Why Building Alone Makes Everything Harder
The language of freelancing is wrapped in the myth of the lone wolf—the idea that success means doing it all by yourself.
We call it “independent” consulting. We call it “going solo.”
But after a decade in this industry, I can tell you the truth: Building alone is the hardest, slowest, and most expensive way to grow.
There is a pervasive myth in our industry that to be an independent consultant, you have to be, well... independent.
We wear that word like armor. We tell ourselves that asking for help or admitting we’re stuck undermines our expertise. We convince ourselves that if we were really good at this, we wouldn’t need a sounding board.
But in my experience, isolation isn’t a badge of honor. It’s a tax.
And it is a tax that costs you energy, confidence, and momentum every single day.
The Silence Where a Team Used to Be
When you build alone, the hardest part isn’t the actual work—it’s the silence where a feedback loop used to be.
Suddenly, you are carrying every decision entirely on your own shoulders.
You spend two hours drafting a proposal that should have taken twenty minutes because you have no one to gut-check your pricing.
You spiral when a client gives vague feedback because you don’t have a peer to say, “Oh, I’ve worked with them. That’s just how they communicate.”
You lose days to procrastination because “researching software” feels safer than making a decision in a vacuum .
Freelancing isn’t actually hard. But freelancing alone is exhausting.
You Want More Than Advice. You Want Coworkers.
When I talk to freelancers who are feeling stuck, they almost never say, “I need another course.”
They say, “I just wish I had someone to bounce this off of”.
They want shared problem-solving instead of solitary guessing. They want to know that someone else is dealing with the same weird client issues. They want to feel seen, supported, and understood by people who actually get what they do for a living.
We heal from burnout and we grow our businesses faster when we stop pretending we have to do it in a vacuum.
Navigating the Highs and Lows
Freelancing has a specific emotional rhythm. There are high highs (signing the contract!) and low lows (the client ghosted you). When you are alone, the lows feel personal.
You assume you failed. You assume you aren’t cut out for this.
When you are in a community, you realize: Oh, this happens to everyone. The “Valley of Despair” is shallow when you have peers to pull you out. It is a deep pit when you are by yourself.
Come Sit With Us
Independence doesn’t have to mean isolation. The most successful consultants I know have the strongest networks. They have “accountability buddies,” they build partnerships, they join cohorts, and they invest in coaching.
They know that while they are the pilot of their own plane, they still need air traffic control to help them along the way.
If you are tired of the echo chamber, come build with us inside the Bosscraft Consultant Network.
It isn’t a high-pressure mastermind promising six figure incomes in weeks (with zero effort). It’s a steady, ongoing community for independent consultants who want to do good work without losing their minds.
It is a place where you can:
Bring your to-do list to a co-working session so you actually get the hard stuff done.
Download a template for that contract or scope of work so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Ask a question in the forum and get an answer from someone who has been there, rather than doom-scrolling for advice.
You have the skills to do this work. But you don’t have to do it alone.