There is a lot written on SEO blogs about how to do SEO (which is invaluable,) but there is more to running an SEO company than doing SEO. When I started BrewSEO, one of the biggest challenges I faced, was finding business advice on how to run an SEO company. That challenge motivated me to help other SEOs overcome the challenges of creating an SEO startup.
Here is a carefully curated list of CEOs, business owners, and personal friends from across the inbound marketing universe 
I asked them to share their experience and advice on overcoming the challenges of getting started. Here are their answers.
Wil Reynolds: Seer Interactive.
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: The hardest part is TRULY believing that if you bust you ass for your clients, mostly everything else will work out. I didn’t look at projections or plans when I started, I just appreciated every single person who trusted me to help their business grow and help them to achieve their goals. I never sought out new business, but instead believed that if I loved what I did, kicked ass, and went to the mat for my clients that they would take care of me and refer me like crazy. And they did.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: Stay true. It sounds all Rah-Rah, but that is how SEER grew, no sales people. Our clients became our sales team, the community we helped became our sales team. Believe. Believe that if you take great care of GREAT clients (crappy clients will always be a waste of your efforts), the growth part will work itself out.
Dan Shure: Evolving SEO.
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: In my personal experience thus far, the most difficult part has not been finding clients or perfecting how to do the work. It has been getting used to managing workload, deadlines and expectations. It has also been figuring out pricing in some cases.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: If I had “known then what I know now” I would tell them to create a simple spreadsheet with the total amount of available hours they have each month. If they have employees or contractors/freelancers use man-hours. And then you also have to factor in blogging, events, research, administrative work and proposals. This can turn out to be anywhere from 15-30% of your time. Then fill the spreadsheet each month with all of your scheduled hours (including the non-billable time) as mentioned above. Perhaps other people know to do this already, but if I had started by doing that from the beginning it would have saved some hassle.
Also – don’t just take every client that comes along. When you’re starting, you’re going to have time to fill and you might want to fill it with just anyone. Don’t take clients that ultimately won’t fit with your style, and also think about pricing early on. Don’t short sell yourself and start too low!
Neil Patel: CrazyEgg, KISSmetrics
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: The most difficult factor in starting an SEO company is landing a client. And what’s even harder than that is landing enough clients to cover your financial needs.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: Constantly network as that is the easiest way to lock in new clients. The more people you meet at business networking events, the more potential clients you’ll talk to. Think of it as a numbers game.
Rand Fishkin: SEOmoz
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: Hiring great people and building a great culture. Interestingly, this isn’t unique to an SEO company – it’s a universal challenge for businesses of all kinds.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: If you don’t already have lots of experience building a team and a culture, talk to those who have, and read up on the subject. I rarely recommend reading “business” books (they’re honestly mostly crap), but in this case, books like “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” are essential, as are those conversations with entrepreneurs who’ve done it before.
If you go in scared shitless that building a team and keeping people happy is the hardest job in the world, you’re just about ready 
Matt Morgan: Optimize Worldwide
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: Packaging and pricing. Things change really fast in the early stages of a startup. Pricing out your SEO services can be tough when you are in the midst of developing processes and conforming to efficiency. The goal, of course, is to provide value to the client while still remaining profitable.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: Develop multiple packages with prices that are designed for each specific industry + location. After you have completed the competitive research for your potential client, you should be able to quickly select from your pre-defined packages that will be effective and that is priced for value and profit. Consider the formula (industry + location) when quoting a New York attorney versus a Redding plumber.
James Agate: Sky Rocket SEO
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: Two things that I have found particularly challenging when starting/growing my SEO company are people and the right kinds of clients.
Firstly, finding the right people when you want to make that step from just you or you and a co-founder to a fully-fledged team is REALLY difficult. People think an SEO team is easy to put together because it’s all just link requests and filling out meta keyword fields but as we all know finding individuals who are committed, entrepreneurial, spirited, hard-working, smart, technical & creative is a really big challenge particularly if your talent pool is small due to the location of your business.
If you find someone who is all of those things above then grab hold of them, of course they don’t come along all that often.
The other challenge with people is that freelance SEO work is ‘easy’ to come by and what with many individuals wanting to go it alone with a combination of client retainers and their own money-making websites it can be difficult to retain the people you have once they get to a certain point in their careers.
Another challenge I have faced is finding the right kind of client… I’d never be so complacent as to say SEO clients are easy to get but there are certainly plenty of buyers in the market with cash to invest. I don’t want to jump on this bandwagon of blaming the client for project failures or “firing their asses” because they dare to question the power of my link juice but because there really is the need to find the right type of client to work with otherwise your business is either going to be a failure or a drain on your life.
The perfect client won’t always knock on your door…sometimes you have to take a long hard look at the way you present yourself and your company and figure out how you can attract that right kind of client. Furthermore it is possible to CREATE the perfect kind of client with a blend of education, understanding and patience.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: Well I covered some of this in my first response but by far the best advice I could give is to “do good work” not necessarily fancy-schmancy work that’s “bleeding edge” but the stuff that impacts on clients in a positive way and gives you and your team that warm feeling inside. It might not be pretty doing something by hand or firing up a spreadsheet to get down and dirty with some blogger outreach but it can be incredibly satisfying when you get a good result and the client is delighted and they see what you’ve done to their revenue this quarter.
And in fact concentrating hard on doing this kind of work will help you overcome the big challenges that many of us face that I described in my first response; people and the right types of clients.
There’s nothing more powerful than word of mouth and the best kinds of clients often come by way of referrals from other happy customers. Also most people don’t wish to come into the office to get lambasted by angry clients so a happy client = a happy team.
Aaron Patterson: Sling Shot Marketing
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: Starting a company is like marriage. You go for a while on the hype, buzz and adrenaline of having your new, shiny relationship. When the “defecation hits the oscillation” and you have your first fight or lose your first client, it can be pretty discouraging. It is inevitable that you will hit walls and taste failure. It’s easy to celebrate when you get your first million dollars in results but the bones of your company will really be put to the test when you have to learn to build off your failure. Needless to say, that process was hard for me.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: I would say one of the most important things to have when facing problems in your company is a teachable attitude. If a potential client chooses not to use you, find out why and be willing to listen for things you can improve on. Think of your company more as an ongoing experiment than a concrete wall. You need to constantly be testing and tweaking. If something goes wrong, rather than blaming something or remaining stubborn in your ideas, be willing to find a better way to do things.
Dr. Pete: User Effect
Q: In your experience, what was the most difficult factor to starting an SEO company.
A: I’m going to cheat and give you two. The first is the one that everyone says they understand but almost no one ever really does – make sure you’ve got the cash to survive. Unless you’re launching a business with clients in your pocket, it’s going to take months to get revenue rolling and probably months more to turn that into decent cash-flow.
The second is the difficulty I never really expected – not knowing what to do next. I don’t mean that you’ll have nothing to do; I mean that you’ll have a mountain of choices and no path to climb it. The worst part of total freedom is the explosion of self-doubt that comes with it. No matter what you’re doing, you’ll be convinced that you should be doing twelve other things, and that can quickly lead to total paralysis.
Q: What advice can you give new SEO startups who encounter that challenge?
A: When it comes to money, you have to find a way to relentlessly pursue your dreams AND be brutally honest with yourself, especially in the beginning. Relentlessly pursuing your dreams off a cliff with your eyes closed is a good way to get yourself killed. Face the numbers head-on, as dispassionately as you can.
As for decision paralysis, my advice is simple in theory but incredibly difficult in practice. You have to pick something and do it. You’re going to fail more often than not, but doing something and failing is ten times better than emptying your TiVo and becoming an Angry Birds regional champion just to avoid making a bad decision. I’m not making some vague, lessons-of-failure argument here – failing and regrouping is usually faster and cheaper than doing nothing for fear of failing. You have to try things – elevator pitches, website designs, service offerings, pricing, and on and on, to see what sticks. Planning is great, but eventually you’ll be left with a set of equally viable options, and you’re just going to have to pick one and see what happens.
About Bryant Jaquez
@Bryant is the founder/owner of BrewSEO. I have the privilege of helping companies grow their revenue with creative inbound marketing strategies. I love marketing, working with great people and the thrill of helping businesses make money.
Wow… thanks for including me… had I known it would be with guys like Rand Wil Neil etc I would have said I haven’t quite earned that honor… they’ve been in this game wayyy longer than me… but glad I could add my two cents from this point of view. You’re definitely catching me “during lift-off” – and I plan to get into orbit in due time
No problem, I’ve been really been impressed with the articles that you’ve written, and your involvement in the community.
Thanks again for contributing to this post.
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Very Interesting Read! The reason of this post to be successful is because you take the answers from them who have actually gone through all the pain and successfully overcome it to become influencers in the industry…
Personally i like the answers by Neil Patel and Wil Reynolds as i do believe that creating a good culture in the team and taking care of your clients is the most important thing to consider but at the same time if you cannot meet your financial needs to run a business you sucks!
Looking forward to see another part of it to hear some advice on how they setup their companies and get over with the problem they come across…
Bryant, even with only a few blog posts under this company’s belt, you have already brought value to the SEO industry, you rock!
Suggestion: Make your posts easier to socially share! I am a huge fan of Digg Digg, but there’s a ton of stuff out there.
Keep up the awesome work!
@bnspak
Thanks Ben. I really appreciate your kind words. We will.