Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses: High-Leverage Skills, Personal Brands, Category of One

This is the free version of Trends PRO #0027 — Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses

Get Full Access to Trends Pro

🔍 Problem

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”

You want freedom and equity.

You’re willing to work hard. But on your terms.

💡 Solution

Leverage.

What do you mean?

One-To-Many Channels	Email, Podcasts, Blogs
Social Networks	Twitter, YouTube, Instagram
Paid Demand	Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Reddit Ads
Membership Platforms	Patreon, OnlyFans, Substack
Productized Services	ManyPixels, Bean Ninjas, Catalog
Marketplaces	Amazon, Etsy, Gumroad
On-Demand Computing	AWS, Heroku, Netlify
No-Code Tools	Shopify, Mailchimp, WordPress
On-Demand Manufacturing	Printify, Shapeways, Printful
Open Source	Ruby on Rails, Laravel, React
APIs	Stripe, Twilio, Plaid

These power million-dollar, one-person businesses.

Code, distribution and manufacturing are being commoditized.

Build wealth by focusing on what’s scarce.

📘 Terms

Million-Dollar Business

Forget revenue.

Ask: “What would the business sell for?“

Use earnings multiples or discounted cash flows.

One-Person Business

Operated by one person or built on a personal brand.

🏁 Players

People

Businesses

🔮 Predictions

Services like Printful will commoditize manufacturing. Kylie Cosmetics reached $1 billion with 7 employees using SEED Beauty. Most FBA sellers slap labels on generic products. Oberlo takes this further.
Growth and product skills will remain valuable. These are areas of innovation. Unlike accounting. Unless you’re Enron.

☁️ Opportunities

Develop high-leverage skills. Invest, write, entertain, code, sell, market, design.
Start with services to find valuable problems. As a consultant, Tyler Tringas had several clients ask for store locators. He built Storemapper, sold the business and launched Earnest Capital.
Automate, outsource or delegate non-core competencies. Focus on what’s scarce. As Li Jin says, monetize your individuality.
Show your work. Dan Rowden, Dianna Allen and Pieter Levels share progress as they build. Stay top of mind with exhaust data.
Build a personal brand like Paula Pant, Pat Flynn or Seth Godin. Finding problems, validating products and acquiring customers will be easier.

🔑 Key Lessons

Don’t be the best. Be the only. There are no comparables in a category of one. Ben Thompson, Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan have micro-monopolies.
Niche. Sarah Dunn does SEO for wedding professionals. Rich Rosen only recruits for 3 types of roles. Use small to your advantage.

😠 Haters

“Million-dollar, one-person businesses can’t be sold.”
Have you seen Park.io, Closet Tools or Overcast?

“How do you value an unsellable, service business?”
You don’t. But for this report, look at single-year net income.

“Storemapper had employees.”
The point of that example was to show you how to use Nathan’s ladder. Or Rob’s stairs.

“Code, distribution and manufacturing will not be commoditized.”
All code, distribution and manufacturing will not be. Apple and Tesla are vertically integrated. If it’s a core competency, keep it in-house. Otherwise outsource.

“I have one million in revenue, so I have a million-dollar business.”
If you buy $2,000,000 worth of iPhones and sell them for $1,000,000. You also have $1m in revenue. As Lauryn Hill says, “… it ain’t what you cop, it’s about what you keep.”

“Some of these people have teams.“
Joe Rogan and Tim Ferris have teams but they’ve built businesses on personal brands. Pieter Levels has a sysadmin. Ben Thompson has an assistant. Elaine Pofeldt addresses this in her book. Most million-dollar, one-person businesses get help.

“Screw this. I love my job.”
That’s all that matters.

🔗 Links

Looking for million-dollar, one-person businesses. Know any? — The thread that started this report.
Product and Media are New Leverage — Naval talks about the role of zero marginal cost products in building wealth.
One-Person Media Companies — Stew Fortier on why you should share ideas online and how one-person media companies make money.

Access Trends Pro

To save 2,000+ hours of market research, access all Trends Pro Reports and join our Trends Pro Community.

Become a Trends Pro Member

What you’ll get:

25 Million-Dollar, One-Person Businesses (177% More)
35 People (288% More)
5 Predictions (150% More)
9 Opportunities (80% More)
4 Key Lessons (100% More)
10 Summarized Links (233% More)

What you’ll learn:

(📈 Pro) Why isn’t everyone self-employed? Yet.
(📈 Pro) How can you avoid operational complexity?
(📈 Pro) How to leverage the wisdom of crowds?
(📈 Pro) What are the two main drivers of entrepreneurs?
(📈 Pro) Why is it dangerous to rely on YouTube, Amazon, Instagram and others?
(📈 Pro) How can you avoid blindspots as a solo founder?
(📈 Pro) What’s the key difference between freelancers and entrepreneurs?
(📈 Pro) Which solo investors are competing with VC firms?
(📈 Pro) Which tiny teams are building billion-dollar companies?
and a lot more…

Markets and Ideas