In this VIP Case Study, we feature Lior Manelis – a serial entrepreneur, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert, and the Founder of our trusted SEO vendor, Blck Panda Creative.
This is a special one for us at the Vavoza HQ because, as a marketing agency, we can strongly relate to Lior’s journey (we’ll elaborate on this in the Closing Remarks section).
We asked Lior a series of questions about how he started and scaled his design and SEO agency to 7+ figures in revenue, and we shared his insightful responses to each of our questions in the following sections of this exclusive VIP Case Study.
P.S. If you need design or SEO services to scale your business organically, contact Blck Panda Creative. Tell them you were referred by Vavoza, and they will hook you up with special discounts on their services that we have negotiated with Lior on your behalf.
– Team Vavoza
Question 1: How did you earn your initial full-time income as an entrepreneur?
I used to work as a graphic designer way back when I was a kid, working on CorelDRAW and Photoshop.
I didn’t like how other companies used to treat their clients because, rather than being product-driven, I am customer care and service-driven, and I believe that’s what brings clients back and makes them stay.
This is not to say that my service is mediocre (not by a long shot), but a client is more likely to stick around or come back for more if our service is substantially better than the rest, which we strive to do.
So, after realizing that, we opened up Blck Panda Creative in South Africa. We started as a graphic design agency and moved along into website design as we improved our skills. That was 13 years ago.
We have been a website design and graphic design agency since inception, but over the last 8-9 years, we’ve progressed into the SEO field as well, which has substantially grown our company.
To convert our agency’s first few clients, I offered 3 free sites to businesses I identified that needed a new look and feel, and in return, I wanted them to email blast their clients on their site’s launch day and give us a shoutout. This got us 3 more paying clients, and growth continued from there.
So, my initial full-time income was from clients loving how we do things – the response, the quality, the turnaround time, and the deliverables. They just kept coming back for more! (If I can say it that way.)
– Lior Manelis
Question 2: What marketing strategies took your company to six and seven figures?
Six Figures
Again, service! People absolutely love dealing with us!
We are not the sort of company that will sell you a service and then pawn you off to a sales representative. As busy as it keeps me, I try my utmost best to communicate with each and every client in a personal capacity as the owner. So, that kind of sets us apart.
Other than that, we’re continuously improving on our methodologies, strategies, and the technology we use for either website or graphic design.
We stay up to date with the trends of design and always suggest to clients when their branding may need to change or be improved on. Very often, you might get a client who has had a logo for 10-15 years – it might still do the trick, or it might need some revising.
We always keep our clients’ growth in mind.
By doing that, not only did we get great clients, but those clients referred a lot of new clients to us. That has been our ultimate marketing; word-of-mouth has been incredible for us.
Seven Figures
I wouldn’t say that there is a specific strategy that took us to seven figures, per se, rather than educating. My approach is never really hardcore sales.
Nobody wants to be approached with a sales pitch, but everybody wants to learn or see what’s going on in the industry.
Let’s say I put up a social media post today – it might be relevant to someone, but not to person X. However, person X might remember the information that I posted and keep me in mind when they need my services.
So, I’m always front of mind with education and valuable info that people may be able to execute themselves. If not, we’re here to help. That’s definitely been our seven-figure success.
As far as our capabilities to grow with clients, we’re able to take on a substantial amount of projects or campaigns at a given time because of the staff complement that we have back in South Africa. Expanding on that is substantially easier than one would have to deal with locally in the US.
I think that our biggest benefit as well is that as a company, we’re leveraging two time zones.
So, while I get a pitch at four o’clock in the afternoon in the US and send it through as a rollout strategy to my team in South Africa, by the time our clients wake up in the US the following day, I’ve got some sort of deliverable to hand to them. That’s definitely a winning factor on that front.
– Lior Manelis
Question 3: What strategies did you focus on in 2023, and what are you focusing on in 2024?
If I must be honest, I cannot say there is really anything different we were focusing on in 2023 and are focusing on in 2024. We’ve always been who we are – consistently!
We’ve tried to be as transparent as possible with clients about whether or not a campaign is going to be successful (in our opinion). Very often, we might get a client to say, “Hey, this is my website, or this is my Google Business Profile listing, and we’d like to get ranked.”
I weigh what they do versus what the initial cost is. SEO is a long-term game. It might take a business anywhere between 3-6 months locally and 6-12 months (and sometimes plus) nationally to start getting that needle moving.
Now, one has to consider what they are selling, their profit margins, and the expense of the SEO campaign.
Is an SEO campaign multiplied by 12 months going to be in a five-figure bill? Yes, it is.
Is it feasible for them to do that and make a return on investment? We sometimes analyze that for clients and say, “Look, by month six you might be 45-60 grand in, depending on the campaign size – that’s before making a return on investment.”
If they’re in it for the long haul in the long game, that’s a different story, but it’s a big chunk to bite for a lot of the clients to understand that there is an ROI aspect that we as an agency take very, very seriously from the client’s perspective.
So, we are consistent in what we do, and we focus on being transparent with our clients.
– Lior Manelis
Question 4: What advice would you give to someone who is just getting started as an entrepreneur?
Stick it out!
There are going to be hard days; there are going to be days when you wake up and doubt yourself and want to naturally slide back into comfort, whether that may be going to what you know or back to a day job. If you’re passionate and believe in what you do, stick it out and work harder.
When you’re an entrepreneur, there is no “9 to 5.” You’ve got to continue working, whether it’s the first thing in the morning – you can wake up and start fresh and work right through the day – and even work through nighttime till silly hours.
The success of the business relies on the efforts inputted by the entrepreneur. Go out there and talk to people! Network, network, network.
Build your brand around trustworthiness and get some sort of trust factor. If people trust you, they use you. If they use you, they’re going to recommend you to others, and that is where growth comes in.
So, definitely never give up. Set a goal, because if you work hard, especially in the US, there is absolutely nothing that cannot be achieved.
Lior’s Offline vs. Online Experience
Other than Blck Panda Creative, we used to own two production companies, one of which was called Pristine Moods Productions. We used to do high-end corporate events’ technical.
So, we had a monstrosity warehouse back in South Africa, and we had anything from trussing to lighting to sound AV generators, LED screens, speakers that could handle outdoor sound systems of up to 15,000 people, etc.
Our biggest clients were Volkswagen, Audi, Mini Cooper, BMW, and a couple of Kias. We did their national road shows and all the car launches. We’ve done garden dinners for banks, such as South Africa’s biggest bank – First National Bank. Medical was huge in our industry as well.
That was an eight-figure business. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it because of COVID. The second that COVID hit and social distancing was imposed, within a matter of 72 hours, we lost 18 months’ worth of bookings.
I took it upon myself to float the entire business for nine months because we had no relief from anybody – not landlords, not car repayments, not insurance, not anybody – and for nine months I ran the company until I had to pull the plug and liquidate that company.
So, that was a journey I enjoyed.
But we were lucky to have Blck Panda Creative, which is digital. I was able to keep that business afloat through COVID, move myself to the US, and grow Blck Panda by 10X (as cliche as that is) what it used to do back home in South Africa.
Now that we are focusing on the US, we’re growing on a month-to-month basis.
– Lior Manelis
Closing Remarks
As you read Lior’s responses to our questions, you may have noticed the simplicity of his approach, from just getting started to scaling his business to millions of dollars in revenue – it’s incredible!
Lior Manelis shared a few golden nuggets throughout his VIP Case Study that may sound quite simple, yet they are overlooked by most aspiring (and even veteran) entrepreneurs.
For instance, Lior put a lot of emphasis on relationships built on customer service, responsiveness, and results – that really is everything in the service industry.
Did you catch the part where Lior mentioned how he got his first few clients? It’s so simple, yet incredibly clever and powerful.
We know from first-hand experience that Lior’s advice is legitimate and effective because his approach to starting and scaling his agency is precisely what Vlad Strizheus did with the Vavoza agency.
The big lesson here is that scaling your online business to seven figures does not require complex systems and processes – it can be done by providing top-notch customer service, being responsive, delivering results, building trust through service, and acquiring clients through word-of-mouth from your satisfied existing clients.
Yet another powerful lesson is in Lior’s experience: His 8-figure offline business was crushed virtually overnight by an external force (COVID) while his then smaller online business stayed afloat and continued to grow rapidly. Isn’t that fascinating?
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Stay tuned for more valuable marketing strategies, tactics, insights, and ideas from Vavoza Insider Plus.
– Team Vavoza
