Small service businesses, ie Steam cleaning business?

[Captain Cactus]

I continue my journey exploring small service businesses to allow me to escape my corporate career.  I want to eventually move into this because I like to work but I want to control my own time, take the jobs I want, etc...

Anyone done this yourselves? I have 10+ years in medical sales but no tangible skills per se outside of sales.  The first idea that comes to mind is carpet cleaning, steam cleaning floors. 

Any thoughts to add to the list?  Thanks!

[Michael in ABQ]

I think there's a lot of opportunity in local service businesses just given how bad many of the competitors are.


Answer your phone.

Keep your word.

Do those two things and you're probably ahead of 80% of your competition. Have a modern website and some digital marketing and you could easily dominate the market.

The guy who came out to repaid my garage door charged $75 an hour I believe. Any other semi-skilled tradesperson is going to be able to charge probably $50 an hour or more. Assuming you want to grow beyond doing it all yourself that leaves plenty of margin for hiring an employee to do the work at $15-20 an hour and still cover your overhead and profit.

[Captain Cactus]

That’s a great point, in my own life it’s nearly impossible to get any of these tradesmen to 1) answer their phone and 2)actually get me a quote.  They answer to no one and they get away with being unprofessional because they know nobody else out there is willing to do the work.

I’m thinking steam cleaning carpets/tile, but I’m not sure how I’ll move the furniture as a solo guy to get the whole room cleaned. 

Any other thoughts on what one could do without having to go through years of training?

[Smokystache]

Among other resources, you might check out the "Sweaty Startup" website and podcast. It focuses on building and buying businesses that are active jobs/services. Some of the podcast episodes are essentially coaching calls in which they go through how to evaluate how much to pay for an established business, different ways to pay for/finance such a business, but then also how to start up a new "sweat-based" service business too.

https://sweatystartup.com/

[HipGnosis]

I’m not sure how I’ll move the furniture as a solo guy to get the whole room cleaned. 

Furniture dollys

[Missy B]

That’s a great point, in my own life it’s nearly impossible to get any of these tradesmen to 1) answer their phone and 2)actually get me a quote.  They answer to no one and they get away with being unprofessional because they know nobody else out there is willing to do the work.

Yeah. To be fair though, why expect a guy to take your call and answer questions while he's working on someone else's job?

[Missy B]

Among other resources, you might check out the "Sweaty Startup" website and podcast. It focuses on building and buying businesses that are active jobs/services. Some of the podcast episodes are essentially coaching calls in which they go through how to evaluate how much to pay for an established business, different ways to pay for/finance such a business, but then also how to start up a new "sweat-based" service business too.

https://sweatystartup.com/

Thank you. It looks f--ing awesome.

[Michael in ABQ]

That’s a great point, in my own life it’s nearly impossible to get any of these tradesmen to 1) answer their phone and 2)actually get me a quote.  They answer to no one and they get away with being unprofessional because they know nobody else out there is willing to do the work.

Yeah. To be fair though, why expect a guy to take your call and answer questions while he's working on someone else's job?

Hire an answering service to take the calls then pass it along to the person doing the work to call them back. Much cheaper than hiring a receptionist to sit in an office all day just to take calls. 

If you're looking for someone to do some work and you call four businesses and only one answers, guess who is probably going to get your business? The other three might be faster, cheaper, or better but you'll never know because they weren't there to try and make the sale.