Question for offliners/cash cow followers.

Shannon,

I think to start where you are at to get your feet wet. Look at it this way. Every offline business is fair game. The idea is that you are providing an opportunity for a local business to begin to reach a global market.

"Think locally, Act globally".

Even if you get started, then move, you still have the power of the Internet working for you. Get some clients, then some referrals and you can go from there. Not trying to make it simplistic, but the opportunities are only limited by your imagination.

As far as pricing, most have responded that the market sets the price. I am in a small area, so am having to see what the market will stand. The one thing I try to research is what is the cost of combined offline advertising a business is spending and gage things from there.

It comes down to being able to increase their ROI by moving more of their ad dollars online.

Give it a whirl. You have to start somewhere, sometime. Might as well be now.

Thanks,

John

See my post below. Before diving into the offline world, and just REPLACING your J.O.B. with another one, do some planning and IMAGINE your ideal offline client base. Dentists are different than Restaurants are different than Warehouses with lots of seasonal inventory. Some are a pain, others are a pleasure. Know what I mean?

WarriorForum hiccup...(sorry for the 2nd post)

Here are a couple of resources for you ... geography should not be an obstacle! From these resources you can begin to formulate your own idea of the ideal businesses to go after and how to approach them (online, without cold calling, and having them come to YOU).

WSO of Interest
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...y-you-bet.html

WSO of Interest - look at the # of replies!
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ving-home.html

Discussion Forum for offliners ...
Warrior Forum of course (use the "Search" tool above ... use "Advanced Search" on the keyword "offline" or "cash cow" and SEARCH TITLES ONLY). Using this tool I found the your other worthwhile post:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...gone-wild.html

Good luck!

Hi Shannon,

God bless David!
Using his stuff I have made some healthy cash.

That having been said, I must tell you that I had problems starting.
I was procastinating. One reason to another.
Finally, I just dived in and just did it.

Are you sure you are not doing that?
Maybe you are and maybe you are not.
Only you can answer that.

In my opinion you should get in to action immediately.
it does not matter where you are, for this offline niche,
If you show clients results, they will come looking for you.

I remember one of the guys in the cash cow thread do this purely via the internet. His point is that if you are selling to offline businesses the benefits of them using your online service, at least you should be marketing it to your clients via the same methods.

All the best
hari

Thanks for the advice.

My feeling was that the offline method worked primarily because you were able to develop a good personal relationship with the client by meeting face-to-face. Thus, my hesitation. If I started in Honolulu, then move, I'd lose that close relationship...

I'll check out the suggestions.

Love,
Shannon

Start now! You never know how one job could actually build your biz for you effortlessly. Most of your work will be online anyhow. Moving doesn't matter, because you only have to get that initial consultation to get going. Once you have them paying, you can move anywhere and continue to help them with marketing. Remember, you don't need a lot of clients. Happy clients will become happy high-paying clients that will refer you to more happy high-paying clients.

Sorry if someone already said the same thing.....

Shannon,

I build websites and provide IM consulting to people all over the place... in fact most of my clients are NOT located near me.

I suggest that working ONLY with local businesses would be a good niche, but would also be a hindrance - why restrict yourself?

Consider that when you work with a business, you also hope to get referrals from them in the future (I teach people how to do this as a core strategy!)... and those referrals can be anywhere.

I agree with Hari - if you want to do the offline thing, then start today and continue each day at least a little bit until either
a) you are so wealthy that you can't be bothered by it
or
b) you are so sick of it that you can't stand to do it any longer

Either way, you gotta start sometime!

regards,
Ron

Hi Shannon,

Once you establish the account, and get it up and running usually the only maintenance is where the client emails you the content they would like in the next months emails.

You do not have parties to attend, no reason at all once you have the account established other that to stop by and say hi. Everything can be done over the internet very easily.

David talks about going on trips and setting up clients in a weekend while he is traveling if this helps you understand a little better.

My advice is for you to start now and grow where you are while you can and then take that great experience and knowledge with you to your new home and dominate the entire city

Onya' Mate

Chris

From personal experience, it ain't a big thing to move.

I moved from Florida to Georgia last year, and I took all my clients with me. Not literally of course. I still get referrals from back home in Florida, and my Florida "biz" is still growing while I'm still building my Georgia "biz".

Personally it will be a lot easier to get this thing started in a larger city. You have more potential clients, and you have more room for error. If you mess up with one client, it doesn't mean you couldn't tray again with another in the same field. You may not have that luxury in a small town.

Good Luck.

Hi Shannon,

I would start yesterday because you really don't know what the future
may bring- you know the old saying Man Plans and God Laughs.

By starting where you are you'll have a leg up on how best to work your
offline business.

For instance when I started this offline business back in August I thought the portal was "the business" but as I have progressed
I have really realized that the videos are my niche for working
with these businesses.

I would never get what I am getting paid if I just used the portal advertising and didn't add in the video component.

I hope that helps and good luck,

John

# 1: Yes definitely start now.

It's not difficult to deal with business clients remotely. Many of my clients have been from the other side of the world.

As you get rolling that will happen anyway because you'll get referrals from someone's friend or relative who's in another state or another country.

It does help to be able to physically walk into a business but it's not crucial.


# 2: I suggest you work with any business where you have rapport with the owner and they're willing to pay you.

I live in a tourist town and I've worked with both kinds of businesses.

With tourist based businesses you do a lot of work creating referral systems with other local businesses.

With local based businesses you do more work building a list of clients and following up by email.

But it's all the same in the end...you help the business make more sales and profits.

The real key is can you work with the business owner effectively and will he pay your fees?



# 3: How much a business is willing to pay is actually based more on other factors...

How highly they perceive the value of your service. That comes down to you establishing the value of your service effectively (I explain that in detail in the report Offline Gold For The Online Marketer).


The size of checks they're used to paying.

A business with a dozen employees is used to expenses in the $6,000 to $10,000+ range.

A business with just 2 employees might be more used to paying out checks in the $1,000 to $3,000 range.



The profits they're making and the profits you can help them to make.

Some small town businesses do VERY well indeed due to low competition and they don't mind sharing the money around with people who can help them make even more.

So the issue is not really the size of the town...it's more about each individual business.

As I said before you can have clients who are outside your local area and over time as you get more and more referrals that will happen naturally anyway.



The most important piece of advice I can give you:

GO TALK TO SOME BUSINESS OWNERS TODAY.

That's how you make money in the Offline Gold business model...simply getting hired to help businesses with their internet marketing.

And that all starts with talking to business owners.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Shannon,
Everything they said. Don't over-think it. Just do it!! Just do it NOW!! You'll be thanking us next week after you took action this week. Keep it simple, but start moving forward, and tweak it as you go. Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow. Seize the day.

Thank you for the question,
Ron

See any website's Adwords keywords while browsing Google in real-time. Get it FREE here!

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement.

I'm going to start, a little bit each day....

Love,
Shannon

Hi Shannon,

If you don't mind me asking, what small town are you exactly moving to?

Oh, I thought you were moving to maybe a smaller town in hawaii. I currently reside on the other side of honolulu in small town.


Rick

Hi Shannon,
Just a quick tip... I don't know if you are moving out of Hawaii or what, but I was just in Oahu - Spent over a week on the North Shore and I easily identified a major opportunity to offline windfall - this area is very rural compared to Honolulu and it serves to an enormous tourist industry.

During my trip, I would occasionally check the internet for places to go near my hotel - dining, entertainment, etc. I found that I had to rely solely on review sites - tripadvisor, urbanspoon, etc. There are hundreds of highly successful businesses, flush with cash - that don't have websites! I remember telling myself that if I had the time, I'd come back and bank at least $30K in a week in the North Shore alone. I am an 8 hour filight away - you are 1 hour away.

This is dead serious advice - go to Haleiwa, Kuhuku, Laie, and the areas surrounding and get all those shrimp trucks, small restaurants, tourist attractions, and gift shops to get a website! Tell them how the tourist acts and thinks in researching and how you can guarantee an increase in door traffic by taking advantage of the simple SEO of dominating keywords for a rural area with little keyword competition...

This applies to all small towns - they are full of gold, if you know where to look!

Ben,

Thats fantastic advice!

People are spending 11% more time online than watching TV, so thats where these businesses need to have a presence.

In the age of iPhones - most people (especially Tourists!) will search online for things to do, the closest restaurants, etc...

This is also a great opportunity to see not just a website (like my 4500% system), but also to make sure they are located in prominent online review sites like Zagat, Dine, Yelp, etc... Part of your package can be to post an Honest Review of the place in multiple places online... coupled with a good website, they WILL see an increase in business.

Ron

PS I'm not surprised that Ben had such a great suggestion - Austin is home to some really intelligent humans

Thanks, Ron! Austin certainly does have its share of brilliant minds. Perhaps we could work on something together sometime.

--Ben

Hey Ben,

Too bad we didn't get to meet. I currently live on the north shore and what do you know, right in the town of Laie. I totally agree with you on that aspect of the businesses here.

Not really saying much here on the forum with what I have been doing but I have been targeting the businesses here on this side and slowly working my way to the honolulu area. There is a serious amount of businesses and tourist attractions here that need online presence. I feel I have an advantage as not too many warriors are from here and so I made it my goal to build something here.

Also what makes it more convincing for me is that we have the Polynesian Cultural Center, where I currently work at and the beautiful beaches here on the north shore, so tons and tons of tourists come here everyday and many of them don't know where to go for dining, lodging, activities, sight seeing, etc. and so having an online presence is very important as an opportunity for any business owner to take advantage of the masses of people that come this side everyday.

With that knowledge in mind, I have a little bit more confidence when talking to business owners because they have no idea what can happen if simple strategies are implemented. TAKING ACTION is what it is.

Rick