Solopreneurs
Six Figure Business Models
e·mail based businesses_
/ˈēˌmāl bāsed ˈbiznəsses/
noun
•
an ultra simple, minimalist digital business built 100% around email
•
a step-by-step repeatable framework for building simple multi six figure businesses
Enroll now
I want to tell you a quick story.
It's about how I stumbled on what may be the simplest multi six figure business model in the world for anyone selling digital courses or coaching.
At least, it's the simplest I've ever found.
And it's exactly how I run my businesses today.
If you're looking for a little inspiration…
Or if you feel stuck at all in your business now…
Or you feel like your business has gotten too complex…
Keep reading.
This'll fix that.
• • •
Let's go all the way back to the early 2010s.
A few years earlier I'd read The Four Hour Work Week and gotten my feet wet building some simple little affiliate sites.
But I'd quickly decided I wanted to level up.
Build some real businesses.
Where I owned everything.
But with one catch: they had to be SIMPLE businesses.
I wanted a setup that was just me, my laptop, a six figure income, and a whole lot of free time.
That's what we all want, right?
But looking back, I did what I now know just about every struggling entrepreneur does: I overcomplicated everything.
I had "business model fever" and did WAY too much:
I ran a clean beauty subscription box ecommerce shop with my wife
I tried to build a huge publishing business for "how to" creators
I took on clients and thought about starting an agency (almost daily)
I wanted to hire coaches underneath me.
The end result is that I tried everything…
And ultimately did nothing well.
So, obviously, my results sucked.
But then things changed around 2016.
• • •
I had a potential client reach out about writing a sales page.
He was a solopreneur who had 2 online courses teaching executives at Fortune 500 companies how to communicate better.
Let me emphasize: that was his entire source of income.
Two dinky courses.
Big woop, right?
Yet because any good copywriter needs to see "behind the scenes" of any business they write copy for, he showed me everything about his business, including the number of customers he had… and when I did some quick math, I realized he was doing about $1mm/year with this simple business setup.
My mind was blown.
Here I was doing everything possible to complicate my business, and this guy was doing everything possible to remove complications. And he was making 7 figures annually in the process.
Now, there was one thing I noticed about his simple business model that stood out above the rest.
It wasn't that he was selling courses…
Or the audience he'd chosen that grabbed my attention.
It was that literally everything centered around an email list.
• • •
Now let me explain what "centered around an email list" means.
Most people severely overcomplicate their business, marketing, and sales. They're trying to master 5-10 platforms at once - Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, podcasting, blogging, and on and on.
They think they need to be everywhere all at once to see any kind of success.
But the most successful solopreneurs I've met all focus on just ONE core marketing channel.
And in my experience, email is always the channel that the top performers double down on.
I'm sure you see people crushing it on X or LinkedIn or wherever…
But for every 1 person you see grinding away with daily posts trying to fish for attention, there are 100 others quietly doing 10x the numbers on a simple tiny email list — with a fraction of the complication.
When you own and control the audience, it makes your life easy and places insane profit margins right within reach.
It's a very simple model:
Build email lists of buyers (not freebie-seekers)
Send regular emails with valuable content
Periodically sell courses and digital products that genuinely help your audience
Repeat
That's it.
No complicated funnels. No endless social media posting. No constant content creation hamster wheel.
Just emails to a list of people who want to hear from you.
• • •
It's now almost 10 years since I saw inside that ultra-simple 7 figure email based business that changed everything for me.
And I've spent the entire time since then refining my own version.
Because here's the deal: I need things REALLY simple.
This may sound strange but I've learned my brain just can't handle complexity of any kind. The second there are too many moving parts, things stop working.
Which means I also have zero interest in having to hire teams of people or do extra marketing on social media.
That's because my goal never changed: I still want my setup to be just me, my laptop, a mid six figure income, and a whole lot of free time.
The difference from 15 years ago, though…
Is that's exactly what I have now.
I just send emails 5 days a week.
Most of the time they teach stuff for free.
Sometimes they sell stuff (while still teaching).
And there's no social media, no paid ads, and no complexity.
I still have trouble accepting how simple it is at times.
What separates how I do things from how everyone else does things is the execution and the approach — keeping it minimalist, focusing only on simple small email lists, and systematizing everything to make it run with as little effort as possible.
And I've decided to document exactly what my processes look like.
The exact blueprint I use to run my minimalist businesses.
If you don't want your business to revolve around social media…
If you've found yourself "lost in the weeds" in your business…
If you just want a real business blueprint that's SIMPLE…
Or maybe all of the above…
I'd love to see you inside.
Introducing…
e·mail based businesses_
/ˈēˌmāl bāsed ˈbiznəsses/
noun
•
an ultra simple, minimalist digital business built 100% around email
•
a step-by-step repeatable framework for building simple multi six figure businesses
This isn't about building a complicated business empire with dozens of employees and massive overhead. In fact it's explicitly designed to avoid that.
Email Based Businesses shows you how to create a focused, minimalist operation that you can run by yourself (or with minimal help) from anywhere in the world.
Every single step. In detail.
Exactly how I do it.
Module
01
Foundations
Understand the email based business model and mindset
•
Why build an EBB? Discover the advantages of control, lifestyle, and running a one-person business with less stress and a clear focus
•
What is an EBB? Learn the key components (copywriting, emails, sales pages, courses/products) and how this buyer-first business model differs from other approaches
•
Setting up for Success with Deep Work practices and developing the right mindset for solo entrepreneurship
Module
02
Finding Problems
Stop looking for an idea — and instead identify a problem
•
Finding Profitable Problems people will pay to solve by researching YOU and YOUR problems.
•
Developing Your Problem-Solving Expertise by learning "enough" in 3-6-12 months
•
Problem Selection Framework for evaluating problems for profitability and fit, matching them to your strengths and interests
Module
03
Creating Solutions
Create your first product and sales page
•
First Product Creation focusing on Flagship offers ($300-$500) using my unique methods for efficient product creation
•
Sales Page Development with simple frameworks that convert and building waitlists for initial validation
•
Tools & Infrastructure Setup including essential email service provider configuration, Stripe setup, and hosting options
Module
04
Traffic & List Building
Get traffic to your sales page and build your list
•
Traffic Generation from Scratch using networking/forums, high-converting newsletter signup pages, and the survey funnel method
•
How to write emails to your list building connection and trust with your audience
•
Strategic Traffic Expansion through affiliate relationships, word-of-mouth marketing.
Module
05
Growth & Expansion
Make more products and expand your business
•
The Rolling Launch Model with a calendar system for consistent income through strategic launching
•
Advanced Offer Building that scales without overwhelming you, with automation of time-intensive activities
•
Business Growth Strategies for creating multiple product tiers and expanding into complementary problem areas
Module
06
Automation & Delegation
Create systems that run without you
•
Strategic Automation to identify processes to delegate vs. automate and build content libraries that sell without you
•
Team Building & Delegation with VA hiring best practices and creating clear SOPs for team members
•
Designing Your Ideal Lifestyle by structuring your business around your preferred schedule and balancing growth with freedom
Bonus
01
Templates, Frameworks, and Formulas
My personal templates for emails, sales pages, course structures, and more — literally exactly what I use when I'm starting a new project of any kind so I'm never starting from a blank slate.
Bonus
02
Automation & Delegation
I resisted AI for way too long because the output sucked — that is, until I figured out how to make it not suck. If you're wondering how to use AI in your business in a more organic human way, this is exactly how I do it.
TL;DR:
If you're serious about building a streamlined business selling your knowledge and expertise, Email Based Businesses will give you everything you need.
But this isn't for everyone.
This course ISN'T for:
🚫
Anyone looking to get rich overnight
🚫
Entrepreneurs who want to build complex, multi-faceted businesses with dozens of employees and multiple marketing channels
🚫
And it's definitely not for technical beginners who can't figure out how to set up an email address.
This course IS for:
✅
Serious entrepreneurs who want a simpler path to growth.
✅
Anyone who has turned their business into a complicated, low-growth mess and now needs a simpler (but very profitable) blueprint.
✅
Entrepreneurs who are stuck and looking for a way to get un-stuck.
If the ultra simple, minimalist business I've described to you on this page is what you're after, hit the button below to join now.
I'll see you inside the course.
— Derek
FAQs
Question
Do I have to be a good writer for this to work?
Answer
Good writer? Nah, not really.
In fact the more human and imperfect you write, the better.
But to be clear, you DO need to be very comfortable writing in general — and be able to express your ideas through the written word.
They don't have to be grammatically correct (in fact it's better if they're not). But you've got to actually enjoy writing if your goal is an Email Based Business.
(Side note: there was a period of about 2 years where I hated writing and didn't dig my business. It wasn't until I used the systems and formulas and templates I share in this course that things clicked and I fell back in love with writing — and my business. Making money will do that.)
• • •
Question
How hard do I have to work in my business if I use this system?
Answer
If you're asking this question… this might be the wrong course for you.
Honestly, I'm a little bit embarrassed by how little I work. I enjoy working because the more I work this Email Based Business system, the more money I make.
So once things are running, you can cruise — for a little bit.
But you'll hit a wall eventually if you do that. Everyone does. I have.
I'm not going to sell this like it's a 1-hour-a-week commitment or some junk like that. Anyone who does that is misleading you. It's a real business model. Business requires time and effort to see results.
So if you can bring the time and effort, this system will reward you handsomely — and make your life so much easier.
(To be more precise: 20 hrs/week on the low end, but 40-60 hrs/week when you're really cranking and getting things going. You know… like a normal business.)
• • •
Question
I'm already running a business. Will this work for me?
Answer
Yes, yes, and yes!
This system is ultimately how I run businesses, but it's also the system I walk struggling business owners through when they feel stuck… and like they've complicated everything… and can't break through plateaus.
So if you want to simplify what you've already got (while likely leveling up your income a lot), this is what you need.
• • •
Question
How is this different from your Email Delivered Courses course?
Answer
Email Delivered Courses shows you how to build digital courses that are delivered entirely over email, drip-fed day-by-day over 30 days.
This course, Email Based Businesses, is the big-picture blueprint for how I run my businesses.
In other words, Email Delivered Courses is just a specialized technique for building courses (and delivering them day-by-day over email).
This course, Email Based Businesses, is about everything else — the logistics of actually building and running your entire email based business and keeping it as simple (and effective) as possible.
So the two courses go hand-in-hand, but teach different concepts.
(You don't need Email Delivered Courses. You can build your courses however you want. That's just the method I use to build courses.)
• • •
Question
What if I don't feel like an "expert" in anything? Is this course right for me?
Answer
Honestly… probably not.
This course is for people who are comfortable in the role of "expert" in their chosen niche, and now want to know how to build the simplest possible (while still being very profitable) business around that.
If you're struggling to come up with business ideas, or have no interest in being an expert in anything, this course will likely end up being too advanced for you.
• • •
Question
What if I have more questions?
Answer
Email us at support@copyhour.com and we'll be happy to help!
© CopyHour Inc. 2025