The crucial question every one-person business must answer

Happy Wednesday! Welcome back to The Copywriting Gig. 

I'm Jim Hamilton. Over the past 7 years, my copy has contributed to $30m in sales for clients across health, biz opp, and B2B. 

Each week, I share 1 actionable tip to help you sell more stuff online.

I cut my teeth writing daily emails for clients.

Yet over the past 10 months, I’ve only mailed my newsletter once a week.

What gives?

Daily emails used to be my specialty…

And over the first few years of my career, I cranked out 1,000+ of them to help generate over 7-figures in sales for my clients.

So why the heck would I abandon this proven strategy?

It has to do with a crucial question everyone operating a one-person business must answer.

So today, I’m revealing what that question is…

And how to answer it based on where you’re at right now.

Let’s dive in.

Read time: 5 minutes and 26 seconds

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What Are You Optimizing For?

The word “optimize” gets thrown around a lot these days.

So let’s review what it means.

From Dictionary dot com:

“to make the best or most effective use of a situation, opportunity, or resource”

Now as a solopreneur or someone building a personal brand…

The resource you need to make the most effective use of is your time.

And when it comes to how you invest your time…

There are two main objectives you can optimize for:

• Growth

• Monetization

Which brings us to the aforementioned question:

What are you optimizing for — growth or monetization?

Because in the context of using social media to grow an engaged audience and then using an email newsletter to monetize it…

The two are diametrically opposed.

And unless you’re prepared to hire out for one or both…

(which isn’t always a good idea)

Then pursuing one comes at the time cost of the other.

That’s not to say you should ONLY focus on one or the other at any given time…

But instead, approach it as a sliding scale with your position on it changing over time, depending on where you’re at in your business.

Like this:

Now read on for more on exactly how to do that…

Why Most Solopreneurs Don’t Have a “Business” Problem

This is one of my favorite quotes from entrepreneur & investor Chris Harder:

The point being…

Many entrepreneurs are fixated on tweaking and testing their way to a certain level of income or profitability…

When they should be zooming out instead.

It’s kind of like trying to win a Formula 1 race by giving your Honda Civic a new paint job…

Instead of buying a car with a bigger engine.

Now, don’t get me wrong…

Split-tests are important.

They can absolutely move the needle in the right circumstances.

But you aren’t gonna tweak your way to 10X’ing your income.

The easiest way to 10X your income is to 10X your audience.

Especially if you’re not a world-class marketer or copywriter.

Because that’s what it takes to turn a tiny audience into a wildly profitable business:

Serious marketing and copy chops.

(aside from a killer offer, case studies, etc etc)

Now does this mean you should be focused strictly on growth until you’ve carved out a Justin Welsh-sized hole in the feed on your favorite social platform?

Certainly not.

Like everything in business, the answer is context-dependent.

But let’s start by circling back to the topic of email frequency.

Where Email Frequency Fits Into Growth vs Monetization

Email is one of the most powerful ways to turn followers into fans.

It’s the place where you’ve got permission to go deeper…

And flesh out more of your advice, values, and perspectives to nurture your audience…

Thereby planting seeds you get to harvest later by making offers.

If you’re a solopreneur, having a weekly email newsletter is non-negotiable in my book.

This is the bare minimum to stay top of mind in the inbox.

But of course, each email takes time to produce.

For example, I typically spend 2-3 hours writing this newsletter every Monday.

(which for me, is a LOT to spend on one email)

And if you want to mail more than once a week…

The time cost only goes up.

So how do you figure out if and when that increased time cost is worth paying?

By asking yourself these 5 questions…

5 Questions To Help Find Your Place On the Growth vs Monetization Spectrum

1) Are my basic expenses covered?

• If yes, there’s less urgency to monetize right away

• If no, then you should focus exclusively on monetization by any means necessary

Never operate from a place of scarcity or desperation in business.

2) Am I already mailing once per week?

• If yes, then at least you’re hitting the bare minimum

• If no, then carve out time to start doing this

Remember: your subscribers don’t just read your newsletter.

They’re also reading 5+ other newsletters.

Showing up at least once a week is how you establish leadership in the inbox.

3) Do I already have something to sell?

• If yes, then investing more time into email is more likely to pay off

• If no, then consider spending more time on growth until you do

4) What price point am I selling at?

• If it’s low-ticket ($1-$200), then you need a bigger list to monetize

• If it’s mid-ticket ($200-$500), then monetizing gets a bit easier

• If it’s high-ticket ($500-$1k+), then you can monetize well even w/ a small list

5) How big is my current social audience?

• If your audience is small (0-5k), then monetizing can be hard

• If your audience is medium (5-20k), then you should be generating some $ already

• If your audience is big (20-50k+), then spend more time on monetization

NOTE: These numbers are relative, and depend more on quality and engagement vs total size.

But answering each one of these 5 questions will help you paint the picture of what your split between growth and monetization should be…

And which one should take precedence right now.

How I’m Balancing Growth vs Monetization in 2024

I spent 2023 optimizing for growth.

I only mailed my newsletter once a week…

While the lion’s share of my time and energy went towards building an engaged audience on social media.

I’d call it an 85/15 split.

And in principle, that’s not going to change in 2024.

Given my audience is still pretty small at 3,000ish followers…

Social represents my biggest opportunity.

However, now that I’ve got an affordable product to offer (15-Minute Emails That Sell)...

And enough subscribers on my list (800ish) to start generating consistent sales…

I will be ramping up my email frequency to 3x per week next year.

This will bring me closer to a 70/30 split.

That’s because now the added time I put into email and monetization is much more likely to pay off.

Putting It All Together

• Social media dives growth, while email drives monetization
  
  

• Choosing to optimize for growth or monetization is a crucial decision for solopreneurs
  
  

• Think of it as a sliding scale, not one or the other
  
  

• If you have an email newsletter, you should be mailing at least 1x per week
  
  

• From there, determine how much more (if any) time you should put into email
  
  

• Your split between growth & monetization should evolve over time

That’s it.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week.

Jim Hamilton

P.S:

Speaking of which…

I’m about to put the finishing touches on the sales page for 15-Minute Emails That Sell.

This has taken me a bit longer than anticipated.

(go figure, lol)

But that’s in part because I figured it made sense to execute the rebrand I’ve been working on first.

Then roll out the evergreen version of 15ME once that’s done.

I’m also setting it up inside a proper course platform to make it easier to manage going forward.

So if you’ve been waiting to get your paws on it…

Fear not.

You won’t have to wait tooooo much longer :)