There’s more than one way to grow a business. But too many small business owners get trapped in an overwhelming cycle of stress, and lose sight of the reason they started working for themselves in the first place.
Sara Howard has learned this the hard way. She wrote Beyond Solo to explore all the other paths to business growth, creating the guide she needed when she started her creative agency 18 years ago.
Part memoir, part coach, and part how-to manual, this commercial non-fiction book guides readers through five different models for business growth – being the boss, running a hybrid outsourced model, starting a collective, building an A-Team, and creating products for set-and-forget income. It explores the most important decisions every owner should make before building their business model, including how they exit the business with tangible value. And it provides a practical framework every business needs at its foundation – a proven tool for good business growth.
Because not all growth is good. Growth always comes at a cost, and unchecked it can be unprofitable as well as unhealthy.
The book is packed with real-life insights and practical advice drawn from interviews with dozens of business founders and solopreneurs in Australia, the UK and US. People who’ve been there, experimented, made mistakes, and found a way of working that works for them. It goes behind the scenes on what it really takes to shift from being a solo operator to running a successful independent business. One that is energising, rather than exhausting.
Beyond Solo is a must-read for anyone already running a small business, as well as freelancers, consultants, coaches, designers, health practitioners, and anyone in the business of trading their time for income. Ultimately, it answers a universal challenge: how do we get more from our work – more income, more freedom, more control, more opportunities to learn and grow – without adding more to our workload?
Sara Howard is a copywriter, content marketer, and founder of Writers Australia – a copywriting and content agency headquartered in Sydney. Over two decades, Sara has grown her business from very-part-time-while-wrangling-toddlers to a talented in-house team and an impressive roster of corporate and not-for-profit clients. Together, they have created a different kind of agency culture, based on collaboration, flexibility, autonomy, and financial stability. Through her work for major banks, global consultancies and universities (among others), Sara became an accidental expert in the future of work, leadership, sales strategies, and financial systems.
* Around 14% of Australia's working population are solo professionals for hire, with a similar proportion in the UK. There are 21 million Americans who freelance full-time, and another 60 million who are independent workers. With the rise of the gig economy and side hustles, there is an enormous readership base in people who want more from their work - more income, more time, more control, more opportunities. But they may not want to hire staff, and they don't know what their other options are.
* Every knowledge worker knows it's very hard to scale your business income when there are only so many hours in a day. Beyond Solo explores many non-traditional paths to growth in one practical guide, and it helps you consciously build value into your business so you can one day exit. There is no other guide like this on the market. That's why Sara Howard wrote it - it's the book she wishes she'd had 18 years ago.
* Beyond Solo is both a reality check and a motivational guide in one. It is meticulously researched, drawing on data and 25 interviews. It shares real-life lessons and mistakes to avoid, but also encourages readers to take positive steps with simple and practical tools. While there are other books promising a six-figure income, only Beyond Solo focuses on defining success on your terms, without compromising other parts of your life.
Publicity:
* Book launch event in March 2025 – in Sydney, Melbourne and potentially Brisbane.
* Social media - Sara has thousands of connections and over 1,500 followers on LinkedIn, and a strong base on Instagram @sarahoward_writes
* Database - Sara is nurturing VIP leads through her website and will direct them to book outlets.
* PR campaign – targeting traditional and digital media including newspaper, radio, podcasts and online editorial placements.
* Conference speaking engagements and panels.
* Online communities – Sara is actively engaged with CopyClub and has presented several online masterclasses relating to this topic.
* Submission for business book awards.
