I expect some of you are still looking at the detail of the chancellor’s Budget, wondering whether it has been good or bad for small businesses. From the government side, Alistair Darling is hoping that he ultimately will be considered “a safe pair of hands”, the famous claim of his predecessor, the prime minister.

Politicians who aspire to this should look for inspiration to the humble sole trader. There are several million of them in the UK, often overlooked in discussions about entrepreneurship, which generally focus on growing the business, hiring more people and looking for
a suitable exit.

The career path of most sole traders is strikingly similar, whether they are high-powered consultants or plumbers. They generally spend their 20s learning their craft, working for someone else. By their 30s, however, they have built up a client base of people willing to hire them directly.

Some take on other people and grow their businesses, but many prefer to work just for themselves, taking on trusted associates when they need to deliver large projects.

Ian Sanders has written
a book about his experiences as a sole trader, LEAP!: Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free. The title sums up the allure of being self- employed: freedom, an end to boredom and the ability to make a real difference, both to yourself and to the people around you.

But freedom brings with it deep insecurity. Working for yourself is a lonely and often terrifying prospect, so much of his book is focused on providing the motivation to “go for it”.

The prospective sole trader has to understand that he will have to do all three roles in business: sales, delivery and finance.

Delivery is not usually
a problem – the sole trader has to be good at something. In Sanders’ case it included delivering large projects for Unique Broadcasting, a media company founded by Noel Edmonds.

His projects spanned radio production, live events and broadcast facilities. This involved a heady mix of demanding clients, challenging briefs, broad disciplines, tough deadlines and the inevitable hurdles along the way. But Sanders, like many sole traders, learnt how to cope with the pressure and still deliver on time and to budget.

Finance does not have to be an issue, either. Your first hire should be a good bookkeeper, accountant or even a part-time finance director, a professional who can deal with all the receipts and invoices, and even negotiate with your bank and creditors.

The challenge is often sales. Few self-employed people can afford sales training, and many who have left consultancies with a full set of skills do not see themselves as sales people. They still find the process of selling uncomfortable.

But the successful sole trader knows he needs to be selling all the time. This is not launching into a sales pitch to everyone he meets at networking events, but always making sure he is mixing socially with potential customers and telling interesting and relevant stories of customer problems he has solved.

But selling is not just about finding business. It is also about generating a consistent pipeline of work, a constant struggle for stable cash flow. Sanders explains that the current economic situation means people are now making more short-term decisions and his pipeline is only full for the next three months. He is not worried, though.
It has been like this for several years, and he is always confident that something will turn up.

Being self-employed is not for the faint-hearted. In my Sales on a Beermat workshop I explain that the  process is essentially very simple. First, you need to find people with problems and money. Then you get them to like you, in the first instance by being nice (easy to deal with) and local (just around the corner or otherwise easily accessible).

Above all, you have to deliver on your promises. Happy customers will tell their friends. The world will then beat a path to your door.

Being “a safe pair of hands” can be very rewarding whether you are in business or politics.