Building A One-Person Business Is The Key To Your Financial Freedom. Here’s How You Can Do It
Your 9–5 job is the most powerful weapon you have.
The day I got promoted to a Director was the saddest day of my life.
I had worked my ass off for the better part of 18 months chasing this goal. Overtime, late nights, stressful clients, taking on more than I can handle. I had burned myself out countless times all to achieve this one goal.
When I finally got the promotion, I was broken down inside.
The moment my boss congratulated me, I felt empty. I knew that I didn’t want this. I knew I wanted to quit. I knew I wanted to build my own thing. I felt like a fool. I called my best friend crying my eyes out.
I quit 4 months later.
The desire for more freedom is a human need.
But we can get trapped by society’s false promises.
From birth, we are programmed by education and then the employment system to take the ‘safe’ path.
- Pay for an expensive degree.
- Work for decades in a 9–5 job you tolerate.
- Receive a wage that barely matches inflation.
- Retire at 65 with arthritis to live your best life on a yacht.
LOL.
The cold reality is this:
If you don’t decide what life you want, your life will be decided for you.
Freedom is not handed to you. Freedom is created.
Here’s how to make decisions to create more freedom.
There are only two limitations to your freedom.
- Your skill set.
- Your beliefs.
Your skill set is easy to change. So let’s dive into your beliefs.
I have a friend who is 10x more talented than me. She schools me on technical ability. I keep telling her to start her own business. But she lacks belief in herself. She doesn’t think she adds value. Crazy.
If you believe you will never be free, you won’t be.
I stumbled on this Reddit thread the other day:
Like this horse, we are conditioned by society to not question the beliefs we’ve inherited from childhood.
Every breakthrough in my business is the result of breaking free of limiting beliefs. From selling my products and services to building a following online, I’ve had to overcome beliefs I’ve had since childhood.
I did this through years of therapy with a psychologist, hiring a content coach, and finding the right community.
It wasn’t easy. But anything worthwhile is hard.
If you’re going to spend 10+ years of your life trying to create freedom, invest 2–3 of those years in breaking free of your limiting beliefs.
The strongest prisons are those we create for ourselves.
Your 9–5 job is the most powerful weapon you have
Okay. Onto business.
If you’ve got a 9–5 job, you’ve got a head start.
Don’t listen to the gurus who tell you to quit your job tomorrow.
That’s dumb.
A 9–5 job means you’ve got solid foundations. You know how to show up consistently. Deliver on your job reliably and have learned a skill set that someone is willing to pay for (your employer).
Don’t quit your job.
But you SHOULD leverage it for other opportunities.
If someone is already paying you for your services, chances are that there are others who are willing to do so too.
Cheat on your 9–5 job. Start creating content on the side. Freelance to other clients. See what problems occur in your 9–5 and create a digital product around it.
Don’t settle into a 9–5. Leverage the sh*t out of it.
“You can tweet your way onto a yacht” — Jeremy Giffon
A one-person business is built on leverage.
Most of us don’t have heaps of money laying around or the ability to get other people to work for us.
But we do have access to social media.
- Document your journey.
- Publish something online every day.
- Connect with people through comments and DMs.
- Build an audience and a following over time.
You’ll start to find random opportunities coming your way. You’ll think it's serendipity. People will call you lucky.
Nonsense.
Every piece of content you publish is working for you 24/7. I’ve had one newsletter article land me a $10k per month consulting gig.
Luck = opportunity + preparation.
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson.
Once you’ve started to get traction, you need to capture value.
Here’s the roadmap:
- Start an email list via ConvertKit.
- Email that list at least once per week.
- Create a free lead magnet (digital product).
- Shamelessly promote the email list or product on everything you post.
Don’t automate. Don’t try to sell anything.
Your only goal is to build a community. Paid products come much later.
Keep giving away stuff for free. Build so much goodwill in your audience that they will beg to give you money without you asking.
Do this for 1–2 years. Watch your audience growth skyrocket.
Start conversations with random people and solve their problems.
I reply back to every email I get.
People are pleasantly surprised to receive an email that wasn’t written by a robot or an automation sequence.
I ask people:
- How they found me.
- What problems they are currently facing.
- How can I uniquely add value to solve their problems.
Over time, you’ll start to identify common pain points that people come to you to solve.
Even when I solve their problems, I don’t ask for any money. But I use their pain points and feedback as data.
This is when you can start to create a product or service.
Don’t waste time building something no one has asked for. I did that at the start of 2023 and wasted so much time and energy.
Find a problem. Solve it for someone. Sell the solution you created to others. Use your ‘free’ work has proof you can actually add value.
How long do I have to keep doing this?
Truthfully, forever.
Soz. There ain’t no shortcuts.
A one-person business is not a finish line to cross but a lifestyle to be lived.
This doesn’t mean you’ll be working hard forever. Rockets use most of their fuel during takeoff. Once you’re in orbit it's much easier to maintain it.
Leverage means you’ll work less over time. You can outsource and automate certain tasks.
But you’ll still have to work.
Good luck.
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