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Curious. What are some local(ie. Not scalable) businesses FLF members have started?

RNoles19

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Hey guys. Just curious. What are some local, not scalable businesses that people in this forum have started? I don't mean business ideas that can be "stolen". I mean businesses that, in theory, could be started in every major city?

For example, I'm thinking of starting a lead generation business for local cleaning companies. While these businesses aren't necessarily "fastlane". They can pay the bills in the interim. Love to hear what other members have started.
 
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jon.a

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Hey guys. Just curious. What are some local, not scalable businesses that people in this forum have started? I don't mean business ideas that can be "stolen". I mean businesses that, in theory, could be started in every major city?

For example, I'm thinking of starting a lead generation business for local cleaning companies. While these businesses aren't necessarily "fastlane". They can pay the bills in the interim. Love to hear what other members have started.
If you can be successful with a lead generation business for a cleaning business, can't you be successful with a lead generation business for anything?

If so, what other types of businesses others here have done is irrelevant.

You need to attach yourself to @Andy Black.
 

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You need to attach yourself to @Andy Black.
And follow a guy who did something with limos a while back.

OP... you might find some helpful stuff in my signature.

To answer your question... just look through the Yellow Pages?
 

RNoles19

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If you can be successful with a lead generation business for a cleaning business, can't you be successful with a lead generation business for anything?

If so, what other types of businesses others here have done is irrelevant.

You need to attach yourself to @Andy Black.

Right. I understand that lead gen would apply to a number of different businesses. Just throwing that out there as an example. Just curious what other types of local businesses people have started. That's all.
 
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RNoles19

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And follow a guy who did something with limos a while back.

OP... you might find some helpful stuff in my signature.

To answer your question... just look through the Yellow Pages?

Nice. I will check out your stuff now. Thanks

I guess I should've clarified a little more. I'm not just looking for any local businesses, ie. Dave's Used Bike Shop. But the type of local business that entrepreneurs/people that participate in the Fastlane Forum would start or have started. More "outside the box" businesses, I guess.

And yes, I am very aware of MJ's limo business. That kind of sparked my idea for the lead gen service. Most businesses that do cleaning/home improvement aren't very computer savvy. I wouldn't think that they aren't generating leads through online advertising. So if I can bring them clients/leads, that seems to be filling a need for those companies.
 

TheDillon__

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Why assume that Local Lead Gen can't be fastlane?

I might be talking out of my a$$ here because I'm new to the space, but roll with me.

Let's say I place ads for "home cleaning service kildare" () and 100 people a month click the ad. 10 of those people become customers who pay about $100 each.

That's $1,000 of business opportunity generated per month.

Let's say you find a cleaning company and charge them $250/month for ad services. What business will say no to paying $250 to receive $1,000?

-

Rinse and repeat for every city you can think of. After only 10 cities and 10 customers, you're generating an extra $2,500/month.

I'd recommend looking into @Andy Black's adwords course. It's a bit pricey for what it is (sorry Andy, that said I would purchase again for the content available) but the value is absolutely there. He gives you everything you need to get local lead gen ads up and running.

Then, look into Perry Marshall's products. If you've the diligence to actually read through the whole books, then you can stand to learn a LOT about adwords in a lot of areas you didn't expect.

Cheers

P.s. There's a wonderful amount of free information if you look through the post histories of Andy and @eliquid. Very valuable content in there, and you'll find some of their products as well, all of which (in my experience) are very informative, and worth the money.
 

RNoles19

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Why assume that Local Lead Gen can't be fastlane?

I might be talking out of my a$$ here because I'm new to the space, but roll with me.

Let's say I place ads for "home cleaning service kildare" () and 100 people a month click the ad. 10 of those people become customers who pay about $100 each.

That's $1,000 of business opportunity generated per month.

Let's say you find a cleaning company and charge them $250/month for ad services. What business will say no to paying $250 to receive $1,000?

-

Rinse and repeat for every city you can think of. After only 10 cities and 10 customers, you're generating an extra $2,500/month.

.

Right. Ya that is kind of the idea. Start local and, if you succeed at it, then you can scale to other cities. Probably easier said than done, but I think it is at least worth exploring. That's why I threw it out there. Was just curious if people have succeeded with similar services.
 
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TheDillon__

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Right. Ya that is kind of the idea. Start local and, if you succeed at it, then you can scale to other cities. Probably easier said than done, but I think it is at least worth exploring. That's why I threw it out there. Was just curious if people have succeeded with similar services.

The success is definitely there. The thing is, there's a lot of ways to do this. Start a local lead gen company (Andy Black,) start selling popsicles made out of fresh fruit then license your popsicle stand (Steel City Pops,) start selling vegan breakfast burritos at your local farmers market, then hire a contract kitchen to make you some microwaveable versions to sell in test markets.

Opportunity is there, you just have to find it. Feel free to message me about my concept testing packages if you'd like to know whether your idea will crash or fail before you invest years and tens of thousands of dollars into it.
 

eliquid

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The problem with local sometimes is, what works in 1 city won't always work in another.

I know that sounds odd. I still think it is odd myself.

However, I run a lot of local adwords marketing for local business types that are expanding out from their starting location.

One of which, is a cleaning company. Others I handle have a similar outcome to the story Im about to share like attorneys that practice in 1 state, but have offices in many cities within that state, etc.

Say you're in a big city like Chicago and you start selling cleaning services/leads. You do well because of the demand/supply tradeoff. You decide to expand to Miami as Chi-town is doing very well for you. Only you find you sink $10k into it and it never takes off. The demand is just not there and with what demand there is, it takes 3 times as much ad spend to generate a paying client/lead. You did your homework and online tools say there is demand, you even know a few local cleaning companies in Miami.. but it's not working out for you and YOUR business model though.

You test in LA and in Austin. You find the same thing.

You test in Atlanta and it takes off.

Now this story has a happy ending, but what if you STARTED in Miami? What if you gave up after Austin? See all the what ifs and gotcha's here?

I've seen this play out in many local type niches with different PPC managers and companies so I know it isn't a failure of someone on the ad or company side, but with the locations and their supply/demand trade off ALONG with the business model that company has ( advertising on adwords and selling leads to make X margin, or w/e )

Lets forget all the big names I just talked about when it comes to cities. What if you started off in a rural or laid back city like Louisville, Kentucky which is a big city, but demand just isn't there at all and you give up?

What if you started in Miami, hit LA, hit Austin and now you are so deep in the hole debt wise that you can't afford to test a Atlanta and hit it big finally.

You need to think about and realize these things.

A couple of bad moves back to back could stop you before you start.

.
 

RNoles19

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The problem with local sometimes is, what works in 1 city won't always work in another.

I know that sounds odd. I still think it is odd myself.

However, I run a lot of local adwords marketing for local business types that are expanding out from their starting location.

One of which, is a cleaning company. Others I handle have a similar outcome to the story Im about to share like attorneys that practice in 1 state, but have offices in many cities within that state, etc.

Say you're in a big city like Chicago and you start selling cleaning services/leads. You do well because of the demand/supply tradeoff. You decide to expand to Miami as Chi-town is doing very well for you. Only you find you sink $10k into it and it never takes off. The demand is just not there and with what demand there is, it takes 3 times as much ad spend to generate a paying client/lead. You did your homework and online tools say there is demand, you even know a few local cleaning companies in Miami.. but it's not working out for you and YOUR business model though.

You test in LA and in Austin. You find the same thing.

You test in Atlanta and it takes off.

Now this story has a happy ending, but what if you STARTED in Miami? What if you gave up after Austin? See all the what ifs and gotcha's here?

I've seen this play out in many local type niches with different PPC managers and companies so I know it isn't a failure of someone on the ad or company side, but with the locations and their supply/demand trade off ALONG with the business model that company has ( advertising on adwords and selling leads to make X margin, or w/e )

Lets forget all the big names I just talked about when it comes to cities. What if you started off in a rural or laid back city like Louisville, Kentucky which is a big city, but demand just isn't there at all and you give up?

What if you started in Miami, hit LA, hit Austin and now you are so deep in the hole debt wise that you can't afford to test a Atlanta and hit it big finally.

You need to think about and realize these things.

A couple of bad moves back to back could stop you before you start.

.

Right..... The city I'm going to start in, I would THINK there is a need. If I find out there isn't, it won't break the bank. I'm more just viewing it as an experiment, test it out, and see what happens. What else can ya do really? You never know what's going to succeed until you test out your idea.

I find when I overanalyze stuff, I just end up taking no action. I'll take failing and taking action over analyzing and no action any day. I think the key, for me at least, is to take action, test the demand, see if you get a decent response from the market, without breaking the bank to do so. Micro-testing I suppose. Think that's what I'm going to do here. I was also thinking about trying FB ads too. Seems everyone here is intent on using Google ads.
 
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Why assume that Local Lead Gen can't be fastlane?

I might be talking out of my a$$ here because I'm new to the space, but roll with me.

Let's say I place ads for "home cleaning service kildare" () and 100 people a month click the ad. 10 of those people become customers who pay about $100 each.

That's $1,000 of business opportunity generated per month.

Let's say you find a cleaning company and charge them $250/month for ad services. What business will say no to paying $250 to receive $1,000?

-

Rinse and repeat for every city you can think of. After only 10 cities and 10 customers, you're generating an extra $2,500/month.

I'd recommend looking into @Andy Black's adwords course. It's a bit pricey for what it is (sorry Andy, that said I would purchase again for the content available) but the value is absolutely there. He gives you everything you need to get local lead gen ads up and running.

Then, look into Perry Marshall's products. If you've the diligence to actually read through the whole books, then you can stand to learn a LOT about adwords in a lot of areas you didn't expect.

Cheers

P.s. There's a wonderful amount of free information if you look through the post histories of Andy and @eliquid. Very valuable content in there, and you'll find some of their products as well, all of which (in my experience) are very informative, and worth the money.
Interesting that you think the course is pricey for what it is. Is that because it’s short?
 

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The problem with local sometimes is, what works in 1 city won't always work in another.

I know that sounds odd. I still think it is odd myself.

However, I run a lot of local adwords marketing for local business types that are expanding out from their starting location.

One of which, is a cleaning company. Others I handle have a similar outcome to the story Im about to share like attorneys that practice in 1 state, but have offices in many cities within that state, etc.

Say you're in a big city like Chicago and you start selling cleaning services/leads. You do well because of the demand/supply tradeoff. You decide to expand to Miami as Chi-town is doing very well for you. Only you find you sink $10k into it and it never takes off. The demand is just not there and with what demand there is, it takes 3 times as much ad spend to generate a paying client/lead. You did your homework and online tools say there is demand, you even know a few local cleaning companies in Miami.. but it's not working out for you and YOUR business model though.

You test in LA and in Austin. You find the same thing.

You test in Atlanta and it takes off.

Now this story has a happy ending, but what if you STARTED in Miami? What if you gave up after Austin? See all the what ifs and gotcha's here?

I've seen this play out in many local type niches with different PPC managers and companies so I know it isn't a failure of someone on the ad or company side, but with the locations and their supply/demand trade off ALONG with the business model that company has ( advertising on adwords and selling leads to make X margin, or w/e )

Lets forget all the big names I just talked about when it comes to cities. What if you started off in a rural or laid back city like Louisville, Kentucky which is a big city, but demand just isn't there at all and you give up?

What if you started in Miami, hit LA, hit Austin and now you are so deep in the hole debt wise that you can't afford to test a Atlanta and hit it big finally.

You need to think about and realize these things.

A couple of bad moves back to back could stop you before you start.

.
I’ve seen this a lot too. There can be all sorts of reasons why a company can’t expand from one location to another.
 

Kak

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Just because it’s local, and physical, doesn’t even come close to meaning it isn’t scalable.

Here is one: Some of the richest people I know build things... Buildings, homes, stores, roads, bridges, airports, railways... We are talking 9 figure scalable potential. They don’t touch a tool. You get the picture.
 
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Philip Marlowe

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Just here to give you rep+ for that awesome avatar. GOAT!
 

minivanman

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How would you be any different than the other lead generators for cleaners or any other service business?

I'll just throw this out there... I LOVE the mowing business. It's outside, every house has a yard, every yard needs mowed or they will get in trouble ~vs~ house cleaning is inside and some people haven't cleaned their house in 3+ years. Guys that mow, just want to mow. These guys don't know or care about anything else.... they want to mow and be paid. Some of them don't even know how to spell the word... advertising. I've flipped a few of these. My last one I had $1500 in to it and 30 days later a guy wanted to buy it.... $15,000 later it was his. I don't remember how many customers it came with but it only had minimal equipment. Around my area there is no need for those big mowers.... most guys around here use small 21" mowers. It wasn't even up for sale yet, I was at Taco Bueno and a lady just asked if I would sell and I threw out a number..... who knew they would buy it!!

Lots of sites nowadays to get customers from.... why would someone use your company?
 

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