A guest post by Elaine Pofeldt, author of The Million-Dollar One-Person Business.

Not long ago, on a radio interview about my book The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, the host surprised me by asking a question along the lines of, “Isn’t it just the owners’ personalities that get them to $1 million in revenue? Aren’t they just different type of people from everyone else?”

Having interviewed entrepreneurs in more than 30 nonemployer businesses who broke $1 million in revenue or got very close to it for the book, I told her the answer is “No.” There is no “million-dollar personality” that these entrepreneurs have and others lack.

For one thing, these folks were all over the map demographically. They ranged from millennials to people in their fifties. They were also people with very varied personal interests, from nutrition to real estate.  

What they did have in common, in many cases, was more of an attitude. They were more willing to invest the attention and resources growing their businesses than many owners I meet. If you’d like to follow their lead, here are some ideas.

Embrace a “growth” mindset.

In her book Mindset, Carol Dweck looks at two mindsets and how they factor into success. Those who have the “growth” mindset believe they can build on qualities like intelligence and talent. Those with the “fixed” mindset think talent in itself creates success, regardless of effort.

The owners of million-dollar, nonemployer businesses I interviewed for the book and in other journalism work all seemed to share the growth mindset. Although all of them were very smart business owners, they didn’t behave as if their success was a given. They continually looked for ways to develop their talents and abilities.

Selena Soo, 35, whom I recently interviewed for Forbes, is a good example. She runs S2 Groupe, a profitable marketing and publicity consultancy in New York City. Soo brings in most of her revenue through online courses, such as one called Impacting Millions that last year brought in close to $1 million in revenue. Her business, founded in 2012, brings in $1.6 million in revenue overall, and for most of the time she has run it, has not had any W-2 employees. She hired a senior project manager in June 2017.

So why is Soo so different from the many entrepreneurs who struggle to hit six-figure revenue and beyond? One reason may be that she believes in personal development—something that many entrepreneurs view as a luxury they don’t have time for.

Soo made a big investment in joining a Mastermind Group run by Monica Shah, a business coach for coaches, creative professionals and entrepreneurs. That led her to create a course called Elevate Your Brand that at the time, enabled her to double her revenue. She also participated in a course by financial guru Ramit Sethi called Zero to Launch, where she learned how do effective market research, among other things. That course ultimately led to her development of a course called Get Known, Get Clients, from which she made $150,000 by charging 50 students $3,000. By investing in her own development, Soo was able to generate a lot more revenue.

Mastermind Groups and courses can get pricey, but you don’t have to spend a fortune on taking classes and joining groups. Finding a good Meetup group in your area filled with serious entrepreneurs can serve the same purpose.

Put the right systems in place.

Automation is not a new idea. It’s in the headlines every day. But even though many entrepreneurs know they should be using it to make processes like keeping in touch with customers more efficient, there’s a knowing-doing gap. A surprising number of the small business owners I interview still do things like keeping their books on Excel spreadsheets or answer every customer email manually, instead of setting up automated messages for certain scenarios.

The folks who run million-dollar, one-person businesses take the time to actually put the automation in place. They don’t just know they should use online accounting software. They block out time to get set up in QuickBooks, Freshbooks, Xero or one of the other major systems out there, or they pay their accountant to set them up. They don’t just know they should automate their email responses—they schedule time to get their CRM system set up to do that—and learn how to use it.

If you’ve been putting off automating manual tasks in your business that suck up a lot of time, start scheduling some setup time into your calendar. In many cases, once you get set up, you’ll seldom have to think about your systems again. If you invest just 15 hours this year in getting inexpensive systems set up to automate things like appointment scheduling, phone responses, email responses and accounting functions, you’ll be amazed at how much more mental space you have to work on big-picture activities, like strategy.

Take time to find great contractors.

One of the top questions I’ve gotten from readers of my book at live events is how to find reliable freelancers and contractors. Many people have been burned by hiring someone irresponsible or who doesn’t really know how to do the work—and give up on the idea of bringing in help at all.

Big mistakes. Entrepreneurs in million-dollar, one-person businesses generally put in the time to find great people to help them—and are willing to look for talent in conventional places. Dan Faggella, who ran Science of Skill, a martial arts hub, and later sold it for more than $1 million, found one of his contractors, who handled his copywriting and other tasks, in a martial arts class he taught. Riley Lyon, whom I recently interviewed for Crain’s New York Business, built an commerce store in Brooklyn, N.Y., called Ditec Solutions that grossed $3.5 million last year selling 3D printing pens and coolers for outdoorsmen, tapping freelance help from a site called hiremymom.com.

As these entrepreneurs realized, it might take some time to find the right people, but once they did, it would be much easier to scale revenue in their businesses. And that’s exactly what they did.

By patiently finding the support systems they needed to grow, they expanded what it’s possible to achieve in a one-person business. I’m confident that whatever unique personality you have, you can do the same if you follow their lead.

Author Bio

Elaine Pofeldt is an independent journalist who specializes in small business, entrepreneurship and careers. Her work has appeared in FORTUNE, Money, CNBC, Inc., Forbes, Crain’s New York Business and many other business publications and she is a contributor to the Economist Intelligence Unit. She is the author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, a look at how entrepreneurs are hitting seven-figure revenue in businesses where they are the only employees, tapping automation and other technology to scale their efforts (Random House, 2018).

As a senior editor at FORTUNE Small Business, where she worked for eight years, Elaine was twice nominated for the National Magazine Award for her features and ran the magazine’s annual business plan completion. During her time at FSB, she ran the magazine’s website, fsb.com, for four years, building its traffic from two to five million page views a month.

Many entrepreneurs wear themselves out trying to keep others happy. A potential client who is traveling in Shanghai wants to jump on a call at 11:30 pm? No problem! A customer needs you to squeeze in an extra project when you’re already overbooked? Yes, glad to help!

Saying yes to requests like these occasionally can keep the wheels of your business turning, but if they’re routine, they can start cutting into activities that are good for your health–like spending time with the people you love, getting enough sleep, eating right and exercising. Pushing yourself to the limits of your energy all of the time will lead to burn out, mentally, emotionally and physically.

Fortunately, if you take the attitude that taking care of yourself is not optional, it’s easy to avoid problems. Here are some strategies to apply.

Treat yourself like a precious resource.

Learn how to protect your time and sanity by offering alternatives to stressful, last-minute requests. For instance, “I’d love to talk with you about the project—plus, I really want to hear about your vacation!—but I’m not able to do it tonight because of other commitments. Could we talk at 9 am tomorrow?” Or, “I’d love to help you with the project but to do it the right way, I’ll need three hours, and I’ll be onsite with a client tomorrow. Is there wiggle room on your deadline?” Often clients have more flexibility than you may think.

Schedule time to hit the gym…or the pavement.

Even if you don’t have the time right now to get into the peak shape of your life, make it a point to do some physical exercise several times a week. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of both—and spreading them out throughout the week. It’s also important to do strength training of all major muscle groups at least 2x a week, HHS says.

No matter what exercise routine you choose, you won’t be able to follow it if you don’t plan it into your schedule. Whether you do 6 am runs or head to a yoga class after work to recharge and release stress, look ahead to the next two weeks and add the times you plan to exercise to your calendar.

What if you keep missing your planned sessions because of work-related demands? With a regular calendar in place, you’ll quickly be able to troubleshoot and schedule your workouts at a different time. Let’s say you keep planning to go to a 6 pm CrossFit class but can’t get there on time because your work never quite ends at 5:30 pm. You’ll know you need to find another class that starts at 6:30 or 7 pm. Or if you plan to work out at lunch but tend to get really busy in the late morning and end up needing to take a working lunch at your desk, perhaps you need to go to the gym before you come to work.

Plan ahead for lunchtime.

When you’re busy, it’s easy to slip into the habit of rushing out for fast food at lunchtime, simply because it’s the easiest option. That can lead to a daily situation where you feel horrible from eating poorly and never do your best thinking after lunch.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to pack a lunch from home, make a list of three eateries in your area where you can pick up something healthy or, if you work in a food desert, the three healthiest menu items you can find at your eateries of choice. That’ll help you avoid the menu items that really take a toll on your health.

For those who work from home, stocking up on quick, easy lunch items can save you from heading out to the drive through because you’ve waited too long to get a bite to eat. If you have some basic groceries on hand, it’s much quicker to prepare a bowl of soup, a sandwich, a salad, or scrambled eggs than to head to the nearest fast food joint.

Reset your brain.

Many entrepreneurs find that meditating is a great way to create the mental and emotional distance from work they need to be a good leader. Try using an app like Headspace to get in the groove or reading 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story by Dan Harris.

If you’re juggling work with raising young children, even finding 10 minutes to meditate may be tough. If that’s the case, set aside some time with your kids where you give them your undivided attention every evening. Not only is it great for your relationship with them, but it’ll take your thoughts away from work, allowing you to come back to it refreshed and with a brand new perspective.

Keeping yourself healthy does not have to be an overwhelming effort. Putting a few simple wellness practices in place every week will allow you to feel better and bring a much better focus to work.

A guest post by Elaine Pofeldt, author of The Million-Dollar One-Person Business.

If you’re looking to grow your business, your instinct may be to try to “monetize” everything you can. Your client has a quick question? That’s 15 minutes you can bill for. A customer wants broccoli with her entrée? That’ll be $4.

Thinking like that might seem like a good way to quickly rack up revenue at first glance but it can actually have the opposite effect. Even if there’s a good reason to pass along rising costs, it can make it seem like you’re nickel and diming and annoy customers—making them disinclined to buy.

In writing my book The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, one common thread I noticed among the entrepreneurs is generosity. Many seemed to share a spirit of abundance and willingness to give to others—without keeping score. That not only makes them fun to be around, and someone others want to do business with and support.

So how can you learn from their mindset? Here are some ideas.

Share information freely.

Meghan Telpner, founder of MeghanTelpner.com, an online nutrition hub, has built a thriving business sharing what she learned about healing herself from autoimmune disease. The foundation of her business was a blog, where early in her business, she posted almost daily for four years.

Sharing her insights freely helped her build a community around her ideas and eventually allowed her to understand where there were gaps in the marketplace. One product that came out of this was the Green Smoothie Cleanse, which she sold for $10.

Ultimately her efforts led to a very successful venture, the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, where she teaches both nutritionists and lay people her healthy cooking methods and lifestyle strategies. The community she built through her generosity with information has flocked—helping her to build a very successful business.

Create opportunity for those around you.

If your business is growing and you need help, look around you for talented friends who need work. When Allen Walton, founder of Spy Guy, an online spy camera store that hit $1 million in annual revenue before he hired his first employee, found that he needed customer service help, for instance, he hired a buddy who needed a job. Of course, it can be risky to your friendship when you enter a manager/employee relationship but if you’re aware of this possibility at the outset and discuss it openly, it’s very possible to navigate the challenges.

Many of the entrepreneurs in the book took the same approach to hiring contractors. For instance, when Dan Faggella was building his online martial arts store Science of Skill, he enlisted Tim Reiss, one of the students in a martial arts class he taught, as a contractor. After Faggella sold his business for more than $1 million and went on to found Tech Emergence, a media and marketing research platform focused on artificial intelligence, Reiss tapped into what Faggella had taught him about copywriting and other areas of entrepreneurship at his own online store, MyOnlineFitnessCenter, where he sells gears like yoga foam rollers and Pilates rings. His business broke $1 million in revenue in its first eight months.

Give back.

Even if you’re not Bill Gates, you can have a real impact with your charitable donations. I was impressed by the creative ways to give back that some of the entrepreneurs I interviewed were using. Sol Orwell, founder of Examine.com, a site that sells reports on nutritional supplements, gathered a group of more than 100 entrepreneurs for the NYC Charity Chocolate Chip Cookie Off last November. Thirty-three bakers and pastry competed in the baking competition held in a private library above The Strand, an iconic bookstore in Manhattan. The event—which the entrepreneurs paid $250 to attend—raised more than $30,000 for the charity She’s the First, which supports girls’ education. That’s a gift that’s going to bring returns to society for many years to come.

AUTHOR BIO

Elaine Pofeldt is an independent journalist who specializes in small business, entrepreneurship and careers. Her work has appeared in FORTUNE, Money, CNBC, Inc., Forbes, Crain’s New York Business and many other business publications and she is a contributor to the Economist Intelligence Unit. She is the author of The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, a look at how entrepreneurs are hitting seven-figure revenue in businesses where they are the only employees, tapping automation and other technology to scale their efforts (Random House, 2018).

As a senior editor at FORTUNE Small Business, where she worked for eight years, Elaine was twice nominated for the National Magazine Award for her features and ran the magazine’s annual business plan completion. During her time at FSB, she ran the magazine’s website, fsb.com, for four years, building its traffic from two to five million page views a month.