What's the 'Rule of One'? This BIZ Experiences Used It to Go From $0 to $4,985 in 1 Month. When you try to do too much, you reach nobody. I've developed a simple rule that can change your business. The only rule is to stick with the rule.
By Justin Welsh Edited by Frances Dodds
This story appears in the March 2025 issue of BIZ Experiences. Subscribe »
Your business will take off when you nail two parts of an important equation: You must have something valuable to offer, and you must present it in a way that attracts the right buyers.
Once you find that sweet spot, revenue should start to accelerate.
This may sound obvious. But let me emphasize the words that BIZ Experiencess often overlook: the right buyers. Many BIZ Experiencess chase any buyers, or hope that, by blasting their message out across every possible channel, the right buyers will simply reveal themselves.
It doesn't work like that. Instead, you must strategically simplify who you're talking to and how you're talking to them. I call it the "Rule of One."
I've seen this work for companies large and small. I was once the director of strategic sales at Zocdoc, then the chief revenue officer at PatientPop. Now I'm an advisor and an investor, and I spend most of my time helping BIZ Experiencess build strong online businesses.
Related: 5 Types of Digital Content That Attract Warm, Ready-to-Buy Prospects (No Matter the Industry)
One such BIZ Experiences approached me recently. His focus was helping companies improve their e-commerce systems, and he clearly knew what he was doing. But he had zero revenue for three consecutive months. He was frustrated and questioning whether he should continue with what he was doing.
By following the Rule of One, he made $4,985 in one month.
Here's how it works.
The zero-revenue reality
The BIZ Experiences's name is Paul. When we first started talking, I asked how he was spending his time. Sure enough, he revealed a very common problem: Paul was trying to be everywhere, serve everyone, and sell everything.
Here's what his typical day looked like:
→ Scheduling Instagram posts at 7 a.m.
→ Writing LinkedIn content at noon
→ Recording TikTok videos in the afternoon
→ Commenting on hundreds of other posts in between
This guy was exhausted, frustrated, and not making any money. There's no worse combination than that.
Related: 7 Bulletproof Strategies to Increase Sales and Make More Money
The Rule of One solution
I encouraged Paul to break from his routine and try something different — the Rule of One.
For 90 days, I asked him to commit to one platform (LinkedIn), one specific offer (fixing email sequences for e-commerce stores), and one specific customer type (Shopify stores doing $20K to $50K in monthly revenue).
No other platforms. No other offers. No other customer types.
Most people would look at this strategy and say, "I'm limiting my opportunities!" And that was Paul's hesitation too. But after some convincing, he agreed to give my strategy a try.
The 90-day transformation
For the first month, Paul zeroed in on one thing: sharing email marketing problems that Shopify store owners face every day. No generic marketing tips. No broad e-commerce advice. Just specific, painful email sequence issues that keep Shopify store owners up at night.
And at the end of each social media post, we agreed he'd make an offer: "I'll audit your email sequences for free."
The idea was simple: Get some free clients, prove you can solve the problem, and then use those results to attract paying customers.
And it worked. Three store owners took Paul up on his offer, giving him the opportunity he needed to demonstrate his expertise. And even more importantly, it gave him real results he learned from and can now share with future prospects.
Related: 7 Ways to Tweak Your Marketing & Sales Strategies for the New Economy
From free to paid clients
The next month, that's exactly what Paul did: He started sharing real results that put concrete numbers behind his work, including:
→ A pet store boosted repeat purchases by 22%
→ A small fashion brand doubled its welcome series conversion
→ A craft soup company increased cart recovery by 34%
And after nine weeks, something interesting started to happen. Store owners began reaching out to him. And not for brain-picking calls, either. Or free audits. They were asking for help with their email sequences.
So Paul opened his calendar for short discovery calls — but only for stores in the specific target range we agreed on: $20K to $50K per month in revenue.
Over time, Paul streamlined these calls to make sure they followed the same path: review the current email setup, identify gaps, and, if they were a good fit, offer his $997 program.
The results
After 90 days, Paul had five clients at $997 each, a waitlist of three more, and a small reputation as "the Shopify email person."
This approach created more opportunities, not fewer. Because when you're known for solving one specific problem really well, people remember you, and refer you to other people with the same problem.
Just think about it. Imagine you're a Shopify store owner. Who would you hire to fix your store's email sequences? Someone who "does digital marketing" or someone who specializes in "fixing email sequences for Shopify stores just like yours"?
The answer is obvious, and it's exactly why I often harp on the importance of being the "it" person in a small niche.
Related: How to Turn Every Employee into a Sales Superstar
The hidden benefits
The Rule of One doesn't limit opportunities. It creates them. And there are several other benefits that come from niching down:
→ Paul's content got better because he focused on one specific topic
→ His expertise deepened because he solved the same problem repeatedly
→ His positioning became clearer because he wasn't trying to be everything to everyone
How to implement this for yourself
Ready to try the Rule of One? Remember, the concept is simple:
1. Choose one platform where your ideal customers actually hang out.
2. Choose one offer that solves a specific, expensive problem.
3. Choose one customer type to target — defined so narrowly that most people are automatically disqualified.
Then commit to this focus for 90 days. No platform-hopping. No offer-tweaking. No audience-shifting.
The hardest part will be resisting your urge to expand. But even when you start seeing success, stick with your "one" until you've mastered it and gained some good traction.
Believe it or not, this is fun work. Because by simplifying your message, you get to focus on improving your message — instead of frantically blasting it in every direction. By shrinking, you finally get to grow.
