How to Make Building a 1-Person Business Easier: Lessons in Self-Sabotage

Read time: 4 minutes

I made being a business owner way harder than it had to be.

I’m not saying building a business isn’t easy.

I’m saying it’s not hard.

Hard is navigating a health crisis, building an innovative product never seen before, and turning around a failing organization with thousands of people’s jobs at stake.

Those are hard because they demand sophisticated strategies, foresight, and absolute risk.

We have a simple business model. All we need to do is acquire customers, deliver promised value, and repeat.

It took me some time, but I know why I made it harder: I wrapped up my ego and identity in the business too early.

I mistook the game of business for the formula of business, and I got stuck trying to make them the same.

But they are different.

• The game of business is a fulfilling, elegant, infinite game. It embodies who you are, why, and how you do it. It’s an identity.

• The formula of business is what you sell and the value you provide. It’s the process of generating revenue, building profit, and making a living. It’s a math equation.

The two can converge. But only once you’ve mastered the formula and built experiential knowledge.

Otherwise, you’ll do what I did and cause:

• self-inflicted wounds

• self-sabotage

• over-optimization

To make building a 1-person business easier, I’d mentally separate the game from the formula.

I would worry less about what my business did and focus first on getting great at the formula because those skills could transfer to the business I wanted to tie my identity to.

In essence, I would have started the company before the company.

An experimental company…to practice on.

I don’t regret making this mistake. What’s taken me four years could have taken half the time. Some lessons you can only learn through experience.

If I had the foresight when I started, I would have started differently.

And I would have leaned into simplicity and speed over getting it right at the start.

Here’s the simple framework I would have followed to prevent self-sabotage and make building a 1-person business easier:

• Step 1: Choose a Skill, Then Find a Problem

• Step 2: Create and Build Attention

• Step 3: Optimize the Minimum Viable Solution, Attention, and Process

• Step 4: Repeat Step 3 Many Times

Then pivot to converge your identity with your mastery and build from there.

Step 1: Choose a Skill, Then Find a Problem

Start with constraints instead of getting stuck trying to find the perfect problem to solve.

Choose an existing skill I could easily fulfill, then find a problem that aligns with it. By adding constraints, you decrease decision fatigue. Fulfillment (of value) to your customer is the easiest place to fall prey to over-optimization.

Find the right problem and the perfect solution later.

How to make this actionable?

Everyone says it, but it’s true. Connect with people to understand what a problem looks, feels, and sounds like. People love to talk about themselves – and even more so, love to vent about their problems.

Create the minimum viable solution.

Step 2: Create and Build Attention

Building attention is a numbers and empathy game.

(I haven’t quite figured it out, but I’m working on it).

You won’t have the authority or trust, but people will experiment to relieve pain points. Building attention is not as easy as flipping on a switch and saying, “Hey, look at me; here’s what I have.”

It takes iteration and a lot of time to get valuable attention. But I do know one thing.

Marketing plays the dominant role in the formula of a 1-person business.

How to make this actionable?

Invest 90 minutes every day in writing and engaging on the internet.

• Write social posts

• Answer questions on forums

• Send direct messages and emails

Don’t be spammy, but don’t be shy.

“Closed mouths don’t get fed.” (Sahil Bloom)

The goal with attention is to enable a useful feedback loop to understand what works. The focus is not on getting followers or fans but on business leads. It is about getting great at the formula.

Engage, don’t just post — I posted for 60 days without engaging, and nothing happened.

Step 3: Optimize the Minimum Viable Solution, Attention, and Process

After putting in some practice, it’s time to optimize the formula.

First, optimize your value by refining the problem and solution.

• Narrow down your ideal customer

• Cut parts of the service that didn’t work

• Double down on parts of the service that did work

Now is when making adjustments towards “right” starts to matter.

Second, optimize your attention by analyzing marketing data.

• Identify which posts yield the best results

• Find the channels where your ideal customer consumes and increase the volume

• Repurpose everything you have created thus far (but first, make it better)

Find the 20% that has generated 80% of the results.

Third, scale your time by improving your internal processes.

• Expand sales funnels to nurture increased attention

• Automate or outsource time-intensive aspects of operations, finance, and admin

Reposition your time to high-impact areas.

Step 4: Repeat Step 3 Many Times

Optimization takes time.

Refining your value, optimizing attention, and enhancing your processes all need iteration and improvement.

Don’t rush the process.

Building a 1-person business isn’t hard. We make it harder than it needs to be by getting in our way. Separate the game from the formula.

Don’t let ego and identity get in the way of understanding.

Then pivot to converge your identity with your mastery and build from there.

That’s what I would have done if I started over. The great thing about business is it gives you many chances.

Even if you’ve already started (even four years in, like me), you can restart at step 2.

I am. Join me.