This company runs on one.
Your business, written down and priced — ten instruments, filled in by you.
Runs On One is an operating manual for a business run by one person. Not an argument for staying small, and not a mindset. Ten documents you fill in with your own numbers, in an order that works, each one reading the one before it.
Start with the arithmetic — free, twenty minutesSee the three versions
What is Runs On One?
Runs On One is the operating layer that nobody taught you: the arithmetic under your price, the one buyer you serve, the fence around your scope, the weekly number that keeps work coming, and the documents that turn each of those into something you can run. You already know how to do the work. This is the rest, and it is smaller than it looks.
Every instrument is the same shape. It opens with the sentence you already say to yourself — I'm working all the time and I still don't know whether this pays — then shows a worked example with real numbers, then the principle, then the instrument for your own numbers, then the one thing to do tonight.
What are the ten instruments?
Ten pages, in four phases. Fill them in order; each reads from the ones before it. The first one — the arithmetic — is free on this site, and the chapter behind it is here.
- Run the arithmeticWhat the business needs a month, how many hours you can actually bill, and the floor price below which a job costs you money.
- Decide how you soundThree sentences and two word lists, so every email and proposal after this sounds like you.
- Choose your buyerOne buyer, the moment they go looking, and their pains ranked by how badly and how often.
- Fence and price your offerThree tiers that differ by scope, speed and access; the fence that stops scope creep; the floor; the sentence you say when the price lands.
- Build the pipelineBackwards from the revenue you need to the number of people to contact each week, two channels, and the five touches you send.
- Write the proposalTheir problem in their words, three options instead of one number, the cost of doing nothing, and a close plan with dates.
- Run the engineOne real piece of work taken apart into a month of posts, with the hooks written first and one conversion moment a week.
- Set up nurtureThe lead magnet against their worst pain and the five email sequences a one-person business needs.
- Be foundThe questions your buyer actually types, an audit of whether a search engine or an assistant can quote your page, and what to publish next.
- Capture proofA twelve-question interview shaped for specifics, quotes at three lengths, and the review request — with permission recorded.
What does it cost?
Three versions of the same system. The book is complete on its own. The Binder is the system made live and kept current. Built for You is the system delivered in a week.
The book
$29
CAD, print · $14.99 ebook
- Ten chapters, one instrument each, in phase order
- Ten worksheets, fillable on the page
- Three complete worked cases — a service, a maker, a knowledge business
- The weekly operating rhythm on one page
It is not: editable files, updates after purchase, or a review of your business.
The book's pageRetailer returns apply.
The Binder
$99
CAD · includes the ebook
- The ten instruments as fillable, offline files that read each other
- Three editable worked cases to overwrite with your own numbers
- Twelve months of edition updates, and next year's edition when it ships
- Export to one file you can hand to an accountant or an adviser
It is not: a review of what you fill in, live calls, bookkeeping, tax, or software setup.
See the BinderFill in the first three instruments within 30 days. If you do not have a priced, fenced offer, full refund.
Built for You
$395
CAD · eight per month
- The ten instruments generated for your business from a structured intake
- Delivered within five business days of a complete intake
- One 30-minute review of your offer and your pipeline number
- One rerun within six months, and the Binder
It is not: a second business, ongoing advice, or writing your sales page and proposals for you.
How Built for You worksEight engagements a month is the capacity, not a tactic. If the month is full, the intake tells you the next opening.
Who is it for?
Someone who is already self-employed — a consultant, designer, writer, coach, bookkeeper, or a trade with a van — with clients and invoices and a business that runs on improvisation. Usually in the first three years. Usually in the last week of a month.
Who should not buy it?
- Anyone looking for an idea for a business. This is for a business that exists.
- Anyone building a team. The manual assumes one pair of hands and stays there.
- Anyone with a tax or legal question. Those are excluded on purpose, and the book says so.
- Anyone who wants to be told it is easy. The instruments are sized in evenings, and each takes one.
Questions people ask before buying
Longer answers, from the chapters: what does your work have to cost? · how many clients do you need? · how do you stop scope creep? · why does your proposal get ignored? · what does “runs on one” mean?
- I've bought templates before and never used them.
- The Binder is chained: the first instrument is a short evening's work, and the next reads it. The refund is written for exactly this — fill in three and if you do not have a priced offer, you get your money back.
- My business is different.
- Every instrument was filled in three times for three different businesses before it shipped. The method is the same; the numbers are yours.
- Why not read Profit First or Company of One?
- Read them. Profit First is one instrument — the money. Company of One is an argument. Runs On One is the other nine instruments and the order to run them in.
- Is this financial or legal advice?
- No. The arithmetic is structural — floors, ceilings and cash timing — and the book tells you when to take a number to an accountant.