Launch & Grow Your Solo Business with No-Code A.I. & D.I.Y. Automation

As solopreneurs, how can we operate with the power and scale of a full-blown team? Consider this a “101” for Indie Hackers and Indie Hustlers.

This is a step-by-step guide based on real-world trial and error. The latest tools and best practices are curated for design, branding, social media, marketing strategy and research, content creation, website creation, lead generation, outreach automation, and analytics.

Apply this knowledge to: 1) reduce busywork, earn more, and get more done 2) package a productized service of your own. 

Save the tools and tactics you like. Most have free tiers and trials. Skip anything that’s not relevant to your business.

Ready to roll? Let’s go. 

Solopreneur Principle: Never Let a Human Be Your Point of Failure

Solopreneurs scale by automating, delegating, or white labeling.

Automation is the only way that preserves your self-sufficiency.

Until recently, the solopreneur playbook required talent arbitrage. Gig workers did the work that no-code AI does today. This means you don’t have to hire. Unless it’s an executive partner or co-investor, a human is always a liability compared to a machine.

• Humans require management, expectation management, and morale. 
• Costs of hiring, firing, training, and replacing = catastrophic for small teams.
• If you pick the wrong human, your team’s morale will be die. 
• “Elites” with prestigious roots bring entitlement and employee mentality. 
• You generally pay for idle time when you hire full-timers.

Rule: 

• If you need executive partners, pick top-tier humans.
• If you need employees, pick freelancers or taskers.
• If you need outcomes, pick an agency or consultancy.

How to Automate Design, Branding, and Marketing Assets

Elevate your brand in just one hour.

Humans can be unreliable, have poor taste, and require detailed guidance. These tools guarantee results without making you wait or charging for idle time. Whether you’re launching a new business or adding a revenue line to an existing company, this process makes branding easy.

1. Name your business using Namelix or Business Name Generator.
2. Create your logomark, wordmark, color scheme, social graphics, templates, and merchandising concepts using Brandmark, Looka, or Design.com.
3. Edit, mood board, and create basic templates using Canva or Figma.
4. Draw diagrams, process maps, and infographics using Miro.
5. Craft brochures and presentations with Beautiful AI and Pitch.com.

Put your brand standards and marketing assets in a GDrive link to start your Media Kit, which is a resource for promotion via partners and press. 

How to Automate Content Marketing, Research, and Strategy

Win customers with winning content. Create high-performance marketing flywheels with practical calls to action (CTA) and lead magnets that attract inbound prospects while you sleep.

Marketing is about building, buying, or borrowing web traffic and foot traffic. Think of everything you put online as digital real estate. Your goal is to convert the curious into customers by turning informational search intent into commercial intent. Try to run this step-by-step on a biweekly cadence.

1. Research and track your topics and trends using a dedicated inbox for topical newsletters, Flipboard, Feedly, MeetGlimpse, and/or Exploding Topics. 
2. Publish long form “owned media” content including articles and videos (speeches, podcasts, lectures, etc.) via Riverside, SEOBotAI, and/or Koala AI. 
3. Repurpose this to publish short form owned media content using OpusClip, Taplio, TweetHunter, and/or Hypefury. Other useful tools include Publer, ContentStudio, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, and/or Shield.
4. Look into your website, audience, and social metrics more deeply using Semrush (alternatives include Ahrefs and Moz), Audiense, and/or Fathom Analytics. 
5. Use AI agents and LLM-powered tools to automate busywork. Ideate and create with NotebookLM and Perplexity. Delegate to AgentGPT and Cognosys.
6. Pitch for “earned media” public relations placements using your own content. Check out Connectively, formerly Help A Reporter Out (HARO).
7. If you ever need a demo or a quick explainer video, use Loom for recording and Descript for editing. Film on your phone, not webcam, for better quality.
8. If you need visibilty through local SEO and directories, use BrightLocal. 

Systems keep going when momentum and motivation drop. If you systematize these tools and tactics, you can trust the process. 

How to Build a Landing Page with Minimal Cost and Effort

If you have a killer landing page, you don’t need a deck, brochure, or proposal. 

Think of your landing page as a highway to profit, driving customers to your payment link. If you choose the right tool for your business, it’ll do most of the work for you.

✦ Create your landing page using SquareSpace if speed and simplicity are important to you. It’s easier than PowerPoint and the template library is extensive. Choose WordPress, WebFlow, or Wix if you have a specific reason.

✦ Don’t have enough time? Use Durable which is a no-code website builder. It’s hit or miss, but you’ll get some decent iterations.

✦ Launching an agency? Use GoHighLevel. It’s clunky but there’s everything you need at a basic level. You can also white label this tool.

✦ Launching a course? Use Kajabi if you have a prerecorded course and/or coaching practice. Consider Maven if you have a live cohort-based course.

✦ Launching an ecommerce business? Use Shopify. In many cases, Etsy is sufficient. For analytics, check out PageGenie.

✦ Launching a newsletter? Use Substack. You’ll get a unique link to customize as a landing page. Beehiiv also works. Remember, ALWAYS cross-post to LinkedIn because your LinkedIn newsletter 1) does not get “down ranked” when you link it in your posts 2) notifies your connections.

✦ Use Gumroad if you’re launching a digital product or a suite of offerings. It’s popular among digital nomads and solopreneurs with multiple income streams. 

Bonus: Analyze your website using Fathom Analytics. It simplifies all data so you don’t have to become an expert at Google Analytics.

A website easily costs $5,000~10,000 if you hire a contractor. Unless you need a web application, you can easily avoid this cost. Sometimes, having a strong set of social media accounts or a LinkTree is good enough.

How to Automate Your Business Development

Automate lead generation, outreach, A/B testing, tracking, and follow-up.

There are “LeadGen” agencies who charge small fortunes to pull simple lists. In most cases, this is worthless. These tools are easy to learn, so help yourself before you hire a human.

1. Start prospecting on LinkedIn. Get Sales Navigator if you can afford it. LinkedIn is the only platform for professionals. Most accounts are real humans, not bots.
2. Expand, refine, and curate your leads using Apollo. It integrates with LinkedIn so you can build lists while browsing.
3. If you need niche-specific data, check out other databases. PitchBook is the gold standard for startups and venture capitalists. ROSTR is the best for the music industry. Social Cat and Impulze are for influencers. Podchaser helps you find podcasts and podcasters.
4. Discover more prospects from Slack, Github, Yellow Pages, Instagram, X, YouTube, Reddit, and others using Phantombuster. You can scrape contacts including people who engage with a certain post or people who follow a specific account.
5. Schedule your outreach using Phantombuster and Apollo with automated email sequences and social actions. Track response and engagement rates, create A/B tests, and send personalized follow-ups passively. Get AI assistance for copy writing. Seamless AI is another good option.
6. Schedule calls and meetings using Calendly or LettuceMeet. Insert the appropriate link in your outreach copy to avoid manual back-and-forth.
7. Set up intake funnels and applications using Google Form or TypeForm.
8. Refine your copy writing and get inspired with ReallyGoodEmails.
9. Run meetings using free tools like Google Meet. Consider paying for Zoom if you want meeting insights and recommendations based on AI analysis.
10. Take meeting notes, generate summaries, and create mutual action plans using Fireflies, Fathom, TLDV, Spiky AI, etc.

It’s incredibly easy to automate your internal sales (prospecting, lead generation, list building, curation) and external sales (outbound, tracking, follow-up). This system looks complicated in writing but, in practice, it’s a no-brainer.

How to Discover More AI Tools and Automation Tactics

Choose your tools and tactics based on function, not form.

Continuously research what’s available and swap out your equipment when you find something better. Solopreneurs care about their tools and tactics the way soldiers care about their weapons. Look into marketplaces and aggregators from time to time:

• There’s an AI for That is a database that aggregates many options.
• AppSumo is a marketplace of niche-specific tools with deep discounts.
• ProductHunt is a showcase and leaderboard of new tools that are trending.
• BetaList helps you discover new startups and technologies.
• G2 helps you find the best software and services for your needs.

No matter what you’re building or selling, there’s a way to do it solo. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 

Even if you’re a non-technical founder building a technical product, avoid hiring an agency or trusting an untested co-founder. You can build almost anything with Softr, Bubble, Zapier, Lovable, etc.

How You Can Help Yourself

1. Zero to Hero Solopreneur Launchpad

Take this online course with a cohort of peers. In one month, you will learn the secrets of a full-stack business builder who can reliably advance from idea to revenue. This course is 99% practice, 1% theory. 

2. Solopreneur Starter Kit

Feeling curious, but not ready to commit? Check out this free e-book which includes a workbook, reading list, and previous of the UC Berkeley solopreneurship course.