It’s not fair for the book that I’ve read a lot around this topic and I feel some of the ideas in it are “repeated”. Yet, if this was the first book I read on the topic I’m sure I’d feel different.
Nevertheless, it’s a great choice for anyone thinking about starting a one-person business.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 4/5
Mindset: 3/5
Some of My Highlights:
“Employees, executive leaders, board members, and corporate leaders who want to work with more autonomy and self-sufficiency can adopt the principles of a company of one as well.”
“More is generally the easiest answer, but not the smartest.”
“If you’re a company of one, your mind-set is to build your business around your life, not the other way around.”
“…the four typical traits of all companies of one: resilience, autonomy, speed, and simplicity.”
“But to achieve autonomy as a company of one, you have to be a master at your core skill set.”
“Basically, you have to be good at your skill set before you can expect to achieve autonomy from using it.”
“Companies of one question their systems, processes, and structure to become more efficient and to achieve more with the same number of employees and fewer hours of work.”
“This is the concept at work in the ROWE method: employees no longer have to work a set amount of time, but are rewarded when they finish their tasks faster.”
“Part of Sean’s customer retention strategy involves sending his customers a box of chocolates, with a handwritten note and sometimes a small cartoon he draws himself.”
“They’ll buy a $2,000 training program from him and talk about the chocolate.”
“A study done by the Startup Genome Project, which analyzed more than 3,200 high-growth tech startups, found that 74 percent of those businesses failed, not because of competition or bad business plans, but because they scaled up too quickly.”
“Companies of one instead focus on stability, simplicity, independence, and long-term resilience and rely on starting small and becoming as profitable as possible, without the need for outside investment.”
“I doubled my rates over and over until the demand only slightly exceeded the time I had available to do the work.”
“When you hire employees, you’re responsible for them. You’re their source of income that goes toward paying their mortgages, feeding their families, and even sending their children to college. That’s a heavy responsibility.”
“…you’ve got to be a leader to successfully pitch your services or products, as well as maintain relationships with clients or customers.”
“Another quality that helps is setting extremely high goals – for yourself and for others.”
“Just as autonomy can only be of benefit once a skill set is mastered, a company of one that operates as a small team requires real experience from each member if they are to function both separately and as a whole without very much managing required.”
“I give the people I hire full autonomy to do their jobs so I can do mine, with no need for meetings, or check-ins, or management.”
“A leader’s job is to provide clear direction and then get out of the way.”