They Want to OWN You

April 05, 2015
Mike Dolpies

These guys want to own you and own your business.

Let’s keep this between us.

We’ll let the sheepish just follow and get sucked down this hole.

You and I know better.

What are we talking about here?

We are talking about how at every turn there’s an online company or some “techie” start-up that wants to own your business, own you and own your customers and clients.

Amazon recently launched into this space with “Amazon Local.”

They want to connect their customers with service pros in the local area.

For years… Service Magic and Home Advisor have been buying keywords on Google, driving search traffic to their directories and then selling leads to a multitude of contractors.

Grub-Hub in the food space wants to process take-out and delivery orders.

There are apps in the fitness space that want to replace Gym memberships with “shared memberships.”

And I get it…

You and I sit on both sides of the coin. We are both businesses and consumers.

And don’t get me wrong these “sources” can get us some business from time to time.

Sure… most of these services have good intentions. To give consumers tons of choices and to drive local commerce.

But here’s the danger….

1- By going along with these companies and falling for their promises you devalue your business. The service pro who becomes a commodity on “Home Advisor” might as well be an employee. Eagerly waiting for the next “lead” or “job” to be sent his way is no way to run a business.

2- You lose the interaction with the customer. A real business owner – manages clients, customers, relationships, marketing, logistics and more. A real business owner – works to own an asset not -just a job.

The Big One…

Let’s go back to the “Service Magic” and “Home Advisor”example.

All these guys are doing is targeted online lead generation and SEO. Then, driving the visitor to a website meant to convert the lead. Then… they are selling this lead to a few bidders.

The above strategy, while not easy, can be done on your own with…

A decent website that is well-built for lead-generation and authoritative in the eyes of Google.

Targeted SEO and Paid Ads to drive traffic.

A little more to it than that – but you get the idea.

The best part… You can own the process. You can write your own ticket.

It’s your business… own it!

Have a great week!

 

About the author

Mike Dolpies Mike Dolpies (aka Mike D.) owns “Ocean View Publishing, LLC” - a diverse media/Internet Marketing and Consulting Company. He started his first business when he was just 18 years old. By the time he was 23 that business had generated well over a Million Dollars in sales and was consistently in the top 20% of its industry. He's the Author of 6 different books. His first book, “Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails,” became a bestseller on Amazon.com He's been a guest on the Fox Morning News several times and has been written about in many newspapers. His work has also appeared on Entrepreneur.com and Fox Businsss.com

Related Posts