Introduction to Your Success Story
The purpose of this book is simple: I want to show you how to set up your website so that it will be the most valuable part of your business. I want to show you how to take it from being an online brochure to being a money-making machine that works for you 24/7 to generate new customers, phone calls and jobs. I want your website to set you free from the tedious work of Internet marketing so you can focus on running and growing your business the way you want to.
I want to help you succeed!
You may think you’ve tried it all or heard it all when it comes to Internet marketing. I’m about to share how you can set up hands-off marketing and reveal little-known tips to get lots of calls for your business. First, however, I’m going to share a rather embarrassing story with you.
I wasn’t always a web design and SEO expert. And I certainly wasn’t a guy to be featured in trade magazines, podcasts and invited to speak at entrepreneur groups like the national 1 Million Cups. My business story has some humble beginnings. I remember it was April 2009 and frankly, one of the lowest points of my life. As is often the case, it was hitting rock bottom that led me to where I am today.
My wife, 10-month-old baby daughter and I decided to move from Kansas City back to Missoula, Montana where I grew up as a child. We wanted a safe place to raise kids and help out with my 80-year-old grandmother who was still living in Missoula. So we loaded up our beat-up minivan and made the move with only a few thousand dollars in savings.
Here is a picture of my family in the early days 2009:
I had no job and no prospects.
My background is in customer service and graphic design. I soon learned the job market in Montana was absolutely horrible. I couldn’t find a decent job to save my life.
This terrifying question kept coming up: How am I going to support my new family?
Luckily, I connected with Rick Kern, a longtime family friend who suggested I start a cleaning service business to make some extra money. We both thought it would be temporary until I could find a good job and get on my feet. So I pulled my meager savings out of the bank, bought some used equipment and loaded up the minivan.
I was excited to be in business for myself and ready for the work to start rolling in.
That didn’t happen. In fact, the bills were piling up, the debt was increasing and the phone was not ringing. I resorted to working part-time for my landlord cutting grass and painting apartments just to make sure the rent was paid. I was struggling. Anybody who has been a similar situation knows how embarrassing it is when you can’t support your own family.
Then it got worse…
I remember that it was cold, wet and a little gloomy. My wife, baby and I were driving our little beat-up minivan home from Pizza Hut where we had used a coupon for a rare night out. We were about two blocks away from our apartment when I felt a sharp pain in my gut. At first I thought it was nothing, but it continued throughout the night and was getting worse.
Finally, at three o’clock in the morning the pain was unbearable. I didn’t want to wake the baby so I jumped in the minivan and drove myself to the emergency room.
After spending twelve hours in agonizing pain and having doctors and nurses stick me with needles and shove various tubes in and out of my body, they diagnosed me with Crohn’s Disease (later it turned out to be Celiac Disease). And on top of that, I found out my temporary health insurance was going to expire the next month and there was no money to renew the plan.
So let’s recap: I had a struggling business that was barely paying the bills, I was diagnosed with a nasty disease and I couldn’t afford to support my family. I felt hopeless and trapped. How was I going to get myself out of this situation as broke as I was?
The thing about utter desperation is that sometimes it focuses the mind. Lying in that hospital bed waiting to be discharged, something happened in my head and my heart. I decided at that very moment: “I will NEVER EVER feel this way again. I will figure this out and take my family out of this situation…no matter what!” It wasn’t a matter of “If”, it was a matter of “How”.
It was only a few days later that I was again talking with my friend, Rick Kern. We were discussing how to make my struggling business really take off. We knew we needed to get the word out, but advertising was too expensive. I had already built my own website using my graphic design skills, but nobody was visiting the website so it wasn’t doing me much good.
At the time, Rick was making some good money with an online business selling pre-paid cell phones. He introduced me to the concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which basically is what allows your website to rank high on Google when someone types in a specific search term. We decided that improving the ranking for my local business on Google might bring in some more work.
Rick taught me the basics of SEO and I ran with it.
The thing about SEO is that it typically takes several months to see results. Every morning before anybody else was up, I would jump on the computer and do everything possible to learn and implement SEO. Then during the day, I would be out pounding the pavement, going door-to-door trying to drum up work. I also borrowed some money to pay for a local coupon mail-out.
And guess what? Work finally started coming in.
Four months after I started working on SEO, my website hit the bottom of the first page of the Google search results and I started to get a few calls. The next month I was in the middle of the page and calls increased. After six months, my website was bouncing around the top three positions. The calls were really coming in now.
I had made it. I was back on top. I was paying my bills and supporting my family. I no longer felt trapped and I felt true freedom: the freedom of running my own successful business.
As the years went on, I continued to run my business and on the side, I helped other service businesses with their websites and SEO. What I began to realize was that a lot of business owners didn’t really like the marketing side of business. They just wanted to work and run their business. I, on the other hand, liked marketing more than any other aspect.
As my marketing side-hustle expanded, I realized I would have to focus if I really wanted to grow. I sold my cleaning business to a friend in 2014 so all my energy would go to my new company, Big West Marketing.
At the time of writing this book, we have an office and dedicated team of five amazing people. We have helped over 850 service businesses with their websites, marketing and SEO needs.
Remember, despite my success today, I’m really no different than anyone else. I’m just a guy who stumbled upon a really effective system and worked hard to make it work. And it’s the same exact system I’ll be sharing with you in this book, so you can finally experience freedom and results like these for yourself!
Is This Book for You?
Answer these questions:
- Are you a business owner looking for more customers online?
- Do you currently have a website but not enough traffic or people contacting you to use your services?
- Are you overwhelmed and confused by all the options online for marketing your business?
- Are you too busy running your business to focus time and energy on website marketing?
- Are you bombarded with dozens of phone calls from salespeople trying to sell you marketing schemes, done-for-you web templates, SEO or other online marketing programs?
- Do you know that more and more people are going online to find services you offer but you haven’t been able capture a piece of this massive opportunity?
- Are you looking for a solution to simplify and automate all this online marketing stuff?
If any or all of these questions are answered with a “YES” and you want to stand out in your local area as the top service provider, then this book is for you!
This book will provide a simple step-by-step proven blueprint to help you quickly and easily turn your website into a virtual money-making machine.
Who Should Not Read This Book?
Most small business owners I have met are some of the best, down-to-earth, hardest-working individuals on the planet, but there are some shady characters out there.
- If you are looking to make a quick buck, then this book is not for you.
- If you make money off of “bait-and-switch” tactics, then this book is not for you.
- If you aren’t willing to do the work to build a foundation of satisfied customers, then this book is not for you.
This book is for any business owner that wants to build a proud, reputable business in their community. This book is for any business owner that cares about the quality of service they provide. This book is for any business owner that cares about the customer and has do-whatever-it-takes attitude (even during the slow season) to get business.
If that sounds like you, then you are going to love what I have to say.
Why Did I Write This Book?
In my many years of helping hundreds of service and contract businesses get more calls, leads, jobs, customers and money through smart web design and search engine ranking, I realized three common truths:
- Service business owners (like you) are highly-skilled technicians. They are amazing at what they do and take pride in a job well done.
- The laser focus on the technical side of the business leaves little time for a marketing. They are so busy working IN the business they don’t have time to work ON the business. They end up settling for websites that looks nice, but do not get traffic and convert visitors into paying customers.
- Virtually every business owner I speak to is overwhelmed with all the tedious Internet stuff. It is called “Too Much Information.” They just don’t have the time, desire or mental energy to both run a successful business and worry about all the 1000s of ideas when it comes to websites and Internet marketing programs.
Based on these truths, it is my goal to demystify website confusion. I want to cut through the noise and BS and give you “The Meat” – you know, the stuff that actually works. I didn’t fill this book with lots of clever ideas and information that sounds good but has never been tested. I’m going to give you the stuff I know works for sure. I use it on my websites and my client’s websites. This is real-world stuff that you can implement today!
I was first inspired to write this book by my friend and mentor, Mark Kennedy, who was one of the first in the industry to write a comprehensive book on running a successful service business. I learned so much from his book back in 2010, but I never thought I would be motivated to write a book of my own.
Five years later another industry friend, Deon Bush, published his own book and encouraged me to do the same. It took a while for me to test and implement the techniques and tips I wanted to share. Now here I am with my own book, hoping that you get massive value from these pages just as I did from the books I’ve read throughout the years.
Beware, I’m not a professional writer and I don’t play one on the Internet. If you’re looking for good grammar or perfect literary structure, then please close this book right now. I’m a normal guy who, after being confused, frustrated and burned by “Internet Marketers,” I decided to take matters into my own hands and test, test and do more testing until I got it right.
My message is one of hope. I have been where you are now, and I had mentors and guides who helped me shorten the learning curve. If you have been searching for a solution to building your service business and are willing to put in some time and effort, then please accept my help. You will be glad you did.
Does that mean my knowledge is 100% complete? No, I don’t know it all, but I’m damn sure I know more than anyone else in the industry when it comes to smart web design, SEO and what really works. That said, if someone can prove me wrong or come up with a better proven solution (that is backed up with actual data), then I will be the first admit it. Like I said, this book is all about the stuff that works!
What Makes This Book Different?
There is endless information on the subject of website design, Internet marketing, SEO, Google rankings, etc. But one thing I see missing is specific information for specific industries. These “experts” give broad general marketing advice that assumes every business should market the same way. Many times, they don’t distinguish the difference between marketing a small local business and marketing a BIG multi-national corporation. They bunch everything together as if it’s all the same thing.
I’m here to tell you first hand that marketing a national company and a local business are two completely different animals. And to take it a step further, effective marketing strategies for different types of local businesses can be very different as well. Do you think a marketing strategy for a local coffee shop, jewelry store and carpet cleaner should be implemented the same way? Absolutely not!
Admittedly there is some overlap and general marketing principles that can be applied to a variety of different business types. However, the actionable day-to-day strategies will vary greatly. My company only works with businesses in the service or contractor industry. This puts me in unique position to help you.
This book is specifically for service based businesses. Your business goes into people’s homes and businesses to provide a service. It is important that you create a connection with the people you serve. They must know, like and trust that you are who you say you are and that you will do what you say you will do. The marketing of small service companies is similar because we want to create a relationship based on trust and quality.
Everything you will learn in this book is based on building that trust and showing potential customers that you are a quality company.
What You Are Going To Get Out Of This Book
I’m going to cover a specific blueprint and checklist for getting two, three or even ten times more business from your website. We’ve completed hundreds of websites for service businesses over the years. Our company has been testing different variables to see what really works…what really gets the phone to ring.
Most business owners and marketers (and web designers) have no idea what really works when it comes to conversion (an industry term for converting advertising and marketing into active clients). They have opinions and ideas, but no real data to back it up. They focus on things that have little to no impact on actual customer acquisition. And let’s be honest, no matter how attractive or how many bells and whistles your website has, if it’s not bringing in the most calls possible, then what’s the point?
And I’m as guilty as any small business owner and/or web designer reading this book. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. When I first started my service business, my goal was to have the coolest website in town. I just wanted to impress people.
Now, I have to say the web sites we build are pretty damn cool in my opinion, but over the years I’ve switched my focus to function over form.
I want sites that perform. So should you. Period.
Think about this: If you take all the testing, data and analysis from 100s of sever business websites, it would take years to figure out the stuff I’m about to share. I want to cut down on your learning curve.
Obviously, you are a smart and ambitious business owner, or you would not be reading this book. I want to congratulate you and encourage you to incorporate these steps and systems towards a more successful business.
Bottom line is that there is a specific formula to hit certain psychological triggers that get people to take action. This is really simple stuff, but most people don’t know about it, or are unwilling to take the time to put it into practice – just like I didn’t know a few years ago.
Depending on your situation, you can do this yourself or have your web designer do this for you. You should be able to make changes quick and easy. If you need help understanding or implementing anything in this book you can visit our website, YouTube channel, Facebook page, or just email or call our office for a free consultation.
At first this might seem like a lot of information. You don’t have to implement everything right away, but the more you do, the better your results will be. Every step will move you closer to success.
Let’s get a quick overview.
This Book is Divided into Three Sections:
- Website Usability: Is your website clear and usable? Is it obvious what you are about and what the visitor should do? Can they easily find what they are looking for without scrolling and searching? I will show you how to make your website functional, user-friendly and action-oriented.
- Website Trust: Are you establishing trust with your visitors? Do they see you as a friendly face? Are you recognized as the best provider in your community? I will show you how to gain visitors’ trust and turn them into paying customers.
- Website Traffic: Websites need traffic. How many eyeballs are on your website every month? How are people finding your website? I have found that ranking on Google and marketing on Facebook are the best ways to get traffic to your website. I will show you how to capitalize on both.
So, when we put usability, trust and traffic all together, it results in an explosion of phone calls and new customers. We will cover all this and more to make your website the best it can possibly be. You are now on your way to building your own Service Business Money Machine.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Intro to Book: The Service Business Money Machine
Chapter 1: The Power of Making It Easy
Chapter 2: Navigation Menus and Pages
Chapter 3: Going Mobile
Chapter 4: Website Look and Feel
Chapter 5: Domains, Hosting and Websites
Chapter 6: Building Trust On The Internet
Chapter 7: Video Power!
Chapter 8: Closing the Deal
Chapter 9: SEO – Understanding the Game
Chapter 10: On-site SEO
Chapter 11: Off-site SEO
Chapter 12: Google My Business FAQ
Chapter 13: Facebook Marketing
Chapter 14: Bringing It All Together
