There’s a soft voice that turns up in your forties, fifties and sixties. If your tune it, you can sometimes feel it saying: you should have done this years ago. It’s too late now.

If you’ve heard it, you’re in very good company. And the numbers suggest that voice is a lot less accurate than it sounds.

Every list of women who built something from very little begins the same way. A famous name, a small sum of money, a very big result. Those stories are true, and they’re worth knowing. But they’re also the ones everyone tells.

So here they are, briefly. And then we’ll head somewhere a bit less crowded.

A micro business is a very small business, often just you. It might be a few products, a handful of clients, a skill you offer from the kitchen table or a spare room. It doesn’t need premises, staff or investors.

It can also be an exciting kind of beginning. And, in the right conditions, it can grow into something that looks nothing like where it started.

This post is about how that happens, what it really looks like, and what to expect on the way.

You send the application and within minutes, there’s a polite, yet coldly templated, “no”. No interview, no phone call, no person. Just a sharp little email, and the sinking feeling that comes with it.

So, you start to wonder… Is it the gap on your CV? Your age? The fact that you’ve been out of the workforce raising a family, or caring for someone, or doing the kind of work that never fit neatly into a job title?

If you’ve been there, this is for you. You’re not imagining it, you’re not alone, and there’s a way forward that starts with a very different question: what would I love to do for myself?

There’s an idea you keep circling. You’ve put it down and picked it back up so many times that it’s worn smooth. You’ve been sensible. You’ve been polite. You’ve done what was expected, and done it well.

And still, some part of you keeps pacing at the edge of the room.

This post is for you.

It’s late. The house is finally quiet, or the commute is finally over, or the kids are finally asleep. And there it is again: the idea you keep carrying around. The one you’d start tomorrow if you had the time, the money, the courage, or someone to talk it through with.

If you’ve ever thought what if I actually did it? and then talked yourself out of it before the kettle boiled, this is for you.

You’ve got the idea. You’ve got the late nights and early mornings. What you haven’t had is someone to think it through with, bounce the ideas, crunch the numbers… relentlessly!

Going it alone means a head full of half-formed ideas, notes all over the place, and numbers you keep putting off. The hardest part often isn’t the work. It’s holding all of it by yourself.

So it’s no surprise that “AI co-founder” has become something people want. But do you actually need one? Here’s some thoughts...