the rise of the billionaire solopreneur
“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.”
The first billionaire solopreneur is predicted in the near future according to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.
Having experimented with AI and automation for the last 1.5 years, I personally also think this will be possible soon.
The way we are doing business is currently going through a radical shift. What used to take an entire team to accomplish in a few months can now be accomplished by a single individual in a matter of hours.
Take Tal Flanchaych as an example. He was able to bootstrap and execute on a new profitable business in a matter of days. He saw a gap in the job seeking market space and founded ApplyAll in response to this (applyall.com).
He was able to quickly build a profitable service from automation, AI and no-code tools. Just a few years ago this would not have been feasible. This would have required a team of people with various skills to turn the initial idea into a fully operational service.
Just a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have personally believed this statement. But having worked with AI and automation for over 1.5 years I can now see how this would be possible.
I’ve built systems for myself that I use on a daily basis that allow me to radically improve my efficiency. Things that would take days to complete can now be done in hours.
For example, video editing used to be a burdensome task for me.
Now I can edit my video 5x faster thanks to clever AI tools.
Using automation and AI, I can then take the transcript of the video and convert it into a blog post and a X thread in just a couple of minutes.
I can have AI automatically create short clips from longer videos for Instagram and YouTube shorts in a matter of seconds.
In other words, I can create multiple social media assets that increase my reach online without having to put in much extra work to make it happen.
And this is just one example of many more.
Most people are just skimming the surface when it comes to the power of AI and automation.
Sure, you can create automations of repetitive tasks in your business. Or you can brainstorm ideas with ChatGPT. But how about starting an entire new business from scratch and have it fully operational in a matter of hours? Now that’s powerful.
And add to that, you can make it 40% more effective than a traditional business without having a single employee.
Instead, you can use an AI assistant (or multiple assistants) trained on your business data to do all the heavy lifting for you.
Here are a few examples of how automation and AI could improve efficiency of your business:
Craft email reply drafts to all business emails automatically and save hours replying to email queries.
Have a trained AI chatbot on your website to answer questions about your business. No more answering the same questions over and over again.
Automate repetitive administrative tasks. Save mental energy for the tasks that actually move the business forward.
And this is just scratching the surface.
This all sounds amazing but are there any downsides?
Yes, there are a couple of things to consider if you intend on implementing AI and automation in your business.
The first and biggest flaw is that your business might become overly dependent on these systems. This means that your business can come to a standstill if you encounter technical errors.
And to be honest, I’ve experienced some technical issues myself. Usually these are often quickly solved, but they can definitely cause some problems.
It’s therefore important to keep this in mind when you implement AI and automation in your business. Do you have a backup system in case the automation system fails?
Another flaw is the limitation of the tools themselves.
When we automate a workflow, we often rely on bringing together various apps and services to create our workflow. This often comes with a set of limitations due to the services and apps themselves.
I often found myself having to create workarounds due to limitations in the services that I use, which can be a bit annoying.
Lastly, there is the temptation to use AI for everything. This could put you as a business owner in a vulnerable position. For example, if you rely on AI to create content or business strategies for you, you are not using your own thinking. Over-relying on AI can have detrimental consequences in the long term.
Generic content and ineffective strategies could be the result of overly relying on the output of AI. We still need to have the rational and intuitive capacities as humans to make sound decisions for our business. Because let’s face it, AI doesn’t always get things right.
I think as long as you approach AI with caution and don’t fall for the temptation to use AI for everything, you will be in a very powerful position as a solo business owner.
I hope this has inspired you to get started on your own AI automation journey.
The possibilities are truly endless and right now we are only scratching the surface of what will be possible in the coming years. I truly think those who start to leverage automation and AI today will be at a significant advantage in the near future.
Until next time,
Nic
Practical Takeaways
Sign up for an automation service for free. I recommend Zapier (zapier.com).
Try out an automation template to experience the power of automation for yourself.
