How To Use Your 9–5 Job To Build A $1,000 Per Month One-Person Business In 2024

In six easy steps

How much would an extra $1,000 per month change your life?

You could:

Pay off debt.
Save for a holiday.
Start investing or building a business.

Not to mention reducing stress or fighting with your partner over money.

Here’s how you can do it.

#1: Making your first $1 online will rewire your brain

The day I made my first $1 online changed my life.

I sat in front of my computer with a stupid look on my face. I almost wish I recorded it. It wasn’t the sum of money that I made. It was that I made money online. Something clicked inside my mind. I could make this work.

It completely shattered my previous beliefs that:

Making money online was a scam.
I didn’t have any valuable skills or knowledge.
You have to be an expert writer to make money online.

Coming from an immigrant background, I was told to save my way to wealth. But aside from basic survival, saving can’t create wealth. It’s a backward mindset.

Saving is level 1 of wealth building.

There is a hard limit to how much you can save.

There is no limit to how much money you can make.

With the internet's distribution power, you have access to a global marketplace to sell your products and services. Can you convince two people to pay you $500 per month? I almost guarantee you could.

Is talent a factor? Of course, it is.

But most people give up well before talent can influence their outcomes.

Your mind will limit your income before your skillset ever will.

#2: Learn a skill, sell a skill

You’re not starting from zero.

If you’ve got a 9–5 job, you’ve got:

A skillset.
Proven experience.
Industry networks.

Plus, you’re already a one-person business selling to a customer of one: your employer.

I started my one-person business while I had my old 9–5 job.

I took the skills and knowledge I had learned in my job and applied it to freelancing with clients. I charged a higher rate and did more research on what the marketplace valued.

I iterated my skillset, positioning, and offer over time.

I got to a point where I was sick of my 9–5 job and wanted a change. I don’t recommend doing what I did, but I quit and jumped head-first into entrepreneurship.

If I could go back, I would combine my technical skills with:

Sales and marketing.
Content creation.
Personal branding.

These are evergreen skills that you can apply to any industry.

Technical + evergreen = money-making skill stack.

#3: Gather testimonials

Social proof is everything.

I didn’t do this well—or at all, really. It held back my growth. Now, I’ve got an automated system for gathering testimonials through Senja (affiliate link).

Whenever you get good feedback or positive results, capture it.

You don’t need fancy software to start with. Start by taking a screenshot and put it into a Google Drive folder or Notion page. You can always turn this into a testimonial later.

This will help get customers but also serves a deeper purpose.

There will come a time when you question everything you’re doing and feel like quitting or giving up. It’s normal. We all go through it at some point.

You need proof of your impact and work to get over this period.

These testimonials will help you through your dark periods and recalibrate. I can’t tell you how often I’ve returned to see what people wrote to find my ‘why’ again.

#4: Join a community

Building online is super lonely.

Find others who are on the same journey as you. If you can’t meet in person, schedule a weekly check-in. Keep each other accountable and on track.

The fastest progress I made was when I invested in a community.

I found a bunch of other Australian-based creators wanting to create online businesses. It was the first time I could talk openly about wanting to build an audience, sales funnels, and all the self-improvement books I read.

Find a tribe with your vibe.

#5: Constantly reinvest in your skillset.

The best investment you can make is in yourself.

I’ve changed my approach to personal finance at this stage of my life. I don’t contribute much to my retirement account or an Index fund beyond the minimum.

I reinvest most of my money into building my skillset and improving my mindset.

There’s no exact science or maths, but for every $1 I invest into getting new skills or overcoming limiting beliefs, I get a 5–10x return on my performance. Once I learn something, I have it forever. No one can steal my skills from me.

But most people use their money to invest in materialism.

It’s why their life looks the same 2–3 years later. They’ve learned nothing new in that time. That’s a tragedy. Human life progresses through education and skill building. You need to replace Netflix with:

Reading books.
Listening to podcasts.
Doing online courses and coaching.

You’re much closer than you think you are.

You’re only 2–3 skills and six months of execution away from your dream life.

#6: Don’t ever quit.

I’m not talented at anything.

I scored below average in English at high school. My first 100 Medium articles were so bad I couldn’t even get my mum to read them. My first business almost failed.

But I’ve managed to do pretty well at writing and business.

I’ve recently:

Crossed 40,000 Medium Followers
Built an email list size of 3,200+
Sold my first one-person consulting business for a salary and equity deal.

I now work in the business that earned me a six-figure salary with a thriving one-person business focusing on personal branding, digital marketing, and ghostwriting.

All of this happened in the last ten months, but I’ve been working on it for the last five years. If you can commit to consistently executing for 3–5 years, you’ll be successful.

It’s nearly impossible not to achieve something if you show up every day for half a decade. I’ll never stop writing or running some form of business. It’s too enjoyable. I have so much fun doing it.

I plan in decades but execute every day.

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