Starting SEO Company. Serious Advice Needed

Dear BHW fellow members,

Im going to start a small SEO company within next 2 weeks (already have rented the office space with 3 Brand New computers and furniture and am willing to expand infra, if required ). Im also familiar with SEO process (as an individual BUT am not aware as HOW to do it professionally) SO I NEED EXPERTS ADVICE as :

1. What is the proper procedure to run a small SEO company
2. What is the MINIMUM number of employees would I require to run the company in an efficient manner.
3. How many posts should be there (i.e., Analyst, link builder, content writer,etc)
4. What tools you "advice" to use, for different kind of jobs involved in the process


It would be highly appreciating IF someone, running some small SEO company SUCCESSFULLY, can help me to set things up for me.

Thanks for all your help in advance as your HELP would be highly appreciated in the matter

Pls keep coming your suggestions

THANKS

You have rented space BEFORE you know what you are doing?:tumblewee

I don't run an SEO business yet, I plan to. I know of a really great one in my area and they have always struggled in the sales area. They only have like 3 people that do all of the work and 2 salespeople.

I don't really know how well they are doing but they attempted to sell to my company and i blasted them away with knowledge and sent them away with their tails between their legs.

If it was me i would only ask one question:

Show me PAPER print outs of keyword performance over the last 2 years on a site that you improved its rankings for.

In other words, if you tell me, "I worked for DallasDivorceLawyer.com and, in that time, I moved them from ranking 43 for the term 'Dallas Divorce Lawyer', to position 2.

If this is true, I want to see a chart that shows the keyword moving up on a pretty line graph.

If you didn't have something like this, i wouldnt hire you.

jazzc said:

You have rented space BEFORE you know what you are doing?:tumblewee

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Yes, Coz I have the zeal and the enthusiasm along with the attitude to face failures. I have had learned a lot with my failures in the past, compared to my successes, as failure is an ongoing journey to reach the destination success.

In my opinion, doing things wrong is BETTER instead of wasting time to SIT AND DREAM

i run my own business so probably can help you a little

Im going to start a small SEO company within next 2 weeks (already have rented the office space with 3 Brand New computers and furniture and am willing to expand infra, if required ). Im also familiar with SEO process (as an individual BUT am not aware as HOW to do it professionally) SO I NEED EXPERTS ADVICE as :

1. What is the proper procedure to run a small SEO company

set up a questionnaire so your prospects can fill up and you can understand their needs. Just google SEO questionnaire or web marketing questionnaire in pdf format and you will receive lots of results.

most of the time you will be communicating via phone or emails, customers rarely will come to your place and you probably too bz to go over unless it s a big project. so you need to charge them for phone consultation

focus 80% on marketing and 20% on admin/misc stuffs - as a business owner your work should be networking and not doing the tedious mundane work.

2. What is the MINIMUM number of employees would I require to run the company in an efficient manner.

proportionate to your project, if you are starting up, do your networking during the day and work at nite; when you cant cope, hire someone to do it for you.
seo is not hard, just time consuming

3. How many posts should be there (i.e., Analyst, link builder, content writer,etc)

if you are running a seo company and asking this, i suggest working for a seo company first to learn how they do things

4. What tools you "advice" to use, for different kind of jobs involved in the process

again refer to answer 3

You over complicate it.
You only need three things.
A blackberry,
A top hitting salesman
and an outsource team.
Job done!

First rule of a successful business: Keep your overheads as low as possible.

This means work from home if possible,
Dont employ anyone until you have such a huge demand on your time that you cant afford not to employ people to do specific things for you.

Outsource the work to reliable people overseas or locally if you possibly can.
The purpose of a business is to make money, so you need to find eliable services that you can mark up and resell them.

"already have rented the office space with 3 Brand New computers and furniture and am willing to expand infra, if required"

an office space is not really necessary. There are guys running their own seo businesses at the comfort of their own home.

I wish you luck and good fortune. It's not an easy task, but can be profitable if you have some working capital.

Earlier in this thread proof was metioned and that is important. If you are just starting out, despite your personal knowledge, can you show evidence that you have and can bring a site to page #1. While you may have the knowledge, proof is the best sales tactic.

And yes, certainly most can be outsourced to trusted people, so certainly don't over commit on employees, focus on success and keep your working capital in check, you'll need it.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you will certainly have your own website (pretty much a requirement), focus on getting that site ranked, if you can do it for others, do it first for yourself, that's proof you can deliver right there.

why waste money on useless office and computers... all you need is a website and a client or two to start with them and put them on your portfolio. For workers you can hire them online (get your mind free of contracts and other bullshits a company need).

Sorry, but you are wasting your money...

myhatturnedblack said:

You are gonna fail
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Very Nice! Just what he was asking for!!

Do you know what I dislike about SEO companies? Maybe you can avoid these mistakes...

- Every project is unique and needs to be priced appropriately. You can't sell packages nor have price plans. Asses each job and give price/time estimates. You can't guarantee number x spot within x time when it comes to SEO either.

- Don't say that you are the cheapest or highest quality because you are not. Instead show examples of previous work and build up your reputation.

- I find that most SEO companies now days are not actually that good at SEO. I hope you already have enough knowledge.

- When promoting an SEO company many people would fire up an email campaign targeting "SEO" and other related keywords. The same thing goes for Twitter or any other platform. What will happen is that you will promote your SEO services to other SEOs which I find really funny. I rank very high for keyword "SEO" myself and the amount of offers I get daily is unbelievable.

- Make sure your own website rank well for at least some keywords and it looks professional. It annoys me when I get approached by an SEO company and they are nowhere to be found in search engines and their website looks like it was drawn in paint by a toddler. Maybe if that SEo company knew a thing or two about SEO they would get their clients via search engines rather than having to spam me.

- Don't save on your outsources. Make sure you get people with excellent grammar at least. They adcopy on various web 2.0 services sometimes frightens me.

- Find a unique selling point and push it. I can type "SEO services" into Google and get bombarded by thousands of SEO companies. Why should I give you the money and not them?

There was something else but I can't remember now lol I'm falling asleep.

Anyhow, Good luck!

I have no clue how to run an SEO company..I hire them/SEO dudes to do that part of the work.

However, I'd like to cross fingers and hope that you'll see profits coming your way soon! Good luck!

I own a Internet marketing agency and focus on marketing for tons of local businesses.... The biggest obstacle and headache is setting the expectation and covering your ass with contracts. Took me years to perfect this..

Good Luck

Rule #1: Do not run out of cash.

(many rules in between)

Rule #10: Do not forget Rule #1.

myhatturnedblack said:

You are gonna fail
Posted via Mobile Device

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Im not afraid of failure. I have earned a HUGE money from IM (and earning currently as well) and it became possible due to my FAILURES only. I have learned (and still learning) a lot from failures.

Remember, IF the victory is DEFINITE, Anyone can fight , but REAL BRAVE is the one WHO fights, despite of knowing about his defeat. And that is the key to success