You are an entrepreneur. You’ve built something incredible. You’ve poured your heart and soul into it, and it’s working! Then it happens. Your revenue plateaus, your energy dips, and suddenly, that initial spark feels dim. That flow of clients seems to have slowed down if not stalled completely and no matter how hard you work at keeping the revenues flowing, nothing is working. Why does this happen? It’s often because as solo entrepreneurs, we become the bottleneck. We have finite time, limited perspectives, and a specific skill set. What got you to this level won’t necessarily get you to the next. As a former investment banker, we often had to replace the original CEO with one that could handle a more expansive business. He or she thinks differently and knows what it takes to work in that space on that level. We need fresh eyes, shared burdens, and expanded capabilities to truly break through. This is where the power of others becomes not just helpful, but essential.
Why We Get Stuck and The Solution
Even the most driven entrepreneurs eventually hit a wall. That initial surge of success can give way to stagnation, a feeling of being stuck, and not knowing the best solution. This often pushes many small business owners to the brink of quitting and even dreams of moving to a remote country and serving drinks to locals on the beach. The entrepreneurial journey is rarely a smooth ascent. And if you’re among the fortunate who have built a profitable foundation from a great idea like I have, you’ll soon face a new, equally daunting challenge: sustainable growth. It was finally time for me to take the business to the next level, when I had to come to terms with one powerful inevitable truth – I can’t do this alone. Neither can you. You may be feeling it already – that shift in your vision of the future. Instead of everything simply consistently growing in revenues and eventually leading to your future buyout dreams, you are hitting ceilings that you don’t know how to break through. The truth is that the breakthrough lies in the strategic embrace of collaboration, partnership, or mentorship. Because no matter how advanced AI becomes, human connection remains indispensable for true business and personal advancement. You have to face the fact that someone else is going to give you a new perspective, ideas, and opportunities for growth. Which solution is best for you? Not all three are equal. Let’s take a look.
The BIG THREE: Collaboration, Partnership, and Mentorship
I recently realized that I am not very good at networking. It takes work and I usually can’t relate to the people I meet. More times than not, I end up being the mentor to them which is exactly the opposite of what I desire. Here is another challenge for solopreneurs. We are unique. We love our independence and love not having anyone tell us what to do, but the truth is that we need others. Yes, we NEED others to succeed. And let’s face it, being a solopreneur can be lonely especially if you are the expert or the coach that is always guiding others. Giving is great but it can drain you. There is a healthy balance that needs to take place in order for you to truly enjoy your entrepreneurial journey. So, what are those options? Partnership certainly is a consideration, but that can be a frightening for us independent workers. I have tried it before and as nice as those partners were, I was always the one doing all of the work. Okay, so that isn’t a good option for me. My second option was to find a mentor of which I pay for and have already spent a lot of money on. It works and I got great guidance that resulted in success, but then the relationship must come to an end – then what? How about collaboration? If you don’t want to shell out thousands to work with an expert, then collaboration may be the best route. The ideal situation is to find someone on your level of success. You know, that X-CEO that just wants to help others and shares their amazing success secrets. Or the entrepreneur with different skills and experience to yours that wants to collaborate as badly as you do because they too have big goals. Where are these people? Do you struggle to find them? Without other people who see things differently than we do, have experience and skills beyond our own, we will never achieve the big goals.
Is it time for you to network? There are more opportunities than ever to do that. I just went to a social meetup here in Florida, right on the beach. I bothered to walk around and speak to other people and guess what? I found some cool new friends. One of them met with me to throw around some really great business ideas that we could launch right away. In fact, we can take our combined skills and apply them to all of our existing businesses. For the first time in a while, that felt really exciting. And in the same week, my YouTube Creator group met online where I got to mingle with other Creators that are just as successful than I am. We spoke each other’s language and could relate to problems that very few other entrepreneurs can. It was a great feeling and now it is my mission to keep networking, collaborating, and perhaps even one day bring on a co-founder. If that’s what it takes and it achieves everyone’s goals, then count me in. Is it time for you to expand? Take a look at the three options and go ahead and dip your toe into the entrepreneurial waters. You might just find that your pond turns into an ocean.
Landria Onkka is founder of DigitalExplorers.net training entrepreneurs to create, launch, and build planet conscious online businesses. Her company is a finalist in Pepperdine University’s ‘Most Fundable Companies 2025.’ She is a former investment banker, an influencer and networker in the making.