Facing of a looming deadline for her business column on Forbes on a day like any other in 2013, Pofeldt found a much needed story. It appeared in the form of a list of one-person companies that made $1–2.49 million USD and delved in. The list was organized by industry, so she covered the story within that framework. Readers loved the piece, which received over 200,000 pageviews at the time of writing. They wanted more. Encouraged by her editor, Pofeldt asked her readers to come forward if they ran one of these companies.
Business owners responded and Pofeldt started writing profiles on their successes. Nonemployer businesses, companies without paid employees, were relatively underreported in media. Journalists tended to focus on sensational startups or larger corporations. With Pofeldt’s coverage, many business owners finally felt that they were being recognized. This organic interest was unplanned, driven only by Pofeldt’s personal curiosity.
“These are people that prioritize the people in their lives, and giving back, and other things besides just making money,” said Elaine Pofeldt about the inspirations for her book, The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business. “I thought that message would appeal to a lot of people, who feel like, ‘How much do I really need?’”
In 2015, her most popular piece, “How Bold Entrepreneurs Are Breaking $1 Million In One-Person Businesses” received over 300,000 views. One of these readers was Leila Campoli, an agent who saw in it the potential for a book. Campoli read some of the other articles, and reached out.
Campoli’s work ethic, enthusiasm, and diligence resonated with Pofeldt. Pofeldt enlisted Campoli to be her agent, and she led the pitching, deal making, and marketing processes for Pofeldt’s book. The moment it was picked up by Penguin Random House, Pofeldt got to work.
In the years prior to publishing, Pofeldt interviewed over 30 entrepreneurs and 20 experts, connecting their stories through the similar mindsets they shared that lead them to their successes. The result is book shares the stories of successful business owners — with varying business models, risk appetites, and lifestyles — who have scaled to $1 million in revenue prior to hiring employees.
The book lays out practical steps to succeed at running a company, while inspiring readers with the idea that they can still have a very active life outside of work. You can tell from the soft colours and font that it stands out amongst the conventional business books, as it tries to appeal to the everyman business owner.
“Books have a life of their own. You can market it a certain way but the book will find its audience organically,” said Pofeldt. The book has been featured on 35 different podcasts all with different reactions. Pofeldt is excited that after all her work, the book seems to grow on its own path.
With nearly 25 million non-employer businesses in the United States as of 2016, there is a large market for Pofeldt’s work. She portrays the owners of these nonemployer businesses not as failures for not scaling but as successes for choosing how to run their companies as they see fit. Pofeldt has had an overwhelmingly positive response from these entrepreneurs, so much so that she now has a backlog of stories that she’s looking forward to covering.
“When you’re a reporter your work is never done,” she said.