Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shaun Salehyan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shaun, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

My company and I help small businesses across the USA get more customers through Google Maps. During the pandemic we had a client come to us, on the verge of going out of business. We were successfully able to help them get more customers in the door, keeping their business open and eventually to the point where they became a multi-million dollar operation. The owner later came to me and told me the nicest thing I’d ever heard: “What you’ve done for us puts food on my table, employees others, and helps the community”. It was one of the most rewarding things I had ever heard.

Shaun, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I owned a graphic design and direct mail company for many years. In 2013 I sold the company and spent 5 years pursuing the restoration of a classic car that I had always had my eye on — a 1937 Studebaker Coupe Express truck. After the completion of the restoration, I knew I had to make the next move in my business and I started looking for an opportunity to help small business owners grow their online presence. Having seen so many companies get scammed out of thousands of dollars a month doing website SEO, I knew there had to be a better option. At this time, Google Maps was becoming the leading platform for local search, so I tested it with a few previous clients and to my amazement the system worked. We were able to consistently increase customer phone calls, website traffic, and requests for driving directions to businesses that we served. It took off from there and we hit our first million in revenue in 2 years.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

One of the most interesting aspects of my company is that I started it for $200 and have never taken on investment. After the brainchild, I bought business cards and couple polo shirts with the company logo. Having had experience in web design, I built the website myself and then started marketing the company. I contacted friends, previous clients and started knocking on doors. I made sure for the first year that the only thing I ever talked about was this new company. Excitement is often matched by excitement, so the more enthusiasm and passion I had about the company, the more others mirrored my sentiment. I would confidently say that in the first two years of business, 70% of our growth came from referral business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

During the pandemic, we had a number of customers come to us requesting to cancel our services. Instead of cancelling, we used it as an opportunity to build a stronger connection with those clients. We offered them 6 months of free service, and made an effort to enhance their online presence as much as possible. In a time where non-essential businesses were closing, we were using the opportunity to drive traffic to their locations and highlight that they were still open for business. The end result was that we built a core group of clients that are still with us today, and have always been 0ur best source of referral business. 6 months of no profit let to almost 6 years of consistent growth because of our sacrifice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mapranks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/map_ranks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/googlemapranks/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mapranks/