Did you know over 15 million one-person companies launched just last year alone? From contractors and freelancers to boutique agencies and specialized manufacturers, going solo can be extremely lucrative. However, flying completely solo also comes with huge risk – an estimated 80% will fail within only a few years.
Trust me, I‘ve walked in your shoes. When I first started my digital consulting biz 15 years ago, everything fell on my shoulders. Securing clients, planning projects, managing finances – I had zero team support. Hustling days blurring into nights towards building my entrepreneurial dream business took a huge mental and physical toll.
It doesn‘t have to be like this – and you don‘t have to figure it out alone!
After my first year barely scraping by, I implemented key systems allowing me to scale my solo operation strategically while maintaining sanity. Since then, I‘ve also helped hundreds of one-person company founders do the same across varied industries.
Consider this your roadmap. These 5 essential tips will empower you to establish a sustainable foundation primed for efficiency, profitability and growth.
Tip #1: Dominate a Profitable Niche
Many new business owners make the mistake of offering too many products and services too broadly from day one. Without a focused niche, you‘ll spin your wheels trying to master and market too much at once.
First, get crystal clear on identifying your target demographic. Who needs what you uniquely can provide? For example, my friend Julia is an incredible graphic designer now running a highly successful one-woman creative agency. Rather than trying to serve everyone, she specifically zoned in on building mobile apps and digital products for female founders across the health and wellness space.
Once you hone in on "who" and "what", becoming a big fish in this small pond is much more achievable solo. Cater all marketing activities and business operations expressly to these ideal customers through:
- Specialization: Become known as the expert "go-to" provider with this demographic for your particular offerings.
- Niche Content Marketing: Share stories and intel tailored to their biggest problems, questions and needs.
- Laser Targeted Ads: Focus any digital marketing and ads expressly on your niche customers.
- Community Building: Host or sponsor in-person and online events, podcasts and groups designed specifically for your niche.
Not only do you establish "celebrity status" faster within a well-defined market making sales easier, but customer retention and loyalty will be much higher when overdelivering incredible value. My agency friend Julia receives over 75% of her business directly from referrals and repeat customers because she intimately understands her niche so well!
Zoning in on a niche doesn‘t mean you can‘t expand your offerings or customer targets later. But dominating one profitable zone first when running solo lays the foundation for exponential growth down the road on your terms.
Tip #2: Implement Systems Supporting Scalability
During your company‘s first year, relentlessly systemize every aspect of your operations. The processes, tools and technologies implemented now will either accelerate future scaling or bottleneck your business as soon as you start growing.
For my service-based consulting, the first system I automated was project management. Within the niche specialization I defined of rapidly expanding startups, nearly all needed my services as an ongoing retainer. By creating recurring milestone checklists, deliverable timelines and standardized payment schedules, I could take on more consulting clients without dropping any balls.
If selling physical products, immediately integrate intuitive ecommerce platforms allowing a small inventory to easily scale. Or if selling digital downloads, leverage smart email funnels prepping and delivering your offering automatically.
Here are other essential systems to have humming perfectly behind the scenes before focusing energy on growth:
- Accounting: Automate everything from intelligently sending invoices to tracking expenses.
- Customer Service: Use chatbots, email templates and updated FAQs to streamline operations.
- Information Storage: Securely back up all data to the cloud for easy remote access.
- Email Marketing: Grow and engage your audience consistently with newsletters and funnels.
- Lead Generation: Create landing pages, calls-to-action and contacts workflows.
Check out my related guide going deeper on 10 Automation Tools One-Person Companies Need for productivty and scale. With the right foundations now, your business can handle doubled, even tripled demand later without a meltdown!
Tip #3: Delegate with Freelancers Strategically
Attempting to self-manage everything in your business as the sole employee is an easy path to quick burnout. The smartest solopreneurs know exactly which pieces to delegate to others.
My rule of thumb is that if a task isn‘t directly creating profit or part of your core genius offering, find an affordable freelancer to take it off your plate.
For my niche consulting business, sales and delivering high ticket coaching services are what bring in income. So I immediately hired incredible freelancers to handle operational tasks like:
- Website design
- Bookkeeping
- Appointment setting
- Webinar tech management
- Content creation
- Legal filings
This allows me to focus on what I do best and love most – serving my coaching clients! Having an expert freelance team has been invaluable towards scaling my income and personal freedom.
When outsourcing, communicate exact specifications for recurring projects to streamline efficiencies over time. You can find specialized independent pros for reasonable rates at online marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork and FlexJobs.
And remember, always maintain full ownership over your intellectual property! Consult my guide on Best Practices for Hiring Freelancers to set your one-person shop up for success.
Tip #4: Build a Community That Sells For You
As the solo face of your business‘s brand, Establishing yourself as an visible industry thought leader provides "social proof" making sales conversations much easier.
Rather than constantly chasing one-off customers, create recurring touchpoints delivering so much value that audiences can‘t help but want to engage your services when needs arise.
Here‘s exactly how I built a community of over 50,000 entrepreneur followers across social media and email subscribers in my consulting business niche:
- Launching a top-rated business strategy podcast reaching 25,000+ listeners per episode
- Hosting free monthly virtual workshops for new founders on common startup hurdles to overcome
- Publishing a bi-weekly "Hit the Ground Running" newsletter with actionable tips
- Maintaining an active social media presence sharing advice daily
This consistent outreach keeps my consulting top of mind as the go-to small business marketing specialists for when startup needs emerge. And with tons of free value provided upfront, most are thrilled to hire me for deeper work when ready to invest in elevated support.
Protip: Don‘t forget to incorporate client testimonials and case studies into your community content strategy as social proof!
Now over 40% of my new consulting clients come directly from referrals and repeat customers in my community. Maintain this excellent experience, and your raving fans will eagerly sell for you on autopilot via word-of-mouth referrals.
For more proven community-building strategies, check out my special Guide to Grow Your Audience.
Tip #5: Embrace Conservatism and Bootstrapping
Finally, every spending, financing and hiring decision in these early days sets the fundraising path and financial fate for your company down the road.
Too often, excited new solo founders take on piles of business debt trying to instantly hit scale before perfecting their minimum viable offering and core operations.
After a few years barely staying financially afloat juggling payments, I quickly realized playing it safe starting out would pay off over the long term. Here were two key mindset shifts:
Conservative Spending
- I cut unnecessary expenses ruthlessly. No more fancy team lunches, lavish conferences or software I was barely using.
- The new question became: "Will this directly make me money back ASAP?" If not, I didn‘t spend on it, period. This forced fiscal accountability.
Bootstrapping Focus
- Rather than chasing investor capital, I focused fully on profitability and retaining/reinvesting earnings.
- My north star became to scale the business through client contracts instead of loans or credit lines.
Adopting this conservative bootstrap mindset empowered me to turn down growth opportunities not directly aligned with my strengths and expertise area determined in Tip #1. Business finance experts agree this is vital to sustainability.
While playing it safe starting out, I steadily built a secure foundation now allowing me to selectively scale offerings and test new territory. And with extremely healthy cash flow and profit margins, I have the freedom to explore new partnerships and acquisition opportunities from a position of strength.
Launch Your One-Person Company Confidently
Follow this roadmap, and I guarantee you will stand out from the 80% that unfortunately fail going at it alone. Dominate a niche, leverage systems, outsource wisely, build your community and bootstrap your way upwards.
You CAN have an amazing one-person operation allowing you to make great money doing work you love…all while maintaining your mental health and personal freedom!
I‘m rooting for your success. And as a solo founder myself, I‘ll always cherish the grit required to make entrepreneurial dreams reality.
Stay determined – and know there‘s an entire community of fellow profitable solopreneurs behind you along the journey.
Lastly, to celebrate embarking on your new endeavor, I‘d be honored to offer a free 30 minute coaching call to the first 5 new founders who reach out! Together we‘ll map out your strategic launch plan step-by-step tailored to your unique business vision.
Wishing you massive success! Let me know if any other guidance would be helpful. This is just the start of an exciting adventure…
