Last week, I shared four ways imposter syndrome has cost me thousands—and I know it resonated with so many of you. I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s actually the perfect segue into today’s conversation with Maggie on being, and staying, a solo business owner.
I first discovered Maggie on Elizabeth McCravy’s podcast, where she was talking about the dark side of online business. That topic is actually a big part of Maggie’s brand—she raises awareness around the shady stuff in the industry, like the pressure to join $20,000 masterminds or scale to $8 billion while working four hours a day. You know, those super deceptive, manipulative, spammy marketing tactics. That’s how I found her, but let me tell you—she is so much more than that.
Let me read her bio: Maggie Patterson is the creator of BS Free Business—where she’s been a leading voice calling out the yuck in online business. She’s also the author of a brand-new book, Staying Solo (my copy is still in the mail, and trust me, I cannot wait to get my hands on it).
With 20 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur in client services, Maggie helps service-based business owners—hi, that’s most of us—build what she proudly calls a “boring business.” That means one that’s strategically small, sustainable, and designed to actually fit your life—without the constant hustle.
She’s a podcaster, a writer, and a fierce advocate for humane business practices rooted in respect, empathy, and trust. Doesn’t that just sound like the biggest breath of fresh air? She hosts two podcasts: Staying Solo and Confessions of a Micro Agency Owner, and she also co-hosts Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business—an absolute must-listen.
Quick plug here—if you liked episode 45 of this podcast, where Danielle and I talked about some of the scariest stuff we see in the online space, you’re definitely going to want to listen to Duped. (Different people, of course—I don’t want to lump them together—but similar vibes in terms of peeling back the curtain on the less-pretty side of business.)
Anyway, I’m so excited for you to hear this conversation with Maggie. This topic has been especially close to my heart lately. I’ve built a business that just keeps getting bigger—and while I’m so grateful for every minute of it, there’s that saying: “New level, new devil,” right? You grow and grow, and sometimes it’s shockingly easy to wake up and realize you’ve built a business you don’t even like anymore.
That’s not exactly where I’m at—I do love my business!—but there are parts of it that don’t always feel aligned. And I get really honest about that in this conversation. We talk about the value of keeping things intentionally small, building a business that pays you well, doesn’t burn you out, and gives you the life you actually want.
So, okay—longest intro ever! But I’m really excited. Let’s just dive into this convo with Maggie.
Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify
Table of Contents
Who is Maggie of BS Free Business
Hi, I’m Maggie Patterson. I’m the creator of BS Free Business and the author of the new book Staying Solo. I work with micro business owners to help them run their businesses in a way that doesn’t make them want to burn it all to the ground—or fake their own death just to escape it.
You can have a life and not feel totally overwhelmed all the time.
Can you define what you mean when you say solo business owner staying solo or what a micro agency is?
So, within the BS Free Business universe—if you want to call it that—I focus on working with micro businesses. And when I say micro business, I mean businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
I typically work with two main segments of that audience. First, there are service based solo business owners—people who are truly a team of one. And one thing I always want to emphasize is that being a solo business owner doesn’t mean you have no support. You might work with a bookkeeper, a copywriter, a business coach, or even have a therapist. You’re still getting help—but you’re the only one running the business. You don’t have five employees; it’s still just you at the core.
Then there’s the micro agency side. That’s when you start moving beyond being a true solo act. You might have employees or permanent team members, and your role begins to shift. You’re doing less client work yourself and more leading the team, overseeing service delivery, and stepping into that leadership role.
I’ve personally been through that transition, and it’s something I talk about a lot with solo business owners. Many of them feel like they have to make the leap into building a team—or they just kind of drift into it accidentally.
But what they don’t always realize is that it’s a huge shift in how you operate. And that shift often brings a lot of chaos and stress.
The math doesn’t always math, you know? People think, “I’ll just hire more help,” but they don’t realize that now they’re doing two jobs: they’re still delivering the work and running the agency. That’s just too much for one person to handle.
Can you share some of the unseen advantages to being a solo business owner?
One of the reasons so many people end up hiring or “scaling”—and I say that with air quotes—is because they think it’s just what they’re supposed to do. Side note: I hate the word scaling. It’s become such an icky internet buzzword, and it’s not even used correctly most of the time. (I’m a writer by trade, so I get picky about stuff like that.)
But really, people often feel like they have to grow a team or build an agency—either because client demand is increasing or because they need to make more money. A lot is that solo business owners feel like their only path forward is to hire a team. But they don’t realize how much untapped leverage still exists within their current business. There are so many things they could adjust—like pricing, offers, client types, or boundaries—that could increase their income without having to build a whole agency.
Instead, what usually happens is they hit an income ceiling and think, “Okay, the only way to earn more is to work more.” I call it the time versus money trap—that cycle where you’re stuck trading hours for dollars, without realizing there’s another way.
Maybe they need to shift their strategy, change their pricing structure, or move toward more strategic work. But because no one talks about those options, they just assume, “Well, I guess I have to hire now.”
I see it all the time—someone hits a wall at $75K, $150K, whatever the number is—and they feel completely maxed out. That moment, when you can’t see how to move forward without burning out, is actually the sweet spot where I love to step in.
Because often, the solution isn’t massive. It’s a few small refinements that make a huge difference. But we’re so conditioned to believe the only way to grow is to hire, that we skip over those smarter, simpler solutions.
We need to stop feeling bad about being a small solo business owner
It’s a really hard path—and honestly, most people stumble into it by accident. There’s just not a lot of recognition or understanding around what it really takes. I think people are well-intentioned, but they don’t realize the level of care, emotional labor, and boundary-setting that leadership requires.
If you struggle with boundaries as a team of one, that’s not magically going to get better when you have a team.
And I hate to say it, but if you don’t like having hard conversations, that will become part of your job if you move into agency leadership. So you really have to decide—strategically—why you want to do this. If you’re going to grow a team, ask yourself: what are my boundaries? What supports am I going to need? What do I want this to look like.
And the truth is, once people start thinking through that, a lot of them realize—they’d actually be better off staying solo. And that’s totally valid. The majority of businesses are one-person businesses. We need to stop feeling bad about that.
So many of my clients—and people in my broader community—have told me, “Thank you. I just needed the permission slip. I don’t actually want to scale, and I needed someone to tell me that was okay.”
Can you debunk some of the myths around being a solo business owner?
There are so many misconceptions, but here are a few big ones.
First, I touched on this earlier—the idea that once your income hits a ceiling, you’ve only got two options:
One, create a digital product, course, or program.
Two, hire a bunch of people and build an agency.
But what people don’t realize is that while those paths might seem like logical next steps, they’re actually completely different business models. Yes, you’re building on the foundation of what you’ve already created—but you’re stepping into something that requires a whole new set of inputs, skills, and commitments. That’s one of the things that honestly frustrates me the most.
Another big one I see all the time is this belief that if you decide to stay solo, you’re somehow “playing small.” Like, you must have a mindset issue. You must be afraid.
But here’s the truth: a lot of people didn’t start their business to chase money or fame. They started it for freedom.
And then somewhere along the way, they get swept up in this online narrative—this checklist of things you’re “supposed” to do to be successful. Things like hiring a team, building a big brand, scaling endlessly.
And suddenly it’s like, “If I don’t have employees, if I don’t hit seven figures, do I even have value?”
But the reality is, you can stay small, be incredibly strategic, and—spoiler alert—often be way more profitable than people who go the big business route.
If you’ve made the decision to stay in services, or to remain a solo business owner—whatever your path looks like—be really clear on your reasons for it. And don’t let the noise get to you.
Because like you said, so much of it is smoke and mirrors. And honestly? A lot of it is designed to make you buy something.
For someone to sell you their thing, they need you to feel like you’re missing out, like you’re not enough, like there’s some secret you haven’t unlocked. Their whole game is to make you anxious, to make you feel inadequate—because that’s what makes you hit “buy.”
Can you share your 6 part framework for a solo business owner that wants a “boring” business?
Over the past nine years of working with solo service business owners, I started noticing the same patterns showing up again and again. There are these core themes—what I now call the six pillars—that truly make the difference in building a sustainable business as a team of one.
The first pillar is Salary.
This is about making sure you get paid. One of the most common traps, especially in the online business world, is spending on tools, coaches, mentors—all valid investments—but then at the end of the day, you’re not actually paying yourself enough. I am on a one-woman mission to change that. Because if your business isn’t meeting your financial needs, it’s going to feel really bad, really fast.
The second pillar is Seasons.
This is all about planning in a realistic, human-centered way. You are not going to go full speed 24/7, 365 days a year. So how do you plan around your life, not just for “the best year ever”? Personally, I have seasonal depression—I live in Canada—so I don’t plan big things for winter. December through February, I intentionally scale back. It’s about recognizing the seasons of both life and energy, and planning accordingly. I even dive into the science behind this in my work.
The third pillar is Support.
As a solo business owner, support is non-negotiable. That doesn’t always mean hiring a coach—it might mean taking a Canva course because you need that skill. It might mean outsourcing your bookkeeping, building a business community, getting a therapist, or even just simplifying meals at home. Support looks different for everyone, but without it, you’re going to burn out. You need that scaffolding around you, even if you’re technically a team of one.
The fourth pillar is Space.
This one is about capacity. And capacity isn’t just about time—it’s about energy, emotions, and even sensory input. For example, I’m neurodivergent. If I go to a loud, high-stimulation conference, I’m toast. So I have to ask: Do I even go to those? Or do I manage them in a way that works for me? You have to understand your limits and build your business around them, not push through them.
The fifth is Strategy.
And this ties right back to what I call “the boring business.” Strategy means nailing the fundamentals: your pricing, marketing, offers, positioning—knowing who your people are. Most of us are past the viability stage—we know we can get clients. But what got us here won’t necessarily take us further. Sometimes that means saying, “You know what? I don’t want to work with accounting firms anymore. Time to pivot.” Constantly re-evaluating your foundations is part of the game.
And finally, I talk a lot about what I call Sell the Strategy.
So many people lump their strategic thinking into their tactical services—and don’t charge for it separately. But strategic thinking is incredibly valuable. Learning to price and position that part of your work can be a game-changer in both your income and how you feel about your business. Stop hiding your genius inside the deliverables.
How can we, as a solo business owner, manage our capacity for actual client work more?
One really interesting conversation we had in one of my groups recently was around creative work—especially for those of us whose businesses rely on it. The question was: How much creative work can you realistically do in a day and still have it be good?
And for most people, the answer was about half a day—or even less.
But then we look at our calendars and say, “Okay, great, I can work 30 hours this week—I’ll do 30 hours of creative work.” And… that’s just not how it works.
You have to understand your actual capacity—especially for creative output. For me, I have to get into the right flow. Writing a post might not take me long technically, but to get in the zone? I need my Diet Coke, I need to walk around the post a little bit, it probably needs to be Thursday at 9:00 PM. It’s a whole thing. And it probably makes no sense to anyone else—but I have to plan for that.
Not every hour of your workday should—or even can—be filled with client work. You need space for deep thinking, for creative processing. Sometimes that means lying on your office floor. Sometimes it’s going for a walk.
Like, this morning I was in a mood, and I said to myself, “At 1:30, we’re getting out of this house.” It was actually nice out! I needed a shift, and that reset helped.
I talked about this in a podcast episode last fall—solo business owners tend to treat their calendars like Tetris, trying to pack in eight solid hours. But when we do that, and something goes off the rails, there’s zero flexibility.
So instead of planning to your max capacity, try planning to a lower capacity. Give yourself more margin. Maybe that just means you’re done work early some days—and that’s okay.
When you think about all the things that we have to do as a solo business owner or small business, what do you have a rule of thumb with how much time should be spent on marketing?
You’d think as a marketer I’d have a snappier answer to this—but here’s the real talk:
If you’re a team of one, you’ve got to seriously consider what kind of marketing you actually need to be doing.
A big mistake I see all the time is solo business owners doing a lot of marketing busywork that doesn’t actually land.
You’re nodding, so I know you get it—it’s one thing to be doing marketing, but it’s another thing entirely to be doing the wrong marketing.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you work with mid-size B2B tech companies, and your ideal client is a VP of Marketing. If you’re pouring your energy into Instagram posts… they’re not looking for you there. That time is essentially wasted.
So it really comes down to getting super clear on where your people are. That might be online, it might be in-person.
For a lot of my clients, the answer isn’t fancy—it’s, “I need to put more energy into referrals,” or, “I actually need to leave my house and talk to people. Go for coffee. Reconnect with my network.”
Once you’ve identified those right-fit activities, the next step is carving out consistent time for them. And I don’t mean every Tuesday at 2:00 PM—but there needs to be some kind of cadence or rhythm where marketing actually happens.
Because—spoiler alert—if you don’t do the marketing, it’s not going to do itself. And trust me, I’ve had plenty of clients over the years try to make that work. It doesn’t.
What would you say to the busy service provider listening right now who’s burnt out but not making the kind of money they want to be making?
There are two things I always recommend.
First, get really clear on what your enough number is—your salary target. What do you need to bring home each month?
There’s actually a reverse salary calculator I can share that helps you back into that number. So if you need to bring home $4,000 a month, what does that mean for your business revenue? You have to factor in taxes, expenses, that freelance graphic designer you occasionally hire—everything.
This is such a powerful exercise, because the moment people see that number, they usually go one of two ways:
They either realize, “Okay, I need to cut back on some of these expenses,” or “I need to bring in more revenue.” It gets really real, really fast.
And the key here is that it’s your number. Not my number, not Kara’s number, not some random number you saw on Instagram. If you don’t need to make $24,000 a month, then why are you aiming for that? Stay focused on what’s right for you.
The second thing is something I challenge everyone to do: get really clear on your boundaries.
And by that, I mean everything from how many hours you want to work, to whether or not you’re responding to client emails at 9 p.m.
A lot of the boundary issues people run into aren’t about bad clients—they’re self-inflicted, because of people-pleasing or wanting to keep everyone happy.
But if you can learn to clearly communicate expectations from day one and stick to them, it makes a huge, huge difference. (And yes, there’s a whole chapter on this in the book.)
I’ve been self-employed for 20 years now, and boundaries are still a work in progress. Things still come up where I think, “Wait, seriously? This is happening again?”
And I’m an Enneagram 8—like we talked about before the interview—I don’t usually have a hard time holding my ground. And still, it’s something I have to keep working on.
So if boundaries are tough for you, just know: you’re not alone, and it’s a constant evolution. But the better you get at saying “No,” or “How about this instead?”—and communicating clearly so clients don’t question your boundaries—the easier your business (and life) becomes.
Where can a solo business owner learn more from you?
The number one thing I’d recommend is grabbing the Calculator Kit. You can find it at bsfreebusiness.com/kit. There are multiple calculators in there—including one for capacity—and people love them because they’re super simple and just get you moving.
And if you’re interested in the book, it’s available pretty much wherever books are sold… unless you’re in Amazon Canada, in which case—no paperback. (Not that I’m bitter or anything.)
And if you enjoyed this conversation, come hang out with me on my podcast, Staying Solo—you can find it wherever you listen to your shows.
LINKS MENTIONED
- Buy Maggies Book: Staying Solo
- Get Maggie’s FREE Calculator Kit (for pricing and capacity!)
- Connect with Maggie at BS Free Business
- Follow Maggie on Instagram
- Learn more about working with our marketing agency here
- Follow me on Instagram
