The last barrier to entry when launching an SEO firm is the most intangible one " your It's "will" more than "wealth" that makes a startup succeed. personality. Suffice to say, it takes a special kind of person to be able to start a company. You need to be a self-starter, have the confidence required to sell your product and market yourself as an expert in the industry, possess the work ethic required to get a company off the ground and make it successful,

Unlike the significant capital required to start up most businesses, opening up an SEO company requires very little upfront expense. You'll need to pay state incorporation fees, and you'll probably need to enlist the help of an accountant to get started. You'll need to purchase a domain and web hosting, and if you can't make a decent enough website yourself, you'll need to pay a designer to help you out. )Go deeper on the build-or-buy decision for a website.

Experience is the one barrier to entry that everyone thinks they have in the bag, yet so few seem to be able to really execute. Strategy is how you're going to gain new clients and market yourself, as well as how you're going to keep client retention rates up. It's a tough SEO market, especially in larger cities. There is a lot of competition out there, including large advertising conglomerates, other SEO firms, independent consultants,

When I started my company, I had a few solid years of SEO experience to draw on, with good references at each place of employment. I entered the industry in an entry-level SEO position with a large e-commerce company that specialized in home furnishings. Soon thereafter, the VP of technology at the company was hired by Ask.com to work as a senior product manager, and he hired me to work on Ask's Search Quality team as a search relevancy evaluator. That Ask.

As I've learned over the past 16 months, starting your own SEO company can be a challenging, frustrating, educational, and ultimately rewarding experience. From the ups and downs of acquiring new business to figuring out how to balance client work and business development, one thing is for certain: If you are considering starting your own SEO company, you're in for quite the ride. The day after my college graduation, I woke up bright and early )read: 10:30 a.m.(,