About

Me - Phil Rozek

When I’m not obsessing over all things Google Places, I can often be found watching the Red Sox, playing chess, having a cigar, surviving the irrational New England weather, and spending time with my lovely fiancée, Stefanie.

How I got started

I started earning my wings in the world of local Google in 2008. It’s been 4 years, which equals about 19 “Internet years.”

It started out of curiosity. A handful of struggling local businesses had hired me to give their websites a facelift. And boy did they need it: I knew their websites were repelling customers. But I got bored of redesigning their sites (too much web design still bores me) and got sidetracked when I thought of a little experiment: did their businesses show up next to that little local map when I typed in their services into Google?

Nope. My clients were at the bottom of the local pile, then known as the Google Local Business Center. I wanted to find out why. More so than their crummy websites, their crummy (or nonexistent) local rankings seemed to explain why they weren’t getting enough customers.

I rolled up my sleeves and tried to figure out what made some local businesses rank more highly than others in local Google. I wrote down my discoveries in a giant Word document. This was the seed that in 2009 grew into my “Local Visibility System”: the first comprehensive, step-by-step kit to walk business owners through exactly how to get their businesses visible to customers in local Google.

Since then, I’ve helped business owners across the USA and internationally attract more customers through Google Places (as it’s been called since early 2010). Google Places has been evolving, and in many ways it’s become tougher to get one’s business visible. Fortunately, I’ve gotten better and better at helping businesses prosper there. My mission is to make sure that your business prospers in local Google, too.

A few reasons why my clients profit from and enjoy working with me

I’m a specialist in Google Places. Sure, I use plenty of other skills on a daily basis to build my business and my clients’ businesses. But I’m not preoccupied by a bunch of side projects. Unlike “marketing experts,” I’m not a dabbler. I focus on Google Places. The result is I’m better-equipped to get your business visible there.

I’ve worked with business owners in all sorts of industries. This has helped me zero in on the local-visibility techniques that work universally, in all industries and local markets, not just in a few. It also means there’s a good chance I’ve already helped someone in your profession get visible locally, and that I can help you get visible, too.

I’m a regular guy, not some holier-than-thou “guru.” I don’t eat egg-white omelettes for breakfast and bury my nose in “self-help” books. I don’t have a team of secretaries to keep me in a client-phobic bubble. My clients actually get to know me, and I like getting to know them.

I don’t nickel-and-dime my clients. I don’t work for free, but charge them for every last minute I spend helping them or answering pressing questions. I help them when they need it, and they continue to choose me over cheapskate “consultants.” Everybody wins.

I’m never pushy. I get my clients locally visible in Google Places, and they know where to find me if they want more of my services.

Why I enjoy working with my clients

Everyone wants more customers and a more prosperous business—but relatively few actually invest in growing their business. My clients are serious enough to put some money where their mouths are, and I admire that.

My clients are experienced and skilled at what they do. Many have been in business for decades. They know which areas of their businesses don’t need fixing, but they also know what they need: more local visibility to potential customers.

They come in all shapes and sizes. There is no “typical” client. It’s always an adventure, and I like learning about my clients’ businesses. The best part is they give me ideas for how to improve my business.

They are tough. My clients have put enough time, money, heart, and pride into their businesses that they want to see their businesses grow no matter what—despite the economy, despite how tough their local competitors are, etc. I like being their go-to guy.

My values and beliefs

My Golden Rule: Always give my best. Give the same advice and do the same quality of work that I would for a best friend who started a business and needed my help in getting some local customers to come through the doors.

Tell the truth, even if it’s not necessarily what my clients want to hear. I also routinely tell would-be clients that they don’t need my services. I’m what you might call an anti-salesman.

Making money is noble. Without money we’d have empty dinner tables and couldn’t buy anything for our kids’ birthdays. That’s why you’re in business. But you couldn’t do it without attracting new customers somehow. Helping my clients win customers through Google Places is why I’m in business—and I can only stay in business as long as I bring the rain.

Time is precious. If I find a client too difficult to work with, I politely let him go, because he’s probably not looking for what I offer, and I don’t like wasting his time or mine. I make sure all my materials and bits of advice are as clear and quick to implement as possible. I don’t like having to redo work, so I take pains to do it thoroughly from the start and ask questions upfront, so as to get my clients visible quickly rather than slowly.

Give before I get. That’s one reason I put together the free guide, which you can use to get visible in Google without ever needing my services. That’s also why I put time and heart and soul into my blog and regular emails (even though they’re lots of fun anyway).

…you can expect…

My attention. My clients have my attention.

Fast and thorough communication.

Straight answers and fresh info. If I can’t answer your question well, the first thing I’ll do is say so, and the second thing I’ll do is furiously look for an answer and get back to you once I find it.

Routine updates by email on the progress of your local visibility and on my next steps.

More customers—not just more visibility in local Google. I do everything with an eye toward showcasing your services in a way that gets people interested and gets them to pick up the phone.

…and I’ll expect you to…

Remember that I can’t guarantee a particular outcome in Google. Nobody can. Sure, I know what I’m doing to the point that my services are 100% money-back-guaranteed—so you are not taking a risk. But it’s also true that maybe one or two mathematicians with Coke-bottle glasses actually know what Google’s ranking “algorithm” is. Therefore, my job is to do for your business what I’ve seen work for others.

Ask any and all questions, no matter how “dumb” or half-baked you think they may be.

Implement. My suggestions will get you nowhere if you don’t apply them. Even if you use my “done-for-you” service, there will still be a few small items I just can’t do myself (for instance, steps that require access to your email inbox, which I don’t always have.)

Hang tight through Google’s frequent changes. It can be a bumpy ride at times.

Hold my feet to the fire. If I say something that’s unclear or that doesn’t square with your experience, ask me to explain. Tell me how you like the results I help you get, and how those results have translated into real customers and profits for you.

Be prepared to handle more customers calling you up or coming through your doors.

**Enough about me. How can I help You?**

1. Get a quick visibility boost by downloading my free guide to local visibility. It’s 58 pages of meat with zero pages of flab, and it’s built to accomplish one thing: showing you how to get your business visible in Google Places.

2. If you like the free guide, keep an eye out for occasional emails from me with more free stuff that helps you get visible to potential customers. You’re already registered on my private list if you’ve downloaded the free guide. My emails are as unobtrusive as a church mouse, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for ‘em in your inbox.