Results & Verdict
This business model is being hyped by finance bros all over the web, and I put it to the test to see if it had the potential to change my life.
It’s a simple concept. Reach out to small businesses and offer to improve their local search visibility, primarily on Google Maps.
The first 3 Google Maps listings for any particular niche will get most of the sales. Period.
To test this method properly, I needed to learn how Google business listings work, but I had to learn it within the 4 hours I had given myself.
There are free courses online to teach you how to set up a business listing on Google search and I just picked one that seemed the most relevant.
TRAINING & RESEARCH
I pulled up Google Maps and looked for businesses in the United States. You can do this anywhere in the world, not just in you’re home country, but, it’s going to involve making some phone calls.
Emails wouldn’t work for me because I needed responses within 4 hours.
I chose hairdressers as my niche.
Now the key for me was to find Google Maps listings that weren’t doing too well, such as incomplete profiles, unclaimed businesses, fewer reviews, low ranking in the results, etc.
I found a few that had around 5 to 10 reviews, of around 3.5 stars. They had no websites, and they were listed in positions 20+ in the rankings. They were severely underperforming.
MAKE CONTACT
So, after 2 hours of training and research, I had a list of businesses to reach out to.
I spent about 15 minutes brainstorming a loose pitch to make when calling the businesses.
The pitch sounded something like this:
“Hey, my name’s Umar, I’m calling from [my business name].
I help small businesses like yours get to number 1 in the google rankings so that more people can find you, and pay for your services, meaning much more income for your business.
Can I ask if I’m speaking to the owner of [business name]?”
If the owner is on the line:
“That’s perfect!
So to give you a brief overview of my service, I’ve helped other hairdressers with huge success, and have made the decision to expand into new cities and offer my expertise here in [city/state]
I can only take on a limited number of new clients, and I feel I could make a real impact to your business ranking on Google.
1,000s of people search on Google for local businesses like yours, and instead of just a few people enquiring, you could attract 100’s.
Is this something you’re interested in?”
My pitch is far from perfect, it’s probably rubbish because I wrote it out in about 10 minutes, but these finance gurus say it’s easy, so let’s see.
The first 2 calls were a flop.
I couldn’t get to the business owners, only the employees, who have no purchasing power within the business.
It was vital that I speak to the owners directly as they’re the decision-makers. Anyone else would be a waste of time.
The next business didn’t answer the phone.
29 calls later, I had a breakthrough. The guy on the phone asked some questions about the service I was offering.
I couldn’t secure the sale in that 1st phone call, but a follow-up call was booked for the next day.
At this point, I had 10 minutes left on my 4-hour timer and had exhausted my list.
I have to mention that there are THOUSANDS of businesses you could try this with, but within the timeframe I had set myself, 30 was around the maximum I could contact.
RESULTS & TAKEAWAY
Out of 27 calls, only 6 people actually picked up the phone.
3 of those people owned the business, and only 1 wanted a follow-up call.
Other people have reported more success, with some claiming to make over $800 in 1 day. There’s no transparency though. They go from making $0 to all of a sudden securing $100s in the next frame, without giving any further information.
FINAL VERDICT
Is this business model a guaranteed success? Would I shortlist it? or would I avoid it completely?
AVOID. This business model seems like a finance bros dream, and it’s far from realistic. Yes, I could have persevered with it, but the point these bros are making is that you can make this money in 1 day, so that’s what I was testing.