I had/joined/hosted a chat with Alex MH Smith, authour of No Bullshit Strategy⇲ (and 16 other one-person businesses).

These ↓ are my takeaways.

1_ The focus is marketing the work, not doing the work

Real businesses spend huge energy on sales and marketing with dedicated teams
People must allocate 3+ days per week to marketing activities
If you 10x your marketing activities, you will inevitably get more/bigger business
The dilemma: you need a full-time marketing team, but you're also the delivery person
Solution: dramatically reduce delivery time, not abandon marketing

2_ Sell what people want, not what they need

Clients don't walk in asking for what you actually do—they ask for storytelling, coaching, or other established categories
Your job is to find the doorway (what they ask for), then deliver the value they actually need
Focus on where the budget exists and what language clients already use
Example: Storytelling as the entry point for strategic work; executive coaching as the doorway for strategy consulting

3_ Serve the industry, not the customer

Stop thinking about what individual customers want (they want cheap, high-quality commodity work)
Think beyond your business to the industry level: What's wrong with this industry? Where are the gaps?
Your role is to identify flaws and new space in your industry, not just serve individual client requests
Three levels: In the business (doing client work) → On the business (thinking about what clients want) → Beyond the business (analysing the industry)
Example: "Why is strategy shit?" rather than "What does this client need?"

4_ Your POV (Point of View) is your only asset

Your unique idea about your industry is fundamentally your only real asset
Most consultants think 100 things, but don't realise that thing #76 is actually their differentiator
Example: Simon Sinek's "Start With Why"—he's selling an idea, not comprehensive leadership coaching expertise
Without your POV equivalent, you're trapped being a "posh freelancer" trying to compete on quality and price
Being in love with your craft is dangerous—it makes you a best practice practitioner in a commodity market

5_ Maximise profit, not revenue

Goal: Maximum empty days in your calendar to enable growth
Ruthlessly minimise delivery time to 1-2 days/week max; don't hire more people
Selling time for money is fine if profitability is high (£10K/day workshop) but not if it consumes all your opportunity (3 days/week for 6 months)
A long engagement that fills your calendar prevents you from growing, regardless of total revenue
First priority: rethink how you deliver your work to create space for marketing

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