Transcription
If you're thinking you're starting a business, but the thought of finding a co-founder, coming up with a product idea, or starting a big team seems way too daunting to you, well, why don't you join the thousands of people out there, on entrepreneurs who are starting their businesses on their own? They're going at it solo. That's right; today we're going to be talking about the rise of the one-person business, which is taking the business world by storm.
You know, whether it's newsletter gurus or YouTube stars, we're finding a lot of people building their own personal brands and also starting businesses on their own, based off passion projects that they thought never could be a business. So why don't we investigate how they're doing it, how they're successful, and how you can do it too?
In recent years, we've seen a significant increase in the number of one-person businesses. These are entrepreneurs who manage to create successful ventures without hiring a large team. Instead, they leverage technology, social media, and their unique skills to build thriving enterprises. One standard example is Justin Welsh. Justin left his corporate career to go start his own consulting gig, actually based off his experience in software as a service and growth strategies. Now, today he's one of LinkedIn's top voices, and he's got a great newsletter program as a solopreneur. So let's have a closer look at his journey and how he does it.
Justin's approach involves creating valuable content on LinkedIn, offering courses, and providing consulting services. His success showcases the power of building a personal brand and monetizing that expertise. So really quickly, before I dive into the seven ways Justin has made this work, there's a huge list of inspiring people out there who's doing it on their own as a solopreneur. So let's have a look at them: Marie Forleo, she runs an online business offering around personal development courses; Pat Flynn, he's a creator of Smart Passive Income, providing resources for online businesses as well; Nathan Barry is the founder of ConvertKit, a successful email marketing service; Paul Jarvis is the author of *Company of One*, promoting staying small and focused; Amy Porterfield, online marketing expert offering training and courses; Graham Stephan, a real estate investor and a YouTuber sharing financial advice; Marques Brownlee, tech reviewer with a massive YouTube following; he's great; Lenny Retky is the writer of a popular Substack newsletter on product management.
Okay, so what are the secrets to their success? Well, here are going to be some key strategies that some of these solopreneurs use to build their businesses. Now, the first one is identifying a niche. This one's really important because if you can focus on a specific market, you can serve them exceptionally well, and usually a niche is something you specialize in or have a lot of pre-existing knowledge in, or you really care about, which is super important.
The second one is building a very strong personal brand, and I think authenticity is king and queen in this market because you really want to connect with your audience.
Now, the third one is high-value content. This one's funny because a lot of people are scared to share their secret source or their great ideas, but what I can promise you is you should do that because most people would still rather pay you to do something than do it themselves.
Now, the fourth one is digital tools because we're very lucky; we live in a very, very digital age where you can use these tools that automate and streamline your business processes. So especially with the rise of artificial intelligence, think of tools like ChatGPT for researching and editing, Gemini for data analysis, a CRM like HubSpot to track all of your leads and prospects, and Leonardo.ai to create awesome graphics. I even use CapCut to make these videos, and these are just a few examples.
Now, the fifth one is a big, big one for me; it's your customer. You should be very customer-obsessed and customer-focused. So don't just think about how do we sell to the customer, because the experience doesn't end there. You should always think about how you can provide a great post-sale experience as well because your customers should love your product and your service and you because of your personal brand. And by having a great post-sale experience is so important because then it opens up a lot of cross-sell and upsell opportunities for yourself. So always think about your customer, not just when you're selling to them but also afterwards.
Now, the sixth one we all are here for and we want to figure out is monetizing; how do you monetize your service? So offering products or services based off your skills and knowledge is super important, obviously. Now this could be anything from building a course, writing a bestselling book, or even creating a popular newsletter or YouTube channel, which I think this is the golden age for. You could tour and do events, create a platform or a SaaS-style product offering, or even do high-ticket consulting. All of these things are at your fingertips right now because we really do live in a very attention-driven and digital age; the sky's the limit.
Now, the last one I'm going to share, and this is the one that gets a lot, lot of people caught up because they're not used to, I guess, running a business on their own, is how do you scale efficiently and in a very smart way? And by that, I don't necessarily mean scale your business, but how do you scale your efforts? Like think of finding a really gun person to help editing your videos, writing your scripts, doing a lot of the laborious stuff that you shouldn't be doing because you're, let's call it, the talent and the mind that generates the value. Finding someone offshore, like in the Philippines, to help you with that work; how do you do that efficiently as you grow so you can spend less of that time doing it at the start and more of the time, you know, delivering really valuable insights and gold to the market? I think that's the really important one for you because, of course, do stuff that doesn't scale at the beginning, but when you start getting traction, plug all of that laborious stuff with offshore help.
There's a ton of platforms out there right now which are complete game changers for solopreneurs or one-person businesses, like LinkedIn, Substack, and even YouTube. So let's dive into each of those and see how they can help you.
LinkedIn. Now, I think LinkedIn is an untapped and a powerful platform for one-person businesses and a fantastic space to build a personal brand and connect with potential clients and share super valuable content. Here you can share your expertise and establish authority in your niche. So regularly sharing insightful posts, articles, and videos helps to engage your audience and position you as a thought leader. Also, engaging with your network through comments, discussions, and LinkedIn groups can lead to new opportunities. Using features like LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn articles, and LinkedIn stories further expands your reach and adds a personal touch to your professional presence. So examples of people crushing on LinkedIn are Justin Welsh and Steven Bartlett.
Now, when it comes to YouTube, from a content creation perspective, you can share videos on topics you're actually passionate about. So this is a huge opportunity for you to become a thought leader and share your expertise. Monetization: you can share this through ads, sponsorships, and merchandise sales, but there is also Patreon and YouTube Live via Super Chats and other tools. Not to mention you can build a consulting funnel directly from your YouTube videos into whatever you're trying to do offline. So some examples of successful business YouTubers are Graham Stephan and Marques Brownlee.
Now, when we look at Substack, this is more from a newsletter creation angle. So you can publish and monetize your writing. Do you know the saying, "the money is in the list"? Well, creating a successful newsletter and building a large and engaged list is extremely powerful. And in terms of monetization, you can offer paid subscriptions for exclusive content like your writing, your podcasts, or even video content. So examples of people in this space that are absolutely killing it are Lenny Retky and Heather Cox Richardson.
So the rise of the one-person business is a true testament to an individual's creativity and the growing importance of a personal brand. That, coupled with technology and the advancements there, really helps demonstrate how one person can start their own company and their own business, and I think it's a golden era for it because, unfortunately, with where this economy is, there's a lot of companies out there letting go of a lot of people, and these people are super smart, super driven, but they're caught in a gray space where they can't find work and they've got itchy feet. I'm telling you, this is the time to get started, whether it's YouTube, a newsletter, you know, your own personal brand, lean into a niche that you really like and give it a shot. Good luck; you've got this. If you need support, drop it in the comments or DM me on LinkedIn, and I'll see you on the other side when you've joined the army of solopreneurs. Don't litter. Now, today, as a solo... attention... this is a test of a fire evacuation system. I repeat, this is a... arm... thank you. All right, are they even going to do the alarm or just the... I don't remember what I was saying.