- It is difficult to work with clients who have just NO IDEA about SEO but they think that they know a lot. Since they believe that they know a lot, they are not ready to listen to your advice. And they find mistakes in whatever you do.
- When you are offering SEO Service to hundreds of clients, it is difficult to be imaginative and sometimes impossible to offer high-end work. For a startup it is a big challenge.
- Even when you make it clear to your clients that you will be reporting monthly they call you everyday to know when they are going to get leads.
- Even when you can foresee huge opportunity with a website, you have to follow what your client believes best for the site.
- Then you will start developing your own website based on the concepts you like, and suddenly feel that you are actually not working on your ideas because some urgent work has popped up from your clients’ side and the entire team, including you, has got busy with that. This will repeat again and again.
- You will have a tough time when it comes to build up a good SEO team, especially if you are in Kolkata. If you hire freshers, train them and build a team the smart guys will leave to start their own company; others will be caught doing freelancing during office hours.
- You will want to give more time to your clients’ projects, so that you can do something really good for them. Sometimes you will come up with EXCELLENT ideas; but you will not get time to implement the same as you will be busy with business development, client handling, corporate communication, billing, recruitment and all.
You must be thinking how bad a person I am – only negative words about the industry! What will one do with their SEO knowledge then? There are 2 options:
If you understand SEO and other online marketing strategies and want to do creative work, find a job where you have to work for a specific product or brand. Yes, I am taking about in-house job.
If you believe that thousands of SEO companies are there, what is the use to be another face in the crowd – then do something different!
- Think of some revenue generating models that can work online.
- Build the resource and promote it online.
- You can start an online media house with various online channels which are active.
- You can earn money from blogs.
- Start an affiliate website.
- Start a lead generation website.
- Create a website, make it popular and then sell it off.
However, few things are required to be successful in this business model:
- Initial investment so that you can survive as a startup; if you start offering service to cover your back, just remember, it may be a vicious loop for you.
- A good team (friends preferred).
- Dedication and motivation.
- Ideas!
Disclaimer: My opinion; written from a startup’s perspective, sorry if it hurts you.
