Do quitters never win? Apparently, they do. In the wake of the pandemic, more people than ever are starting on their own. The biggest winners are Solopreneurs. How they navigate the next twelve months will make or break the trend. Quitters with transactional competence stand the best chance of making a sustainable transition.

The pandemic has unleashed a historic burst in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are striking out on their own as consultants, retailers and small-business owners.

As seen in the Wall Street Journal article Workers Quit Jobs in Droves to Become Their Own Bosses or New Data Finally Shows Why People Are Quitting Their Jobs, the evidence helps explain the continuing shake-up in the world of work, “with more people looking for flexibility, anxious about covid exposure, upset about vaccine mandates or simply disenchanted with pre-pandemic office life. It is also aggravating labor shortages in some industries and adding pressure on companies to revamp their employment policies.”

Check out these statistics reported in The Wall Street Journal, citing the U.S. government and other sources:

• Labor Department data shows that there are now 500,000 more unincorporated, self-employed workers than at the start of the pandemic: 9.44 million.
• Next, the number of new applications for federal tax ID numbers jumped 56 percent between 2019 and 2021; two-thirds of those were for businesses expected to employ nobody other than the founder.
• The percentage of workers in the U.S. who consider themselves self-employed rose from 5.4 percent in February 2020, just before the pandemic, to 5.9 percent now.
• In September 2019, the online marketplace Etsy had 2.6 million active sellers; this year, the number was 7.5 million.
• And, there are similar signs from online career sites and marketplaces like LinkedIn and Upwork.

Solopreneur quitters have had a taste of working from home, a more balanced life, and the satisfaction that comes with striking out on your own. What is a solopreneur? An individual who starts and runs their business independently, without the support of a co-founder or W-2 employees. In other words, a solopreneur is an entrepreneur who performs all duties related to their business alone. Most small businesses start this way and may stay small or grow into so much more.

Quitting has never been sexier, and our steps and strategies ensure you survive the road ahead.

Transactional competence is key to thriving on your own, and Influential U offers a four-year higher education in these core skills and strategies that you don’t get in business school. Those with basic transactional competence will likely survive just fine; those with advanced skills will thrive.

AUTHOR

John Patterson
Co-founder and CEO
INFLUENTIAL U
John Patterson co-founded and manages the faculty and consultants of Influential U global. Since 1987, he has led workshops, programs, and conferences for over 100k people in diverse professions, industries, and cultures. His history includes corporate curriculum design focusing on business ecosystems, influence, leadership, and high-performance training and development.