Any Legit Offline Business That ISN'T an Internet Consulting?

lol thanks for reading

Yeah, I get it.. The SEO section is a joke most of the time. I visit occasionally for a good laugh. There's always some sort of craziness in there... but it doesn't mean it isn't a legitimate business, just illegitimate owners

True, but the description was added for SEO purposes even though it hasn't helped, and also, Freelancer clearly doesn't know the history of each sub forum and popular topics. More topics have been in this forum related to selling services to businesses than the offline marketing methods mentioned in their newly added description.

They also did add, "learn how to make money with offline marketing and help offline businesses become online businesses".

No I don't misunderstand the goal of the forum, keep in mind things have changed a bit since Freelancer took over.

Bob Ross had a great thread(hundreds of posts) about using direct mail and EDDM, traditional methods of marketing, but that thread was removed because it wasn't about online marketing services.

When I came here back in 2010 this sub-forum(Offline Marketing) was about sales of online services, through traditional marketing strategies and tactics(Offline), to businesses and showing them how to use the internet for their businesses. Thus, the term "Offline Marketing".



This section has never been just about

It sounds counter intuitive. but I have the personal case study if you will that bringing in in house labor in the long run reduces expense. All of my "employees" are flat rate or salary based. My employee cost is basically a static number month in month out.

by doing this I have done a couple of things. #1 no one in my office works a standard 40 hour work week. They ALL work in around 60 hours a week. so I have increased my employees productive work hours. I don't work on a 40 hour standard I work with a 60 hour standard.

#2 if I need things done now, I don't have to worry about time zones and whatever else. There is no language barrier - so way far less communication breakdowns. There is no sending work back because it isn't right. Heck at this point I don't really have to over look the work that is being done. I don't babysit anyone on Skype while I am trying to do other things.

#3 Anyone that has outsourced understands the amount of work in any given time frame is never the same as it is in house. what takes my in-house work force 10 hours might take twice and 3 times as many 40 hours elsewhere. You send work out to an "Agency" and the reality is you are one of but many clients they have. YOU are not a priority. so things have a habit of getting done when they get done.

With my offline business' in particular; Vinyl and Large Format. I got into each of those due to the expense of sending that work out. In both cases it is simply WAY less expensive to do that stuff in house. I don't have to worry about the place I send the work off to trying to take a client from me,

What sent me over the edge with vinyl was I was in need of getting 6 trucks labeled up. It was going to work out to $300 a truck so $1800.00 total. I bought a cutter for $199 and the materials to complete the work for $200. So I am minus the time of cutting and installation in this for $400.

So now I have this nice piece of equipment in my shop... I hired someone with some experience running the cutter and applying vinyl.. and I went out and got work. The margins here are stupid. there is no question it is cheaper to hire an employee than it was to farm this stuff out.

Large Format Printing. Basically the same story. the price tags were a bit higher. The equipment wasn't paid for in the first job, but It was the first week. Another example of hiring in house and it is without question financially viable.

My programmers / coders and my graphic design person. we could argue this but as stated above its simply not worth the hassle or the time sucking involved in sending this out.

If you set up payroll with salary based payment you stablize your expense, and can increase your overall work window. I find it to be far more cost effective to bring the service your send out on a regular basis in-house. With the understanding that you now have to produce the work to keep this person busy doing whatever it is they do.

Long ago, I was in the real appraising business. It got busy, so I hired a person to answer my phones (it used to be the appraisers answered, and if none were there, there was the message machine).

My profits increased significantly after I hired that person. My competitors did not have someone every minute of the day by the phones... Their answering machine messages said: Someone will call you back within 24 hours.

I got the extra profit because I got to increase my prices from $250 to $350 (2 installments, over 1 year) and not lose clients.

My clients were willing to pay extra because, if they were a few days before a closing and the lender wanted a change made, it was done in minutes to a couple of hours not in 24 hours.

So, it depends. Usually, you're right. But don't dismiss it across board forever.