The Myth of the One-Woman Show (And Why It's Costing You)
I want to tell you something that took me longer than I'd like to admit to fully embrace: I cannot do it all myself. And more importantly, I was never supposed to.
When I founded Truman Wealth Advisors in 2018, I was a solo operator. One woman, one vision, one very full calendar. I wore every hat in the building. Financial advisor, client relationship manager, marketing department, and occasionally, the person who remembered to buy coffee. For a while, that felt like strength. It felt like proof.
Look what I built. Look what I can handle.
What I didn't fully see yet was the ceiling I was building right along with it.
Here's a data point that stopped me cold when I read it: over 90% of women-owned businesses in the United States are solo operations - meaning no paid employees beyond the owner herself. Just one person running the whole show. And while that stat speaks to the remarkable independence and drive of women entrepreneurs, it also points to something we need to talk about honestly.
Because here's what the data also tells us: employer firms (businesses with at least one employee beyond the owner) are dramatically more likely to generate between $100,000 and $1 million in annual revenue. And this holds true regardless of gender. The research is clear. The pathway from solopreneur to sustainable wealth runs almost directly through the decision to build a team.
So why aren’t more women doing it?
I think the answer is uncomfortably familiar. Research from 2024 found that most women who leave corporate careers to start businesses remain solopreneurs (at least initially) and when they do plan to hire, it's often to alleviate stress rather than scale aggressively. We're not thinking about leverage. We're thinking about survival. About getting through Tuesday.
And underneath that? I believe we've been quietly marinating in a story that says doing it all yourself is a virtue. That needing help is weakness. That the truest measure of capability is how much you can hold without dropping anything. Research on women entrepreneurs confirms this pattern. The system that taught us to overfunction, to carry too much and ask too little, shows up directly in how we run our businesses.
We didn't get here by accident. Many of us came from corporate environments where we had to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. So we internalized the lesson: do more, need less, prove yourself constantly. We brought that story right into our own businesses and called it hustle.
But here’s the analogy I keep coming back to:
Running a solo business indefinitely is like trying to row a boat across the ocean with one oar. You can absolutely do it. You're strong enough. But you'll be exhausted by the time you reach the shore. And you'll have taken three times as long as you needed to.
The research on women-owned businesses paints a complicated picture. Women business owners achieve higher household incomes and net worth than their employed counterparts female owners average a net worth of $1.1 million compared to $319,000 for full-time female employees. Business ownership is clearly a wealth-building engine.
But women-owned businesses still generate significantly less revenue than male-owned businesses, and much of that gap traces back to scale. To team size. To whether or not there's anyone else in the boat.
When I hired my first team member at Truman Wealth, something shifted. Not just operationally, but psychologically. I stopped being the bottleneck. I stopped being the only person who could answer a question, return a call, or move a project forward. And what I gained wasn't just capacity. It was clarity. Suddenly I could actually see the business, rather than just being buried inside of it. A team didn't dilute what I had built. It amplified it.
If you're a woman business owner who wants to scale, here's where to start.
First, get honest about what you actually do in a day. Most solopreneurs are spending enormous energy on tasks that aren't their highest and best use. Administrative work, scheduling, social media, bookkeeping. These are important, but they're not where your genius lives. Identify what only you can do and start there.
Second, plan for your first hire before you think you can afford it. The most common mistake is waiting until you're overwhelmed to start thinking about bringing someone on. By then you're too depleted to hire well. Model out what one part-time or contractor hire would cost. And then model what it could free you to earn.
Third, start with contractors if full employees feel daunting. One in three solopreneurs hired at least one contractor in 2024. This is a real and legitimate on ramp to building a team without the full weight of employment.
Fourth, write a growth plan. Half of female business owners want to maximize the value of their business but only 10% have a written plan to achieve that goal. A plan doesn't have to be elaborate. But it has to exist. You cannot build a team around a strategy that lives only in your head.
And, finally, let go of the badge of honor that comes with doing everything yourself. I say this with complete compassion, because I wore that badge proudly for years. But the "I can do it all" mentality, while understandable, is the very thing keeping too many brilliant women from building the wealth they deserve.
You didn't start your business to be a one-woman show forever. You started it because you had something meaningful to offer. Build the team that lets the world receive all of it.
Live a wealthy life. - Mindy
Investment advisory services offered through Truman Wealth Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. The firm’s ADV Brochure and Form CRS are available, at no charge, on our website https://www.trumanwealthadvisors.com. They include important disclosures and should be read carefully.
This material has been prepared for information purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for accounting, legal, investment, or tax advice. No investment decision should be made based solely on information provided herein. There is a risk of loss from an investment in securities, including the loss of principal. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment will be profitable or suitable for an investor’s financial situation or risk tolerance. Before investing, consider investment objectives, risks, fees, and expenses. Truman does not provide tax or legal advice.
