This is the second part of the 2-part series about the idea of earning a million bucks. The first one covered the simple math and the notion of dividing the big goal into small, digestible chunks so you can trick your mind on the way there.
In this part, we’ll dive a little bit deeper into monetization and sales strategies. So let’s get to it.
Monetization Models That Multiply Your Revenue
How you charge for your product matters almost as much as what you charge.
Most of us think about products as one-time purchases because that’s what we’re used to in the physical world. You go to a store, buy something, pay once, it’s yours. Done. And yes, that model works for certain digital products too – ebooks, courses, templates, one-off consultations.
But your product might represent a different kind of value, one that makes more sense as a recurring purchase.
The Subscription Model
If you offer a consultation service, someone might need your help today and then again in three months. Instead of selling single sessions, you could package it as a monthly retainer or a multi-session package with payment plans.
This does two things: it makes the purchase easier for the client (spreading payments over time), and it makes your income more predictable. Once you have 20 clients on a monthly consulting retainer, you know exactly what’s coming in each month.
The classic example is SaaS platforms – software where you pay monthly or annually for access. Carrd does this with its $19/year premium plan. It’s not a huge amount per person, but multiply it by tens of thousands of users, and you’ve got serious revenue.
Lenny Rachitsky runs Lenny’s Newsletter, a Substack publication about product management. He has more than 1,000,000 free subscribers and roughly 18,000 paying members (maybe more) who each pay around $150 per year. That’s over $2 million in annual revenue from a newsletter. One person. No employees. Just valuable content delivered consistently.
Pieter Levels shared data showing that a subscription business model can make around $2 million by year five, compared to only $183,000 for a one-off sales business with similar user growth. The compounding effect of recurring revenue is that powerful.
One-Time Sales
That said, one-time sales still have their place. If you’re selling something that doesn’t require ongoing updates or support – like a comprehensive ebook or a template pack – then charging once makes sense. You create it, sell it, and the customer owns it forever.
It’s simpler to execute, especially when you’re just starting. You don’t have to maintain a service or constantly create new content to justify a subscription.
Digital artist Beeple sold a single NFT artwork for $69 million at Christie’s auction in 2021. That’s an extreme outlier, obviously, but it proves that one-time sales can still generate massive numbers under the right circumstances.
My first product is an example of a one-time sales model. It’s a package of AI prompts with detailed instructions (including video tutorials) and an algorithm of content creation for your brand: ANTIghostwriter. It’s a digital product, so I can sell it potentially an infinite amount of times while creating it once. I have to mention that I still update the product if the prompts need to be refreshed, so it’s not exactly zero work after the first production cycle. But still, it falls under the category “create once, sell infinite”.
The Hybrid Approach
“The smartest don’t choose between high-ticket and low-ticket – they use both.” – Ken Yarmosh
Personally, I think the smartest move is combining these models. Have a low-priced one-time product as your entry point. Maybe add a mid-priced subscription or membership option for people who want ongoing value. Then offer a high-ticket service or program for those ready to invest more deeply.
This way, you’re not leaving money on the table. Someone who can’t afford your $2,000 program can still benefit from your $50 ebook. And that $50 ebook customer might become a $2,000 customer six months down the line once they see the value you deliver.
Service Packages and Retainers
For service-based One Person Businesses, packaging your offerings into retainers or multi-session commitments changes everything. Instead of constantly hunting for the next client, you build a roster of ongoing relationships.
Let’s say you land 10 clients at $5,000 per month each. That’s $50,000 monthly, $600,000 annually. Get to 15 or 20 clients, and you’re well past a million. Is it easy? No. But it’s achievable, especially in specialized fields like design, development, or strategic consulting.
The key principle across all these models: if your product requires your constant participation and ongoing attention, subscription pricing makes sense. If it’s something you create once and it works forever, one-time pricing is probably better. Match the monetization to the value delivery model.
The Repeatable Sales Process: Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time
Let me tie this all together with the most important concept: to earn a million dollars, you need a repeatable sales process. That might sound obvious, but a lot of beginners, myself included, miss this.
You’re not going to wake up one morning and find a million dollars in your bank account (unless you win the lottery, but that’s not a business strategy). Instead, you’re executing the same fundamental process over and over: someone discovers your product, sees the value, makes a purchase, and hopefully tells others about it.
The beauty of breaking down that million-dollar goal is that it makes the path concrete. Okay, I need to sell my $100 product 10,000 times. What does that mean? Maybe 30 sales per day for a year. Or 200 sales per week. Suddenly it’s not this mystical goal, but a daily or weekly target you can actually track and work toward.
Now, will all those sales happen steadily? Probably not. Some days you’ll make zero sales. Some weeks you’ll make 50. If you time things right – maybe a Black Friday promotion or a well-executed launch campaign – you might move hundreds of units in a single day.
The research backs up this repeatable process idea. It’s the foundation of any scalable business model. Software businesses scale because the same software serves customer number 1 and customer number 10,000 identically. Course businesses scale because you create the content once and sell it infinitely. Even service businesses can scale through systems and processes that make delivery more efficient.
Build Systems
What you’re really building is a machine – not a literal machine, but a system of marketing, selling, delivering, and supporting that can run again and again with increasing efficiency. Early on, it’s clunky and manual. Over time, with the right tools and automation, it gets smoother.
The solopreneurs making seven figures aren’t working 100-hour weeks manually fulfilling every order (at least not for long). They’ve automated what can be automated, outsourced what should be outsourced, and focused their personal time on the highest-leverage activities: creating great products and optimizing the system.
And here’s something important to remember: most one-person million-dollar businesses don’t literally mean one person does everything. It means one person owns and operates the business, but they might use contractors for specific tasks, automation tools to handle repetitive work, or platforms that provide the infrastructure.
When I say “One Person Business,” I mean you’re the sole owner and decision-maker. You’re not hiring employees, building a team, managing people. You’re building smart, using leverage, and keeping the business as lean as possible while maximizing output.
Your Path Forward in the One Person Business Economy
Here’s what gets me excited about all this: we’re living through an explosion in one-person businesses reaching seven figures. Remember those numbers from the previous article? The count doubled in just one year – from 57,222 in 2021 to 116,803 in 2022. That’s a fundamental shift in how people are building businesses.
Part of it is technology, another part of it is the internet reaching maturity and providing real global distribution. And the final piece of it is people realizing they don’t need venture capital or employees to build something valuable. Tools exist now that let one person do what required a team of ten people just a decade ago.
Some business leaders are predicting even wilder things. Entrepreneur coach Mike Brown said:
“AI is creating unprecedented opportunities; it’s like democratized leverage. Thanks to AI and automation, we could soon see a billion-dollar one-person company.”
Is that speculative? Absolutely. But the trajectory is clear – the ceiling for what one person can build keeps rising.
So where does that leave you? Start with the pricing and volume combination that feels most achievable given your current skills and situation. If you can command high prices because you have deep expertise in a specialized area, maybe you go after 100 clients at $10,000 each. If you’re better at building digital products that scale, maybe you aim for 10,000 customers at $100.
Find You Own Way
There’s no single “right” answer. The right answer is the one you can actually execute on consistently.
Be realistic about the learning curve. Yes, building a One Person Business is accessible to practically anyone with internet access and the ability to write or create. But “accessible” doesn’t mean “easy.” It requires self-discipline, marketing skills, and often technical abilities too. About 20% of full-time solopreneurs make between $100,000 and $300,000 – that’s great income, but still short of that million-dollar mark.
Getting to seven figures requires something extra. Usually it’s finding exceptional leverage – whether that’s:
- A product that scales without you (software, courses)
- An audience that grows exponentially (content/media)
- Premium positioning that commands 10x normal prices (elite consulting)
- Network effects that make your offering more valuable as more people use it (communities, platforms)
As I continue studying these strategies and working toward my own first product launch, I’m committed to sharing what I learn – what works, what doesn’t, what was harder than expected, what was easier. Because the most valuable lessons come from real implementation, not just theory.
The math is clear and the paths are proven. Real people – not just theoretical examples, but actual solo entrepreneurs – are earning seven figures right now using exactly these strategies. The question isn’t whether it’s possible, the question is which path fits you best and whether you’re willing to put in the work to execute it consistently.
Start with what you can deliver real value on today. Build your repeatable system. Use the internet’s scale to your advantage. And remember: you don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be persistent and smart about how you apply leverage.
That million dollars is just math. Break it down, pick your path, and start working the numbers.