Solo by Design
Ricardo Brito Helps experienced professionals turn their skills into sustainable solo businesses. Strategy, positioning, offers, and systems for building independence without chaos.
🏗️ Don't build a website
Open in browser Don't build a website for a client you don't know You are building a website to feel ready, and that's bad "Should I hire the website person now?" She asked it the way you ask something you already half know the answer to. We were forty minutes into a call about who her client actually is, and we didn't have one yet. We had a strong hunch and a lot of energy, but no clear picture. "After," I said. "A hundred percent. After you figure out who your client really is" I get it,...
If you can't sell it, you can't help them
Open in browser If you can't sell it, you can't help them What your silence costs the clients who needed you You had the conversation with a potential client, and it went well. They have the problem you solve, and you could fix it for them. And then, at the moment when you should say “here’s how I can help,” you don’t. You say “let me know if you ever want to work together,” and you never follow up. Maybe you send a very generic proposal with a price so low it apologises for itself. You tell...
🎯 Your dream client isn't a company
Open in browser Talk to the person, not the company Companies don't have bad weeks, or budgets, or problems, but the overworked human inside it does Here's a line from a real offer, lightly disguised: ”I help mission-driven organisations scale their impact through better program design." Read it back. It sounds like a business; it sounds professional. But to whom does it talk? Can you tell me who would feel represented there? At first that kind of sentence feels correct, even safe. It's how...
How to get clients without selling
Open in browser Selling is just research you're scared of Spend a month learning about the people you want as clients, and watch the selling take care of itself You need clients, so you sit down to sell. You draft the message, you psych yourself up, and it feels awful, because selling to people who don't know you yet is awful, and underneath it, you're not even sure you're offering the thing they actually want. The classic guru advice is to get better at that and work harder! A sharper pitch,...
🛠️ Getting better won't get you clients
Open in browser Getting better at the work won't get you work You keep sharpening the craft and you wonder why your pipeline is dry A while back a consultant came to me, fifteen years deep in one very specialised, very technical system and he was world-class at it. Nevertheless his business was quiet, not enough clients and not enough work. His plan to solve the issue? To get even better at the craft! He was after a coach who knew his exact system, someone who could point him at the next...
Don't let AI design your business
Open in browser AI will build the wrong thing faster It will happily design your business for you, and that is the problem Here is a thing that did not used to be possible. You sit down to work out your business, what to offer, what to build next, and instead of sitting in the discomfort of not knowing, you ask the machine. Design my offer, plan my next quarter. And it does, in seconds, and it looks good. Why agonise over the direction for weeks, read three books, hire a strategist, when a...
What to charge for when AI does the work
Open in browser Sell the thinking, not the hours What I actually bought when I paid three thousand euros for copy A few years ago I paid three thousand euros for the copy on my first website. I would do it again tomorrow. From the outside, that looks reckless now: three thousand euros for words?! When a machine can write you a version in ten seconds for nothing. If the words were the thing, I overpaid by about 2980 euros. But the words are not what I paid for, believe it or not. At first I...
How to make your offer AI-proof
Open in browser AI does your output. Sell the rest OUTPUT IS FREE NOW, BUT YOUR JUDGEMENT ISN'T When the machine got faster, most of us tried to get faster too. More posts, more output. Another tool, another way to ship twice as much in half the time; the world sped up, so you sped up. I watched a client do exactly this for almost a year. Working hard, trying every new thing, still no revenue. When she asked me for the fastest way to finally feel like it was working, I asked her something...
Why AI makes your work feel replaceable
Open in browser The more you make, the less you matter ARE YOU SELLING WHAT AI MAKES FOR FREE? I’ve worked with a client who writes for a living for twenty years. They came to a call with the new copy for their LinkedIn page that explains who they are and why you’d hire them rather than a chatbot. They’d made it in five minutes with AI after much back-and-forth, and they hadn’t edited it yet. It read fine, but it also said nothing, and they knew it before I did, because the thing they are...
Why more reach isn't getting you clients
Open in browser Fewer people showed up but more of them bought WHAT A HALF-EMPTY ROOM OF THE RIGHT PEOPLE DOES THAT A PACKED ONE NEVER WILL I gave a talk recently to a half-empty room. I was the first of three speakers, and I thought that I would have a full room from the start. I'll be honest, it stings a little. You stand up there counting the empty chairs, asking yourself whether you picked the wrong topic or just didn't market it well enough, even though you have been pushing videos,...
Ricardo Brito Helps experienced professionals turn their skills into sustainable solo businesses. Strategy, positioning, offers, and systems for building independence without chaos.