Solopreneur Six Figure Formula (1000 Fans @ $100/yr)

When you're starting your online business, the sense of overwhelm around all the things you need to do can tend to come in waves.

• What market/niche should I choose?What type of content should I produce?
• What should I sell?
• How will I know this thing is going to even work?
• How many subscribers do I actually need to make a living?

Micro-Commitments And Micro-Steps

One of the ways you can combat that overwhelm is by making micro-commitments and taking micro-steps.

And this is just basically where you take a seemingly overwhelming "goal" and breaking it down to the "ridiculous" as we like to say. 

Now, the good news is that you don't need a million followers on social media, YouTube, your email list to earn a solid living online.

1000 Fans At $100 Per Year

In fact, you only need about 1000 true fans and today I want to break down the math around how you can do that without selling your soul to the fickle social media empires.

This whole idea of 1000 true fans comes from an article by Kevin Kelly (link below if you want to read the actual article for yourself: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/)

I've found this 1000 True Fans framework gives me a workable and totally achievable idea to construct a system around. It takes what can seem completely overwhelming and makes it totally doable.

"A thousand customers is a whole lot more feasible to aim for than a million fans. Millions of paying fans is not a realistic goal to shoot for, especially when you are starting out. But a thousand fans is doable. You might even be able to remember a thousand names. If you added one new true fan per day, it’d only take a few years to gain a thousand."

He sets the table by outlining what this 1000 true fans looks like.

"To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.

Here’s how the math works. You need to meet two criteria. First, you have to create enough each year that you can earn, on average, $100 profit from each true fan. That is easier to do in some arts and businesses than others, but it is a good creative challenge in every area because it is always easier and better to give your existing customers more, than it is to find new fans.

Second, you must have a direct relationship with your fans. That is, they must pay you directly. You get to keep all of their support, unlike the small percent of their fees you might get from a music label, publisher, studio, retailer, or other intermediate. If you keep the full $100 of each true fan, then you need only 1,000 of them to earn $100,000 per year. That’s a living for most folks."

This was the idea I followed when I started my first online business, ZeroDebtCoach. I was in the personal finance space and "in competition" with guys like Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard and Suze Ormon, to name the biggest players.

Conclusion

This "1000 True Fans" approach, helped me to narrow my sites on serving a specific segment of that market and REALLY helped me to not feel overwhelmed at the prospect of who I was going up against.

I think he says it best in this quote:

"The takeaway: 1,000 true fans is an alternative path to success other than stardom. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum bestseller hits, blockbusters, and celebrity status, you can aim for direct connection with a thousand true fans."