My business launched on August 1st, 2019 and it took me 4 years, 8 months and 11 days to hit $7.5M in total revenue.
I reached this milestone through 100% organic social posting via LinkedIn, Twitter, my newsletter and SEO, without running any paid ads (although I caught a few affiliates running ads that were subsequently shut down).
My profit margin is roughly 90%. It started closer to 99% back in 2019 but as I’ve added pieces of software, outsourced some work (like website redesign and personalization/segmentation) my margins have dropped slightly.
One of the best parts about being a solopreneur is that 90% margins are nearly unattainable in any other business. One of the downsides is that my name and brand are linked, meaning it’s harder to have an “exitable asset” i.e. it’s more difficult to sell the business, but I don’t have any intention of that (at least not in the immediate future).
Here are 20 things I learned, that I would tell people if they are interested in building up their business on social media.
(note: not all will be relevant to you, but hopefully some are)
When I was just getting started, I knew that the #1 thing I could do before even launching my business would be to get a lot of attention. In late 2018, I started writing content every single day (I had no business yet), just to find my voice.
I started on LinkedIn. I shared my thoughts & observations about building a SaaS unicorn as the CRO.
The key takeaway here is that you can’t write about stuff you haven’t done or don’t know anything about. I would highly encourage you to start by building a skill, going extremely deep on a passion, or finding a great job where you can learn skills that are transferable to the internet.
“Fake it til you make it” is silly advice that works for a few people and we tend to shine a spotlight on those people even though the majority fail this way. Don’t be fooled by quotes like this. Get really, really good at something by dedicating your time to it. Make sure it’s something you enjoy.
Additional Information: I talk about how to “create noise” in Chapter 2 of The Creator MBA.
Inside all of that noise? Signal.