Yesterday, my little one-person business crossed $4M in revenue.
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
It took 1,352 days, I ran zero ads & operate at a 94% margin.
Here are the 20 steps of my wild & strange journey:
Hope it's helpful to someone.
[🧵 thread]
1/ Created lots of noise
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
When I was just getting started, I looked at attention as my friend.
I wrote content every day before I even had a business, just to find my voice.
I started on LinkedIn.
I shared my thoughts & observations about building a SaaS unicorn as the CRO.
2/ Honed in on signals
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Inside all of that noise? Signal.
Sometimes I bombed, and sometimes I struck a chord.
The more I looked at what resonated, the more I doubled down.
This allowed me to understand what people cared about.
So, I kept writing & talking about it.
3/ Built a service business
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
My experience building SaaS was resonating. So I began creating more and more content about that.
Founders sent me DMs asking questions.
I responded to every single one.
Once I had prospects in my funnel, I started consulting.
4/ Found my ideal customers
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Inside your customer base is more signals.
What are the commonalities between the customers you love & those who love you?
Mine were early-stage SMB SaaS in the healthcare space. A space I was experienced in & loved.
That became my ideal customer.
5/ 2x'ed my rates
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
With a well-defined niche, some happy customers, and testimonials, I 2x'ed my rates.
I started creating more content that was even more targeted. This led to more conversations with ideal-fit prospects.
I said no to any company outside of my niche.
6/ Reduced my time
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
With new rates, I could have worked the same and made 2x as much.
Instead, I chose to work 50% of the time and make the same.
I used that extra time to figure out how to scale income that was more automated.
My goal had always been to get my time back.
7/ Kept my eyes and ears open
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Something really interesting happened.
In an attempt to find common problems to productize, I started rereading my LinkedIn DMs.
I had some repetitive questions about SaaS sales, but I also had an inbox jammed with questions about LinkedIn itself.
8/ Tested a hypothesis
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Back then, I had grown to 20k+ followers on LinkedIn & people wanted to know more.
I had a hypothesis that this would be an easy info product I could create & sell.
I put together a short course for $50 (more on price later) & wrote posts about it.
9/ Made my first product $$
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
I put the product for sale on Gumroad on April 16th, 2020.
In the first month, I made $10,482.
I was shocked.
I now had my first digital product, but it was in a totally different niche than my service business.
Honestly, this confused me.
10/ Ran with it
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Over the next 15 months, I sold about $75k of the course.
I posted about audience building on LinkedIn and found other ways to continue to land consulting clients. (VCs, news sites, blogs, SaaStr, etc)
Even though it felt confusing, I continued to run with it.
11/ Tripled down
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
After the course was outdated, people started asking for a new version.
I rebuilt the course, but this time charged $150.
The earlier $50 price was my "trust tripwire".
I charged $50, delivered 100x worth the price, and built trust w/ a loyal customer base.
12/ Marketed aggressively
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
With 100% of my LinkedIn content focused on audience growth, and a product directly related to that content, sales took off.
My previous course grossed $75k in 15 months.
The second version has grossed $186k in 3 months.
Next up...
13/ I began creating an army
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
At the halfway point of my course, people are encouraged to leave a testimonial & sign up for an affiliate program.
I built the same automation at the conclusion of the course.
I now have 1,400+ affiliates that have generated $280,000+ in revenue.
14/ Built a community
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
As sales picked up, my interest in consulting faded.
I was doing $2k per day in info products and wanted to run with that.
I opened a private community for creators and charged $199.
Those who completed my course were prompted to join.
15/ Made a difficult decision
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
I loved my community but realized that it didn't work with my personality.
It was a $15k MRR business, but I felt like I had to be "on" 24/7.
That wasn't the life I wanted to build.
15 months after starting it, I made a decision to shut it down.
16/ Reinvested my time
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
With way more free time now, I decided to start Tweeting.
Using what I knew about growing on LinkedIn, I was able to hit 75k followers in about 6 months.
This provided a new channel to build more stuff.
So I did.
17/ Created a 2nd digital course
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
I was doing a podcast with @dickiebush and @nicolascole77 about how I built a system for writing content.
The 500+ people on the call seemed to be amazed by it.
That led to my 2nd course, The Content Operating System.
18/ Added MRR
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
I noticed that each week I was spending time creating content templates for myself.
What if my audience wanted those too?
I tested it as a $9 upsell on each course.
8 months later it has 2,100+ subscribers.
Almost $19.3k MRR from something I was already doing.
19/ Started a newsletter
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
In January of 2022, I launched my newsletter, The Saturday Solopreneur.
I was determined to deliver one piece of actionable advice each Saturday AM that could be read in 4 minutes or less.
In the last 17 months, I've grown it to 115k+ subs.
20/ Added sponsorships
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
With over 115k subs, I can charge for each issue to be sponsored.
I have 2 slots per issue, per week, that sell for $2,500.
Now each weekly newsletter is paying $5,000, and people are getting their brand and business in front of a ton of readers.
Finally, here's what my business revenue looks like:
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
Products: $2.34M
Consulting: $1.17M
MRR: $197k
Sponsorships: $164k
Community: $130k
One last note:
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
While this thread might be easy to read, none of this was actually easy.
- It's taken ~4 years & 4,000 pieces of content
- There are days when I think it's all going away
- I'm an outlier - the creator game is tough
Does that mean you shouldn't try? No.
But...
You should have a very "long game" mentality.
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 22, 2023
1. Start a side project.
2. Build it to 60% of your salary
3. Then go all in.
Good luck! I'm rooting for you.
Thanks for taking some of your time to read this today.
Feel free to ask a question & I'll respond to as many as I can.
Please RT https://t.co/WSV9ukavy4
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023
Time to pivot and move up a little. Angel invest.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023
Invest 10K Now, Harvest 10M In 10 Yearshttps://t.co/46c9E5x24i
DemocracyTechhttps://t.co/fX1Weke5np
Soloprenuership may have defeated me, friends.
— Ryan Giordano (@rtgiordano) May 22, 2023
I’m prepping the resume and heading into the job market. Wish me luck.
I recently wrote a Tweet that generated:
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) May 23, 2023
- 2.6M Impressions
- 9K engagements
- 3K new followers
- 2.3K new email subs
I wrote it using a copywriting formula I created called VFCA.
Here's how it works (and how you can use it too):
I gave it a spin. https://t.co/CMltuYdHBi
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 23, 2023
