Where the money usually goes wrong
Paying for work nobody checks
The familiar version is a monthly fee, a report full of graphs, and no way of telling whether the phone rang more than it did in March. If you cannot see what changed, you cannot tell whether it was worth the money.
Chasing visitors instead of jobs
Traffic is easy to grow and easy to put in a report. What pays a small business is the short list of searches where somebody has their wallet out, and those are usually low volume and boring to look at.
Buying the big-company version
Content calendars, brand workshops, dashboards nobody opens. All fine when you have staff to feed them. On a small business they eat the budget before any of it reaches the work that gets you found.
Signing away your own accounts
Website, domain, Google listing and ads all set up under an agency login. You find out what you never owned on the day you try to leave. Yours get set up in your own name, so you keep them either way.
How it works when you are small
You get one person
The person you talk to first is the person doing the work. No handover, no team you never meet, and a mobile number that gets answered.
Choices arrive already narrowed
You do not have to learn any of this. When something needs deciding you get the two or three real options with a recommendation, and a yes or no is enough.
Twenty minutes to start
Access to your website and your Google listing, and a few questions about which jobs you actually want more of and which months are quiet. That is the whole of your involvement at the front end.
Month to month
No setup fee and nothing to sign. If a month goes by where I have not earned it, you stop, and you keep everything that has been built.
Where the first month goes
Your Google listing sorted out properly, the wording on your existing pages fixed so it says plainly what you do and where, and the structural problems underneath your site put right. On most small business sites nobody has ever done those three things, which is why the early movement usually comes from them.
What it costs
Packages from $199 a week
Same packages whatever size you are. Tell me the number you have got in mind and I will tell you honestly what it covers, or say so if it is too low for me to be any use.
Read more about packages and pricingTell me what you want more ofNo obligation, and no setup fee.
Questions from small business owners
How small is too small?
If you have got customers and a phone number you are big enough for this to be worth doing. The point where I would say no is when the money would do more good inside the business itself, and I will tell you if I think that is where you are.
How long before I see anything?
Changes to your Google listing can show up within a fortnight. The website side is usually six to twelve weeks before it is obvious in enquiries, and longer in a category with a few serious operators in it. Anyone giving you a date is guessing.
Do I need to write blog posts?
Almost certainly not. The pages that earn their keep for a small business are the ones about the services you sell and the places you cover, and there are only so many of those. Weekly posts are something agencies sell rather than something your customers read.
Who does the work?
I do. There is no team behind me and nothing gets handed to anyone else, which is the whole reason I keep the number of clients low.
Can I do some of it myself?
Yes, and I will show you how. Asking customers for reviews and keeping your listing current cost nothing but attention. The wording on your pages and the structure underneath them are the parts worth paying someone for.