How I would build a million dollar business from scratch
In this post I’m sharing what I would do if my entire business disappeared tomorrow and I had to rebuild it again from scratch.
Building a million dollar a year business may seem completely overwhelming but it’s honestly not that complicated when you break it down step by step.
Here’s what I would do…
STEP 1: WORK OUT WHAT I KNOW MORE ABOUT THAN OTHER PEOPLE
The first step I would do is to find a topic or area of interest that I know more about than other people - this will eventually be the topic that I create my business around.
Ideally this will be a topic that I’m already very confident in and know a lot about - e.g. I could talk unprepared about all different aspects of the topic quite easily and without much preparation. I also would pick something I’m passionate about as building a business is hard work and you need to love what you’re doing!
Although it is possible to build a business around something you’re still learning yourself (e.g. by documenting your own journey as you learn more), this won’t be the fastest way to establish yourself as a credible expert in the space or be able to provide the social proof that you know what you’re talking about. And you’re going to need both of these ingredients to be able to build up a business from scratch.
So for me a few topics that I know more about than other people PLUS can talk about unprepared include:
Starting + growing an online business
Interior design and renovating
How to get a PhD - e.g. study habits, research tips and techniques, planning and time management
Health and fitness
How to give up alcohol
Productivity and time management
Helping children practice their musical instrument (due to my background as a classical musician and now parent of a child studying music)
I know quite a bit about all of those topics but I’m not passionate about all of them so I would be careful about which one I chose to make sure that I enjoyed the topic and had a lot to say about it.
It’s also important to think about the topic against some objective measures of whether it will be possible to build a successful business off the back of that topic.
In my course Online Course Creator we talk all about how to stress test your topic choices against those objective measures - e.g. on whether it will make you money, whether your ideal clients can actually pay you/afford to work with you and a whole lot of other things as well.
Although I believe you can build a successful business about almost any topic or niche area - you definitely will find it easier and faster to choose a niche/topic that ranks highly against some of those objective measures.
In addition, if your topic can help people with at least one of the most common pain points in life then you’re on to a winner.
Some of those common pain points are:
money and finances (e.g. how to make more, career enhancement opportunities, professional development)
health and fitness (e.g. how to lose weight, get in better health, mental health improvements)
relationships (e.g. how to improve relationships, be more connected, be less lonely)
time (e.g. how to save people time, how to help people maximise their time)
STEP 2: START SHARING HELPFUL, INTERESTING CONTENT
Once I have chosen a topic the next thing I would do is start creating helpful and interesting content around that topic.
The platforms I would pick to do this would be:
YouTube
Email Newsletter
Instagram or Twitter
In particular what I would create in terms of weekly content is this:
2 YouTube videos per week
1 email newsletter per week
Daily posts on my chosen social platform - e.g. Instagram or Twitter
This might sound like a lot of content to create each week but in order to grow an online community you need to be prepared to put a lot of effort into content creation. And if you want to start a business from scratch then content creation should be the number 1 focus in the beginning in order to try and grow a community as fast as possible.
In addition to my weekly content creation I would also create at least one, but ideally up to three, lead magnets that I could promote in my YouTube videos and on my social media in order to attract people to give me their email address and get them to come and join my email newsletter.
These lead magnets would be highly valuable.
Fluffy, obvious and surface level content won’t attract people to download them. Make your lead magnets really valuable. A good rule of thumb is that if you feel you could sell it as a digital download it’s probably good enough content for a lead magnet.
Most of the lead magnets I have for free on my FREE RESOURCES page for designers are things that I see other people trying to sell on the internet regularly. So put effort into your lead magnets and make them as good as possible.
In addition to my weekly content I would create a simple website for my new brand using a platform like Squarespace.
A page or two (e.g. landing page and about me page) would be all I would do on this to start. I wouldn’t waste too much time on this as my time is best spent on creating content elsewhere at this stage. But it’s good to have the website active to give my brand some legitimacy if someone starts coming to look for information about me elsewhere. It’s also a place to host my new lead magnets and collect email addresses.
In terms of what I would post in my weekly content, it would be things like:
answering questions I used to have about the topic (before I knew what I know now)
documenting the process of how I solve problems around that topic
before and after stories of my own transformation with the topic
how I think differently about the topic than others (so I stand out with my original thought not just copy what everyone else is doing)
share how-tos around the topic
share resources (e.g. books, podcasts or other resources that have helped me)
tips or explainer videos
tutorials (more in depth tutorials with step by step instructions)
The important thing with content creation is not to overthink it. I can’t be the judge of what others will find helpful so I would start sharing all sorts of things in all different ways and formats and see what resonates the best with people in my growing community. I would then create more of the content that people are enjoying and less of the stuff that they aren’t enjoying.
The way to examine this is to look in the analytics of the content platforms you’re creating on.
If my community didn’t start to grow I would know that my content isn’t good enough and I would keep trying new ideas and new formats until I got better.
This is important as many people I see persist with creating poor content that isn’t getting any traction. This is a complete waste of your time and isn’t going to help you grow your brand. So if your community isn’t growing then spend time taking courses or learning more about how to create better content and get better at storytelling. This will be the secret to improving in this area.
If you need help planning your content then consider my Notion content planning template. It’s the exact system I use to plan and brainstorm my own daily content.
STEP 3: START MAKING CONNECTIONS + INBOUND LEADS
As my content improves and my community grows I will start to make new connections.
If my content is good enough people will likely start reaching out to me in the DMs and ask questions, seek clarity on stuff I’m talking about in my content or even start to ask if I can help them solve problems around my topic.
Some of these people will be potential clients but many won’t. The important thing is to start to build connections - not try and sell stuff.
When I chat with people in email or DM I do so as a ‘normal human’ - I am never really trying to sell people as I know if/when they are ready to purchase that if I’m doing a good job with my free content they will choose me to come and learn with when they are ready.
STEP 4: WORK 1:1 AND REALLY START TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEIR PROBLEMS ARE
At this point it’s a good idea to think about how you will productise your knowledge in some way. By this I mean packaging it up in a way that you can offer coaching or services around what your content has been about.
So a few examples for the topics I’ve shared above might be:
Online business = offer 1:1 coaching to businesses who want to move from service based to online
Interior design = offer 1:1 interior design services
PhD students = 1:1 coaching/mentoring with productivity, accountability and study skills as they work through their PhD
Many people go into business, especially trying to create an online business, thinking they don’t want to do any 1:1 work with clients. But what I know from my own experience in building a business is that you learn SO much from actually working 1:1 with people and helping them solves problems in person, before you try and scale this online.
Here’s some reasons why that’s the case:
you get to know your clients well and learn exactly what their problems are and the language that they use to describe the problems. This will give you heaps of content ideas but it will also help you to create content in the language that your ideal clients are actually using - so they feel you completely understand them and speak in the way that they do about the problems they are having.
you learn how to develop a process that works and gets your clients results (that could then become an online course, for example)
you gain confidence in your own ability to work with people and get them results
So in this step I would package up my knowledge and then have this ready as a product/service that I can sell to the new connections that are starting to contact me as a result of the helpful content I’ve been sharing.
STEP 5: DO THAT WORK AND START MAKING MONEY
By now I should have some paying clients so my focus would then be on how to build my business to six figures a year by offering the products/services I’ve built.
In order to do that I would focus specifically on:
solving one specific problem (e.g. how to help service based businesses scale online)
creating one type of service/product that I sell (e.g. via 1:1 coaching, interior design services etc.)
focusing on one type of client only (i.e. not trying to go after everyone in the market - focusing down on one specific type of client - e.g. rather than service based businesses focusing specifically on lawyers or accountants)
mastering a number of different lead generation strategies to bring in potential clients (e.g. word of mouth referrals, affiliates/partnerships, inbound leads via content creation or even paid marketing strategies).
Working 1:1 with clients is also a chance to learn valuable business skills such as; how to find leads, how to convert sales, how to create amazing products, how to provide exceptional customer experiences, how to lead a team, how to manage your time and so many other important skills as well.
Learning these skills builds confidence in what you’re doing and improves the services that you are offering your clients.
STEP 6: WORK OUT HOW TO SCALE WHAT YOU’RE DOING 1:1 SO YOU CAN MAKE MONEY WHILE YOU SLEEP
Once I have hit six figures by working 1:1 with clients I will have proven that I’ve got a product/service that is getting people results and that I’ve got product/market fit (i.e. there is a group of people who are interested in purchasing what I am selling). So it would now be time to look at how to scale my business to seven figures.
There’s a number of ways that this can be done but here are two common ones:
1: An agency/studio model where you keep offering services but build out a team behind what you are doing - e.g. take on more 1:1 projects/clients and build out a team of staff that will support and deliver that work
2: Scale the business online - e.g. turn your 1:1 services into digital products that can be created once and sold many times.
For me I would go with option two because:
I can create my products once and sell them over and over again
I don’t have to worry about servicing lots of in person clients
It provides me with time and location freedom to run my business
I don’t have to manage staff (which I don’t enjoy)
I have uncapped earning potential
So to try and scale online I would focus on pitching different online course ideas to my growing online community and once I found a topic that resonated with the community I would then pre-sell this course to them to ensure that it’s really going to sell (i.e. not waste time creating something that nobody is going to buy).
I unpack all of these steps inside Online Course Creator if you want help.
Once I had some course sales I would then build and launch the online course and scale my business from six to seven figures a year by:
making the best online course I possibly could
ensuring my course delivers a transformation that students are thrilled with
providing the best possible student experience I can
getting testimonials from those students and sharing those as part of my content
creating as much free content as time allows me so I can bring in more potential students
STEP 7: KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
At this point it also becomes a numbers game - i.e. the more leads I am able to generate the more sales I will make and the more revenue the business will generate.
So it’s important to know what those numbers are so I know what I’m trying to hit.
Although it can seem daunting to earn $1 million in a year if you break it down it seems more achievable.
For example:
$1 million per year = $83,333/month = $2,700 per day
So I would now know I need to make $2,700 per day.
This can be done in a number of ways, for example:
3 sales of a $1000 course will = $2,7000 per day
6 sales of a $500 course will = $2,700 per day
27 sales of a $100 course will = $2,700 per day
So now I know how many sales I need each day I can work backwards on how many leads I need to achieve those sales targets.
For example - if I created a landing page for an online course that converts at 5% (which is a fairly low conversion rate) then to make 3 sales per day I would need 60 leads to come to that sales page each day.
So now I know that my focus needs to be on how to drive 60 leads to my sales page each day. And I can be fairly confident that if I can get 60 people over there then I will sell 3 of my online courses for $1000 each, which will result in $1 million in revenue for the year.
So my focus at this point would turn to mastering lead generation so I can drive as many people as I could to my sales page. I would also start to be much more strategic and consistent with the content I’m creating and continue to provide as much free value as I can. This all helps to build my know, like and trust factor with my community and gets people curious about what it would be like to work with me in a paid capacity.
Overall the path from 6 figures to 7 figures is generally about doing more of what has been working already and then becoming extremely consistent with that work.
BE PATIENT - IT WILL TAKE TIME (MORE THAN YOU THINK)
So that’s how I would build a 7 figure business from scratch if I lost everything and had to start over again.
And the reason I know that this process would work is because it is the EXACT process I’ve used to build my own multi-million dollar business.
The one thing I haven’t mentioned is that none of this is likely to happen in weeks or months. This is a process that is going to take years (more than likely - unless you’re in a particularly fast growing niche).
But one thing most people don’t have is patience.
They want to see results without putting in the effort or giving it time.
But my business has taken me 10 solid years of consistently showing up and producing content and trying things out. This isn’t something that will happen overnight and you can’t expect to see results quickly.
But if you stick it out and consistently create new content and try and improve that content by 1% each day then it’s definitely possible to build a million dollar business by following this formula (I know because I’ve done it myself!).
HOW TO GET STARTED
I know that reading all these steps might seem very overwhelming and impossible to achieve. But the best way to get started is to just get started!
Don’t make it overly complicated and don’t overthink it.
All you need to do is to:
1: Choose a topic that you’re passionate about and love talking about
2: Start creating helpful content on the internet about that topic
3: Enjoy the process and have fun
If you do that and keep trying to improve the content you are making each day then I promise fantastic things will come your way.
I can’t promise it will turn into a million dollar business but I can promise that if you stick at it and be consistent then down the track you will very likely have built a successful business or at least changed your life in many positive ways.
So stop waiting and get started today!
Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
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