Company of One Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

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Brief Summary

Business doesn’t look the way it used to. You don’t have to have a whole team of people to be running a company. You just need you.

A company of one prioritizes profit over growth. Starting small with a simple idea and launching it as quickly as possible to begin generating revenue is the first step. Products and services can always be expanded later.

Your approach is not to think of what “more” you can add whenever there’s an issue. Instead, you think of creative ways to solve problems. When you need to pivot, you do it without wasting time dealing with hierarchy. With everything your company of one does, you’re able to be nimble without the bureaucracy to deal with.

Of course, there are challenges. Only you can make yourself work, which is critical to your company of one succeeding. The regular company needs like accounting don’t go away just because that’s not your expertise. You have to find ways to meet all the business needs without drowning in additional expenses and more overhead.

But you’re poised to compete well. You have a lean operation. If you can resonate with customers, you’re on your way. Tell people your story and connect with them. Build their trust through great work and listening to their feedback. Then use networks to keep your business growing even if it stays a company of one.

About the Author

Paul Jarvis is a writer and designer with a vast amount of experience in IT and digital media.

His previous work has been consulting with a variety of clients. Corporate clients included Yahoo, Mercedes-Benz, and Microsoft. He also worked with professional athletes to help them navigate their online presence. Big names in this group include Shaquille O’Neal, Warren Sapp, and Steve Nash. After that, he helped online entrepreneurs build their brands.

Jarvis walks the talk of his book as his own company of one. Since venturing out, he’s created online courses reaching more than 10,000 students. He also spends time writing, creating podcasts, and developing software.

He does all this from his home. Jarvis lives with his wife on Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia.

Topics

Entrepreneurship Management & Leadership

Company of One Book Summary Preview

Key Insights

Most people who start a company are thinking about how they can make it bigger. Success is determined by having more of everything. You want more employees, more customers, more office space, and (of course) more profit.

Company of One challenges the push to have more, cautioning against the higher costs and lower control that come with growth. If you keep your business small, you are more agile. You also have more autonomy over your day inside and outside of work.

If you’re interested in being a company of one, you have to distinguish it from a freelance career. While both have the freedom to decide how much to work, a freelancer doesn’t get paid unless they work. A company will be able to make money even when you’re not working.

More isn’t always better.

The focus of a company of one is not growth. Many organizations have their sights set on becoming large operations. That means hiring more staff to cover marketing, accounting, legal, human resources, and more. These organizations will put more money into real estate for offices and technology to have cutting-edge tools and systems.

A company of one takes a different approach. You purposefully start small and scale very carefully. When there are issues, you don’t believe that putting “more” into the problem is necessarily the solution. Instead, you use the autonomy that comes with being a lean operation to your advantage.

A company of one doesn’t just have to be one person.

It may feel like a misnomer, but the principles of a company of one aren’t limited to a single-person business. It is about the mindset more than the actual organizational structure. This means that you can be a company of one even if you work at a large organization.

Questioning whether or not growth is the solution is the key to being a “company of one.” As a company that just has you or a small number of employees, you keep the organization from growing unnecessarily even if that means not taking on additional clients. If you’re a company of one within a large organization, you also question growth and keep your part of the operation lean.

Done well, a company of one is efficient and offers simplicity and autonomy.

When there’s just you at the company, you have to be good at what you do. There’s no safety net or a team of people to pick up the slack. If you’re going to set out to be a company of one, it is helpful if you have experience in traditional companies building your skills.

For example, a digital strategist works for five years with an agency before hanging out her shingle. She is an expert in what she does, but she has also discovered how she works best. This includes the time of day that is best for her to do the actual work and when she can do other things like taking meetings.

Understanding how you work best and operating around that is a benefit of the operation of a company of...