How do I grow a one-man operation?

I grew from a one person operation. How I did it was use thumbtack and word of mouth as my only lead source. I did this even when I had one or two people and me still working in the field. When you are doing it on your own you really need to be cognoscente of saving money when you can to start to invest in to your business systems. I didn't introduce any new lead channels until I had more money. I probably shouldn't recommend this but when you start out, you probably need to pay people under the table until you have a little bit of savings. Is that the "right" way to do it? No ... but it's the most feasible given how hard some states make it to start a business. This was my blue print...

• Step one: Make sure you have enough work for you and your needs. Get a review from EVERY customer. Make nice uniforms for yourself to give the impression you have your act together. Get a tap card and get that review right there. 
• Step two: get a helper part time. Pay them cash to keep costs down. Continue to get reviews. At this point you should be in that 50-100 review territory. Annual Revenue around $100k
• Step three: get a couple people and use jobber (shameless plug) to keep everything organized. This is the point you should make sure you have at least general liability insurance and really protect your reputation. If anything goes sideways, make it right. This is a pivotal step in the business. You should shoot to save like $10-$30k so you can start to invest in things for growth. This could be new marketing, branding materials, getting a bookkeeper, alternative technologies. I highly advise using one of the more developed Jobber platforms at this point because you'll have enough going on that you can take advantage of the marketing suite, and you'll want to start tracking financials etc. If you don't have a good work vehicle, this is when you'd get one. Make sure you wrap it (don't cheap out, go full wrap). Make sure you are developing your socials. At this point you're going to want a bookkeeper if you haven't got one already. Annual revenue around $200K-$300k
• Step four: at this point you will want to start thinking about making your business "legit". In California, that means W2ing all your employees. This part is very expensive in this state. Other states are more forgiving and I'm jealous. lol Invest in alternative marketing platforms. Don't hang on to ones that aren't working. Don't pay for a marketing company, just learn it and do it yourself or find an experienced VA to execute. This is the point when you will want to double down on branding if your logo sucks, explore complimentary technologies that work with jobber that help alleviate pain points. join a networking group like BNI or Le Tip. Annual revneue around $500k
• Step five: Start looking in to a commercial space. Everything will be a lot easier as soon as you stop working out of your home. You'll want someone answering your phones/ giving admin assistance if you didn't get that in the last step. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list but these are the bullet points. There's obviously a lot more to it.