Ever wish you could hitch an experienced SEO professional to the water heater in your basement and prod him for honest answers on lead generation, building a client list, and start-up advice?

Fortunately for all parties, that’s not necessary.

James Svoboda, Owner of Realicity Search Marketing, Director of Search at WebRanking, and a Top 50 ranked SMX 2010 Biggest Search Geek–Cool!–shares his secrets for owning and operating a successful SEO business right here.

James got his start in search-engine marketing back in 1999. He paid his dues as a young SEO writing title tags, meta descriptions, and link building. Today, with over 10-years industry experience, he’s a guy that understands both the technical and business aspects of search-engine optimization.

Here’s what James had to say about owning a successful SEO business:

Tell us a about your background (i.e. education, jobs) and how you first became involved in search-engine optimization.

I first got my start in SEO in 1999 working for WebRanking.com in Portland, Oregon. WebRanking is an SEO company that was started in 1998 by my brother and father. My original tasks were pretty entry level; keyword research, writing meta tags and editing copy. These were basically tasks that others wanted me to do to lighten their load. After several years I attained a Director of Search position which I currently maintain while providing internet marketing guidance to my clients at Realicity Search Marketing.

According to Realicity.com, you’ve been providing SEO and internet marketing services since 1999. At what point did you decide to start a consulting business? What were some of the obstacles you faced getting started?

I decided to start my own consulting business in 2006 and had originally wanted to focus on SEO services to real estate clients. I had great success providing search engine optimization for a few WebRanking clients and it seemed like a great fit for me. That strategy came into question a few years back when the real estate housing bubble burst. I quickly decided to change my approach. These days I feel that an SEO’s best market to build clients from is going to be their own local base.

For an SEO just starting out or considering a consulting business, acquiring that first client can extremely intimidating. What’s the best technique you’ve found to generate new leads and convert them to clients? (ie referrals, PPC, SEO, advertisements, cold call) Explain how you’ve been able to make this strategy work for you.

That’s a really good question. I have always found that referrals are the best source of leads, especially when it comes to converting them into clients. After referrals select PPC campaigns can provide a good source if you know your target audience and focus on them. If you are new to SEO, you probably have a website with little to no link popularity and content. PPC can help new SEO’s generate search traffic while working on your organic optimization.

Realicity Search Marketing is based out of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Are most of your clients from the Twins Cities area or located elsewhere in the United States? Do you find it easier to do business with clients who are local?

All of my current clients are in fact based in the Twin Cities area. I believe that being able to meet face to face is a good opportunity to better understand a client and their needs. It also helps break through the trust barrier when you can develop a personal relationship that is not just based on statistics and costs.

As to “easier to do business with”, I would say that is not how I think of it. Every client is going to be unique and have their own wants and needs whether they are 5 miles or 5 states away.

What is the single, most important piece of advice you could give an aspiring SEO business owner?

I’ll do better than that. Here are three that I firmly believe in:

1. Don’t stress over not landing every client. It’s hard not to, but try. Sometimes you are just not going to be a good fit for them and they for you.

2. It’s okay to turn down a potential client. There are going to be some clients that you are just not going to share the same vision with. Sometimes there will be differences in budget, strategy, services or project scope. It is always better to be on the same page from the beginning than to move forward with something you are not comfortable with. It these cases, just be firm, and tell them that you (the professional) are of a different opinion. Just remember to do it politely.

3. Learn, Test, Analyze and Repeat. SEO is an extremely analytical and data driven profession that has changed greatly over the past decade. Since absolute rankings are a thing of the past, and web analytics is going to be your best tool moving forward. Treat it like your own bible and get religious!

In another life, I was in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

At the surface, the rock star and entrepreneur look like classic antagonists. One rages against the machine, whilst the other is the machine. But to me, there’s not much of a difference at all.

Whether you’re projecting the image of sex and drugs or budgets and business suits, the game is the same: Make Money. Only the vehicle used to attain these riches is different.

Like most musicians, I didn’t make a dime pursuing it as a career. And like most musicians, I got some great stories from the experience.

Here are a couple of the lessons I picked up about business while training in the school of hard rock:

Publicity is Golden. This holds true for any product or service oriented business. If you can get the hang nail, off a subset, of a microbe community to evangelize your message, it’s Disney-Land magical baby.

My band was fortunate enough to garner a little publicity back in the day and let me tell you, it’s a virus that infects lawyers, journalists, anyone else you come in contact with. But beware, as an infection such as this can be quelled and soon forgotten like last weeks common cold.

Ownership! Ownership! Ownership! To paraphrase Felix Dennis, founder of Maxim Magazine, business is a dictatorship. And yes, it’s usually in your best interest as an entrepreneur to go it alone.

In a serious rock band, instead of a one partner, you’ve essentially got four or five partners. This complicates and slows down decision making at every opportunity. Add the opinion of a producer and good luck getting something as simple as a t-shirt designed. Nothing will ever happen quickly and the smallest decisions will spur passionate and silly discourse that wastes more time and goes no where.

From what I can tell, decision making problems exist in traditional business partnerships as well.

To be successful in business or music business, you need someone uncompromisingly tuned in to the bottom line. A band cannot support itself operating at a loss for very long. Food, lodging and gas for a tour all require money. Without it, you could get stuck in Lodi with no way home.

Passion or a love for the music are often cited as reasons for not needing to make money with music. But if you want play music, tour, and eat, you need someone thinking of the bottom line. The same goes for business.

As a beginning business owner, you too must remain attentive to cash flow at all times. Sure, you might love a certain aspect of your business. But if it’s not able to support you, it’s really nothing more than a hobby. If you’re looking for one of those, I wouldn’t suggest starting a business.

So take control, get some press, and watch the bottom line. Follow these steps and you’re on your way Mr. Rock-Star Entrepreneur.