How To Become Stupidly Wealthy With A One-Person Business

The New Direction For The Creator Economy & Hustlers

Let’s talk about one of the most underrated ways to build real wealth today: The one-person business.

No employees. No office. No investor meetings.

Just you (maybe a few contractors), a laptop, some AI tools, and a smart system that prints cash around the clock.

This is exactly how I became a millionaire in my mid-twenties. I started and scaled a content business, ran at around 85% margins, and eventually sold that business. All of this happened with zero employees and zero weekly meetings.

This is also the path many creators and entrepreneurs are unlocking now.

These aren’t simple side hustles either. And it’s not endlessly trading your time for money as a freelancer.

This is building a legitimate business, run by a skilled operator, that can generate $10K, $20K, and even $50K+ per month at killer margins.

Want to do the same thing?

Well, today I’m breaking down

1. What a one-person business actually is (and what it isn’t)

2. Three proven business models that work

3. How to start today (and scale fast with AI)

4. The pros and cons you should know

Let’s go!

What Is A One-Person Business?

A one-person business is exactly what it sounds like: a business where you’re the only full-time person involved.

You don’t manage a team. You don’t run daily standups (please shoot me in the head if you ever put me in an AGILE meeting again). You don’t need HR software. You can work from a cabin in Montana or a beach in Bali and still pull in six or seven figures a year.

But this isn’t the same as freelancing.

That’s because a one-person business relies on building leverage to scale whereas freelancing involves trading your time and skills for money.

These one-person businesses succeed because they rely on different kinds of leverage that can start producing outsized returns over time:

• Content + algorithms

• Contractors + systems

• Paid traffic + offers you own

• AI + automations

Let’s look at how some of these businesses actually function in practice.

Option 1: The High-Margin Rocket

This one-person business model is about building a monetized system and then letting algorithms distribute it at scale for you, completely for free.

In other words, this involves playing the virality + content leverage game.

Here are some examples:

• Selling a paid Notion template that goes viral on Twitter or TikTok

• Organic TikTok dropshipping through TikTok shops

• A course that you sell through YouTube videos

• A newsletter that grows through shareable lead magnets

• A brand that goes viral on TikTok or Instagram

This is the framework I used to earn over $1 million with low-ticket CPA offers…I built a blog, targeted long-tail keywords in the personal finance niche, and blasted my affiliate content pages with free Google traffic for a couple of years:

Now, blogging + longtail keywords doesn’t really work anymore. But you get the idea…This one-person business model is all about leveraging free algorithmic traffic and wins to deliver insanely high margins for a brief period of time.

This is how creators build $50K months out of nowhere. They go viral on Instagram, sell some merch and coaching programs, and then sail off into the digital sunset as the hype dies down.

The only catch?

It’s often feast or famine. If the algorithm shifts, your sales might too.

But if you win? You win big.

Again - my blog scaled from $0 to $1M+ over 5 years. It ran some months at 90% margins. And then one day, Google killed it. But it had made the money it needed to make before the flame went out.

💵💻 Want to try this one-person business model: You can get my new YouTube Freedom Launchpad to get the framework I use to automate and scale niche YouTube channels into profitable businesses.

Option 2. The Leverage Play

This is the “growth-mode” model where you take a bit more control over your own destiny versus relying on going viral or algorithmic traffic to your business.

Now for most people, this involves spending money on ads so you collect leads and customers for your business.

It’s still a one-person business, but now you're acting like a real owner-operator.

Here are a few more examples:

• Running paid ads to a digital product or affiliate offer

• Running paid ads as a lead generation service

• Building your own dropshipping brand

• Running a print on demand business

• Buying a simple SaaS product or ecommerce operation that’s already cash flowing and taking over as the operator

This model is for people who want predictability and scale. You pour fuel on a system that already works.

I know many people running one-person businesses like this. A lot of them are amazing media buyers who have backgrounds in PPC advertising of some kind, or agency work. Now, they run highly profitable lead generation businesses or paid affiliate marketing campaigns and rake in cash without any employees.

The main downside of this one-person business model is that you need some starting cash (and media-buying skill) to ramp. But again, when you get the machine running, the profits are all yours.

Option 3. The Middleman Model

This is where you sell a service you don’t deliver yourself. You just connect the dots and take a cut along the way.

The modern/trendy word for this is “drop-servicing.” But really, the gist of this is you’re selling clients a service you then provide through outsourcing or simple matchmaking.

Here are some examples:

• An influencer agency that pairs brands with creators and takes a cut of any contracts

• Selling video editing, copywriting, or web design services to people and outsourcing the work

• UGC or short-form video agencies that outsource everything

You focus on client acquisition and process. The actual work? You outsource all of it.

This model is great for people with sales chops, ops brains, or both. You can start lean, cash-flow fast, and scale with systems.

I know some very successful agency owners in the influencer marketing space. Many of them have larger companies now, but many still run boutique agencies that have zero employees and rely on contractors.

😎 PS: Here’s my updated list of money-making tools I use to run my businesses. This includes helpful AI software plus some other cool stuff, like my Skool community and some fun earning opportunities.

How To Start A One-Person Business & Scale Fast With AI

You don’t need to be a genius to create a successful one-person business. You need a clear offer, a traffic source, and a little hustle. Here's a simple roadmap you can follow:

Step 1: Pick Your Model

Start with the one that fits your skill level and risk tolerance:

• No budget? → High-Margin Launch could be your best play since you’re not spending money at the start,

• Have capital or media-buying skills? → Leverage play is for you.

• Good with sales/people? → Middleman model is worth considering.

For me, I love messing around with high-margin launches.

There’s something so deeply satisfying about building an offer, creating content around it, and then getting essentially free conversions when one of your video hits.

Now I’m branching into more paid ads for acquisition so I control my fate a bit more. But if you’re new to making money online, my advice is to build some social media theme pages or mess around with free traffic ideas to essentially get paid to learn.

Step 2: Choose A Simple Offer

Start with something people already pay for and build your business around this offer:

• Templates, guides, or mini-courses

• Niche services (ghostwriting, email setup, SEO audits, faceless YouTube, you name it)

• Print-on-demand or dropshipping products

• Affiliate offers with good payouts

• Lead generation offers

Make it simple. You can iterate later.

I know of someone making absolute bank by running lead generation services for locksmiths in a couple of states…Millions in revenue per year, all by dominating this one offer across Google Ads in a few states. It’s wild.

Step 3: Pick A Traffic Channel

Every solo business needs a growth engine. Choose one:

• Long-Form YouTube → Evergreen content with a long shelf life

• TikTok & Shorts → Viral potential that also provides fast feedback

• Twitter & LinkedIn → Build audience + authority and sell higher-ticket services or products

• Blog + newsletter → Build a captive email audience and then start selling

• Paid ads → Learn how to use ads to scale your business without waiting for the algorithm

Step 4: Use AI To Automate & Scale

This is the new-age strategy for running a one-person business: using AI and automations to scale whatever model you’re running.

This is also where you start to see outsized returns once your machine is running and kicking back cash.

Here are some nifty tools you can consider adding to your workflows:

Build Faster:

• ChatGPT: Write content, scripts, landing pages, emails and any copy you need

• Durable.co: Launch websites in 30 seconds

• Canva + Magic Write: Create designs + copy for ads and products

• Kittl / Leonardo.Ai: Design merch, logos, and mockups for your business

Automate The Boring Stuff:

• Zapier/Make: Auto-send leads to your CRM, Stripe data to a spreadsheet, new buyers to email flows and much more

• TweetHunter / Hypefury: Schedule content, auto-DM offers

• Tidio / ManyChat: Use AI chatbots for sales or support

Scale Smarter:

• AdCreative.ai: Test dozens of ad variations and creative assets

• Copy.ai / Jasper: Build marketing assets in minutes

• Notion AI / Taskade: Plan your week, track content, and stay organized

This is how a one-person business feels like a five-person team—without hiring anyone.

And this is just scratching the surface. There’s so many AI-powered productivity tools out there that help business owners scale and automate areas of their business.

Even now, I’m refining my YouTube framework with new AI tools like Gling and Opus Clips. This lets me bring my costs down further while ramping up production for a win-win scenario.

Why One-Person Businesses Are Awesome

Here are the main reasons I love the one-person business model:

• High Margins – It’s possible to run at 80% to 90% or higher margins in some cases

• Ultimate Freedom – Work from anywhere. No team meetings, no headaches.

• Financial Independence – High margins and periods of massive wins can buy your freedom.

• Sellable Assets – Many solo businesses are easy to sell to other owner-operators or larger companies.

• Snowball Effect - As you stack wins and they compound, you reap all the benefit. Again, this is why one-person businesses are a cheat code for reaching financial independence.

• Tax Benefits - The cheat code is paying corporate tax rates while running your business as a solo owner-operator.

Why These Businesses Sometimes Suck

Alright, here are some of the downsides:

• Algorithm Risk – You’re dependent on external platforms with some of these models. I’ve had a few businesses crushed by algorithm changes, and it’s always painful.

• You’re The Business – Unless you systemize, you’re self-employed. Sometimes, this feels like just building yourself an expensive job that takes 60 hours a week if you’re not careful.

• No Backup – If you burn out, the business pauses.

• Lower Ceiling - Most one-person businesses have an earning ceiling. Frankly, I’m fine with this. I don’t want to complicate my life and “build an amazing team” or whatever. But this also means there’s a cap on revenue and growth.

What’s Next?

You don’t need investors. You don’t need a team. You don’t even need a big idea.

You just need a system, a skill, and a channel.

The path to stupid wealth might just be a solo one—and AI is making it easier than ever to walk it.

So start small. Pick a model. Take imperfect action. And when something works?

Scale the hell out of it.

I’m doing this currently with CPA offers and lead gen, funnels through YouTube, blogs, and email lists. And I’m loving every moment of it!

It might take some time to get the hang of things. But you never know where a one-person business might take you until you dive in.

Thanks for reading!

You can find more of my work and favorite tools here 👉 https://pillar.io/tomblakefinance