What if the people around me are not supportive of me going solo?

Somebody asked in my masterclass chat what to do if the people you share your idea with are not very supportive. Another attendee answered in the chat: get people around you who will challenge you as well as support you. They were right.

Your friends do not quite get what you do now. Your family is waiting for you to find a proper job again. And on some days, you start to doubt it yourself. I still feel it some weeks.

Support and validation are two different things

The people who love you are answering a different question from the one you asked. You asked "is this a good idea?" They heard "are you going to be all right?"

Their worry is real, and it is not market research. Friends and family are usually not your buyers, so their opinion of your offer tells you very little about whether it will sell.

Where to get each one

• Validation comes from buyers. Ask the people who have the problem whether they would pay to have it solved. Start with people who know your work, then widen to people you have never met.
• Challenge comes from people a step ahead. Somebody who has already made the move will tell you what is hard without assuming you will fail.
• Support comes from people making the same move. They understand a slow week without needing it explained.

What to ask the people close to you

Stop asking for their opinion of the idea. Ask them for one introduction to somebody who has the problem you solve. It turns a worried conversation into a useful one, and it gives them a way to help.

That gap, having nobody around who is making the same move, is one of the reasons I built the Studio: twelve weeks with a group of people building their own practice at the same time. For the loneliness side of it, read anyone else lonely after leaving corporate?

Your next step

My free masterclass is 90 minutes online, Tuesday 8 December, 12:00 Zurich (11:00 UK), and you will be in a room of people asking the same questions: Where on earth to start when becoming a solopreneur, and where AI actually helps.

Questions people ask

Should I listen to my family about starting a business?

Listen to their worry, because it is about you. Test the idea with buyers, because only they can tell you whether it will sell.

Where do I find people who understand going solo?

People who have made the move already, and people making it at the same time as you. A group programme or a community, or the room at a masterclass.