ZOE (Zone of Excellence) has various applications for both personal and professional life. So, what does ZOE look like for a Solopreneur? First, we must understand applied ZOE in a professional setting. In the professional world ZOE is made up of a combination of four key areas. They are the things that: you must do, must be done on your own, you are good at doing, and you enjoy. Once you are operating within the four key areas, you know that you are in your ZOE.

For Solopreneurs, these areas will likely look different than they do for a CEO of a larger corporation. Rather than having the ability to delegate the things not within the four areas of your ZOE, you must instead select things that do fall in your applied ZOE and relinquish things that don’t.

So what does this look like in a practical sense? Say you’re a web designer who works with clients daily. You receive a inquiry from a potential client who wants you to design a website for them, but they also want you to set up and maintain their social media presence. The four areas of applied ZOE allow you to ask questions to determine if this assignment fits within your ZOE.

1. What needs to be accomplished?
2. Am I the only one who can do it?
3. Is it within my skillset?
4. Will I enjoy it?

The requirement for the position is web design (your skill set) and social media marketing (not an area where you are skilled). You were not the only candidate who applied for the bid, so you may assume that there are other candidates who could do the job. You are skilled with web design, but your social media marketing skills are not as strong. You know before you accept the position that once the web design is completed you will not enjoy the remainder of the role. After weighing the client project against your four ZOE questions, you know that it is not the right fit.

As a Solopreneur, it’s even more important that you ask yourself these questions BEFORE you move forward with a project, a partner, or a client. As you are unable to delegate work to a staff member, you must make selections that fit into your ZOE. As you offload clients/projects that do not fit into your ZOE and add clients/projects that do, you will begin to see your progression towards your ZOE.

Action Step

• Test your current business/projects against the four applied ZOE questions. How do your projects stack up?
• Measure any future clients/projects against the four applied ZOE questions.
• Consider writing the four applied ZOE questions on a sticky note and keeping them somewhere visible as a reminder to utilize them.

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