Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
The Solopreneuer vs. Building Teams 5-20-25
Tue, 20 May 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker challenges the romanticized notion of the solopreneur.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. Today's discussion is this discussion of the solopreneur versus building teams. And I'd love your comments on this chapter. It's going to be a chapter from a book. It's a podcast today. And if you want to send me a comment or comments at 773-766-5322, I would just love your comments.
Chapter 2: What is the myth of the solopreneur?
Throughout the book, when I get to the book in more depth, We'll talk in depth about teams, niches, customers, and some of the things we always talk about. But here, in this podcast, in this chapter, we'll discuss this concept of solopreneurs, or what I like to often call the myth of the solopreneur. The concept of the solo entrepreneur is talked about often on X and social media.
Chapter 3: Is it possible to build a serious business alone?
It's the idea that one can, by themself, build a serious business. In my experience, I've tried both the concept of going it alone and the concept of building the growing teams. Personally, I have found time and time again that it's incredibly difficult to build anything serious as a solopreneur. Sure, you could build a business that could pay your bills and run it by yourself.
Chapter 4: What are the challenges faced by solopreneurs?
You could run a subway by yourself, but I guess that's not really a solopreneur. And there are a lot of things you can't do by yourselves. You could be a writer, perhaps, but you still need people to help you in the publishing and everything else.
Chapter 5: How important are teams in business success?
There are a lot of things you could do as a solopreneur, but it's very hard for me to see many of them they could do without some help or some assistance. Whether you outsource key parts of the business or hire people full-time, my sense is that it's really nearly impossible to build a serious business without building teams. They could be outsourced teams. They don't have to be full-time teams.
But even there with most serious businesses, You'll need some full-time people every day to really build something is my impression. The great entrepreneurs in our country are iconic. And sometimes I feel like these people on X or social media are looking up to them as though like, look, you could be a solopreneur or something special.
But the reality is all of them, whether Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Judy Faulkner, or so many others, none of them were solopreneurs. All of them built with serious teams. In building a law practice, this practice really grew as I began to build a team. This allowed me to take care of clients while also having the time to try and bring in new clients.
At Becker's Healthcare, similarly, the business did fine for several years when I outsourced everything. But it really grew when I started to hire full-time employees and build a team. Obviously, many of those teammates were absolutely extraordinary, and that's a different story. You could be a solo business, sure. You could be a consultant or a writer or an executive coach or many other things.
A therapist that I speak with has what I think is a solo preneur business. My sense is, though, if you want to build something serious or big, you're likely to have to commit to building larger teams. They could be outsourced. They could be internal. But my experience is there's really no way around ultimately having a core full-time internal team.
Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity Business Podcast. Again, we'd love your comments. We hope you enjoy this. 773-766-5322. Thank you very much.
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