49 replies to this topic

[deborah2002]

I might have an answer to the "Florida" website question. I was checking out www.seoconsultants.com , and out of all their listings, only 3 are in Florida. I am not in any way stating that there aren't more SEO's in Florida (heelllooooooo), but I have noticed the companies here are more interested in design than in optimization (meaning they dabble in SEO but aren't "experts").

With the tourism industry here, it seems to me that most sites I come across are more interested in "pretty" pages to sell tickets, tours, etc. It is obvious some of these folks aren't interested in quality pages.

Odd we started this particular question, as I was thinking this just last night (course if my theory is right, it means more business for me! )

deb

[Jill]

Yeah, but we need to figure out a way to get all those designers to my seminar!



J

[leftbrain]

Scottie, you are absolutely right. If it is the company I am thinking of they are located in the tiny Newberry County town of Prosperity, Maybe that's their secret. How can business be bad if you're running it from a place called "Prosperity"?

You, Jill, and the other kind forum members have been an inspiration to me at a time when I need it the most. As I have said in another thread, I have worked as an engineer in the textile industry for over twenty years. Anyone who lives in the South knows that textile plants - and textile jobs - are fast disappearing. My company is no exception. I have survived so far because I'm the computer guru and nobody else here can do what I do. That can't last forever, though. With the current business and trade conditions, I figure I'll be out of work within 18 months. And that's being optimistic.

After working so long for others, my goal is to go into business for myself doing SEO, and perhaps some web design. I just want to make sure that I have addressed all the potential pitfalls before I make the plunge. It may sound to some as though I am searching for reasons why this will not work, but I owe it to my family to be very careful. I am actually very heartened with the responses to this thread. It's honestly a little frightening to think of leaving the only career I have been in since I graduated from college, but with this forum as my "support group," I'm betting that I can make it.

Jill, your last post went up as I was writing this. You don't know how much I hated not being able to attend your Atlanta seminar. The next time you head south, though, I am definitely in!

[dragonlady7]

From the beginning that's one of the reasons I wanted to start my own online business. I now live near NYC because the only jobs my boyfriend and I could find were in the suburbs of NYC (very few jobs actually in the City, btw, which is challenging because the public transportation all goes to and from the City, meaning that if you live outside it and work somewhere else outside it, you're pretty well out of luck and have to buy a car-- but the traffic will be abominable).
We're not really happy here. He's from Buffalo and loves the city and the region. I'm from up near Albany, which I think is just one of the prettiest places in the world. I also went to school in Rochester and had some of the happiest times of my life in Western New York.
But there are no jobs out there, and very few in the Capital Region near Albany. So we have to live down here. Our apartment is 6 times what it would be anywhere else, we can't find a decent grocery store, there's nowhere to park, the malls and grocery stores are mobbed, the parks are crowded-- there are just too many people everywhere, and you just can't enjoy anything that requires space to enjoy. (I saw the stars for the first time in months last night, because the power was out so the stupid street lights weren't illuminating the entire sky to a shade of uniform gray.)
I'm getting tired of my boyfriend's weekly cravings for decent Buffalo wings and Canadian beer. I'm tired of not having a back yard to lie in to watch the moonrise. I'm tired of spending a quarter of my monthly salary on our cramped little apartment (I could rent an entire 4-bedroom house with a backyard and a porch in Rochester for what I'm paying now for this 2 BR 3rd-floor walkup).

The Internet is the answer, I believe. It's what can save the poor bled-white little communities of western new york, which is facing dire economic times indeed. Buffalo's steel mills are gone and Rochester's high-tech is suffering-- Xerox and Kodak are not healthy and are bleeding workers, making ghost towns out of pretty little suburbs. But if you can start your own business, and it doesn't matter where you are-- then you can live wherever you want, you can eat the regional cuisine that makes you happy, and you can live as you want. That's my dream.

[leftbrain]

Dragonlady, I can certainly sympathize with those near you facing "dire economic times." Different industries, but the human toll is the same. As others have done for me, let me wish you the best of luck in acheiving your dream.

As far as regional cuisine goes, if you are ever in the midlands of South Carolina, you should definitely try some of our barbecue with a mustard-based sauce. Hey, Scottie likes it, so it has to be good, right?

[patrickh]

I'm tired of spending a quarter of my monthly salary on our cramped little apartment (I could rent an entire 4-bedroom house with a backyard and a porch in Rochester for what I'm paying now for this 2 BR 3rd-floor walkup).

Welcome to the real world :upsidedown: It's not just NY thats like that, I live in the midwest and am paying 1/4 my monthly salary for a cruddy 2br apt walk up. Unless you are extremely fortunate or want a lot of roomates (or make very good money I suppose), thats the way it is most places.

[Jill]

It's definitely a great feeling to know you can do your job from anywhere in the world. If my husband had to transfer to a different location, for instance, it wouldn't impact my business in the least. Nobody would be able to tell the difference, except I suppose that I'd have a new phone number! (Of course, my kids would never let us move right now because they are "at that age.")

With your business all online, it truly doesn't matter where you are as long as you have a computer and an internet connection. And it's also a good excuse NOT to have to meet with clients. I'm much more comfortable behind my computer then talking to people in some office.

I don't really even like talking to them on the phone, although I have forced myself to get better at that over the years. I still find myself stumbling over the words when trying to tell people about my services. I always try to get them off and get their email address so I can write to them instead! I'm much more convincing in email.

Oh, and leftbrain, keep Nov. 7 open. That's when we'll be in Tampa for the next seminar.

Jill

[qwerty]

My last company did about 95% of its business online or by telephone. Our sales guy (ahem... Sales Department) would occasionally have to travel to a prospect or a trade show, but that was about it.

About 6 months after we moved from a barn into a "real" office, we had a visit from a prospective client -- they were going to be our biggest contract ever, and they wanted to get a feel for the company before they gave us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We had to frantically decorate the place, as up until that point it had just been us and our desks. Everyone brought in artwork from home. We even had to wear shoes on the day they came in! But we got the contract.

[dragonlady7]

> if you are ever in the midlands of South Carolina

That's another thing-- I want to be able to travel, because my list just keeps getting longer. (S. Carolina wasn't on the list but you guys just keep talking about it...) :roll: I'll never make it to all the places I have to go! I just found cousins in Ireland that insist I have to visit them, and I'm not eligible for vacation for another six months. Oof.
Anyhow. From what i hear, starting your own business is not a recipe for time off whenever you want it (there was a thread on Webmasterworld by a guy asking how to leave his ecommerce site for his first vacation of more than a day in 5 years!), but the idea of it remains.

>paying 1/4 my monthly salary for a cruddy 2br apt walk up

Well... I suppose the amount you pay is proportional. It was a bit of a shocker, though, to learn that a mansion in Buffalo with a $70,000 kitchen (Viking stove, SubZero fridge) and a beautiful property went for less than the 2 bedroom, one-story wreck my boyfriend's sister and her husband bought in San Diego and have been breaking their backs to make livable.

> We even had to wear shoes
I wear slippers at work most days. I don't get the point of dressing up for work anyway-- nobody sees me except my coworkers, who don't care.
Sigh.

[Haystack]

We even had to wear shoes on the day they came in!

Shoes? Somebody call OSHA.

- Shoeless in Minneapolis

[mcanerin]

I designed my company with the eventual goal for being able to sit on a beach somewhere (presumably shoeless ) and have it basically hum along without me, except for the occasional emergency and routine followup.

I'd be bored stiff if I didn't have a "job", but I'm aiming more for something resembling "semi-retirement" than "the daily grind".

It's interesting, if you start out with the "I shouldn't have to be there for it to run" mentality, you find yourself thinking about all sorts of workflow optimization and automation that you may not have thought of before.

Ian

[meta]

Dragonlady, writers have a long tradition of working wherever they wish. I used to do some editing for a business in Manhattan, all the work done in Chicago, all the communication by phone and fax. Do some networking, you can probably find some freelancing opportunities. It may not pay a fortune, but I know people who live reasonably well as freelance writers and editors.

[Haystack]

Great post, Meta. Writers, like any creative profession, work best when they pick their own workspace. There was an interesting article on that concept in this week's edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on this topic which profiled Garrison Keillor and other local authors. I hope you can see it:
http://www.startribu...17/4005702.html

[Beth_C]

I designed my company with the eventual goal for being able to sit on a beach somewhere (presumably shoeless ) and have it basically hum along without me, except for the occasional emergency and routine followup.

I'd be bored stiff if I didn't have a "job", but I'm aiming more for something resembling "semi-retirement" than "the daily grind".

It's interesting, if you start out with the "I shouldn't have to be there for it to run" mentality, you find yourself thinking about all sorts of workflow optimization and automation that you may not have thought of before.

Ian

Ian,

I'm not in the SEO business but my company has done pretty much what you suggest. (Including the perpetual beach sand in my toes.)

My company offers a web-based software on a subscription basis. The software is basically flawless and the system is up 99.9% of the time. Our time is spent adding neat bells and whistles and responding to sales inquiries. (Since Jill helped us successfully optimize for high rankings in Google, we've stopped all cold calling, trade shows and other high effort marketing/sales efforts.) It makes for a really fun and low stress business model.

Beth C.

[mcanerin]

Woot! Another SEO success story! I'd love to see the site. Can you post a link (if you don't feel comfortable posting a link, you can email me) Since it's not intended to be hawking your wares, I think it'd be ok.

Ian