Starting a Service Business

These types of businesses include carpet cleaning, pest control, blind cleaning, car washing, painting, travel agency, mortgage reduction, engraving, power washing, credit consulting, or any number of similar services.
While I won’t cover each one individually, there are a few things to know before getting involved in starting a service business.

First, you need to have the personality to run a service business. In most cases, you’ll need to have great social skills and a desire to talk to people face-to-face. If you’re outgoing, friendly, and like talking to people, a service business could be a perfect fit. Second, it’s important that you like the service you’ll be performing. Yes, even if you want to hire people to actually perform the service for you, it’s good if you have passion for the business you’re running. After all, before you can afford to hire people, you might just have to
clean some carpets yourself. You’ll find that you’re willing to spend more time building and growing your business IF you like the service that the business will perform. For example, I can’t imagine running a carpet cleaning business. And pest control and power washing would be the last things on my list. But an engraving service is intriguing, because it has a creative element to it, which I like. And I like the idea of being a travel agent (even though I wouldn’t recommend you get involved in this area, because of the drastic changes in the travel industry) because I enjoy traveling. Finding something that fits your personality and passions will increase the likelihood that you’ll be successful with it.

Again, as with ANY OPPORTUNITY you’re thinking about investing in, DO YOUR RESEARCH! I can’t stress this enough. I’m always shocked when I hear stories of people investing $10,000 to $25,000 or more to start a business – and they haven’t read the industry magazines, talked to other business owners in the same industry, or even done a simple search on the search engines. You can’t choose a business based on the “Success Stories” of the people that appear in the ad. Those are what I call the “Best Case Scenarios”. You need to do your own due diligence, check out the market for this type of service business, and make an educated choice on whether this business is right for you and right for the area in which you choose to start it. A little research can save you a ton of money!