As a maker or solopreneur, what are your biggest pain points?

One major challenge for me was invisible progress, I’d work 10+ hours and feel like nothing moved.

Once I started using objective & results system, I could visualize progress and really know if I was moving forward.

It’s helped curb fatigue and lose the “why am I doing this?” feeling. I’ve cleaned up my system to share soon as a free version — happy to show if it’d help anyone here.

When it comes to the solo part, there's one clear big problem: lack of someone carrying the torch when I can't.

I can't stay constant in amount of energy, productivity, etc. When I fall of the wagon and the project stagnates because there's nobody else, it gets harder to get into it, the momentum is gone.

There's also the problem of dong crazy or stupid things without anyone telling you so, but you can use external people to help with this.

I'm a developer. I'm great at building solutions but crap at selling them.

Too much work and too many different skills required. Brainstorming with yourself can make you question your level of sanity. When things don't work or you made a stupid mistake, there's no one else to blame, which is the most annoying part...

In the middle of a crisis you may sometimes get too close to the point of no return, where you completely lose it and break everything—and who can stop you?

Bus Factor.

I agree with @pupeno. Carrying the torch all alone takes a toll and when the bad days hit, there is nothing/nobody to fall back on, really. Another issue that I often run into is the constant context switching. In a single day, I can go from building the product, to managing the backlog and to running user interviews.

Also, there might be some functional issues in certain areas - depending on the individual. For instance, I love talking to users and hosting user interviews. But when it comes to validating feature ideas, repeatedly finding people to talk to can become time-consuming. I sometimes wish there was a better way to connect with potential users in my target audience.

It's really becoming harder for me to be productive after working in office hours and doing household chores.
I was never out of comfort zone before. I am no good at marketing & sales as I am backend developer only, Still I'm learning online marketing as I go.
There are so many things to learn like learning about marketing pages, UX design.

Divided focus. It's a pain and a blessing as well sometimes. The worst part I'd say is not having someone who really understands what you're going through in the little things that can't be seen by users.

Big achievements many times don't feel as big and big failures on the other hand feel a lot darker and lonely. Can be dreary at times.

But we are smart animals able to adapt quite well. I've found ways to push the "reset button" in my brain whenever I start drowning in these emotions. Fresh brain, fresh eyes.

Staying motivated and working on the right things, it's easy to get carried away. Make sure to have regular checkins either with yourself and/or someone else that is going through the same thing to stay sane 🤙

Piggybacking off @pupeno's point. Having no one to identify your mistakes means I have to do long extensive research on topics that could have been done by a partner or team. I end up spending a huge chunk of my time learning about best practices, diving into documentation of things I care little for.

It would be nice to focus on the things I love and I'm most productive in but I don't have enough funds to outsource or employ.

Juggling multiple areas of expertise and trying not to be mediocre at them is a pain I have to live with for now.

Wow thanks a ton for all the comments, didn't expect this! It seems clear doing a project by yourself can be exhausting! What is stopping you from finding a partner/co-founder?
Maybe what would be helpful is partnering up in groups of 4-5 people and have a few "daily's" a week to get feedback, motivation and support from each other?

It's hard to carry on for a long time solo. Takes a toll on you emotionally. I would say having someone to discuss every aspect of your business with is way more important than specific skills when it comes to entrepreneurship

My best pain point as a solopreneur is to pick up the right idea that:

• I would be able to implement on my own
• would give value even being very small
• would be motivating enough itself to make me keep going with it (failed this part ALWAYS!).

That I hate marketing and anything that is not coding or anyway technical stuff.

The period after I've built the MVP.

Productivity / drive / motivation always drops after I launch something.

For me. Especially, when it comes to the solopreneur side, I am a non-techy guy. I did not study engineering or some technological branches academically. so, It is very hard to make ideas tangible.
recently, I joined this forum since it is said to be about non-techies. I hope to find my way into this big issue! :((

Currently balancing product development with marketing. Both are done in my spare time, and I have to shift modes constantly to keep on top of both.

1. Time
2. Expense
3. Managing people
4. Work-life balance

Well, it same like the other people. It hard to maintain the project by yourself, no one to share about your struggle, people to brainstorming, etc etc.
It's exhausting ofc.

Biggest problem I face right now (building, pre-release / MVP) is when I get stuck on a technical issue. In a workplace I’d have others to bounce ideas off of and together we’d likely solve the problem faster. Alone it’s entirely on me to solve and can delay my own expected schedule.

The next big challenge I’m expecting is when I actively start promoting the software, worried about the time I’ll have to address bugs, complaints, missing features to get sales, etc...

One day at a time!

Marketing

I know what you are doing, and I have done it myself, but this is not the way.

Constantly assessing if I'm working on the highest value activity i.e. what's going to move the needle the most?

I've been a solo founder, co-founder in a team of 5 and then a solo founder with a co-founder joining later, so have experienced a few scenarios with pros and cons.

I think it's incredibly useful for a solo founder to have a mentor or business coach to alleviate some of the pain points that have been highlighted here.

And as I type this, I wonder why I haven't sorted that out for myself as I about to embark on business #4 as a solo founder...! That just move up my priority list (thank you to the OP for prompting it!)

I'm curious how people handle forming and maintaining their company as a solopreneur, are there any tools or platforms you use?

The dozens of hats you have to wear, physical and mental burnout - and the list goes on…

@pupeno @rushabh @technopreneur Thanks a lot for your honest view! Some topics I see from it: mental support, context switching from having to do everything, nobody to brainstorm with...

Going solo is that because difficult to find a co-founder/maker, cost of hiring, wanting more flexibility alone or something else :)?