For a long time, we were taught that the bigger your following, the more successful your business would be.

10,000 followers. 50,000 followers. 100,000 followers. 1M followers. All these were seen as a sign that your business was successful or somewhat successful.

These numbers became a status symbol, and honestly, I fell for it too. I used to think you needed an audience before you could get clients.

I mean, how else would anyone find you?

Then I started working with marketing professionals and businesses that didn’t have a lot of followers but had money. I worked with marketing professionals who were making millions for the companies they worked for but only had 236 followers on social media.

In fact, I’ve worked with companies that barely got 50 likes on a post but were still making real money.

And that’s when I realized something crucial: a follower count tells you how many people chose to follow you. It doesn’t tell you how much money a business is making.

TikTok Changed the Game

Before TikTok became what it is today, social media discovery was much more connected to who you followed.

You followed someone, they posted, and you saw their post. And because of that, if you wanted to grow, you needed people to follow you first.

So we started chasing followers through follow-for-follow, giveaways, “follow me for more,” and content designed purely to grow an audience first and sell to them later.

Then TikTok came along and completely changed the way people discovered content. You didn’t have to follow someone to see their video; the platform could show you something simply because it thought you would be interested in it.

Suddenly, someone with zero followers could make a video that thousands of people saw.

As a result, you could discover someone you’d never heard of and become interested in a topic without following the person who created the content.

That was a massive shift. Unfortunately, some solopreneurs are still chasing followers and views in a world that has changed.

You Don’t Need an Audience. You Need the Right Attention.

This is where I think we’ve confused ourselves. If you have 10,000 followers, but none of them need what you sell, what have you actually built? You have an audience, sure, but you might not have customers.

On the other hand, imagine you have 300 people regularly finding your content because you’re talking about a problem they are actively trying to solve?

That is a much more interesting audience for a business. After all, they aren’t there just because they like you; they’re there because you are talking about something they care about.

At the end of the day, you don’t need to be famous, you just need to be findable.

Stop Creating for Your Followers

Naturally, this changes how I think about content. If you’re only creating for your existing followers, you’re always trying to keep the same people interested.

But what if you created content that could reach someone who has never heard of you? Someone searching for an answer, wondering how to solve a problem, or someone who has just realized they need help.

That’s where your potential customers actually are, and you don’t have to know their name yet, you just need to understand their problem.

• If you’re a website designer, don’t only post: “Here’s another website I designed.” Instead, talk about why someone’s website isn’t getting enquiries.

• If you’re a business coach, don’t create content only for people who already know they need a business coach. Create content for the person who is experiencing the problem but hasn’t put a name to it yet.

• If you’re a photographer, don’t only post pretty photos. Instead, talk about the decisions people struggle with when planning a shoot.

• If you’re a copywriter, don’t only show finished copy. Instead, explain why the original message wasn’t working.

In short, create things that people can discover because they’re interested in the problem you solve.

But What About Followers?

Now, I’m not saying followers are completely useless. A follower is someone who has chosen to hear from you again, and that’s valuable. But I don’t think follower count should be the main measure of whether your marketing is working.

Instead, there are other questions that matter much more:

• Are the right people finding you?

• Are people engaging with your ideas and visiting your website?

• Are they joining your email list or sending you enquiries?

• Are actual sales conversations happening?

Ultimately, those metrics tell you much more about your business health than whether you gained 47 followers this week.

The 236-Follower Business

This brings me back to that 236-follower example. Imagine looking at someone’s Instagram account and thinking: “Only 236 followers? They must not be doing very well.”

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, that person is doing excellent work for companies that make millions. They know their craft, they have relationships, they have clients, and they have proof.

Simply put, they don’t need to look popular to be valuable.

So, don’t build a business that looks successful on social media. Build a business that actually works outside of social media.

Your follower count cannot pay your invoice, deliver your service, build a real relationship, or prove that you’re good at what you do.

So What Should You Focus On?

Personally, I’d rather have 500 people who are actually interested in what I do than 50,000 people who followed me because one random video went viral.

I’d rather have someone discover one of my posts, click through to my website, and think: “Oh. This person understands my problem.”

That’s the kind of attention I want. Not attention for the sake of attention; relevant attention. Because as a solopreneur, you don’t need everyone to know your name. You just need the right people to know what you do.

And that is why the death of the follower count is actually good news. You don’t have to spend years building an audience before you can start marketing.

You don’t need to become an influencer or go viral. You just need to understand who you help, what problems they have, and create things that make it easier for those people to find you.