If You Only Have 1 Hour a Day to Build a One-Person Business, Do This

by Geoff Bright · August 21, 2024

Anyone can make excuses:

“I don’t have time.”

“I don’t have the energy.”

“I’ll start on it next week/month/year/lifetime.”

Instead of making excuses, try adapting to your constraints.

Even though you work a 40-hour job, you can still build an online business.

I don’t know what your business is, but as an example let’s say it involves a good deal of content creation.

You’ve got time before work. After work. Commuting on the train. Waiting for an appointment. Lunch breaks. Days off.

A few minutes here, a couple of hours and there and pretty soon your ‘down’ time adds up to real time.

The key is to work with your constraints rather than waiting for a better time which never comes.

Here’s what you can do:

Wake up an hour early on weekdays.
Limit social events between Sunday and Thursday nights.
Rarely watch TV or Netflix.
Work over most of the weekend.

Here’s what NOT to do:

Sacrifice your sleep. Getting a good 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night is imperative for health and cognitive abilities.
Skip exercise. Aim to exercise for at least 20 minutes every day. You’ll sleep better, think better and get more done.
Work 18 hours a day. You need time away from work and your business to unwind and refresh. If you work too many hours, quality suffers and you’ll burn out.
Neglect friends and family. Family and friends don’t stop being important just because you’re building a business.

You might be lazy, but you can use your laziness strategically. Ask yourself:

What’s the least amount of work you can do to keep progressing?

When you start building online, maybe you write every day for 15 minutes. That’s it. No more. No less. Then you slowly increase over time. Habits take time to change. You can’t rush the process. Start with whatever time works for you.

If you only have 10, 15, or 20 minutes per day, start there. Don’t overwhelm yourself. The one thing that kills most online marketers is doing too much too soon and then quitting altogether.

Do the opposite by adopting a sustainable pace and keeping up even on your worst days and weeks.

In six months, you can either have an online business or be in exactly the same spot you are in now. Start with 15 – 60 minutes a day to create your online empire.