Clients that just show up.

The honest answer is that it depends, and anybody who gives you a number before they've looked at your business is guessing. What it takes to get you found depends on where you are, who you're up against, and what you've already got working.

Think about how that works anywhere else. You walk into a doctor's office and he writes you a prescription before he examines you.

That isn't service, it's malpractice.

He doesn't know what's wrong with you yet.

So we look first. Ten minutes on the phone tells us what you're actually dealing with, and it tells you whether we're the right people to deal with it.

Sometimes the answer is no.

You may need something we don't sell, and you'll hear that from us rather than get sold the closest thing we happen to have. There are businesses this doesn't suit and we've written down which ones.

What if the answer is yes?

Then we'll exit the call and spend some time putting together a strategic game plan to reach your goals. That's when we'll know exactly what it costs.

We'll schedule a second call to explain the plan, give you exact numbers, and you'll tell us if you'd like to move forward and put us to work on your behalf.

Again, there won't be any sales pressure, just solid information you can use to make an informed decision.

What we can tell you before you pick up the phone.

This isn't a three-hundred-a-month service, and we've explained at length why that price doesn't work.

We don't do long-term contracts, so it isn't a 12-month contract you can't get out of. Our work has to keep earning its place every month.

There has to be a return. If we can't see a way to make you more than we charge you, we won't take the work. That's a judgment we make before we start, not a promise about what happens after.

We're looking for three to five times what you spend. Below two, we'll say so.

We'd rather tell you no than take a fee that doesn't pay you back.

You don't have to buy the whole thing. Nearly everybody starts in the same place, for the same reason: reviews are what decide it when somebody is looking at you and two other businesses, and you can watch that one climb yourself without anybody sending you a report about it.

What actually changes.

Right now the work comes from you going and getting it, which means the months you're busiest are the months you're planting nothing. That's the whole reason the year swings.

What we build runs in the background whether you're on a roof, in a courtroom, or asleep. People looking for what you do find you, what they find makes you the obvious one to call, and the ones who don't book the first time hear from you again without you having to remember. Then you do the part you're actually good at.

There's no 12-month contract, and you'll know inside ninety days by counting the calls yourself that it's working. If it isn't working you stop, this month on almost everything (sixty days' written notice on search engine optimization). That's the whole arrangement.