This father-of-three tapped what he learned in corporate America to create a million-dollar, one-person business
As the founder of Ocean Audit, Steve Ferreira built a fast-growing, million-dollar, one-person business in the seemingly boring field of ocean freight auditing. He taps into what he learned doing ocean freight refund recoveries for Fortune 500 companies for 25 years.
Steve’s business helps clients get refunds from overcharges on international container shipping freight on a contingency basis. For example, if a large retailer like JCPenney orders 10,000 shirts but there is an error on the bill, Steve identifies that error from the ocean shipping bills, which are public documents, and obtains permission from the retailer to collect it.
“If they get a million-dollar refund, I get a percentage of their refund,” he says.
The business, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., builds on what Steve, a father of three, accomplished in his corporate career and in an earlier company, TradeChek, which he sold in 1997 for seven figures to a publicly traded firm, Profit Recovery Group, in Atlanta. He took three years off to become a golf pro, then returned to ocean shipping to start Ocean Audit in 2004.
Steve has been at the forefront of a growing trend, the rise of million-dollar, one-person businesses. The number of million-dollar one-person businesses and partnerships in the U.S. has reached an all-time high, essentially doubling from 2021 to 2022 for the first time, in a hint of what the future of business could look like.
The U.S. Census Bureau found that 116,803 nonemployer businesses reached $1 million or more in revenue 2022, the most recent year available. That is up from 57,222 in 2021. Nonemployer businesses are those that don’t run payroll. They are generally run by one person, but may also be partnerships or small teams of founders.
Steve spoke on a livestream panel I moderated for the New York Public Library on May 12. I joined Helena Escalante, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the New York Public Library's Thomas Yoseloff Business Center, to discuss "Income Streams That Will Keep Your Business Going No Matter What.”
Here is Steve’s advice on building your revenue to $1 million and beyond.
Look for a niche you’ve already mastered. After many years in corporate finance as an ocean auditor, Steve knew his experience was very valuable, and he leveraged it to build a niche he could own right from the start. “They say it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert in one thing,” says Steve. “I’m a 40,000-hour expert.”
Listen to your gut. As you gain proof of concept for a new business idea, trust what your instincts are telling you. As soon as Steve started the business, he could see that his longstanding skill at building relationships with corporate executives was helping the business gain traction. “There is an entrepreneurial internal messaging in your own body that, as you succeed, says that you’ve got the right stuff, that people are willing to pay you for your expertise,” he says.
Learn to love storytelling. Steve has gone all-in on both LinkedIn and building a video platform. He films colorful videos on ocean shipping in a high-tech home recording studio, where he has positioned himself as the “most interesting man in logistics.”
Steve believes sharing his colorful stories from the front lines of his industry helps him build a personal relationship with his followers and potential customers.
“I went in with the mindset that I’m the best content creator, I’m the best salesperson, I’m the best person on camera,” he says. “You get me one-on-one.”
That mindset has helped him become a sought-after media source and rise to the top of Google searches, as well as ChatGPT.
Piggyback on existing income streams. Your next great idea may be a new spin on your last big one. For years, Steve focused only on ocean auditing. Then he realized he could bring the same savings to clients on their trucking and air shipping bills, which they were sharing with him, along with their shipping bills. “I had to bite my tongue a little bit because my niche was ocean freight,” Steve says.
Finally, he decided to offer his auditing services in those areas to a select group of clients, got proof of concept and began reaping the rewards of introducing those revenue streams.
His advice? Embrace a niche, but don’t become too narrowly focused on it. "You can go from $90,000 to $2 million if you focus on the bigger picture rather than just kind of locked into a niche,” he says.
Put your own spin on AI. Steve utilizes AI for various tasks in his business, but he consistently brings his creativity to using it.
"Sometimes AI is not a panacea,” he says. “It’s good for roadmaps, but sometimes you have to override it yourself. That’s when you can start to really monetize a situation, when you can tweak it so that you have the best of AI and creative intelligence or human intelligence.”