Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi All,

I am new to the boards and wanted to get some feedback on what you guys think about my idea.  I am looking to start a Web Development company with an emphasis on Search Engine Optimizations.  I am currently an SEO specialist and see how easy it is to sell this service to small to Mid size businesses.  What do you guys think, and where do I start?  I was attempting to do a business plan using Business Plan Pro, but, before I put all that time into it I thought I would see the response I got here.

I find that good web development and good SEO is often at ends with each other. Or, people who are good at one thing (programming, SEO or graphic arts) are not good at another.

Can you do that all yourself or would you be better off partnering with someone else to provide complimentary services?

I have a team; we can complete a website from conception to finish with SEO standards ect.  When I say team, I mean we all worked for a web development firm, but they have more of the design skills.  I will mostly be paying them to do the design work and I sell the service sense it is my vision.

So what is your niche? What is your USP? Why would someone buy from you vs the thousands of other web/SEO companies out there?

My niche would be to provide better service than the other guys.  The company I worked for was so large they are able to provide Analytics reporting, Media Buy, Bid Optimization, Emerging Media, Social Media, Manage the client`s adwords accounts ect....  I plan to provide all these services also.  Many of the small SEO firms do not have the time, manpower, or skills to provide all the above, yet I think I can pull it off, in time.

In short I am saying my experience with SEO will be the actual differentiator from the other guys and the ability to be innovative without the politics.  Also a lower price than the other guys.

We partner with web designers, among others, who offer our SEO platform as part of their services. Many of our partners are small businesses themselves working for SMB`s. There is a lot of opportunity out there still for website development and SEO is definitely in high demand. Some of our partners are even branding off-chute business offerings just around SEO, including our platform exclusively or in tandem with other SEM offerings.

If you only offer one service, then you will likely suffer if/when there is a slowdown in that industry. But by including complementary services, you can focus your business development efforts where you`ll have the most success and take advantage of the fluctuations in demand.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to clearly differentiate your service from competitors!

Good Luck!



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Ecordia
Top Organic Search Results in 2 weeks
www.ecordia.com

There are too many SEO wannabes who want to offer SEO Services when they're even sure if they are up to the mark. There are 50,000 SEO professionals out there. What make yours unique? Work on your USPs. Guaranteed Seo would be a good start.

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Seo Consultant | Rattan | Microsoft Dynamics Nav | Autism Singapore | Industrial For Rent | Business Park | Gallbladder Surgery Singapore

A USP is not "provide better service than the other guys." Everyone makes this statement so you're not actually differentiating.

A USP is meant to state how your product (the tangible being sold [which may include a service]) has superior benefits to the competition. A good way to think of this is to image yourself in front of a client - if you say "provide better service than the other guys" then your client will role his eyes up (even though this may be true, he won't know until you win the contract); you must state how s/he benefits from your product over and above competitors.

So, before you role out your company, you really need to do some competitive and strategic analysis. Suggest Guerrilla MBA at http://www.clickok.org or http://www.netmba.com or http://www.hbs.edu/mba/ or http://www.london.edu/programmes/mba.html

Don't underestimate USP / differentiation.

 

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