The Solo Business Playbook

Luna Business Solutions
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

The Solo Business Playbook is my honest take on freelancing, starting a business, and building a career on your own terms without having it all figured out. I’ve taken the non-traditional path, from freelancing to building my own business, and in this podcast I share what’s actually worked, what hasn’t, and everything I’m still learning along the way. We’ll talk about finding clients, growing your income, navigating the ups and downs, and building a solo business that supports the kind of life you actually want.

  1. Sep 30

    Feeling Stuck? Make It So Easy It's Laughable with Laura Stevens of Build With Laura

    Laura Stevens spent 11 years in corporate, most recently as a senior e-commerce product manager, before a message about voluntary redundancy landed while she was away in Cape Town. She had 24 hours to decide. Five months later, she's the founder of Build With Laura, working as a transformation coach and creative director for founders, brands and people in creative transition. In this episode, Laura and Laura (yes, two Lauras) talk about why so many founders feel stuck even when they know exactly what they want, why the answer is usually the who rather than the what, and how breaking a mountain down into tiny steps changes everything. Laura also shares why she stopped letting fear of failing in public keep her in the comfort of planning, and the one question to ask yourself each morning to move closer to the person you want to be. In this episode, we cover: Taking voluntary redundancy as a sign to finally go for itWhy coaching should start with the who, not the whatWhat "feeling stuck" usually means, and why you often already know the answerMake it so easy that it's laughable: building momentum with tiny goalsWhat 11 years in corporate taught Laura about self-trust and finding her voiceWhy so many people sit on an idea for over a yearFear of failing in public, and getting trapped in endless planningAction creates clarityWhy you shouldn't try to do it all on your own Connect with Laura (Stevens): Build With Laura: https://buildwithlaura.co.uk/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-stevens-b9019457/ @buildwithlaura on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube & Substack @tiredoatsclub Tired Oats Club Instagram Wearing too many hats in your business? Momentum is hard to build when you're the founder, the admin, the project manager and the person chasing every invoice. At Luna Business Solutions, we give small businesses fractional operations support, so you get a senior pair of hands on how your business runs without the cost of a full-time hire. Not sure where the gaps are? Take our free Operations Scorecard to see where your business stands: https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/free-operations-scorecard/ Ready to talk it through? Book a call with us: https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/contact/

  2. Sep 23

    Why Your Tech Costs Are Growing Faster Than Your Revenue with Chenge Garaba of Forc Advisory

    After more than a decade in senior finance roles at ASOS, Just Eat, Deliveroo and Global Fashion Group, Chenge Garaba realised the next step up the corporate ladder wasn't the life he wanted. So he started Forc Advisory, a fractional finance and tech finance consultancy for founder-led and VC-backed scale-ups. In this episode, Laura and Chenge talk about what's driving so many people out of corporate, why the fractional model works for both sides, and why fractional support shouldn't be limited to C-suite titles. Chenge also shares how he helped one business cut its tech spend from £100 million to £70 million without switching anything important off, plus the three questions every founder should be able to answer about the tools they pay for. In this episode: Why control over your time can matter more than a bigger salaryThe worst case of taking the leap is usually just your current realityHow fractional work gives you a spread of income instead of one basketWhy most businesses waste 20 to 30% of their tech budgetThree questions to spot a tech spend problem: what are you paying for, what is it costing you and what do you get back, and who owns each toolWhy it's always worth telling a supplier you're about to cancelChenge's honest lesson six months in: it's hard, so choose which hard you want Connect with Chenge: Forc Advisory: https://forcadvisory.com/ Forc Advisory on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forcadvisory/home/ Chenge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chenge-garaba-aca/ Off Duty Accountant on Instagram and TikTok (coming soon) Wearing too many hats in your business? If you're the founder, the ops team, the finance team and the person who remembers which subscriptions renew next month, something is going to slip. At Luna Business Solutions, we give small businesses fractional operations support, so you get a senior pair of hands on how your business runs without the cost of a full-time hire. Not sure where the gaps are? Take our free Operations Scorecard to see where your business stands: https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/free-operations-scorecard/ Ready to talk it through? https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/contact/

  3. Sep 16

    Why Founders Keep Getting Social Wrong, with Ella Bradley of Blank Social Co

    Most founders know they should be showing up on social. Very few know what to actually film, how often to post, or which numbers are worth paying attention to. In this episode I'm joined by Ella Bradley, co-founder and creative director of Blank Social Co, a social creative direction house working with brands from upfront strategy through to ideation, production and delivery. Ella launched the business off the back of a single LinkedIn post that brought in more client enquiries than she could handle alongside her full-time agency job. We talk about the thing Ella sees founders neglecting most often, which is the personal brand side of the business. She makes the case that people connect with people, and that your face and your name will often do more work than your brand account ever will. We also get into what stops founders posting in the first place, usually not confidence but a lack of ideas, time or a clear sense of what anyone actually wants to hear. What you'll take away: Why personal brand is the gap most founders leave open, and how to start without doing talking videosHow to work out what your own "blank" is, whether that's ideas, time, or knowing what to post firstWhy the content you agonise over rarely performs as well as the thing you filmed on the flyHow to find a natural voice on camera when talking to a phone always feels a bit performativeThe one question to ask before you post, to work out whether something is filler or notWhy Ella still shoots on iPhone, and the point at which upgrading your kit does make senseWhere to spend a few hundred pounds on content, in order, and the cost most people don't needWhat UGC used to mean, what it seems to mean now, and why the line has blurredThe one thing worth keeping from big-budget agency shoots that costs nothingHow to batch film so a month of content comes out of a single dayA realistic posting rhythm for a founder, and why once a day across platforms is not the same as once a day on every platformWhich metrics to look at depending on whether you want awareness or conversionHow long to give something before you decide it isn't working, and why two weeks tells you almost nothingThe point at which it makes sense to bring in outside help Find Ella: Blank Social Co: blanksocial.coBlank Social Co on TikTok and Instagram: @blanksocialcoElla on TikTok: @blankbyellaElla on LinkedIn: Ella Bradley Final Note Ella's point about being a team of one but doing the job of every one is the thing most founders recognise straight away. The work you're best at ends up squeezed in around everything else, because there's no one else to do the everything else. If you want to know where the pressure is actually building, start with the free Operations Scorecard. It takes a few minutes and shows you which part of your business is holding everything up. Take the Scorecard: lunabizsolutions.com/free-operations-scorecard/ If you already know something needs to change and you want a clear plan for what to fix and in what order, that's the Operations Audit. The fee comes straight off your first month if you decide to bring me in as your fractional COO afterwards. Book a call to talk it through: calendly.com/laura-lunabizsolutions/30min And if this episode was useful, following the show or leaving a quick review genuinely helps more founders find it.

  4. Sep 9

    Procrastination with glitter on it: building Cos We Can with Hayley Garraway

    Hayley Garraway founded Cos We Can, a single serve cheesecake brand sold in cans, on the idea that anyone can do the thing they keep putting off. In this episode she talks through what it actually took to get from baking bespoke cakes for friends at uni to running weekly drops with a proper order window, a canning machine shipped over from China, and a launch built on giving away the first 100 cheesecakes for free. We get into the logistics of a made to order food business, how she funded the equipment by asking friends and family and paying them back in cheesecakes, and the year she spent filming monthly check ins with herself because she could not work out why she was stalling. Her verdict on all the branding and website tweaking she did while she waited to feel ready: procrastination with glitter on it. What we cover Why she picked cheesecake when everyone else was doing postal brownies and cookiesHow the weekly drop works behind the scenes, from Monday prep day to freezing, insulated next day delivery and collections from a family shopThe point where a side hustle became a business: food hygiene training, a separate business account, registering with Companies House and a simple websiteSetting a deadline by ordering the equipment before she felt readyRaising the money for the canning machine by asking her close friends directlyHanding out 100 samples on the streets of Manchester, playing rock paper scissors with strangers, and collecting emails and numbers while she did itSitting in the car at the Trafford Centre absolutely terrified before the first conversationWhy in person sampling gets you feedback that posting online never willThe customer who cleared out the whole fridge for her office and sold Hayley out in an hourBuilding a brand around connection and encouragement rather than just a sweet treatNobody has it figured out, at any stage, in any businessTimestamps 01:05 Meet Hayley and the idea behind Cos We Can01:36 Baking and selling at uni, and why it fizzled out03:44 Low effort, high reward, and choosing cheesecake04:21 How the weekly drop actually works06:23 Going from hobby baker to registered business09:40 The pre launch runway while she waited for a shipment10:39 100 free cheesecakes and building the mailing list in person13:11 Being scared in the car, then doing it anyway14:05 Why authenticity beats looking established16:16 The best moment so far17:11 Selling connection alongside the product19:04 Everyone is figuring it out as they go22:04 Waiting to feel professional23:01 Filming monthly check ins to hold herself accountable26:58 Asking friends and family to fund the machine28:45 Procrastination with glitter on itQuote "The excitement and the belief in the idea outweighed the fear." Find Hayley Cos We Can: coswecancc.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coswecancc TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coswecancc Find Laura The Solo Business Playbook is hosted by Laura Butler of Luna Business Solutions. If your business is growing faster than your systems can keep up, start with the free Operations Scorecard at lunabizsolutions.com/free-operations-scorecard/ or book a call https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/contact/

  5. Sep 2

    The fake "buy" button, and other ways to test an idea before you build it, with Jacob Petel of Fractional Creative

    Most people spend a year building an idea nobody wanted. Jacon Petel spent that year finding out what people would actually pay for. In this episode I'm joined by Jake (Jacob), founder of Fractional Creative, a creative agency running Google and Meta ads and website development on flat monthly pricing with no long term contracts. We met in Bali about four years ago when we were both working overnight hours for other people's businesses, and a year on from Fractional becoming his full time job, we get into what's actually worked. Jake is refreshingly honest about the parts that aren't fun: the tax bill, the multi currency cash flow, the sleepless night before raising his rates. And he's got a genuinely useful method for testing an idea before you sink money into it. What we get into Why the smallest possible version of your idea beats the polished one, and how to fake a product before you've built itThe 80/20 rule, the perfectionist trap, and why hitting publish matters more than pixel perfectHow shipping early and iterating for a year got one client an enormous return on ad spendWhy every idea shouldn't be built, and how AI has made that problem worse rather than betterFractional's origin as a backpacker travel service, and how years of pivoting landed on something that workedHiring people better than you, and why Jake doesn't touch the ads himselfWhat the first year of an agency actually costs you: taxes, budgeting, and the accounting software nobody can face openingRaising your prices when your team outgrows your rates, and the reframe from Jake's wife that settled itWhy hourly billing quietly serves the agency and not the client, and the two big agencies that pushed Jake to build the alternativeThe post trust economy, and why Jake is choosing trade shows and events over more adsBartending as networking practice, and why it's worth a year of your life if you struggle to talk to peopleSetting a hard launch date to cut your own perceived complexity, plus the anti hustle case for a business that pays you minimum wage Find Jake fractionalcreative.ioInstagram: @fractionalcreative Want more? If you're wondering if your business is costing you time or money unnecessarily, try our free operational diagnostic scorecard.

  6. Aug 26

    Four Years, No Profit: The Realities of Building Brick & Mortar Businesses, with Amy of Eat by Amy and Crumb

    Amy is the founder of Eat by Amy, a vegan wholesale bakery, and Crumb, a vegan cookie and coffee shop, both in Islington. What started as a savoury vegan meal prep business (before Amy could even bake) turned into a bakery almost by accident, after customers kept asking for dessert. In this episode, Amy talks honestly about a first year of business that made her think she was smashing it, followed by four years of taking home almost nothing once she committed to a bricks and mortar bakery space. We get into the wholesale client cycle that kept eating into her income, the very specific moment on Camden Passage that led to finding the Crumb shop, and why she believes that when you get a strong feeling about something, you have to follow it. We also talk about pricing a physical product versus a service, why her dad's involvement as an unofficial accountant has kept her honest with the numbers, and the concept of visibility tax, the real cost of building a business in public that Amy has learned the hard way. What we talk about: Starting out in journalism and food editorial before pivoting into food entrepreneurshipWhy her first business was savoury vegan meal prep, not bakingHow customer demand during lockdown pushed her into baking almost by accidentA deceptively profitable first year that didn't prepare her for what came nextFour years without meaningful profit after committing to a bricks and mortar bakeryLosing wholesale clients to cheaper competitors, and the cycle that createdThe Camden Passage moment that led to finding the Crumb shop spaceTrusting a strong gut feeling even when the timing looks wrongSplitting time and attention across two businessesPricing a physical product using a formula versus pricing a serviceHer dad's role as an unofficial accountant keeping the numbers honestThe ice cream cart idea, and using social posts as informal market researchWhat visibility tax actually means, and the real cost of building a brand in publicA moment she posted something online and wished she hadn't Favourite Quotes "I think people think energy input equals output. It just doesn't." "As soon as I get that feeling from something, I think it's imperative that you have to go down that road." Connect with Amy: Amy is the founder of Eat by Amy, a vegan wholesale bakery, and Crumb, a vegan cookie and coffee shop, both based in Islington. She started out in food journalism before building her first business in savoury vegan meal prep, later pivoting into baking, and has now run both brands for six years. TikTok: @eatbyamy Eat by Amy: eatbyamy.comCrumb: crumbvegan.co.uk

  7. Aug 19

    From Corporate Burnout to Bricks and Mortar: Building Arvo Bathhouse with Jody Gilligan

    In this episode I'm joined by Jody Gilligan, founder of Arvo, a neighbourhood sauna and plunge space in Walthamstow, East London. Jody spent years in tech, most recently as Head of Growth at a fast scaling software company, before walking away from it all at 30 to self-fund a bricks and mortar wellness business from scratch. We talk about what life actually looked like before Arvo, the slow burn of discontentment that led her to leave a high pressure, high visibility career, and why she doesn't believe you should need a holiday to escape your own life. Jody gets honest about the British Business Bank startup loan that helped fund Arvo alongside her own savings, what the business plan process actually involved, and the privilege and risk calculations that go into choosing bricks and mortar over a digital business. We also start to get into the maze of commercial leasing, from use class requirements to filtering property listings, and why there's so little accessible information out there for first time founders taking on a physical space. This one is a genuinely useful listen for anyone who's ever thought about taking the leap into something physical and had no idea where to even start. What we cover Leaving a high pressure tech role and the slow build of discontentment behind itFunding Arvo through savings and a British Business Bank startup loanWriting a business plan with no background in property or hospitalityCommercial leasing lessons, including use class requirements learned the hard wayBeing taken less seriously by estate agents as first time foundersQuitting her job before the lease was signed, and the gap that followedThe fit out: working with a freelance architect, a trusted carpenter and single tradesVentilation and drainage requirements that nearly derailed the buildUsing AI generated renders to market a space that didn't exist yetBuilding a 2,000 person waitlist organically through InstagramRunning a discounted soft opening week to gather real feedbackWhy a viral TikTok video did nothing for bookings, and choosing revenue over reachHer honest advice for anyone dreaming of a bricks and mortar business My Favourite Quotes from this episode: "I don't love the idea that people go on holidays to escape their life." "Followers made everything feel amazing, but they don't pay the bills." About Jody Jody Gilligan is the founder of Arvo, a neighbourhood sauna and plunge space in Walthamstow, East London. Originally from Melbourne, she spent seven years in London working in tech before leaving to self-fund Arvo with her business partner Will. Connect Arvo: arvosauna.co.ukInstagram and TikTok: @arvo.sauna

  8. Aug 12

    We're Not Transactional: Building a Business with Your Best Friend with Virgo & Sofia of MOLTO

    Virgo and Sofia are the founders of Molto, a whole foods dessert brand born out of a Sunday night ritual. In this episode, we talk about Virgo's redundancy from a corporate finance role, the solo trips that quietly shifted both of their perspectives before Molto existed, and the exact moment a supermarket cookie run turned into a business idea. We also get into what it actually takes to build a business with your best friend and flatmate, why they've deliberately kept the relationship non-transactional, and how they navigated different working styles, one more intuitive and feeling led, one more research and execution led, without it becoming a source of friction. This is an honest, warm conversation about creativity, partnership, and building something that doesn't cost you your wellbeing to run. What we cover Leaving corporate finance after redundancy, and why it felt like an opportunity rather than a threatSolo travel as a turning point, and how stepping away from routine shifted both founders' perspectivesThe Sunday night ritual of supermarket cookies and ice cream that became the idea for MoltoDiscovering creativity outside of traditional definitions like drawing, singing or performingNavigating different working styles as co-founders, one intuitive, one execution focusedEarly imposter syndrome and finding a rhythm before things clicked into placeWhy they deliberately avoid a transactional mindset in both their friendship and the businessLiving together as flatmates and business partners without resentment or score-keepingThe distinction between launching a product and building a brand people actually align with My favourite quotes "We're not transactional. We're not keeping count of things." "It's not about escaping, it's actually about returning." About Virgo and Sofia Virgo and Sofia are the co-founders of Molto, a whole foods dessert brand based in London, making real ingredient alternatives to supermarket desserts. Both left corporate careers in finance and started Molto together after years of living as flatmates and best friends. Connect Website: https://justmolto.com/ Socials: https://www.instagram.com/justmolto/ / https://www.tiktok.com/@twoflatmates Looking for more? Build a business, and a life that works for you https://www.lunabizsolutions.com/

See All (13)

Trailer

About

The Solo Business Playbook is my honest take on freelancing, starting a business, and building a career on your own terms without having it all figured out. I’ve taken the non-traditional path, from freelancing to building my own business, and in this podcast I share what’s actually worked, what hasn’t, and everything I’m still learning along the way. We’ll talk about finding clients, growing your income, navigating the ups and downs, and building a solo business that supports the kind of life you actually want.

Information

  • Creator
    Luna Business Solutions
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Luna Business Solutions
  • Show Website
    The Solo Business Playbook