Nyah Eliud
Days one to ten: claim what is free
Before you spend anything, take the free things. A Google Business Profile, filled in properly rather than half done. Matching social handles. A domain registered in your own name.
For a local business, this stretch alone often brings the first enquiries. The map pack rewards a complete profile, and a great many competitors haven’t bothered.
Register the domain yourselfIn your own name, with your own email, on your own account. Whoever registers your domain effectively controls your business online, and that should be you.
Days ten to thirty: a website that answers questions
Not a big site. A small, fast, honest one that says what you sell, who it’s for, what it costs, why you, and how to reach you.
One well-built page beats six thin ones. Add a WhatsApp button, put your city in the text, and make sure it loads quickly on mobile data. That really is enough to start. If you’re choosing where to host it, the tools we use lists what we put client sites on.
What that page needs to contain is set out in the seven questions every homepage has to answer.
Days thirty to sixty: become findable
Now give search engines something to work with. A page for each service instead of one list. Titles and descriptions written on purpose. Search Console connected, so you start collecting history you can’t create later.
Ask your first customers for reviews, one at a time, with a direct link. Five real reviews in this period will do more for local visibility than anything else available to you now.
Days sixty to ninety: stop losing what you win
By now enquiries are arriving, and this is where most small businesses quietly leak money. Messages answered a day late. Quotes never chased. Enquiries scattered across four inboxes.
Put in an instant first reply, one place where every enquiry gets recorded, and a follow-up that happens whether you remember or not. It’s unglamorous, and it’s usually worth more than the next thing you would spend on marketing.
The specific workflows are in five automations to set up first.
The ninety days, at a glance
The same plan as a table you can print and tick off.
| Days | Do | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | Claim your Google Business Profile, set up WhatsApp Business | Both complete, with photos, hours and a greeting message |
| 10 to 30 | A small website that answers the seven homepage questions | It loads fast on a phone and every form reaches you |
| 30 to 60 | A page for each main service, and Search Console set up | Each service page answers one search |
| 60 to 90 | An instant reply, quote follow-ups, and asking for reviews | Nothing waits, and reviews arrive every week |
What to ignore for the first ninety days
- Posting on five social platforms. Pick the one where your customers are.
- Paid advertising, until the page you would send people to actually works.
- A blog, until the service pages exist and are good.
- A rebrand, unless the current identity is actively embarrassing.
- Anything sold to you as a growth hack.
Almost everything that works in the first ninety days is boring, cheap and available to anyone. That’s exactly why so few businesses do it.
Go further: the marketing guide, all our services, our prices, or measuring your marketing.
Questions people ask
Most of it, yes. The Business Profile, WhatsApp Business, reviews and replying quickly are all doable alone. The website build is the part most people pay for, and even that can start as a single page.
Advertising, a blog, a shop, rebranding and every social platform beyond the one or two your customers use. They all work better once the basics are in place.
The Google Business Profile and WhatsApp Business are free. A single-page website with us is 80,000 FCFA, including a year of hosting and a .com domain.
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