How to Start a Marketing Consulting Business and Go From Zero to $35,000 a Month in Only 12 Months – with Sam Ovens

Summary: Do you think you need a fancy website, and business card, and plenty of startup capital to start a business? If you do, you're dead wrong. Sam Ovens started his marketing consulting business with no clue of what he was going to sell, no idea who would buy it, no idea how he'd actually deliver the work, and with no savings to speak of. In this interview, you'll hear Sam and I talk about: (4:37) His number of customers and revenue (8:00) His background, and how he got started (10:30) His start as a marketing consultant (13:00) How he used email to get his first clients (16:00) How success led to more success (19:00) How he made $10,000 sales, and closed $20,000 deals with $3k/mo in retainer fees (23:00) How he used lumpy mail to find his leads (25:30) How he delivered services using elance (30:30) How he transitioned to a trusted advisor (34:30) The difference between a service business and a product business (38:30) The cons of a product business (40:00) The cost of version 1 (42:00) His Big Business mindset (48:00) How he used Idea Extraction to get his rich niche to tell him their pain (51:00) How he researched Property Management (58:00) Mistakes he made along the way Links SnapInspect SamOvens.com Best Buyer Formula More About This Episode The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business. It's designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today - all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big. Listen Now Transcript Trent: Hey there, bright idea hunters. Welcome to the Bright Ideas podcast. I'm your host, Trent Dyrsmid, and this is the podcast for marketing consultants, marketing agencies, and entrepreneurs who want to discover how to use content marketing and marketing automation to massively boost their business. On the show with me today is an entrepreneur by the name of Sam Ovens. Sam is the founder of a very rapidly-growing company by the name of SnapInspect. Just over a year ago, Sam barely even knew what an entrepreneur was. He literally had to actually Google the term when he first discovered it and that was a little bit longer ago. With that said, this interview, if you are a new entrepreneur looking for a business to start or you are already a marketing consultant looking to grow your business, this interview is going to be absolutely a mind-blower for you. I don't want to sound too hype-y, but I took so many notes for myself when I was doing this interview with Sam that I absolutely promise that if you invest the time to listen to it, you are going to come away from this interview with some of the most valuable insights possible that will literally be for you, as they were for Sam, massive game-changers. His app, his company, SnapInspect -- so a year ago, nothing, didn't exist. He had to figure out how to find the idea, how to get it built, how to pay for it, and then how to turn it into a very healthy six-figure business and he did all of that in just over a year. And keep in mind, beforehand, this guy barely even knew what an entrepreneur was. So get some pen and paper, sit down. You are absolutely going to love this interview. Before I get to it, I want to really quickly tell you about something if you're listening, if you're not yet a Bright Ideas subscriber, I've got a new four-part video series called the Conversion Tactics Toolbox. It teaches you -- shows you, actually; it's free--exactly how I get bright ideas to add so many subscribers every day to my newsletter list and therefore my marketing funnel and, of course, that causes products to sell. Go sign up at brightideas.co. So, with that said, get ready, here we go. This is going to be a really