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My offline startup 2015. Will I nail it ?

by meowis
16 replies
Good day fellow warriors.

I have made quite a bit with affiliate marketing success in the past (when i was 19, i am 24 now) and put my money into businesses that eventually failed.

This is because I wanted to transition from online to offline. Coming from a low-income family, I am surrounded by business illiterate, financially unsavvy and risk-fearing relatives. I hope that the "learning it the hard way" part will stop in 2015.

After the years of failure and with the trigger of reading this book here :



I am going to startup (with very minimum capital) a local web design company, with emphasis on helping small businesses do better and perform more efficiently through a better website.

-I know my prime client and i qualify leads. I currently have about 30 qualified LOCAL leads in the gym & fitness center market.

-I plan to use education based marketing by offering them a free analysis of their current website, in order to find prospects.

-I have a flexible price model moulded around how much the business is able to budget for the website. (Usually $4,000usd to $6,000usd for wordpress) This is to ensure I do not undercharge. All web design is done by me at the moment, i know the market and I have the skills.

-I have cloud based CRM & Accounting software to keep track of the business. And an operations manual is currently in development.

Website currently developing : HERE
Sample of sales letter for gyms : HERE

I hope that doing business this way will work and at least get me 1 paying client out of the 30 targeted leads i have right now, preferably in January 2015. Thinking years ahead, I would like to have offices internationally with good growth and profitability, before selling the business.

I would love to hear any comment from you guys, and every feedback i receive (be it positive or negative) will be a huge help towards making this journey successful. May everyone have a fruitful 2015, and happy new year.
#2015 #nail #offline #startup
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Well I see a couple problems.

    1.) Using education based marketing is great to bring inbound leads but it's not going to bring in a lot at first and you need to make sales in order to survive, right? You will need to do some direct marketing. Which I assume you know with your sales letter, but I think it is important for you to really push that.

    2.) The prices you're charging are too high. I'm all for the charge what you're worth thing, but the truth is if you're wanting to build a business you need to have a sweet spot in pricing, where you can get some decent volume but also having great margins. I think you need to set your prices lower at first, and once you get the hang of this then start increasing them.

    3.) It's great you found a niche you want to target but in my experience, gyms do not pay the prices you're wanting. Usually, they're in between the $1,200-$3,000 range unless you have a larger chain, and that's if you're really good. If you're average, it literally cuts the expected price point in half to about 600-1,500.

    Overall, not a bad plan. You've got things together better than most people that haven't launched yet.
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    • Profile picture of the author meowis
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Well I see a couple problems.

      1.) Using education based marketing is great to bring inbound leads but it's not going to bring in a lot at first and you need to make sales in order to survive, right? You will need to do some direct marketing. Which I assume you know with your sales letter, but I think it is important for you to really push that.

      2.) The prices you're charging are too high. I'm all for the charge what you're worth thing, but the truth is if you're wanting to build a business you need to have a sweet spot in pricing, where you can get some decent volume but also having great margins. I think you need to set your prices lower at first, and once you get the hang of this then start increasing them.

      3.) It's great you found a niche you want to target but in my experience, gyms do not pay the prices you're wanting. Usually, they're in between the $1,200-$3,000 range unless you have a larger chain, and that's if you're really good. If you're average, it literally cuts the expected price point in half to about 600-1,500.

      Overall, not a bad plan. You've got things together better than most people that haven't launched yet.
      Thank you so much for your feedback,

      1) The free analysis is just part of the sales funnel to provide some personal touch in addition to the sales letter (increasing conversion %), if they do not want it, the sales letter(specific to the client's market) will still be used.

      2) In regards to the prices, do note that the govt here currently has a scheme for small/medium enterprises for a cash reimbursement of 60% of the costs incurred for a website. So If i charge $4,000-$6,000.... their out of pocket costs are actually $1,600-$2,400. This lasts till 2018.

      Thank for letting me know i got things together, great morale boost to start off the day !
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      "Everyone laughed at me when i told them i wanted to make money on the internet. Guess who's laughing now ?"

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  • Profile picture of the author IMAnthony
    I see you are using a template for your website - by the way when someone clicks the submit button without filling the Free Website Analysis Report form, the error messages overflow your form outside the tablet area.

    If you will be focusing on gyms, then a web design agency's website focused on marketing for gyms would be the best option.

    Your rates are not too high if you are going to build custom websites for them, but if you are planning to use TF wordpress template themes you are charging too much. Many of these clients don't see the need of paying thousands of dollars for a website and that's why you are thinking on educating them first. In order to achieve this in a more successful way you can invite them to a webinar. Also, if these are local...why not add them as friends on Facebook so you can start building meaningful business relationships and after some days offer them a free report on how to take their business to the next level just by dropping a link to your squeeze page?

    Another option is not to offer a website from the beginning but running a PPC campaign in FB in order they get more customers. Of course this limits your options as you can have only one or two gym owners as clients for this service locally but this is a good way they see the tremendous potential of internet marketing. Once this be done then offer the website.

    Or offer a complete package that includes everything.

    By the way, good sales letter.


    -Anthony
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    PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!!



    Are You Ready to Make Money? ----->How I Made $2000 USING LINKEDIN!
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    • Profile picture of the author meowis
      Originally Posted by IMAnthony View Post

      I see you are using a template for your website - by the way when someone clicks the submit button without filling the Free Website Analysis Report form, the error messages overflow your form outside the tablet area.

      If you will be focusing on gyms, then a web design agency's website focused on marketing for gyms would be the best option.

      Your rates are not too high if you are going to build custom websites for them, but if you are planning to use TF wordpress template themes you are charging too much. Many of these clients don't see the need of paying thousands of dollars for a website and that's why you are thinking on educating them first. In order to achieve this in a more successful way you can invite them to a webinar. Also, if these are local...why not add them as friends on Facebook so you can start building meaningful business relationships and after some days offer them a free report on how to take their business to the next level just by dropping a link to your squeeze page?

      Another option is not to offer a website from the beginning but running a PPC campaign in FB in order they get more customers. Of course this limits your options as you can have only one or two gym owners as clients for this service locally but this is a good way they see the tremendous potential of internet marketing. Once this be done then offer the website.

      Or offer a complete package that includes everything.

      By the way, good sales letter.


      -Anthony
      1.I am aware of that issue of the error message causing the form to overflow, i wouldnt want my potential prospects to be disgusted right before they opt-in, and will be working on that.

      2.Gyms are just one niche that I thought I would test marketing tactics with, I don't think I will do different landing pages for different niches right now because we're still small, but it is a possibility in the future.

      3.I will be using TF templates but they are subject to coding changes if required. This is for small businesses. If I get a government client, big name client (Nestle contacted me before, but another company won the contract.), a client that wants secure login and complex features, of course I will get my sub-contractors to work on it. Eventually, the business will expand and will be hiring coders / developers.

      4.I don't quite understand , do a PPC FB campaign targeting gym owners ? and get them to opt-in a custom landing page for gyms ? then offer them a site ?

      5.Thank you for the sales letter compliment !

      Originally Posted by Luis Michael Orts View Post

      You're going to fail.

      Was that what you wanted to hear? LOL

      It actually sounds like a great idea.

      The graphics were ok... The mockups for the sites were awesome...

      Now do that for 10 other niches, and you're good to go
      1.Failure is just a learning opportunity, failure brought me success before so im not negative towards it

      2.Yes, this is the test niche. Once revenue comes in, I can get my finance department to make marketing budgets and will scale up the volume of marketing done, thus increasing sales. I understand I have to keep finding innovative marketing methods and not just stick to something that gives acceptable ROI.

      3.Chiropractors could be my next niche But, before i do that let me see if i can get paying customers in Jan for the gym Niche. ill keep this thread updated on my progress.
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      • Profile picture of the author meowis
        Just wanted to update this thread.

        After trying to test my Education Based Marketing cold call on the first client, i immediately got a positive response.

        "Maybe I should get people like you to make my website". - Business Owner.

        I've valued this opportunity at 60% and will be following up with him constantly to close the sale. The sale is valued at $3000-$5000, and would be a great morale boost.

        Still have 20 calls to make before the end of the month. Been developing the business processes and integrating them into CRM software.
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        • Profile picture of the author Underground
          This is your first attempt at Offline? Seriously, lol. Wow it's impressive the amount of serious thinking and planning you put into action before launching this.

          You're copy and sales process with obviously get better with time. I'd have conversations with all those leads or anyone who saw your sales material and see if you can ask them a few questions on what they liked, what they didn't, why they bought, why they didn't and that kind of feedback will sharpen your messaging.

          That's a very good headline, about the 20/30% growth. You should get specific with that and riff off it and try to get them to put that into their own context or what they sort of growth will do for them.

          And with that scheme it lessens the blow of the prices you are charging which might have been too high otherwise.

          If you can make your focus on building a systematic way to build websites, get the traffic and conversions and so you have a series of case studies, then you will be able to branch out and command big money.

          Alan Weiss managed to sell websites for $50,000 to people in the consultant niche. Namely on his authority but also on value based pricing. In that he made them believe they'd get a lot more value and return on that $50,000. So when you can really target business where they'd get a much bigger return if you could reliably get them 20-30% growth in revenue and be able to convince them that you'd be able to do this, you're gonna have a very strong hand to play and have something will pay good money for.

          You might not nail it this year to where you are flying and really bagging consistent clients, or you might, but be prepared for both and to be in for the long-haul but your certainly going in the right direction and have made a perfect start.

          Good luck with bagging that client.
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          • Profile picture of the author meowis
            Originally Posted by Underground View Post

            This is your first attempt at Offline? Seriously, lol. Wow it's impressive the amount of serious thinking and planning you put into action before launching this.

            You're copy and sales process with obviously get better with time. I'd have conversations with all those leads or anyone who saw your sales material and see if you can ask them a few questions on what they liked, what they didn't, why they bought, why they didn't and that kind of feedback will sharpen your messaging.

            That's a very good headline, about the 20/30% growth. You should get specific with that and riff off it and try to get them to put that into their own context or what they sort of growth will do for them.

            And with that scheme it lessens the blow of the prices you are charging which might have been too high otherwise.

            If you can make your focus on building a systematic way to build websites, get the traffic and conversions and so you have a series of case studies, then you will be able to branch out and command big money.

            Alan Weiss managed to sell websites for $50,000 to people in the consultant niche. Namely on his authority but also on value based pricing. In that he made them believe they'd get a lot more value and return on that $50,000. So when you can really target business where they'd get a much bigger return if you could reliably get them 20-30% growth in revenue and be able to convince them that you'd be able to do this, you're gonna have a very strong hand to play and have something will pay good money for.

            You might not nail it this year to where you are flying and really bagging consistent clients, or you might, but be prepared for both and to be in for the long-haul but your certainly going in the right direction and have made a perfect start.

            Good luck with bagging that client.
            Thank you for your insight and also the introduction to Alan Weiss, I've downloaded his book about Value-Based Fees and will be reading it.

            Very valuable information !
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            "Everyone laughed at me when i told them i wanted to make money on the internet. Guess who's laughing now ?"

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            • Profile picture of the author imaviators
              Originally Posted by meowis View Post

              Thank you for your insight and also the introduction to Alan Weiss, I've downloaded his book about Value-Based Fees and will be reading it.

              Very valuable information !




              interesting share. I suppose u got a few more clients since your portfolio has grown?
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  • Profile picture of the author Luis Michael Orts
    You're going to fail.

    Was that what you wanted to hear? LOL

    It actually sounds like a great idea.

    The graphics were ok... The mockups for the sites were awesome...

    Now do that for 10 other niches, and you're good to go
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  • Profile picture of the author gettingricherdaily
    why gyms? Not exactly the most cash productive businesses.
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    • Profile picture of the author meowis
      Originally Posted by gettingricherdaily View Post

      why gyms? Not exactly the most cash productive businesses.
      I don't think business profits are measured by niches, but rather how well a business is run. Someone I know does toilet paper import/export, and he's profiting substantially.

      Originally Posted by Nauman K View Post

      Hi Bro,
      As you are going to market your service in Singapore(read in your website) so you must analyse the market that how much typical business spend on website over there.
      The best way is to search some local business having good website and ask them if they can help you in letting you know how much a local business is spending/spent on their website.
      I have some suggestions for you as in your post you have mention that you are going to start a proper company so i would advise to focus on customer support, sales and marketing and share your profit with some offshore trustworthy freelancers in building up a very good websites for your client. This is my personal experience that one person can't handle everything if one has vision of a large company then he need to create a team of expert in every department.
      I have done market research before coming up with my pricing, which is dependant on the client's budget and how much he is willing to spend (value that he/she sees). If they say $3000 budget then i price it at maybe $6800. Meaning the out of pocket costs after govt 60% subsidy is $2720, which is under budget. And yes i am going in customer support direction and programming outsourcing.

      Originally Posted by midasmarketing View Post

      Out of curiosity, what CRM are you using?
      I am using Insightly CRM. I know its not the best but its simple and good enough for a small business. And it can be integrated with my accounting software, Quickbooks Online, which is compatible with bank sync with 1 of our local banks here for bank reconciliation and keeping the numbers balanced.

      Originally Posted by Stryker14 View Post

      It sounds like you have a lot of passion for this business which is very important. Keep pushing and keep that passion.
      Thank you, appreciate the replies and advise from everyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nauman K
    Hi Bro,
    First of All idea is good and its up-to you how good you sell it.
    Most of Fellow warriors are saying the price is too high, Well I think one should decide the prices based on area and market competition.. As you are going to market your service in Singapore(read in your website) so you must analyse the market that how much typical business spend on website over there.
    The best way is to search some local business having good website and ask them if they can help you in letting you know how much a local business is spending/spent on their website.
    I have some suggestions for you as in your post you have mention that you are going to start a proper company so i would advise to focus on customer support, sales and marketing and share your profit with some offshore trustworthy freelancers in building up a very good websites for your client.
    This is my personal experience that one person can't handle everything if one has vision of a large company then he need to create a team of expert in every department.
    In start focus on sales and marketing and build a team offshore to take care of the programming and design work as you have also good know how of building up website so it will be easy for you to select the good freelancers out of the market...
    In start of my career i tried to design/develop and also take care of marketing. I was doing good but with increasing of customer emails and inquires it was hard enough for me to take care of everything.
    I think customer support, marketing and proper consultation is more important and hard job. in start if you earn less and build a list of happy customers I am sure you will get decent amount of potential customers in future from word to mouth marketing.

    Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Capitalmersey
    Love the idea; helping other business is always good as they are experts at their business and you are the expert at yours.
    The person that mentioned a PPC campaign I do believe was referring to doing it for the gym so you are promoting them geographically on FB and maybe Google and Bing as well. They pay the price of the clicks, you manage the performance.
    Of course there are companies out there that do this as a full time occupation, but it gives the business you are helping an idea as to the power of online marketing.
    What I would do is build a relationship with a business first before I do anything else. Find out as much about the gym, its classes, opening hours the staff, the owners, everything; then once it has been built let them take an interest in you and what you do.
    Show them some designs you have done and if possible include figures of how the other customers business has increased since using your services.
    Once designed and live offer them a maintenance contract and if possible an SEO contract.
    Again there are businesses out there that do SEO just like PPC and many more that offer design, hosting, maintenance, PPC and SEO. You may find it very competitive but still a very viable market.

    The way I would tackle it is to create a web page that is essentially a squeeze page. Emails are then sent out daily (yes daily!) or at least Three times a week. This is to build a relationship with the prospect for the gym.
    Sending them every week or only when there is something to offer could cause the prospect to forget who they are, and that is not wanted.
    These emails will be funny, informative and up beat. They are done so the prospect can see the value of joining that particular gym.
    The gym could also offer a free DVD about the gym and its staff. The DVD would show a bit of the classes, a bit about the staff, etc.
    Now you have the mailing address of the prospect and you can send them more detail in the post about the gym and any offers it may have or open days etc.
    Hope that helps?
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  • Profile picture of the author QueenMelanie
    sounds like a good plan.. If you are marketing to actual local businesses you could get far more sales by actually dropping in an talking to them face to face about it.. it will look like a local helping a local then!
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  • Profile picture of the author midasmarketing
    Out of curiosity, what CRM are you using?
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  • Profile picture of the author Stryker14
    It sounds like you have a lot of passion for this business which is very important. Keep pushing and keep that passion.
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    Nate Landau

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