This is the second in a series of five interviews - first was Matt Brett - with individuals who have started and are managing successful businesses on their own. In this interview, I speak to Lea Alcantara of Lealea Design, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

When and how was your business started?

I count it from the day I quit my "normal" day job to work for myself. That was in July of 2005. I had always wanted to start and run my own business. I was doing some freelancing on the side while I had my normal day job and soon I had to make a decision to stick to my day job or turn my "night job" into my day. I chose the latter, and that was that.

It was a surprisingly easy transition. Back then, I was only 22 years old and I was willing to take the risks. I thought to myself that I was young enough that I could recover if things didn't work out, but fortunately for me, I'm still going strong.

Are the services you provided at the onset the same as you offer now?

Yes and no. I have and always have provided branding, graphic design, and web design services. These days, however, I'm focusing a lot more on implementing clients to ExpressionEngine as well as presenting myself more as a branding expert.

With the success of my article series, Art of Self Branding, I've found that there's a huge demand from our industry for self-directed marketing.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a company by yourself?

The definite advantage of running a company by myself is that I follow my own rules. I can schedule things within a reasonable time frame, I can take as little or as much work as I feel I need, and the sheer flexibility on how I can run my day is enormous. I also love that I am the boss, so the direction of the company is how I see fit. That's the biggest advantage.

The biggest disadvantage is when I do want to take on more work, to acknowledge that I need help, and to also trust someone else with some of the responsibility of a project. Simply said, I can potentially limit myself by working by myself because I have a finite time and resources I can exhaust to work on my clients and projects.

One final, and perhaps obvious, disadvantage to working yourself is the feeling of isolation.

Some people work very well by themselves, and I consider myself that type of person, but once in a while, it does get lonely. A way to break out of that, however, is to perhaps join a co-working initiative, rent an office with another firm, or just make sure you get out once in a while! I have the latter. Having a life outside work is important.

Is your office based from home or do you work at another location?

I work from home a majority of the time, but because of the flexibility of the web, I find myself working in other little places, too. I've worked at the local university from time to time, at a library, and I've also stopped by my sister's apartment to work there, too, just because I like the company or it's a change of scenery.

Is the addition of other full-time, on-site employees in your future or do you plan to remain solo?

Currently, I have no plans to hire anyone full-time or on-site. I think I plan to remain solo while keeping a close-knit group of talented contractors on hand. I think for now, this offers me the most flexibility on my end.

Hiring someone is a huge responsibility and a lot of work. It needs to be the right kind of chemistry, situation, and talent. I understand it can be really rewarding and profitable, so I may decide working on that later on.

Do you outsource any portion of your projects to contractors or handle everything yourself?

I usually handle the brunt of the work: 90-99% of it. However, I've found that it helps timing by hiring contractors on hand. I've done this more often for coding respects, like custom ExpressionEngine work and Javascript.

While I also consider myself intermediate-advanced with XHTML/CSS, it's not my passion—design is. So, I like to stick to what I'm best at and outsource at least the first part of slicing to that while I finish off the rest. It saves sooo much time, and if you hire the right contractor, it can be a really high-quality work.

What are some important business lessons you've learned over the years?

I think the most important business I've learned is "know thy self." I think part of the reason why some businesses struggle is because they have little direction, and that's partly because they don't take the time to be introspective enough about why they're in business and what they want out of it. "Make money" is often not good enough motivation.

Another important business lesson is to make sure you surround yourself with smart, supportive, and awesome people—professionally and personally. It will help you when there are a little bump down the road, and there are a few when you're in business.

Finally, I think realizing that you have to invest in your business and that talent is not enough is also an important lesson. There's a lot of talented people out there doing the same thing you are, so you need to figure out how to stand out from the crowd with your own unique offerings. :)