Company of One is Paul Jarvis’s book for business owners deciding whether staying deliberately small could serve them better than expanding.
At a glance
Best for: Independent consultants, freelancers and founder-led businesses questioning their next stage of growth.
Not ideal for: Anyone looking for a detailed hiring or scale-up manual, or a rule that every business should remain solo.
Type: Resource
Cost: Paid book; prices vary by edition and retailer.
Commitment: Read and define what the business needs to provide before deciding to expand.
Where: Paperback, ebook and audio editions.
The problem it helps you think through
Business advice often treats more staff, customers and revenue as the obvious next step. Jarvis asks what growth is meant to achieve: more profit, better work, resilience, time or autonomy. The answer changes which opportunities are worth pursuing.
What you get
An argument for questioning growth before chasing it, with ideas about desired revenue, customer relationships and the design of a smaller operation. It is a strategic challenge rather than a step-by-step operating plan.
Put it to work
Spend 20 minutes writing down the income, working hours, capacity and level of responsibility you want the business to support. Take one proposed expansion and ask whether it improves those conditions after its costs and complexity are included.
Why it’s in the Directory
It gives independent workers permission to define progress more precisely than headcount or turnover. A business can become more capable without becoming bigger for its own sake.
What it will not do
Staying small is not automatically simpler or financially sound. Hiring may improve delivery or resilience; declining to expand may leave an owner overloaded. Test the book’s argument against your actual finances, responsibilities and ambitions.
Access
Compare available formats, retailers and library access before buying.
Review the publisher’s overview.
Last checked: September 2026