Company of One by Paul Jarvis

Author:Paul Jarvis
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Begin to Think About:

What you could do to ensure that your existing customers feel both happy and acknowledged

Where you could exceed expectations with your customer service

How you could create opportunities for word of mouth and referrals

How you own and then fix mistakes

What you could do to ensure that your customers end up with wins

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Scalable Systems

If the point of a company of one is to question growth and challenge scale, the answer might sometimes be that growth is in fact required—when it aligns with your overall purpose. When growth in profit, customers, or reach is needed, however, companies of one can look to simple and repeatable systems to facilitate scale, with no need for more employees or resources.

Marshall Haas, cofounder of Need/Want, used to think that a company needs to scale in proportion to the revenue it generates. Thus, a $100 million business needs to have at least hundreds of employees and several layers of bureaucratic managerial hierarchy. What he’s found in practice, though, is that, with fewer than ten employees, his company can grow very slowly and still increase revenue—which is currently at nearly $10 million.

Most people would assume that only tech startups or software companies could manage to scale revenue far quicker than they add employees and expenses, since their products exist in the ether of the web. But Need/Want, a physical product company that sells everything from bedding to notebooks to iPhone cases, has managed to build a big business with only a tiny team.

Need/Want uses scalable systems and channels to increase profits. They use prepackaged software, Shopify, to run their online store, which can handle anywhere from one order a day to over a million. They stay out of big-box stores, so they don’t need a dedicated outside sales team. They don’t do trade shows, and all their marketing efforts stem from a team of three who focus entirely on online channels, like social media, paid ads, and a newsletter (all of which can increase reach without too many extra resources to manage).

Need/Want outsources manufacturing to a factory with which they have a close relationship; it can handle anything from handfuls of orders to tens of thousands of orders in a day. The company also outsources shipping and fulfillment to a trusted partner. In other words, Need/Want is a perfect example of a company of one that utilizes scalable systems. Its direct-to-consumer sales model keeps things lean and enables the company to really experiment with the best way to find and sell to new consumers.

The company started when founders Marshall Haas and Jon Wheatley became interested in applying the knowledge they’d acquired from working at tech firms to physical products. Prior to their partnership, Marshall was making money selling products that you couldn’t actually touch (software), and Jon was creating things that could be touched, but without making any real money (VC-based startups that never got off the ground or made any profits).

They treat their company like a tech startup, but instead of selling software, they sell products, relying heavily on technology, automations, and the scalability of online channels.

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