Inside the Conversation
Many business owners begin as solopreneurs – serving clients, making decisions, delivering the work, and managing the business themselves. And sometimes, that operating model is exactly what they need.
For Lesle Lane, remaining a solopreneur gave her the flexibility to raise her children, stay present for their lives, and build a business around the priorities that mattered most to her at that stage. But as her life and business changed, the way she operated eventually needed to change too.
In this episode of Manage Your Projects with Confidence, Cerila Gailliard, PMP, CSM talks with Lesle about the transition from solopreneur to entrepreneur – not as a required next step, but as a decision that should reflect what the business and the person need now.
Core Lessons From This Conversation
#1 The goal is not to leave solopreneurship as quickly as possible. The goal is to operate in a way that fits the business and your life.
For Lesle, solopreneurship worked because it gave her the flexibility to raise her children while continuing to run her company. The transition became necessary later, when her circumstances and the needs of the business changed. An operating model can be right for one stage and wrong for another.
#2 Delegation doesn’t require giving up your standards; it requires making those standards transferable.
Lesle’s biggest obstacle was control, particularly around the quality of creative work. Her transition required manuals, lighting guides, processes, feedback and a mindset shift: someone else’s work can be different from hers while still meeting the quality standard and satisfying the client. That’s an excellent example of the difference between personal control and operational consistency
#3 Structure doesn’t just remove work; it creates capacity to think differently.
Lesle gained what she repeatedly calls “brain space.” That capacity allowed her to pay attention to strategy, industry trends, clients and new opportunities instead of spending all of her attention on today’s tasks.
Episode Breakdown
- 00:35 — When the Way You Operate Begins to Change
- 02:23 — Lesle’s Journey from Solopreneur to a Team of 15
- 04:22 — What Operating as a Solopreneur Really Looks Like
- 08:28 — The Personal and Business Impact of Doing It Alone
- 12:58 — The Moment the Business Had to Change
- 15:17 — The Hardest Part of the Transition: Control
- 17:18 — Turning What Is in Your Head into a Repeatable Process
- 19:23 — What Changes When Specialized People Own the Work
- 21:03 — Letting Go Doesn’t Mean Letting Go of Everything
- 24:36 — Creating Space for Strategy and New Opportunities
- 27:31 — How Do You Know It’s Time to Move Beyond Solopreneurship?
- 29:17 — Sometimes Structure Has to Come Before Growth
- 30:23 — How Lesle Expanded Her Business Beyond Herself
- 33:23 — The Reality of Building a Business Isn’t Linear
- 35:01 — Reflection: What Needs to Change for Growth to Become Repeatable?
Your Go-To Resource List
✉️ Email → lesle@studio13online.com
🔗 Connect with Lesle Lane → LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
🌐 Website → www.studio13online.com
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