Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business Kindle Edition

Paul wouldn't know it, but I'm one of his poster children.Four years ago I leaped into becoming my own company of one as an author and editor. I knew how to write and how to edit, but I didn't know how to run a business.A friend who'd just made the same leap highly recommended an online course I "absolutely had to take." That course was Paul Jarvis's Creative Class. I attribute my business's continued success to having taken that course.So, I was thrilled to see "Company of One" coming soon.I read it in a few days. It's accessible and full of encouraging stories from other companies of one, including Paul's own story. The book also provides plenty of arguments for why the company of one strategy—better, not bigger—may be the right fit for you.Lastly, two quotes from the end may tell you if this book is for you:"Enough is the antithesis of growth. Enough is the true north of building a company of one, and the opposite of the current paradigm promoting entrepreneurship, growth-hacking, and a startup culture.""Business success does not lie in growing something quickly and massively, but rather in building something that's both remarkable and resilient over the long term."Thanks to Paul, I've built a company of one that's so far proven resilient. Now, with the advice and encouragement of "Company of One," I hope to make it remarkable.

The benefit of this book is that it gives you permission to embrace the notion of "company of one." I think hearing a 15 min interview on the topic by the author is more valuable than reading this. For example, I don't need to hear for the 100th time about Google's policy of allowing employees time to work on pet projects (something mentioned on two occasions in the first part of the book).

I have been following Mr. Jarvis for over a year now, and we have exchanged email a few times. In the world of digital business gurus, he is a refreshing voice. Most gurus dangle the potential of becoming insanely rich and/or only have to work four hours a week as a promise to sell courses, books, software, and services. Jarvis is the antidote to these snake oil sales people. He is personal and sincere.When we first started emailing, he told me about the book and how he was working with a traditional publisher which meant it was going to take at least a year longer than if he self-published. I don't think that the delay added any value to the book...and I am interested to see whether the publishing deal translates into greater visibility and sales. I hope so since the author is a good person and more importantly these are important ideas that are not usually given much attention.Having waited a year for the book, though, I was disappointed. The ideas are important, and Jarvis does a good job of providing data and examples to support his point of view. Unfortunately, many of the stories he uses are of companies that are not companies of one. They may share some of his values about building relationships with customers and quality over growth, but they are not examples that support the larger argument about a company of one.There are examples of companies that do follow this model, and it is a missed opportunity to not talk more about those in greater depth. For example, he talks about a design firm that is a network of designers. It would be great to understand better how they operate, what systems they have in place, and how others could follow from than example.Jarvis talks about his accountant and lawyer, but I know from his other writings that he works with a team of other contractors. Yet the book does not really go into those details. Overall, the book is NOT a how to manual. It is what I would describe as a manifesto that articulates a particular vision and set of values, but it could do that much better. I wonder how much the publisher and editor influenced the direction of the book in this way, because it was not as strong as his weekly newsletters.My personal belief is that the future of business will be very large companies and lots of companies of one that form networks to solve problems. This book is a first step in articulating some of the values and reasons for this future. Interesting omissions, though, are the idea of the long tail and 1,000 true fans that are foundational to the shift from mass marketing and production to micro marketing and production that leverage personalization versus scale.Maybe the book would have been better as two books. One on the company of one and the other on relationship marketing. While these are related ideas and both reflect how Jarvis operates his own company, they are also separate. This would allow discussion of how companies like Basecamp operate to develop relationships with customers and how companies of one can operate their businesses.Despite my frustrations with the execution of the book, it is still a valuable read and important.

Paul Jarvis isn't a "thought leader" – he's a successful entrepreneur who has built multiple businesses. So when he presents advice like this, you listen.In just the first few pages, you encounter ideas like:- What if you responded to a growth in support requests by finding a better way to teach your customers how to use what you sell, so they didn’t have to ask questions as often?- What if you didn’t have to work more hours to finish a project but just more efficiently, so you could then enjoy more of your life away from work?It's a book about building a small business that allows you to enjoy more of your life. About saying, "$500,000 is enough profit for me, so I'm going to take the rest of the year off instead of trying to push the business further."He talks about things like finding a purpose, channeling your personality as a differentiator, maintaining customer relationships, setting up simple systems, and more. He also gives numerous real-world examples of tiny companies that have huge profits without chasing the mindset of mindless growth.If you like books like the Four Hour Workweek or Basecamp's Rework, this is great supplemental material.

If you're constantly stressed out, feel like you're always behind, and not #hustling the way you should be...read this book. It's the clarity and assurance you need to know that it doesn't have to feel this way, and success CAN be defined differently. I loved this book and it's practical, actionable advice around a shift in thinking about the way we view work and business-building. It was a fast read, well-written, and I found it utterly refreshing.

I've been a newsletter subscriber of Paul's for as while. Several years in fact. This book has made me look at my 20 year old company in a totally different light. I'm a company of one who wants to stay small but with the corporate background that made me think growth is better. Now I know I can keep my business small and still have enough. I highly recommend this book to any and all who want to build a business that supports your lifestyle with all the stress and headaches of a high growth cast track company. What an eye opener!

Paul Jarvis has a clear writing style and his book includes many valuable case studies to reinforce his idea that staying small with intention is the way to go for many of us with small businesses or aspirations to build a different life and way of working. It is easy to get sucked into the idea that bigger is better. I like how the book reminds us to get clear on motivations and being realistic about what comes with scaling a small business. Paul is clear on what is enough for him and his enthusiasm for companies of one is contagious. Company of One is an easy read and an important one.

I've always felt like an outsider and wasn't really understood in my career either working in an agency, in-house, freelance or consultant. The mindset of growth is dangerous for a lot of companies and employees as things can go bad and it's hard to fix them. Creating solid core principles that can support growth from strategy or processes should be a must for any business that wants control over their long term growth.Understanding growth and being able to influence it is the same as being able to control and know how to drive a formula 1 race car. Things will go bad if you're doing things you're not ready for.Great book that opens and asks the questions you need to think about if you don't want to run your company to the ground. I also enjoyed the principle of empathy (towards employees, customers, partners,...) that rarely anyone understands today. There are amazing opportunities (that not many companies do!) when you approach your problems from this angle.

If you're just out of business school, this is probably useful. If you've been around the block - even just once - it doesn't say very much, over and over. Like most business books, there's a 2,500 word essay hiding in 250 pages.

I am half way through this book but would give it 5 stars even at this stage because it is truly standing out as a game changer in the business/start up/make money genre. Most books and guidance on starting out in commerce/business are about scaling up in one form or another. This one goes completely against the grain and author Paul Jarvis gently leads you through the whys and hows of such a rationale. His approach is thoughtful rather than directive and allows the reader to contemplate, with many examples, the pros and cons of organically growing a business within flexible boundaries that are conceived from the start. It is a great read for someone starting out and bootstrapping their way in business but also very good for business owners, managers, corporate directors and CEOs who have been seduced by the blue sky approach to growth and are now well and truly on a speeding gravy train that could crash out of control. Mr Jarvis clearly describes the harder fall that can result from this kind of over scaling. True, an ambitiously scaling business might just fly but there are many other problems and downsides that come with that which may not necessarily suit the owners, directors, employees or customers. Importantly, scaling up big time with all the associated issues it brings may not suit the company or organisation’s raison d’être, mission or ethos. This book is a discussion on humility in business- a condition which is not common and something which we can all learn from.

This book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be; a guide finding the courage to leave your current job, or a guide to what to do once you have left.As a long-time company of one, this book didn't give me anything new whatsoever, and no real concrete advice I could use. Midway through I felt sure it wasn't going to provide, but I finished it anyway.It's a valiant attempt, but more hype than substance.Save yourself the time and get the value you need on a forum like Indie Hackers instead.