How to build a business on Substack

A year ago I started writing on Substack. Yesterday I hit publish on my 100th article. Today Substack pays my bills.

At the time of writing, I have more than 17,500 free subscribers and over 330 paid subscribers. Those subscriptions generate around £2,000 in recurring monthly revenue, which means my Substack is already a viable business in its own right.

Last month though, it generated just over £10,000.

The reality is, deep down, I always knew it would. Because this didn’t happen by accident. It happened on purpose because I designed it that way.

I intentionally created this success and built a sustainable system to scale it alongside my other ventures.

And that’s what we’re going to cover in the final week of the Substack Summer Challenge — how to treat Substack like a business asset.

We’re going to map every way it creates value, whether that’s through subscriptions, products, consulting, speaking or opportunities you can’t even predict yet.

We’re going to talk about why long-form writing creates a knowledge moat that becomes harder to copy every week.

We’ll look at where AI genuinely creates leverage (and where it absolutely doesn’t).

And we’ll build simple systems that mean your publication fits around your life instead of becoming another thing you feel guilty about.

By the end of the week, you’ll have a complete Substack operating system that ensures in twelve months time you’re not only still writing on Substack, but it’s a viable and sustainable source of income.