No cofounder? No problem

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Updated: February 13th, 2022

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No cofounder? No problem

Can't find a business partner? Want to start something on your own?

Although starting a business on your own can be challenging, there are always benefits to going at it alone, such as:

It's just you starting out with no dependents, no complexity.
You can start with little or no money, and even while you have a full-time job.
You make the rules, the culture, the hours, everything --- it's just you.
100% equity -- The startup is 100% yours.

We went through our database of successful businesses and found 100 examples of successful solo founders.

See the full list here.

6 figures selling presentation templates

Paul runs a portfolio of 50 websites with a team of around 45 people. The niches vary from legal to rehab to personal finance to graphic design. They make money from different sources: affiliate marketing, lead gen or selling digital products.

One of his latest projects is a website that sells presentation templates. And the interesting thing about it it's that almost all the distribution is done through marketplaces. These tend to take big commissions, but also take care of most of the marketing, so you can use your time on creating more products (or do nothing!).

Selling templates might be the ultimate passive income

Templates are a digital good that can become a fairly passive business (some of Paul's icon sets from 5 years ago still get sales). And using marketplaces to sell can make it even more passive. And the good thing is that you can sell templates for almost everything, like the starters on these success stories prove:

From junk to the bank [$15K business in 20 days]

Lewis and Ryan have a marketing agency that gets leads to contractors. That work helped them spot an opportunity to start a better junk removal business in their area.

And because they're experts at getting leads, they were able to design a strategy that got them clients right from the start. The ingredients of their recipe of success are:

Google My Business
Content (75+ pages for a junk removal service website?)
Local Buy-And-Sell Groups
Podcast
Personal Thank You Cards
Referral Program

Read their story to know all the details on how they executed all these to build a successful business in such a short period of time.

If just like Lewis and Ryan you're great at technology, you can easily digitize a junk removal business and blow the competition in your area out of the water with better service and higher margins (by leveraging technology and hiring experts to do the actual work).

But this just doesn't apply to junk removal. I bet there's a local and unsexy industry in your area where you can repeat this same play. You just need to search for businesses that

Are not sexy, and
Usually are run by people that are bad at technology\ Check our guides full of details (costs, pros and cons, budget) to get your foot in these lesser-known types of businesses:

A $1.4M/year home gig

There's nothing better than personal experience to learn the ins and outs of a business. And that's how Linh learnt everything about virtual assistants, building a virtual team for her digital agency.

That experience made her realize how much talent there was overseas that could help other businesses scale and grow that started a new business building a $1.4M/year community of virtual assistants that she runs from home and allows her to spend more time with her kid.

Nowadays, it's possible to start almost any business from home. Who doesn't want to be their own boss, make their own hours AND work from the comfort of their own living room?

To help you get started, we put together a list of 45 profitable home-based business ideas you can start from home today.

Some examples of successful businesses that started (and are still run) from home are:

Get more customers with this Twitter trick

We all love going to Twitter to see Elon Musk memes and read thoughtful posts of cool people. But Twitter can also be a great sales tool if you know how to use it.

Twitter advanced search is an underrated, little-known tool that's been extremely effective for marketers and small business owners. Available only on the web version, it's perfect for finding new customers and measuring the satisfaction of your competitors.

This tool will put leads right in front of you and will allow you to reach people who have a specific problem that your business could help with.

Read this detailed guide that we've just published and start taking advantage of this channel to get new customers.

Want to unlock more growth strategies for your business? In our growth database we have 200+ ways to help you get more visits, leads and customers.

1. Bootstrapping a $600K/year video production company [10M downloads]

2. I left a tech job to start living off my hobby (cars)

3. We built a $40K/month AI face recognition software [From India]

4. I started a $180K/year Africa-inspired accessories brand

5. $30K/year writing how-to guides

6. I spent all my savings to develop a Ghostboard analytics tool

7. I started my online food business at 17: it now earns $720K/year

8. We raised $1.4M to build an API management tool

9. I built a $408K/year knowledge base SaaS tool

10. How I created a six-figure virtual tech support company

Looking for a job, or some work on the side?

Get your feet wet before you take the plunge into founder life.

Many of the companies we interview are hiring in operations, design, marketing, engineering, and more...

Check out our jobs portal for all new opportunities - new jobs are added every day!

Thanks for reading!

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

See full profile

No cofounder? No problem

6 figures selling presentation templates

From junk to the bank [$15K business in 20 days]

A $1.4M/year home gig

Get more customers with this Twitter trick

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Looking for a job, or some work on the side?