[raleigh_user]

I did this building a small agency in the marketing and ad space.

Happy to advise on specifics but in general here’s how we did it:

Build up a portfolio of content (since we develop content) that shows we know what we’re doing.

Go on speaking circuit for your niche and give lectures on your expertise.

Take whatever comes your way for first few deals. Always get a solid statement of work & contract.

Rinse and repeat. If you’re ok with going slower this works well. I manage a team of 9 now and after some serious time spent training them I mostly just approve work and put out fires with clients.

[BrentOzar]

> Build up a portfolio of content (since we develop content) that shows we know what we’re doing. Go on speaking circuit for your niche and give lectures on your expertise.

Cannot emphasize this enough. I started a database blog years ago, and built it up into a 5-person remote consulting firm. Inbound marketing is king: build up your brand and people will bring you exactly the projects you want, for life (rather than you having to seek out work and settle for stuff you don't really want to begin with.)

[osrec]

Mind sharing a link to your blog (if it's still active)? Thanks :)

[elephant0xffff]

> Mind sharing a link to your blog (if it's still active)? Thanks :)

It seems to be there: https://www.brentozar.com/blog/

Bam. Inbound marketing seems to go well, a HNer just linked to the blog by inspecting the HN profile the consultant put on HN ... ;)

[BrentOzar]

Hahaha, it’s true.

[raleigh_user]

Also work entirely remote. Maybe 15% of my time is spent in the same city as cofounder. 85% is spent in others. Slack works best for communication.

8 employees are spread across world.