This page contains affiliate links — if you click through and sign up or buy, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend tools and programs I actually use.
The 6-Figure Solopreneur: Why I’ll Never Hire a Team Again
I used to run offices, teams, payroll, a schedule that ran my life. After my divorce I rebuilt on purpose, as a business of one. Here’s why I’m never going back.
Build the business, keep the freedom

Side Hustle to Six Figures
My playbook for turning a solo side hustle into a real, sustainable six-figure business.

From Idea to Income
Take a simple idea and shape it into a digital product people actually buy.
Why I traded a team for systems
Structure over skill
The work ethic and ambition never changed. What changed was the structure I built it inside of.
Systems replace staff
Automation replaced management. Assets replaced activity. Doing it myself forced me to sharpen fast.
Leverage, not headcount
Instead of scaling through people, I scale through content, affiliate partnerships, digital products, and publishing systems.
Sovereignty over status
No one owns my calendar, depends on my payroll, or dictates my pace. That’s not smaller. That’s aligned.
How I rebuilt as a business of one
This is the shift, piece by piece.
Let go of the team
I downsized on purpose, not as a fallback plan. It was a conscious design choice about what I wanted the business to feel like.
Replace staff with systems
No more delegation to lean on. Systems had to do the job people used to do.
Replace management with automation
No payroll anxiety, no internal conflicts, no carrying the emotional temperature of a room. Just me and the numbers.
Replace activity with assets
One piece of content became multiple revenue streams. One idea became a product. One video became traffic across platforms.
Want the full playbook?
Side Hustle to Six Figures covers exactly how I built income without a team, step by step.
Get Side Hustle to Six Figures →“I stopped building a company. I started building assets.”— Lori Ballen
I did not start alone. I built big. Offices. Teams. Payroll. Schedules that ran my life. On paper, it looked successful.
After my divorce, everything changed. Not the skill. Not the work ethic. Not the ambition. The structure.
For the first time in my adult life, I had to decide what I actually wanted my business to feel like. Not what impressed people, not what scaled the fastest, not what looked powerful from the outside. What felt right.
When you go through something like divorce, you see where your energy has been leaking. You see what was heavy. You see what was built to prove something.
I realized I did not want to manage people anymore. I did not want the emotional weight of team dynamics. I did not want to be responsible for other households. I did not want meetings on my calendar dictating my days.
I wanted ownership without noise.
So I made a decision that surprised people. I downsized. I let go of the team. I rebuilt as a solopreneur.
And here is the part that matters: it was not a fallback plan. It was a conscious design choice.
At first, it felt exposed. When you are used to delegation, doing everything yourself forces you to sharpen fast. Systems had to replace staff. Automation had to replace management. Assets had to replace activity.
But something else happened. My nervous system calmed down. No payroll anxiety, no internal conflicts, no carrying the emotional temperature of a room. Just me and the numbers.
Revenue became cleaner. Expenses became predictable. Decisions became immediate. If I wanted to pivot, I pivoted. If I wanted to cut something, I cut it. If I wanted to double down, I doubled down. No permission required.
And the income did not collapse. It shifted. Instead of scaling through people, I scaled through leverage: content, affiliate partnerships, digital products, publishing systems. One piece of content became multiple revenue streams. One idea became a product. One video became traffic across platforms.
I stopped building a company. I started building assets.
There is a quiet power in that.
Being a solopreneur after running a large team is different than starting alone. You know what you are walking away from. You understand the trade-offs. You choose peace anyway.
It is not about being small. It is about being aligned.
After divorce, I did not just rebuild my personal life. I rebuilt my business around freedom. No one owns my calendar. No one depends on my payroll. No one dictates my pace.
That does not make it easier. It makes it intentional.
Some people scale for status. I scaled back for sovereignty. And I have never once regretted it.
Going solo, answered
Can you really run a six-figure business alone?
Yes. Systems, automation, and digital assets can replace what a team used to do, without the payroll or the management overhead.
What replaces a team when you go solo?
Systems replace staff, automation replaces management, and assets replace day-to-day activity. Leverage does the scaling instead of headcount.
Isn’t going solo a step backward from a bigger business?
Not necessarily. It’s a design choice for alignment over status. Revenue can shift toward leverage instead of collapsing.
What kinds of income streams work for a solopreneur?
Content, affiliate partnerships, digital products, and publishing systems all compound without needing more people.
How do you start building a solo business like this?
Start with one asset, like a piece of content or a digital product, and build the systems around it before adding anything else.
Design a business that supports your life instead of consuming it
Get Side Hustle to Six Figures →If you’re in a season of rebuilding, you can also work with me inside my coaching community.
Hey there! Just a quick heads-up: some of the links on this site are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase (including through the Amazon Associates program), at no extra cost to you. Occasionally, products featured here are gifted by brands.
I also use AI tools to help research and create content for you! While I love sharing strategies to help you succeed, please remember that everyone's journey is unique—individual results vary, and there are no guarantees. Thanks so much for stopping by!