How Paul Minors Grew a Million-Dollar Consulting Business

Paul Minors started his business as a consulting side hustle while working a full-time job. Today, it’s a million-dollar business with diverse revenue streams. In this interview, Paul shares the strategies he used to grow the business, plus excellent insight on a range of topics. Don’t miss his advice and observations related to hiring. It’s been a game-changer for him.

How much revenue and profit does the business generate?

When I started the business, I generated $3,000-$5,000 within the first 3-4 months. This was enough to justify leaving my job and taking my side business full-time.

Now, the business generates an average of $120,000 per month by selling consulting services, subscription fees, and affiliate marketing deals.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I am a productivity consultant in New Zealand. My team and I specialise in helping businesses to optimise their use of Asana, Pipedrive, and Zapier. We provide client support globally, with a primary focus on the US, Canada, and Australia.

I’ve always been a productivity geek. I first became interested in productivity and how to optimise my time when I was studying at university. In 2012, I started my website, PaulMinors.com, where I blog about productivity and share my tips and tactics with the world.

I started consulting in 2016 before there were really any Asana or Pipedrive consultants to speak of. In late 2016, I quit my job and took my consulting business full-time. Since then, the business has continued to grow each year and I’ve expanded the team as I slowly attempt to remove myself as the bottleneck in the business.

How does your business make money?

I’ve established multiple revenue streams. A significant portion of our income comes from consulting services we provide to clients in exchange for software training and support. Over the years, I’ve experimented with different models (hourly support, project fees, and productized services), and I believe we now offer a suitable solution for any type of business looking to collaborate with us.

We’re also approved resellers of Asana and Pipedrive, generating revenue through software subscriptions. While this often leads to higher revenue, the margins are typically lower compared to the consulting services we offer. 

Our business generates revenue through affiliate marketing fees, commissions, sponsored content, and licensing deals. This multifaceted approach allows us to maintain a dynamic and resilient business model.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

My motivation stems from the aspiration to achieve complete self-sufficiency, maintaining 100% control over my time and income. Operating my own business provides the freedom to work on my terms, striking a balance between business and my lifestyle while having quality time for family.

How and when did you launch the business?

I began consulting on the side while maintaining a full-time job. I dedicated time before and after my regular work hours, and within a few months, my consulting income surpassed my full-time salary. At the end of 2016, I decided to resign from my job and fully immerse myself in growing my business.

Initially, I ventured into consulting using Google Adwords. I strategically targeted people actively looking for experts to collaborate with by employing highly specific keywords. This approach made sure that the advertising budget was concentrated solely on reaching people genuinely interested in working with consultants.

Since then, I’ve also concentrated a lot of my marketing on creating videos for YouTube, and now this is one of the main ways clients discover me.

How much money did you invest to start the business?

My business is entirely self-financed. I didn’t need a substantial amount of capital to get started. My main expenses were my website hosting fees and the subscription fees for some of the tools I was using (e.g. Mailchimp).

Even to this day, the advantage of consulting is the fact that it primarily demands your time, and we don’t have to deal with physical goods or high manufacturing costs.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

I took the initial step by listing a few of my skills on Clarity.fm, a dial-an-expert service. This proved to be a straightforward method to present a variety of ideas, gauging what people needed assistance with without the need to promote a website.

I did my first few calls for free just to gain some traction and get some reviews. As I got booking calls asking for help with Asana, it became evident that I had stumbled upon something with significant potential.

What was your first year in business like?

During my first year in business, I began consulting part-time while still employed full-time. The progress was gradual and it took a couple of months to see the first tangible results.

After I took the leap into full-time self-employment, I felt a great deal of imposter syndrome for the first year or two. I kept thinking my luck would run out, and people would stop paying for my services (it hasn’t happened yet :))

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

As a productivity geek, I’ve always tried to answer the question: ‘How can I work with more clients in less time (while delivering the same value)’. Funnily enough, I haven’t really tried to grow the company’s revenue for the last few years. Recently, my primary goal has been to make the business and our operations more efficient.

Interestingly, despite the shift away from a revenue-centric focus, income has continued to grow organically. Revenue growth is a natural byproduct of enhanced efficiency. It’s important for a business owner to allocate time to work on their business. This is where optimizing tools like Asana, Pipedrive, and Zapier prove to be time well spent.

Tell us about your team.

I look after the day-to-day operations and I recently hired an assistant to help with a lot of my daily operational and admin tasks. 

I have a full-time Zapier expert on the team who looks after our more complex automation work. 

I have three part-time consultants who meet with clients on Zoom and look after customer success. 

I have a part-time virtual assistant who helps with minor admin tasks.

My accounting is done by a local firm here in New Zealand.

And from time to time, I’ll work with web agencies or marketing experts when I need help in specific areas of my business.

What are your future plans for the business?

The primary goal at the moment is to rebrand the business so it’s less about me, Paul Minors. This will allow me to slowly step into the background, observing and managing everything from the shadows. 

A larger amount of my time at the moment is spent selling. Therefore, I also plan to hire at least one, maybe two salespeople this year who can sell alongside me to begin with before I step back from this role. 

Ultimately, I’d like the business to be able to operate on a daily basis without as much oversight required on my part.

What was the turning point when you knew your business was successful?

When I first broke six figures in profit, this felt really cool. Knowing that I’d created a business from nothing and I was now earning the equivalent of a decent full-time salary working for myself…  yeah, it felt like I’d made it.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

I used to feel that hiring outside help would be a burden and create stress that I didn’t want. I’ve since learned that when you hire the right people, you look after them and pay them well, they make your life easier, not harder.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

It sounds cliche, but stick with it. I hear from a lot of people who give up too soon, or they bounce from one idea to the next without giving their first idea enough time to succeed. 

I’ve also found that as you grow, you need to say ‘No’ more and more to different opportunities and ideas that come your way. What’s worked really well for me is staying focused and doing a couple of things really well. This is why we only offer support on Pipedrive and no other CRM. It’s why we only do Asana, and no other project management tool.

What is your favorite quote?

If you seek tranquillity, do less.

Marcus Aurelius

If you had to start from scratch, where would you begin?

I would say it’s important to identify a niche or passion that aligns with your expertise, emphasizing the value of genuine interest in the subject matter. Understanding the target audience would likely be a crucial starting point for crafting content and services that resonate.

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

The 4-Hour Work Week had a big impact on me at a young age and gave me the idea to sell ‘information’ (i.e. consulting) as a product.

I’m also a Ryan Holiday fan, and his books introduced me to the world of Stoicism, which has had a great impact on me.

I’m also big into Bitcoin and enjoy the What Bitcoin Did podcast, which helps me learn more about the space.