Hey, I'm Christina Voll, and I'm the Founder of Rise Remotely, and Mentor and Digital Marketing Consultant at christinavoll.com.

Tell us all about your business...

I just launched Rise Remotely. It's an e-commerce storefront where you can browse online education to help you go remote or work better remotely. Here, we help people who are looking to change their life, whether that means leaving their 9-5 corporate job and finding location-independent freedom, or finally starting that online business they've always wanted to.

I also offer 1:1 mentoring for aspiring or established entrepreneurs and freelancers to build and run their business from the ground up. So, if you're looking to work remotely as a remote 9-5 employee, an online business owner or a freelancer we have a hyper-specific course or resource to guide you through the process of making the switch, adjusting and sustaining this type of remote career.

What's your background and motivation to get into the solopreneur life?

I first started working as a freelancer nearly 7 years ago. I built my freelancing career while traveling non-stop and truly enjoying a location-independent lifestyle. After several years of this, I chased a more purposeful route and took the leap to help others pursue their freelancing careers to also be able to experience a location-independent life through offering 1:1 mentoring.

It wasn't until I had many discovery calls with potential clients that I ran into a problem that I really wanted to solve. How could I help a wider range of people and still maintain the depth of knowledge for the concepts I help them with? I realized I couldn’t do this alone, and that's when I decided to create a platform and team of experienced creators who could help me.

The main reasons behind my freelancing, mentoring and creating Rise Remotely is to help progress remote work and location-independence, making the digital nomad lifestyle, or location-independent lifestyle more accessible and attainable for others.

As a solopreneur, what does success ultimately mean to you?

I think it’s super important for everyone to establish their own unique version of success. To narrow it down to 3 main things for my own unique version, I would say:
1) The ability to make an impact on others lives
2) The freedom to design my own lifestyle to include things that are important to me, such as relationships, travel and health
3) The financial stability to support the lifestyle I design and allow me to live comfortably so I can focus on #1

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Often, it will feel like you’re constantly swimming upstream. Either you’re waiting to make your first sale, you feel like you should be working all the time, or you feel as if your goals seem too ambitious. I think dealing with these setbacks constantly is the biggest commitment of entrepreneurship as it can’t be solved with only one mindset hack, or one process or system. It’s always a culmination of your mindset, lifestyle choices and your tenacity that work together to get you to overcome these hurdles.

What are the top 3 tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run or grow a business today?

1) As soon as you have your business idea or an idea of what direction you want to go, conceptualize it and think about it every single night before you go to sleep. Tell yourself all of the realistic reasons why it will work out, and spend your days working on actionable tasks to get you there.

2) Learn how to manage your time. When you begin to work for yourself, there is no limit on how much time you spend on different tasks, and without a plan, you’ll end up spending all day on something that isn’t important. Track your time with a time tracking tool like toggl.com and tack how much time you spend on each different project. Set up clear, time-orientated structured schedules and to-do lists for every day you plan to work on your business.

3) Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There is so much information out there that it becomes very overwhelming quickly. Having a mentor, coach, or online course walk you through the process and guide you on the right path to start can really kickstart your growth and get you closer to your goals.

If there was one thing you could do repeatedly to help grow your business, what would it be?

Marketing for sure!

What are some of the things you put in place to maintain a healthy work/life balance and to keep it all together?

I focus on planning my day every day to make space and time for activities that aren’t work, such as practising yoga, cooking, surfing, going out in nature, etc. As an entrepreneur, it can feel like there isn’t enough time in the day, but actively making time to remove yourself from work is actually sometimes more productive.

I also actively make sure I know how work is affecting me mentally. Is it always on my mind? Am I stressed out? Is it impacting my relationships or my basic needs such as sleep and the type of food I am eating? Being aware of how you feel when you’re working and after you finished work can help you tune in with yourself and identify things that stress you out, or take up all your time. From there you can make a plan and prepare how to navigate through these feelings and avoid letting them overcome you, and eventually burning out.

Who are some of your favorite entrepreneurs and best business resources/books?

I've always loved Tim Ferris, so much that I wrote a paper on the 4-hour workweek in university and got 100%. I also recommend the Zest Google Chrome plug-in for finding high-quality marketing articles, it converts your Google home screen to a page of articles tailored to your preferences.

For anyone looking to start a business tomorrow, what would be the number one bit of advice you'd give them

Time is precious, just start.

Where can people find you online?

You can find my website here and Instagram @christinavollxo or Facebook.

And you find more information on Rise Remotely on our website, Instagram and Facebook.

Rise Remotely is currently building a community where members will have access to resources (that aren't on our free resource page), accountability check-ins, exercises, live sessions and training programs to help them get started. We're currently giving the first people who sign up forever-free access. This is a great resource to help you stay on track and learn from experts. You can sign up for free using this link.

If you like what you've read here and have your own #GoSoloStories that you'd like to share then hit Jonny up on Twitter, we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.