Best type of agency startup? 19 YO just got my driver license and have 2-3k to invest

So this is the plan for 2021:

Scale my methods, rank some mid comp websites, create a profitable dropshipping + ads store and finally start to sell my services to busisness

Question is, what is most profitable in 2020/21

Web Design (Outsourcing)
Social Media Managment (Expensive with latest IG algorithms & Hard to find clients)
Local Seo for small busisness (Cheap and very scalable)
Ads managment and optimization (Hard to sell to smal busisness)

On your experience what is the most profitable?

Perc30 said:

Web Design (Outsourcing)

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Judging by the number of web design spam in my inbox, it's not the most profitable.

Perc30 said:

Social Media Managment

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This was great 5 years ago, I don't know why everyone tries to get on the boat so late. The clients are aware it's crap, and the sellers can't deliver because of the algo changes.

Perc30 said:

Local Seo for small busisness

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Judging by the SEO spam in my inbox, they are really stuggling.

Perc30 said:

Ads managment and optimization

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I would go that route, just forget about optimization. It's not because you're cheap that everyone is. And if it's hard to sell to small business, sell to big businesses. Specialize in a specific market and focus on that.

Local SEO for small business is quite lucrative.

In the process of doing Local SEO, you can also pitch for website re-design, content and social media management.

Kind of Full service agency.

groundboy said:

Local SEO for small business is quite lucrative.

In the process of doing Local SEO, you can also pitch for website re-design, content and social media management.

Kind of Full service agency.

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Yeah i was thinking about that, in my country 70% of small busisness dont have a website so i can sell my SEO + Web design and later when i have their trust add social media managment services

Perc30 said:

Yeah i was thinking about that, in my country 70% of small busisness dont have a website so i can sell my SEO + Web design and later when i have their trust add social media managment services

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In theory that makes sense, but if they don't have a website they probably don't really care much about the online place. So it's hard to sell them hundreds of dollars worth of work that they don't want. I think it's optimistic to think most businesses want/need a website.
So if OP is getting into this, it's best he doesn't have high hopes.

If you're going ads management route (I'd recommend that). Find your niche(s), research. Create lead gen page(s).
You will need to figure out beforehand what an average business is willing to pay per lead in that industry.
Most businesses I've talked to have said that they aren't willing to pay agencies because of the ridiculous startup costs most offer ($2k-$5k before a campaign is even off the ground).
If you have leads you can sell them then you are in a much better position, and they spend a much smaller amount to test the waters.
If you have a working campaign generating leads below the average number people are willing to spend then you are in the money.
You will need a good idea of how they qualify them, so if you work with one company in your niche on a test basis (charge them no upfront costs, but get their knowledge).


Sell leads, not the service.

Many agencies have thin margin especially media ones.
For media, you will need to offer real values and get performance bonus.
You can also try high-margin services like Ecommerce content production, Ecommerce SEO (marketplaces), Ecommerce enabler.

Social Media Management has a tremendous scope.