850
9 min 23 sec

Best Buy Employee Moonlights as Online Ad Consultant

A digital marketer freelances away his nights and weekends, eventually turning his side gig into a multi-million dollar ad agency.
High Profit Low Startup Potential Marketing Service

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What It's About

A digital marketer helps businesses with their online advertising.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Marketing & Outreach
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Jordon has some great advice for those who think that you need to throw money at something or leave your full-time job in order for a side hustle to be successful.

"Spend as little money as possible to get things started, and make sure there’s a safety net. Lots of startups fail, so it’s good to have a full-time job. I nearly replaced my salary with the side hustle before turning that into my job."

Fun Fact

Jordon’s agency, Granular, was voted one of the “Coolest Offices in Milwaukee”, “Best Places to Work for Young Professionals in Wisconsin”, and the “Top 3 Small PPC Agencies in the U.S.” by U.S. Search Awards.

Notes from Chris

Episode 850

Jordon Meyer now runs the digital marketing agency Granular. It’s a 16-person team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These days, it’s his full-time job and a multi-million dollar agency. But like most of our stories, it didn’t start out that way...

Before building this digital marketing behemoth, Jordon was holding down a job at the Best Buy head office in Minneapolis. He climbed the corporate ladder for a while before realizing there was no end in sight.

He then transitioned into the for-profit, higher-education industry, but felt like he was selling his soul to the highest bidder while making someone else a lot of money. It was around this time that Jordon decided to put his PPC skills to work.

By the way, PPC or Pay-Per-Click, is an internet marketing model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. You know when you do a Google search for something and at the top of the screen, you see those ads? Those are Jordon’s! Well, maybe not Jordon’s specifically, but those are someone’s ads. It’s a way for business owners to buy traffic to their website.

If his talents were already helping someone else’s business earn a lot of money, why not apply those same talents and build something of his own?

He started freelancing on the side as a Google Adwords, Paid Social Media, and Analytics consultant for businesses around the country. He based the business out of his house, specifically, his living room recliner.

Each day, Jordon worked on campaigns late into the night after getting home from his corporate job. He’d even sit in his car during his lunch break to make calls! And he ran his hustle this way for the first two years.

It wasn’t until a few years in that he explored the option of quitting his day job. Jordon had grown to managing ten clients by himself (which he admits was too many) while working 50 hours a week in the corporate role.

Encouraged by one of his larger clients to take the leap (and sweetening the deal by offering up their office to work out of for free), Jordon left his corporate marketing job and returned home to his native Milwaukee. He then officially started Granular Digital Marketing Agency.

Currently, Jordon’s annual profits from Granular total around two million dollars per year. However, unlike typical agencies who charge a percentage of ad spend or a markup (one of the things Jordon doesn’t like doing), he charges more like a consultant by blocks of hours.

  The pricing varies, but he usually has a monthly minimum $1,500 agency consulting fee (for about nine hours of work). His hourly rate is $200 per hour. For his enterprise clients, that figure could extend to over 100 hours a month with a multi-person team servicing them.

So what’s next? He wants to continue building Granular along with helping other companies grow where he sees opportunity. He’d also like to build wealth outside of his business through real estate and other investments.



MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Granular: Learn more about the work that Jordon is doing over on his website!
  • WordPress: Jordon used WordPress to set up the website for Granular, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter


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Resources

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Quote of the Day
"Spend as little money as possible to get things started, and make sure there’s a safety net. Lots of startups fail, so it’s good to have a full-time job. I nearly replaced my salary with the side hustle before turning that into my job."
—Jordon Meyer #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau