Building a Local Business From the Ground up, in my Spare Time – in an Industry I Know Nothing About

This article documents the start of a new journey I will be taking in my spare time, in 2018. It will explain how I got here, what I will be working on, and who will get the most value out of the content I’ll be writing.

Fulfillment vs Money

My journey of entrepreneurship has evolved & changed course many times, since I first started in 2002. I started my first business the old fashioned way. I identified a pain, created a solution for the pain, and figured out how to monetize it. I then stumbled into a completely different industry, and built a business around growing a passive income stream. Basically, I chased money. I started my third business, LOWD Media, after my second business started to fail. I started it, because I knew it was a way I could make some money with the skills I had built in the previous 2 businesses, but I also realized that I found the process of helping others very fulfilling.

As much as this may seem like an obvious life lesson, I have found through trial & error that I feel the most creative & passionate when I can strike a good balance between doing work that fulfills me, because I can add value to the lives of other people & making enough money where I don’t need to stress about things like paying bills, etc.

This brings me to my latest project. I have reached a point where I want to try something new. I have a new idea, and I think I see good financial potential in it. With proper execution, work, and a little bit of luck… I believe I can build myself an asset (a real business) that I will eventually cash out on by selling. I’ll document this process in order to help others with their own businesses.

So, what is the plan?

Most business owners start a business, and never really take the time to grasp the digital marketing part of it. Marketing is a foreign language to them. It’s frustrating, time consuming, and expensive. They need a process to follow. I am going to create this process for them by starting a business in a field I have no knowledge about, and documenting my journey.

The mission is to share my experience in starting & marketing a local business to help other entrepreneurs reach new heights.

What specifically am I going to do?

• Register a business & get all the basics (contacts, logo, etc.) established
• Start a simple website & analytics
• Ensure the website markets my business well
• Ensure the website is optimized to rank as well as possible in organic search results
• Explore email marketing, social media marketing & search engine marketing
• Explore traditional, offline marketing methods
• Ensure proper financial records are kept & tax requirements are followed
• Navigating regulations & government requirements
• Celebrate success, and learn lessons from failure

Rules:

• Maximum of 10 hours of work per week
• Maximum out of pocket expenses: $1,000
• Should be as easy as possible for an average business owner to do
• Business name, domain name, and other identifying details will be kept private

To summarize, essentially what I will be doing is starting a local business of my own and “learning out loud” in order to create a process future local business owners can follow, so that their web presence is attracting as many sales leads as possible. I will use the skills I’ve picked up over the last decade to show local business owners that although investing money into your website, SEO & digital marketing can certainly be a great investment… that they can also do it themselves, if they are willing to follow the process & commit the time required.

If you want email updates on the journey, leave a comment below & I’ll add you to the list. Email updates will be made every 1-2 weeks.