We help ambitious people build a profitable solo business so that they can work independently and live anywhere.
Stay in one place. Get a good job. Trade your best years for a salary and a schedule someone else sets. Then, at 67, collect the freedom you were promised.
By then, plenty of people are not well enough to spend it. If we want to thrive, we have to build our own.
But building badly is expensive. That is the whole reason this exists: pick something worth building, and get the right guidance to build it to actually work.
days of paid vacation a year, after 20 years with the same employer. In your first year, it is 10 to 14 days.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2024
new businesses are gone by year 2.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics
You sell what you already know to the clients who need it, with no staff, no investors and very little money to start.
From your first idea to a business that keeps growing, we have a way to help at every stage, with a coach or at your own pace.
Know when you can afford to leave.
Plan a successful move out of your 9 to 5.
Find the idea your expertise supports best.
Narrow them to 1 direction in a live workshop.
Start an idea from the expertise you already have.
Choose how much guidance you want.
8 weeks of 1:1 coaching, with all 6 toolkits included.
Build faster with a proven framework for every step.
Get a second opinion on the big decisions.
Mentors who run solo businesses, 2 or 4 sessions a month.
Meet founders at your stage in person.
Salons, Summit and Retreats with founders like you.
Most business programs assume you walk in with an idea, then sell you the build. We start with the choice, because the idea you pick shapes everything you build after it.
We test it for a niche with buyers already spending, few competitors and a low barrier to entry. Then we check it against your proof and your network, and cut what does not fit.
We dig it out of what you already own: your career history, the problems you have been paid to solve again and again, and the network you can reach.
Whichever path you start on, you build on a choice you have checked against real buyers, your proof and your network.
An application-only launch program for professionals with real expertise. Most founders in it are still in a 9 to 5, and it works the same way if you were laid off or you freelance. You come with an idea or with none. You leave with one direction, chosen over the others, with reasons.
Rolling start, so you begin when you are ready.
One validated direction, chosen over the others
A clear number and a date to plan your move against
A defined offer and a price
A way to be found and contacted
A distribution plan you can run alone
A documented count of real buyer conversations
We do not promise you a customer by week 8. That is not ours to give. We promise that your solo business will be fully functional and ready to welcome customers.
Or $849 for the complete set.
6 systems for the 6 things every solo business has to get right. Built from what already worked twice, written so you set yours up correctly the first time instead of rebuilding it in year 2.
Each one is an operating document you keep open while you work.
Turn what you already know how to do into something a market will pay for repeatedly.
Find a market with buyers already spending and few competitors serving it.
Organic distribution when you have no budget, no agency and no team.
Turn what you know into posts that bring in clients.
Close a deal in conversation without becoming someone you are not.
Run lean so your business can sustain itself while it grows.
Uncommon Mentorship gives you 1:1 mentoring from founders who run profitable solo businesses. You meet 2 or 4 times a month, message between sessions, and work from the same method as Plan A.
Members also get first booking for every Uncommon event.
Uncommon Events bring solo founders together in person, from an evening story night in your city to an annual conference and small themed retreats. The first dates are still being set, so you can look at each format now and choose the ones you want to hear about.
I came to the United States on a student visa and made it through the H-1B lottery. Then I was laid off, and the visa gave me 60 days to find another employer or leave the country. I did 40 interviews in 6 weeks and signed in the final week.
After that I made myself a promise: no employer would ever again hold the outcome of my life in their hands. So I self-petitioned my own EB-1A green card, with no one sponsoring me, and built 2 profitable solo businesses without raising a dollar.
What got me through was knowing exactly how many months of runway I had, refusing to move the deadline, and doing the unglamorous work while nothing was working yet.
I have run both businesses from more than 40 countries, and that is the part I care about most. Working from anywhere becomes possible once you own your income, so owning your income is where you start.
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You bring your career history. You leave with 3 candidate directions of your own and the 4 tests that cut them down to one.
Whether you’ve just been laid off, are currently employed with a 9-to-5 job, or have been freelancing but want to stop trading time for money, answer a few questions and get a roadmap for making that transition, built for where you actually are.
A template that helps you fill in the skills people have already been paying you or your employer for, then guides you step by step through how to turn that into a business idea.
Questions about the toolkits, Plan A, mentorship, or whether any of this fits where you are right now. Send it here and a real person answers, usually within a day.
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