Even with all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, sometimes what we need is some good advice from a real human!
Being a successful sole trader takes more than just balancing your books (though that is super important). It’s the people, the plans, the learning, the juggling, and all the things you never knew you’d need to think about. It all plays a part in helping you and your business thrive!We in the Community Team might be able to give you great pointers on how to get the most out of Solo, but when it comes to living life as a sole trader, we all know that you guys are the real experts 😉
So, we want to hear from you!Because an internet search can help with a lot of things, but it just can’t beat sharing experiences, Solmate to Solmate 💜
If you’re a seasoned sole trader with a plethora of knowledge
What are your best "I wish I knew this earlier" tips?
What has been the biggest game changer for you while running your business?
If you’re a newbie who’s still finding their feet as a sole trader
What has been your steepest learning curve?
Got any questions for the seasoned sole traders that Google just can’t tackle?
Over to you, Solmates: what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what are you still trying to figure out? Tell us in the comments; no question or lesson is too small 🫶
I knew you’d have something epic to share StrataGeek, so epic, in fact, that I’m adding this to the Community Lead “Hot Tip” directory.
We sometimes hear from Solmates who need to enter the same information multiple times across different records. Solo has some handy features to help with this, such as saved notes, items, and customer details. But this will be a game changer for information that doesn’t fit neatly into those features.
Thanks for sharing! It really makes our day to see Solmates getting involved here in the community 💜
OK, my number one tip for any iOS/iPadOS/macOS users is to take advantage of "Text Replacements".
I have a couple of hundred set up now, which make typing repetitive things a lot easier.
If I need to enter my phone number, I type "mbsm" ("mobile" + my initials) and my device types out my full mobile number. "emwk" for my work e-mail. "ssrx" for my business name ("Select Strata Reports" + "x" for "expand"), same for my ABN with "ABNx", or "ABNsp" for the ABN with spaces – that way I can still type SSR and ABN without them expanding if I just want those initials.
I have a "bankac" one which is multi-lines and has my personal bank account details for sharing with people.
And so on. Oh, they're text only, too (and unstyled/unformatted, at that).
For iOS/iPadOS, you can find them at:
Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement
macOS has a button at:
Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Text Replacements…
They sync across devices, I find fiddly ones easiest to create on macOS.
Multiline ones are easiest created in another app (say, Mail, or Notes, or even from existing data in Solo) – select all the text you want in the replacement, Copy them from there, then Paste them into the "Phrase" field (iOS/iPadOS) or "With" field on macOS.
iOS Text Replacement creation dialog.macOS Text Replacement creation dialog.
It's annoying the differences between the OSes, but that doesn't matter if you only use iOS. The short text is entered into the "Shortcut" (iOS/iPadOS) or "Replace" (macOS) fields – reversed, for extra annoyance!).
The OS will pick up if you start typing the full phrase or when you've typed enough of the shortcut to be "definitive".
Type a space, full stop, comma, Return, etc. and the shortcut will be expanded. Type Escape (or tap/click the little "×") if, for some reason, you want to type the shortcut without it expanding (like if you're typing up instructions on how to use Text Replacements! 🤣).
I've got addresses, organisation names, ticks and crosses, web addresses, symbols, e-mail sign-offs, strata legislation titles, and a few other bits and bobs in there.
You could set up customer or item IDs or names, different sets of terms and conditions for consulting and sales ("tccons", "tcsales")…the sky's the limit. When I was an Apple computer consultant, I would have whole e-mail messages for resetting certain parts of the hardware – I'd just type "pramx" and my Mac would describe how to reset the PRAM in about 5 paragraphs of detailed instructions.
I wish it had "placeholders" so I could easily have a shortcut like "dd" for the current date, but I still get a lot of use out of it.
Hope y'all find that useful – let me know what sorts of text replacements you have (or now set up!).
Some of you have been here from the start, while some of you are fresh on your Solo journey, but you've all made an impact by getting involved. We've seen you getting active here in the community by adding your questions, ideas, comments, and votes (and sometimes just lurking 🫣), so we already know you've got some great knowledge to share 💜
We'd love to hear from you! Got any solid advice for your fellow Solmates? Or maybe you've got a burning question that you've been "too afraid to ask"? 👀
Looking for something else?
Search the Community Forum for answers or find your topic and get the conversation started!
