In this post I want to share the story behind how I started my marketing agency, the mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and why I now focus on helping small home-service businesses grow through websites, SEO, and digital marketing. This is an honest, no-frills look at the failures that became the foundation of what I do today.
Outline
- Early attempts and learning the basics of online marketing
- The COVID turning point: affiliate marketing and the move to SEO
- Building an agency: from doing everything myself to hiring a team
- Why we narrowed our focus to home services
- Key lessons and practical tips for small business owners
- Conclusion and next steps
Early Attempts: Trying Different Businesses (and Failing)
From the start I always wanted to run my own business. I tried a few things: early Facebook marketing when there were fewer restrictions, selling products online, and even an auto parts company focused on transmissions. I used everything I had learned about digital marketing to promote these ventures. Some of it worked, sometimes only briefly, and other times it failed outright.
I also worked as a contractor for social media agencies, helping with digital strategy, SEO, and website recommendations. Often I would give clear instructions to fix a client’s site or campaign, and the agency simply wouldn’t implement them. The client got upset, canceled, and I lost the job. That pattern repeated with different employers, and I kept learning—but it was a tough way to learn.
“Failing forward.” Every time I failed at something, I took the lessons forward into the next project.
The COVID Turning Point: Affiliate Marketing and Discovering SEO
When COVID hit, many clients canceled. I had a few of my own clients also cancel because the economy shut down. To survive, I moved into affiliate marketing — getting paid for business I could send to other companies. I ran paid ads (Google Ads) to generate leads and sales, but the margins were thin: I was spending money to make very little profit.
That realization pushed me deeper into SEO and optimization. Instead of buying every lead, I started building websites for local home businesses and optimizing them to rank organically. When a site starts getting consistent organic traffic, the cost per lead disappears and profitability goes up. I began selling leads to businesses that could close the sales. That model worked better and scaled more sustainably.
From Solo Consultant to Agency Owner
As the SEO and lead-generation work grew, I realized I couldn’t do everything alone. I started hiring people to handle parts of the process: website design, on-page SEO, content, and client communication. I focused on strategy and quality control while the team executed.
One major reason I started my own agency was seeing how other agencies had strategy but lacked execution. Small businesses were left disappointed when promised changes never happened. I wanted an agency where the strategy was matched by reliable delivery.
Why We Focus on Home Services
In the beginning I worked with all kinds of businesses. That taught me a lot, but it was also chaotic — different industries require different approaches. Over time we narrowed our niche to home services: remodeling contractors, home improvement, and moving companies.
There are three reasons we chose this niche:
- High local search intent: people looking for home services often use Google to find someone immediately.
- Clear ROI: a single booked job can cover months of marketing spend, making results easier to measure.
- Repeatability: local service businesses often share similar needs (local SEO, service pages, reviews), so our processes scale.
Why Digital Beats Traditional Marketing for Small Businesses
I used to work in traditional marketing — newspaper ads, highway billboards, and the like. These channels are expensive and hard to track. A billboard could cost $10,000 and you have no reliable way to know if it generated calls or leads.
Digital marketing is different. Small businesses can start with modest budgets and measure everything. A tweak to a website or a local SEO change can boost monthly revenue dramatically. For a small company, a 100% or 200% increase in revenue is realistic with targeted digital work — results that would be barely noticeable in a large corporation.
Key Lessons from My Journey
- Fail forward: Every failure is data. Use it to improve the next idea.
- Start with a website: If you plan to run ads or get organic traffic, you need a place to send people that converts.
- Measure everything: Digital marketing allows you to track ROI—use that advantage.
- Niche down: Focus on industries where processes repeat and results are measurable. We chose home services for that reason.
- Deliver, don’t just strategize: Strategy is useless without execution. Hire or build a team that will implement consistently.
- Small changes can have big impact: For a small business, even modest optimizations can double or triple revenue.
Practical Tips You Can Use Today
- Make sure your business has a simple, mobile-friendly website that clearly lists services and contact information.
- Start local SEO: claim your Google Business Profile, encourage reviews, and create service pages for the neighborhoods you serve.
- Track leads and appointments so you know which marketing channels actually produce customers.
- Test one paid campaign only after your site is ready to convert; otherwise you’re wasting money sending traffic to a weak page.
- Invest in the basics before complex tactics: clean website, accurate contact info, clear calls-to-action, and a simple way to request a quote.
Where I Am Today and Why I Teach
Five years after COVID, the agency has stabilized and grown. I lead strategy while a team helps with execution. I also started sharing knowledge because there are relatively few Spanish-language resources about SEO and digital marketing that focus on practical steps for small businesses. I want to help local entrepreneurs get the results that change lives: hiring employees, moving into a better neighborhood, buying a house.
Watching a small business grow because of a marketing change is what drives me. That’s why I teach and why I keep working with local home-service companies.
Conclusion
My path wasn’t linear. It was a process of trying, failing, learning, and pivoting. From early Facebook marketing to selling parts, to agency contracts that didn’t pan out, to affiliate marketing and finally SEO-focused lead generation — every step taught me something valuable.
“Failing forward” is more than a phrase — it’s the approach that helped me build an agency that delivers results for small businesses.
If you run a small home-service business and want help getting more leads without wasting money on untrackable marketing, focusing on a solid website, SEO, and measurable campaigns is the best place to start.
— Salazar Digital, Marketing & Web Design
Salazar Digital Local Marketing
1172 Murphy Ave #208, San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 532-5118
