2 Ways to Scale Your 1-Person Business (Without Needing Employees)

Read time: 5 minutes

Scale doesn’t happen by accident or by luck.

It’s calculated.

Last week I shared the 5-step framework Ship 30 for 30 uses to scale from $50 to $10,000,000. What started as an accountability writing group is now a digital writing empire with a team of rockstars (figuratively speaking).

Scale is about taking the business to a new level, not just relative improvements.

I’m willing to bet $10,000,000 is far from where you are in your journey.

It’s possible you’re not even ready to scale at all. The truth is, I’m not either (not yet). I’m still in optimization mode.

But in this process, I learned scale requires proactive measures – it demands planning well in advance.

And while this framework relies heavily on hiring a team of specialists to fill each core function, remember it’s not a blueprint – adapt it to fit you.

Here are the 2 ways to scale your one-person business:

1. Technology-heavy model

2. Strategic-partnership model

Either choice means you replace your time with technology or people.

Technology-heavy model

Let me start with a super obvious statement — every business uses technology already.

But here, I mean replacing >50% of your time in a core function with automated tools.

Technology as leverage.

Let’s consider an example of a one-person wedding photography business to demonstrate what this model might look like.

(I know you’re probably not a wedding photographer, but that’s ok; the principles apply across industries).

Here’s how you can automate each core function:

• Operations: Streamline the repetitive tasks of contracts and payment processing with a management tool like HoneyBook. Combine it with an automation tool like Zapier to produce a gamified onboarding sequence that allows clients to move at their own pace. Set it up once, and let the tools run on their own.

• Customer Success: Capture client feedback and personal touchpoints using a tool like Zendesk. It’s a customer support system that supports every aspect of the relationship. It will reduce the need for all interactions to require email or face-to-face conversation, plus keep everything organized (…besides, you’re out taking photographs for another wedding).

• Sales: Build a free, high-value, actionable lead magnet that educates potential clients. You can craft a free download like “10 Most Overlooked Aspects of Wedding Photos.” Combine it with a Convertkit automated email welcome sequence to build trust before ever speaking face-to-face. You’ll prime them for your experience.

• Marketing: Meet with past clients to discuss the process, pain points, and success stories. Record the conversation using a transcript system like Otter AI. Then feed the transcript into ChatGPT to highlight the top takeaways. Use those takeaways as the basis for your Instagram captions, educational newsletter, and sales copy (using the words and feelings directly from the client’s mouth).

Before I get into the last one, fulfillment, I’ll state the obvious -- as the solo operator, this is your special sauce. It’s the hardest to offload because it’s the process of delivering value to the client. If you’re the photographer, it’s shooting and editing the photos.

• Fulfillment: Create 50 slides about your unique style, editing process techniques, and equipment tips. Walk through the slides using Loom to record as though you were teaching someone 1 on 1. Offer the recording as a productized service or beginner course via platforms like Gumroad.

Adapting to a technology-heavy model can be overwhelming if you’re unfamiliar with the tools mentioned. If so, you can hire professionals to build them into your business.

Once up and running, it will be like operating your business with a few new friendly robots.

Remember, scale is a gradual process — it would shock the system to do all these simultaneously.

Go through your core functions with automation in mind as you plan your scale.

Strategic-partnership model

Move beyond the solo operator mindset.

The strategic partnership model is about building a network of specialists to outsource one or all of the core functions. You essentially become a general contractor “building a house” without ever having to lift a hammer.

When you’re the solo operator, it’s all on you. But when you align yourself with strategic partners, you gain flexibility and optionality to cut time-intensive responsibilities and still generate revenue.

Let’s revisit the one-person wedding photographer example.

• Operations: Hire an automation expert to review your business's repetitive tasks and interactions to build all the behind-the-scenes infrastructure.

• Customer Success: Add a virtual assistant to lead the onboarding and client feedback process. This will allow you to maintain the person-to-person client experience without it having to be you to handle it all.

• Sales: Partner with a local wedding lead service or connect with a sales professional to cultivate inbound or outbound leads. Develop a standard operating procedure and sales scripts to ensure brand consistency.

• Marketing: Use a part-time social media specialist to amplify your online presence. Increase the volume of your posts and expand your reach across many platforms. This will save you a lot of time (trust me) while extending your reach.

• Fulfillment: Handpick from an array of freelance photographers to be the primary photographer at weddings. This means you can oversee the process, but not have to do the “day-of” lifting (and it allows you to service more weddings at once). You can also provide more services like next-day short-form videos for the couple’s social media posts (instead of waiting until weeks later to experience the photos). And finally, call on editors to learn your style – while still maintaining final approval.

The strategic partnership model is akin to an agency model but with more flexibility, a broader network, and no employee responsibility.

It enables you to conform to the client’s problem instead of forcing them to fit the agency.

It will take time to find the right strategic partners. And effective communication of your nuances and processes is vital for success.

Go through your core functions with the strategic partnership as you plan your scale.

I’ll leave you with another approach to the strategic partnership I’ve been thinking about, and it’s…well…just different.

Instead of a single business with a primary offering, you can partner with others to share ownership in multiple products, services, and ventures.

It’s a subtle shift in how solopreneurs work together but a drastic change to the asset ownership model.

Scale via shared expertise and distribution.

You can find more about that approach here.