost about 40p a day. Paper for the printer – well, yes, I do lower my standards and thrust the Blue Striped Tesco variant into my impoverished Dell 1320c. So I suppose that’s not a lot. But the toners cost about £100 for a full set, so let’s say about 10p a page.

By my calculations it takes me about 8 days to spend more than £154.78 doing the bare minimum. I haven’t even contemplated marketing, advertising, promotion, networking, lead generation, stock buying…

What a load of bollocks.

Anyway, in a rage of only moderate strength I pondered on what could be done to minimise the fiscal burden of commencing an enteprise.

And it struck me: Why don’t big companies ‘loan’ us minions expensive applications that are a mandatory part of our business-building exploits until our earnings surpass a predefined threshold, upon which we pay said megatitan of tech in installments until we’ve given them everything they’re due.

When I was a student building towards two failed degree attempts, the nice (ha!) people at the Student Loans Company kept dishing out £20s on the proviso I paid them back when I was in gainful employment. I went to work at a casino for a while so clearly they missed a trick only asking people in scrupulous employ to hand back the swag.

This complimentary (for a time) lucre provided a buffer between disengaging respect for your liver and becoming a tolerable member of society. It was what we as disciples to the font of academia needed – and deserved, if you ask me. It wasn’t enough to bribe a professor (clearly) but it sufficed to help out with getting the rounds in at happy hour. This was way before Facebook, incidentally – it was when you actually knew the people who pretended to be your friends.

So I’ll leave you, Oracle, Adobe, Microsoft, and Pat the grocer down the road with your knock-off copies of Manic Miner, with that thought. If you want to help kickstart the economy and congratulate with measurable incentives those brave enough to embark on a programme of entrepreneurship, give us a break.

Cayusa – thanks for the loan of the pic, buddy.

Only now am I clear on my path to progress. Irrespective of whether I’ve spent 12 months largely in a state of flux, I completely acknowledge with any learning comes a positive outcome.

So here it is! My seven tips on becoming an amazing solopreneurship. Some hail from my pathological and enduring state of stupidity, others have been garnered from books and given me some of my greatest moments.

1. Value yourself. Also think about your target salary and work backwards.So you want $50k or £30k a year? How many hours do you want to work for that? What about pension contributions, tax, national insurance. Count it all out – and get some advice from some business support organisation like Business Link here in the UK.
2. Chunk things out. It might be irresistible to just go hell for leather and churn stuff out but it’ll be even more incredible if you spend some time every morning planning out your day with breaks. Plan to do less than you think you can. And build in time for learning. You need to learn something EVERY day. An hour with your nose in a book will make your work rock – and you’ll feel totally illuminated – like a big light bulb!
3. Set micro tasks. Don’t go for the big enchilada straight away. Plan out a route to get there with numerous stops and milestones to show your progress. Get a copy of OpenProj and map it out that way, showing the people and resources you need to make it to the finish line. Start small, and reward yourself fabulously for each micro task along the way that you complete.
4. Don’t do everything. You’re not a robot. You’re the incredible you. Focus on your strengths, and make them even stronger. That’s why people work best in a team.
5. Don’t take everything on. So you want to be rich? Riches aren’t about amassing more work than you can handle – they’re about happiness. My biggest flaw was taking every job I could get my hands on. It doesn’t work that way. Believe me, you’ll cause yourself and your clients misery, because you’ll be way too stretched and the work won’t reflect your true ability.
6. Know your passion. The most important thing as a solo-eurgh-preneur is to work on making your dreams a reality. Why did you leave your job if what you’re doing isn’t what you want? Every moment spent doing something you hate is a moment of your life wasted. And there are millions of better ways to spend your time than being miserable. Plus find your compelling destiny and you’ll be rewarded in every way. People will pay you for your passion – not just if you’re a hooker!
7. Find a team. Network til you find people you admire and want to work with. Show them an absorbing reason why they should spend time with you – and then work out a mutual advantage you can work on for collective success. Build an incredible network around you you can count on and rely on – and they, too, can count on and rely on you.

BONUS! Find ONE process that works for you. Refine it to hell and make it save you oodles of time. Great post on problogger recently about how to streamline your blogs. Get over to davethackeray.com and I’ll share with you the link.

I hope not to bore you but to illuminate you with ways to avoid the traps that have kept me under the proverbial ground in a bear trap for days on end. I want you to be amazing.

And I don’t want you to hate me because DaveThackeray.com is back. I always said I’d be here when I have something important to share with you.

I believe these tips are sufficiently important to exhume a previously dead site.

I also think if you’re a solopreneur you need to look for a team. Rid the solo, because the only thing you get being a one-person-show is frustration and dented confidence.