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Who on here has your own offline service businesses?

by umc
27 replies
So I know from their posts that Bob Ross has a home improvement company, and RedShifted has a mold remediation business. I have a cleaning business (primarily residential) and have also had a mobile auto detailing business and carpet cleaning as well as window washing.

I was just wondering what else some of my fellow warriors are involved in. There are so many ways to make money, and they all involve marketing of some type. I've sold items in flea markets, on ebay, and had an online watch store many years ago. I've flipped cell phones and cars for profit. I've always been a hustler, and always found ways to make money when I needed it or even if I didn't, as I love the chase.

So what kind of offline business do you have? Tell us about it, and we can all learn. I too will answer questions if anyone has some. I thought this might be an interesting thread. Some of the most active ones have been when people bring up offline ideas for making money, so this might be of help to some.
#businesses #offline #service
  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    I am a 50% partner in a property preservation business.
    Next spring we will be starting two more complimentary business.

    I am also building an offline business that helps people lower their bills.

    I love start-ups. Marketing and start-ups are my passion.
    Building something from nothing, then selling for profit.
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      I work out of a retail store that I own. For about 30 years I sold vacuum cleaners in people's homes, part of the time with an office and staff, sometimes on my own.

      Of course, I also have my online marketing business.

      I've sold life insurance, and now I spend a few days a month speaking at trade shows and company events. And I write books.

      In 5 or 10 years I'll retirs, so I'm not looking to buy or start new businesses.

      I keep wanting to kill my retail store, but it keeps making us a comfortable living, so it stays for now.
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      • Profile picture of the author umc
        Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

        I work out of a retail store that I own. For about 30 years I sold vacuum cleaners in people's homes, part of the time with an office and staff, sometimes on my own.

        Of course, I also have my online marketing business.

        I've sold life insurance, and now I spend a few days a month speaking at trade shows and company events. And I write books.

        In 5 or 10 years I'll retirs, so I'm not looking to buy or start new businesses.

        I keep wanting to kill my retail store, but it keeps making us a comfortable living, so it stays for now.
        What do you sell in your retail store? Vacuums?

        Were the vacuums that you sold in people's homes of the Kirby variety, perhaps?

        I don't think I could ever retire completely. Without some business interest to keep my attention, I'd get bored and depressed.
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        • Profile picture of the author PeterBenson
          I install reflective address signs obtaining customers by flyer door to door. I noticed that my flyer team are sometimes approached with requests for doing flyers for other business owners so I am now in the process of starting a flyer business. I did a comprehensive market research and found that it's a very lucrative business.
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          • Profile picture of the author umc
            Originally Posted by PeterBenson View Post

            I install reflective address signs obtaining customers by flyer door to door. I noticed that my flyer team are sometimes approached with requests for doing flyers for other business owners so I am now in the process of starting a flyer business. I did a comprehensive market research and found that it's a very lucrative business.
            Nice. We recently had someone come through the neighborhood offering the old-school idea of painting house numbers on the curb. So then, is yours a sign that goes in the yard?

            Good luck with the flyer business. I saw a guy locally one day out on a moped delivering them, and he was super fast, buzzing around neighborhoods hitting the newspaper slot in neighborhoods with the nice brick mail/paper delivery builds out at the curb.
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          • Profile picture of the author stlcardsfan
            Originally Posted by PeterBenson View Post

            I install reflective address signs obtaining customers by flyer door to door. I noticed that my flyer team are sometimes approached with requests for doing flyers for other business owners so I am now in the process of starting a flyer business. I did a comprehensive market research and found that it's a very lucrative business.
            How is the reflective address business?

            I have a business that does roof cleaning.
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          • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
            Originally Posted by PeterBenson View Post

            I install reflective address signs obtaining customers by flyer door to door. I noticed that my flyer team are sometimes approached with requests for doing flyers for other business owners so I am now in the process of starting a flyer business. I did a comprehensive market research and found that it's a very lucrative business.
            Are you talking about Address America?

            I considered that years ago.
            I took their flyer, got 100 neon orange ones made.
            Went and put them on 100 houses.
            Checked the next day, and saw 3 sales.
            (The people that wanted a sign had to put the flyer in their window so it could be seen from the road. Kinda cool to drive around on a scavanger hunt for your flyers.)

            Never pursued, just did it as a test.
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by umc View Post

          What do you sell in your retail store? Vacuums?

          Were the vacuums that you sold in people's homes of the Kirby variety, perhaps?

          I don't think I could ever retire completely. Without some business interest to keep my attention, I'd get bored and depressed.
          My store sells vacuum cleaners, ceiling fans, portable heaters, and air purifiers.

          I sold Tri-Star vacuums in home's mostly.

          The only reason I sell vacuum cleaners is that they are easy to demonstrate, and are effortless for me to sell. Just habit really.

          I actually work an hour or two a day in the store and the rest of the time I'm working with Clients or working on marketing. And I give talks to business groups and trade show audiences.

          When I said I was going to retire, I meant from owning a business with hours. I'll still write and speak.
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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by vndnbrgj View Post

      I am a 50% partner in a property preservation business.
      Next spring we will be starting two more complimentary business.

      I am also building an offline business that helps people lower their bills.

      I love start-ups. Marketing and start-ups are my passion.
      Building something from nothing, then selling for profit.
      Cool. I've looked into property preservation before, and did some inspection work for the mortgagors on properties years ago. I've heard that it was much better money years ago, and that the competition now has driven the price down quite a bit. I know some people that got out of the business. I also know someone that was forced out when they went to the wrong house and cleaned it out, lol. True story. Broke in, removed the contents, etc. It was a messy situation.

      I too love start-ups. I wish I could just figure out a way to market and do start-ups alone. I'm not as fond of the building as I am of the starting. Good luck with the bill lowering business.
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  • Profile picture of the author cash89
    I have my own marketing firm for small businesses. You won't have trouble making money if you help others make money. I am working with attorneys, cpas and other service oriented bizs. My biz is what pays the bills but i need to scale up big time! Thankfully im well on my way to doing that.
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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by cash89 View Post

      I have my own marketing firm for small businesses. You won't have trouble making money if you help others make money. I am working with attorneys, cpas and other service oriented bizs. My biz is what pays the bills but i need to scale up big time! Thankfully im well on my way to doing that.
      Oh, sorry, I was looking for people that have their own offline businesses, the type that you probably serve with your marketing services. Not that you don't have a quality business, but I was wondering who on here owned the actual offline businesses themselves. I figure that most people in this section probably have some sort of marketing business for small businesses, and thought I'd find out how many of us are here that actually own those small businesses. Probably a poor choice of wording on my part, but I couldn't figure out how else to ask for what I was looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrandonMHowe
    We have a family owned and operated foundation waterproofing business
    and I'm at the helm now..

    Hard work, but can be fun and also very lucrative.
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  • Profile picture of the author goblue1918
    My wife and I own a lingerie store in the Detroit area.

    I can't help out in the store for obvious reasons, so I help out in marketing.

    Research led me to this forum and I found Bob Ross. Since then, I have been able to get her free advertising by having other businesses pay for the ads (she advertises for free like Gary Halbert suggests in one of his letters).

    I also put together a website for our business. That experience has given me the credibility to sell websites to other local businesses. since soliciting for the postcard I have sold 4 different businesses on websites.

    Trying now how to let outsourcers do the website work, and scaling the business to other areas like mobile websites, Google Places (just picked up a check for $250 for that service) and Reputation management.

    Funny thing, not once while selling websites has anyone asked to see a portfolio. If you know what you are talking about and they know, like and trust you, they will buy from you.

    The biggest keys to success have been to hit the pavement and be mindful of what you observe.
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    • Profile picture of the author James Basher
      i have an interior painting service that i have been running for about 3 years.all my leads come from google adwords and yahoo ppc which brings me about $5000+ monthly.Have been trying my darndest to diversify my marketing by going offline.was only able to break even on an offline flyer campaign (cost me $400+ for door to door flyers to 10,000 homes..)advertising on classified ads for a week (about $30 a day) brought in mostly price shoppers too..wish i am able to excel offline as well as i do online:p
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    • Profile picture of the author John Durham
      Originally Posted by goblue1918 View Post


      Funny thing, not once while selling websites has anyone asked to see a portfolio. If you know what you are talking about and they know, like and trust you, they will buy from you.
      I used to find that to be the weirdest thing back when selling directory site listings... Not only did people buy without ever asking to see our site, most of them never even went to check out their own listing after purchase and paid for months or years. Sometimes you can finish a project and ask a client to critique it, and you dont hear back from them, you have to remind them for weeks or months.
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      • Profile picture of the author cozens
        Fully offline business based business running printing ad for small business owners.
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  • Profile picture of the author sweetcrabhoney18
    I have a personalized candy wrapper company.. I'm surrounded by candy all day long.. However online -- I'm a writer and webmaster.
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    keep moving forward

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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by sweetcrabhoney18 View Post

      I have a personalized candy wrapper company.. I'm surrounded by candy all day long.. However online -- I'm a writer and webmaster.
      I'm a professional at unwrapping candy. If I had that business, I'd weight 400 pounds, and get little done. I've seen the idea thrown around before quite often in places where you can buy business plans for different types of businesses, and I always wondered how many people actually went out there and did it. I hope it works well for you.
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      • Profile picture of the author sweetcrabhoney18
        Originally Posted by umc View Post

        I'm a professional at unwrapping candy. If I had that business, I'd weight 400 pounds, and get little done. I've seen the idea thrown around before quite often in places where you can buy business plans for different types of businesses, and I always wondered how many people actually went out there and did it. I hope it works well for you.
        I've had my candy wrapping business for about 4 years. It's working out just fine. Thanks..
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    I don't own the business but I am the in house internet marketing specialist for an RV dealership.

    I've been here for 5 years.

    In the begining I was sales and over time more and more of my time became internet marketing. Now my job is 100% internet marketing.

    Before coming here I was a manager in a number of retail & sales environments.
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    Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by Aaron Doud View Post

      I don't own the business but I am the in house internet marketing specialist for an RV dealership.

      I've been here for 5 years.

      In the begining I was sales and over time more and more of my time became internet marketing. Now my job is 100% internet marketing.

      Before coming here I was a manager in a number of retail & sales environments.
      I've always really enjoyed your posts. Do you also offer marketing services on the side, or are you strictly working in-house for the dealership? You may do well enough there that you don't care to market on the side, but I think that you would probably excel in your own business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
        Originally Posted by umc View Post

        I've always really enjoyed your posts. Do you also offer marketing services on the side, or are you strictly working in-house for the dealership? You may do well enough there that you don't care to market on the side, but I think that you would probably excel in your own business.
        Thanks for the compliments. I have considered doing more either as a side business or becoming fully self employed. But for now I am very happy where I am.

        I do occasionally do some consulting and training on the side but nothing major. But it has to be scheduled around my full time employment.
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  • Profile picture of the author stone23
    Ok just wondering if someone can help me I have a website which i would want one or two people offer local business in there area coupon that the local business can offer there customers to get discount on there product but i cant find where can i get this people to do the work and also how can i track them so i know what they are doing
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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by stone23 View Post

      Ok just wondering if someone can help me I have a website which i would want one or two people offer local business in there area coupon that the local business can offer there customers to get discount on there product but i cant find where can i get this people to do the work and also how can i track them so i know what they are doing
      As long as whatever business that you go into doesn't expect use of punctuation or the correct their, you might have a shot. That was painful to read.

      There are many ways to offer local coupon programs, but this thread has nothing to do with them. You could search on here and I'm sure that you'll find such threads. You may also want to search for virtual assistants if you want to hire people to do some of the work. You have lots of competition out there for such a business though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bayo
    Great thread.

    After dabbling in small business development (offline marketing) for a couple of years, we decided to focus on working mainly with professional service businesses such as Attorneys, Chiropractors, Dentists e.t.c.

    The reason we chose this demographic was because we could relate t the problems they face in marketing their services.

    What do we do?

    What we do is help them eliminate their most pressing and biggest problems with positioning, locally and in their industry. Solving this problem has proven to be the best service to offer and there are very few providers that do this (everyone else is focused on mobile marketing, SEO e.t.c).

    Coming from a consulting background certainly has been useful, but offline consulting involves working with a different size of business many times. In some respects, it involved a mindset shift.

    Why do we do it?

    Because our target audience is largely neglected since most marketing outfits focus on mobile marketing, SEO, Facebook etc. Our best clients want solid and long-lasting solutions, can affors to pay and value the relationship with their providers more than anything else.

    We do this helping them implement a variety of BD and marketing methods that few of their competitors use. We become, in effect, the outside marketing function for many of our clients and the length of a typical business development and marketing engagement is 6 months minimum.

    Do this right and you only need a small number of clients to own and operate your very own thriving six-figure a year local small business development and marketing business that you'll be proud of.

    BAYO
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  • Profile picture of the author ukcarl
    I have a few rental properties which brings in a little money every month, its more of a long term investment really, I basically just plan on building my portfolio with the money make from my online business.

    Its pretty passive which is nice, I might not hear from tenants for months at a time so it means I can dedicate all my time to growing my PPC agency which in turn will feed the growth of my portfolio
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