A few months ago, I realized that most research reports on freelancers/solopreneurs/creator-founders, conflate "regular" (creative) businesses with huge influencers, so we end up benchmarking against Mr. Beast.

So I built an unbiased report about real solopreneurs.

You can download the full State of Solopreneurship here or keep reading find the key data the report reveals.

Candidly, I built this report out of rage. I was enraged by the survivorship bias we constantly see online.

Yet, most of the people I talk to feel behind. On social media, everyone seems to be running a 7-figure creative business by working 4 hours a day or less. As a marketing strategist who actually talks to these people, I know that to be false.

But anecdotal evidence is not evidence, so I built a survey where I asked 153 real solo operators a few tough questions.

A good share are designers, illustrators, and writers. Others sell strategy, development, coaching, or consulting. The trades may be different, but they share the same constraints: limited time, no spare headcount, and a pipeline to keep warm.

These are the most interesting finds in the State of Solopreneurship report:

Only 33% of solopreneurs make over $100K/year

Despite the countless success stories you see online, solo businesses aren't all lucrative.

This is a good reminder that social and traditional media only feed us survivorship stories; we only get to see the exceptional stories of those who beat all odds and built huge businesses.

The failed and the semi-successful businesses are always more numerous.

There are, however, two significant correlations that the data revealed:

• Full-time business owners make more than those for whom their creative business is a side gig.
• The more time you spend building your business, the more you make. $100K/year shows up more consistently for solopreneurs in year 3 or more.

Client work still pays best

Plenty of respondents sell digital products or courses, but when asked to rank what brought in the money, services came first — project work, advisory, audits, retainers.

Despite the hype we see everywhere ("productize your services so you can stop trading your time for money"), the data shows that people will gladly pay for someone to take a problem off their plate rather than teach them how to do it.

This is especially true for creative businesses. It's hard to teach someone a creative "craft", sometimes even impossible.

Most solopreneurs will double down on email and LinkedIn in 2026

As social media organic reach becomes more and more fickle, solopreneurs will invest in de-platforming people and sending them to platforms they control. "Never build your home on rented land" is the mantra that determined the respondents to double down on email.

The second channel in this list is LinkedIn.

Yes, LinkedIn may be "cringe" and dated but it's still the platform where people go to do business, not doomscroll. And solopreneurs know that, so they're doubling down on it.

Most of my clients in creative businesses, especially crafts with a visual component, think that Instagram is the platform to be on. However, these days, Instagram acts as a portfolio and a place to make peer connections rather than a place to generate business.

Think about how people use these platforms: they go on Instagram to relax but when they go on LinkedIn, they have business on their minds.

This is why LinkedIn also shows up as the clear winner in revenue-generating channels too:

Borrowed audiences beat cold feeds

Guesting on a podcast, co-hosted workshops, or a newsletter swap came up often as a plan for next year (see chart above).

Borrowing audiences is still a very underrated and underused tactic, and that's a shame because it works very well. It works primarily because, when you borrow an audience, you also borrow your partner's trust.

In creative industries, partnerships between writers and designers or videographers and photographers can account for a significant uptick in revenue, without the hassle of chasing clients and cold leads.

You can download the full report, with 36 charts, data correlations, and insights here.

Closing thoughts

The State of Solopreneurship report paints a very diverse picture: there is no single channel for creative businesses, just like there is no single revenue source.

More importantly, revenue takes longer than we think to become consistent. Most people who read this report said something along the lines of "I don't feel behind anymore", which is why I built it in the first place.

I hope it helps you feel the same and that it reminds you that most success stories on (social) media should be taken with a grain of salt.