Think Like A Million-Dollar, One-Person Business Owner During The Crisis

No business owner is immune to world events that devastate the economy—but some manage to find a way to move their business forward in the toughest of conditions.

When I reached out million-dollar, one-person business owners I’ve profiled in this column to see how they’re responding to the unprecedented coronavirus crisis, I found that these scrappy street fighters have brought the same resourceful attitude that got them to $1 million to the current situation.

These entrepreneurs operate in very different industries but have all gotten to one-million in revenue in what the U.S. Census Bureau calls “nonemployer firms” —those with no employees except the owners. They achieved this by relying on automation, the use of contractors, outsourcing and other creative strategies to stretch their resources.  Some opted to keep their business to that size while others have added employees or moved onto running new companies with employees since I originally profiled them. 

All were very concerned about the crisis and its public health implications when I spoke with them, but each found a way to stay positive and focused on keeping their businesses strong when I spoke with them. If you are looking for some creative ideas for your own business, here are some of the strategies they are using to tough it out. 

Plan ahead. Janine Iannarelli, a broker of pre-owned aircraft who runs the company Par Avion, didn’t waste time when she read about the spread of COVID-19. Six weeks ago, she began asking her clients in Europe to consider relocating their aircraft to Houston, where she is based, because that would give her easier access to sell them when it was safe to do so. 

“I was trying to get ahead of the damage,” she says. “If I could position the aircraft here in Texas I’d have access by car. When our market comes back to life, people will feel freer about coming to look.”

Iannarelli, who has always worked from home and built a fully-outfitted office in her garage as she grew the business to three part-timers, has found that keeping a very lean footprint is helping her weather the unpredictable market. 

“There is no better time to be a small business in the aircraft brokerage industry,” she says. “I have watched the large companies staff up only to have to slash employees the moment a crisis hits. I’m not going to be pressured because of cash flow.”

Think like a “caveman.Steve Ferreira, founder of Ocean Audit, a shipping audit company based in the Hartford, Ct., area, helps retailers and automotive firms detect errors on the bills that shipping firms send them for orders such as giant shipments of garments—taking a 50% commission of the money he recoups. He built his one-man firm to more than $1 million in revenue that way. 

In the current downturn, Ferreira isn’t slowing down his efforts to find new customers. “To expand your business, you have to think like a caveman exploring and looking under every rock,” he jokes.

He does that using social media, such as LinkedIn. One night last week, he reached out to a senior executive who was active on LinkedIn at 11:30 pm. with an idea for her business. “I’m always solving problems,” he says.

He was pleasantly surprised when she wrote back and said she would pass his information on to her team.

Then again, why wouldn’t she, at a time many companies are cost-cutting? “I offered her a money-saving solution,” says Ferreira.

Create new business partnerships. Patrick Murray, who runs Noson, a San Francisco company that helps airport parking lots fill empty spots by offering this excess capacity at a discount to online consumers, has seen business plummet during the coronavirus crisis, as governments and airlines have limited air travel. 

The nonemployer business, which now has revenue in the low-seven figures, grew 100% year over year in January and February. By mid-March, however, the coronavirus situation caused sales to plummet from 150-170 reservations a day to just 14. “Some of the airport parking lots we partner with have shut down,” he says. 

Murray had to cut back on the work he farms out to contractors—“it brought tears to my eyes talking with the team,” he says—at a stressful time. His wife is a geriatric physician who practices on-call medicine for home-bound patients, and they are juggling the demands with raising an 18-month old. 

However, Murray realized there is still opportunity in the market and is moving ahead. He’s been reaching out to national parking providers who were previously too busy to talk with him about filling their excess parking capacity. “They’re happy to gtry us out in markets I never thought they would have,” he says. These efforts are bringing results. He just launched two partnerships to provide pre-flight parking in Houston. 

In New York, his company is also helping to provide parking to workers at essential businesses—those that must stay open in the crisis, through its website. “People that need to get to the city aren’t taking public transportation, Uber or Lyft,” he says. The company is now working on an app to make it easier for customers to book a space. 

Amp up online marketing. Many entrepreneurs react to slowing economies by assuming no one is buying anything—and cutting back on their marketing drastically. Not Jason Vander Griendt, who broke $1 million in revenue at J-Cad, his Toronto-based business, which does product design. He relies on a team of about 40 contractors all over the world, who have worked remotely since the company started. 

When he noticed that the cost-per-click for his Google ads was dropping recently, he asked his team to investigate and discovered that some competitors were buying fewer ads, in some cases because they closed or were not set up to work remotely. When his team asked if he wanted to cut back, he said no. “Now is the time to acquire a bunch of customers,” he told them. 

He was onto something. “March just exploded,” he said. “I noticed my close rate rising this week. My customer is reaching out to fewer companies to get a quote. If I’m the first to respond, I’ll close the deal more often than not.”

(Because of the crisis, Vander Griendt has made an online course he launched on entrepreneurship free, in case any readers are looking for ideas.).

Explore new lines of business. Meeting planner Alicia Schiro, owner of Aced It Events in New York City, built the business to $1 million in revenue as a solopreneur. With the meetings industry devastated by the coronavirus crisis, which led to the cancellation and postponement of live events, she has shifted her attention to online events. 

One offering that’s catching on with her clients is bringing celebrities to the quarterly meetings many companies are now holding online. Many stars are at home sheltering in place—and are happy to do remote work. “It’s the same thing we’ve been doing all along,” she says. “Now we’re doing it a different way.”

This type of work pays less than her usual projects, but Schiro is embracing the chance to add a new offering to her business. “That’s the key—making yourself focus on what you can do today, and not worrying how long this will go on,” she says. 

Explore different price points. Dan Faggella, a Boston-based entrepreneur, grew his one-man martial arts ecommerce store Science of Skill to seven-figure revenue before selling it to a group of investors. That allowed him to move onto his next business, Emerj, an AI research consultancy, where he has spoken to the United Nations, the World Bank and INTERPOL about the competitive strategy implications of AI. 

Faggella has grown his latest business to three full-time employees and six part-timers on payroll, so, given current market conditions, he’s looking for creative ways to keep sales humming. “We’re doing a lot of touching base with our audience to get a sense of how priorities are shifting,” Faggella says. “We’re doing a lot of research and creating more economically accessible offerings.”

In early April, the company is doing a product launch for a $50 a month subscription to its online learning programs, geared toward business trends he sees taking shape. “A lot of our efforts are pivoting toward ecommerce,” says Faggella. 

Fortunately, that’s an area that he knows well from his previous million-dollar, one-man business. “This is a return to my roots,” says Faggella. “I’m leaning an elbow back on my leanest business ever.” 

Figuring out how to get things done with a minimum of resources is an advantage for any business right now.



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