Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business

Sometimes finding and working with a single customer, then adding another, and then another, is a very useful and solid way to begin. And sometimes that can even be the end goal — one where your focus is on the relationship and the paid work at hand. Sometimes the best plan is focused on your current customers’ success, not on chasing leads and gro

you end up chasing your competitor’s growth instead of bettering your own offering.

Work on things like sales funnels and automation when it no longer makes sense to personalize your interactions with your customers in surprising and delightful ways.

Start out as simple as possible, and always fervently question adding new layers of complexity. Set yourself up as a company of one that’s run to maximize your ability to solve existing problems and to adapt as new problems arise. And

For myself, I happen to like choices. I like that I can choose to make less money by saying no to a project or a client or a customer I don’t think is a good fit for me. I like that I can choose to unplug for three months at a time and go on camping road trips across American deserts with my wife.

I’ve always believed that good accountants should save you more money than they charge. This belief may be misguided — I have no studies or data to back it up — but nevertheless, my own accountants definitely do this.

Decisions should be made with a focus on realized profit, not based on the expectation that profit may happen. This is such a key and main difference in how growth-focused businesses and companies of one operate.

My new business would be based on helping others first, with a contract for web design or design consulting coming later. I’d do it this way not because I frown on capitalism and want to sit around a Skype video-call singing “Kumbaya,” but because I know this is how you build a loyal client base and following.

In sum, all business is a choice about the life we want outside of it. One