The third (and by no means last), is cementing the feeling of the community especially in the virtual world. A refreshing approach to entrepreneurship centered on staying small and avoiding growth - maximizing happiness, sustainability and profitability.

This book is featured in our Business Books for Excellence page, a collection of the best books to help you work, communicate and manage better.A refreshing approach to entrepreneurship centered on staying small and avoiding growth – maximising happiness, sustainability and profitability. While I love MailChimp and I think it’s an amazing software platform, there are so many places where there’s room for improvement, and I figured out how to hack that system. And thanks to technology and a ton of talented independent contractors, the solopreneur can bring in outsized revenue with a company of one. Your audience wants to relate to your personality: if you don’t assign yourself one, your audience will. That means more exhaustion, oversight and work time, which means less comfort, autonomy and free time.

You’re starting to see people leverage technology and business models in a way that you can make some rock star money as a non rock star. It was granted a monopoly of the fur-trade, and colonists not maintained by the company were free to barter with the Indians on condition they sell their furs to the company. I live in Vancouver, Canada, and when I go to the dentist there are business magazines lying around, but they all seem to agree that growth is the best thing. War had broken out in 1627 with England, which raised the risk of seizure of ships heading for North America. At that point, it was like, “I may not even get a book deal, and then to my entire list I’m going to look like a newb who thought that he could get a book deal, but then completely couldn’t even find an agent that would want to work with him.And I see people get really, really stressed out about it because it can get really, really stressful. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis.

It's becoming increasingly easy, thanks to technology, to scale a company without growing the required people/resources. I have been a reader of Paul Jarvis for many years and love having this printed book as a compilation of all the advice and lessons he has learned over those years. There is a trend where business owners are deliberately staying small, so that they can control and maintain their business’ growth, but still run it as a profitable and successful enterprise. I think the French were here first and then the English came and then the English beat the French in a war, and then they took everything other than Quebec and then they started… I’m a bad Canadian. We think that these things are going to work, and maybe they do work for a very small number of people.David Kirke and his brothers, in possession of one of these commissions, sailed up the Saint Lawrence in heavily armed merchant ships, burned a French farm, and demanded that Champlain surrender Quebec. To tighten the focus of your product or service even further, there are two more strategies you can pursue.

Deliberately putting upper bounds on goals allows you to build safety margins and have sustained growth rather than crazy short-term growth. Company of One is a refreshing new approach centered on staying small and avoiding growth, for any size of business. Putting good processes and structure into place allows fewer people to do more work, and actually build the foundation for more autonomy. Silicon Valley are like drug dealers: it starts out free, then you get hooked, then you’re not paying to get high any more, you’re just paying to feel normal.Yet, it almost seems that the technology is getting to the point where I think a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed. I’d really, really love to know your thoughts about it, let me know in the comments down below and of course, while you’re at it, I would absolutely love it if you can make sure you subscribe to the channel. That way you can get that freelancer to help you when you need it and you don’t have the extra responsibilities, the extra paperwork, holiday organising, salaries and stuff like that. After all, your chances of starting the next industry-conquering giant, creating the next viral product sensation or becoming the next multibillion-dollar start-up founder are pretty slim.