Starting a Service Business

One option for parents who wish to start their own home business is a service business. We all have skills or experience of some sort that others are willing to pay for, and we may underestimate the value of these skills. What comes naturally to you may not come naturally to other people. For instance, my older daughter has a talent for cleaning. I don’t know where in the gene pool she obtained this skill. It certainly wasn’t from me. Cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me and for that reason, I find cleaning to be harder work than she does. She, on the other hand, can whip through the entire house in an hour or less, including emptying cupboards and rearranging drawers.

Some people are particularly good with animals and could start a service business as a pet groomer, a pet sitter, dog trainer, or maybe even start a dog-walking service. Those who are musically inclined might give violin or piano lessons. Those who are athletically inclined might become tennis teachers, golf teachers or personal trainers. Those who love children could start their own day care. Former teachers can become tutors. If you have the right skills, service businesses can be started in cake decorating, baking or catering, sewing or alterations.

Service businesses can be started by perceiving where others are in need of help, instead of based on a particular skill. Examples of this type of business are house-sitting, keeping an eye on a client’s elderly parents, or an errand service.

Many displaced workers eventually start businesses as consultants. There are literally hundreds of possibilities in this category. Do you have strong skills at organizing or planning events such as parties or weddings? Maybe you have years of experience in a medical office or a bank, or you have strong mathematical or accounting skills. That experience may be more valuable to you in a consulting business than it would be as someone else’s employee.

In fact, when we choose to work for someone else, we are limiting ourselves to the set dollar amount they are willing to pay, or in essence, their perceived value of our time and experience. When we take the leap into working for ourselves, we can structure our peak work time to coincide with our body clocks, or our children’s schedule. Productivity increases when we are not distracted by these outside stressors. Working for ourselves also leads to the potential to eventually have employees, to increase our earnings potential by chasing more customers, maybe eventually to open more than one office. The sky is the limit when we are not locked into someone else’s schedule.

A service business can be started part-time, just for spending money, or it can eventually become your full-time income. The only way to reach that level is to have a clear plan of how you’re going to attain that goal. You need to consider the amount of money needed to start or purchase the business and where you’re going to get it. You need to investigate what licenses or permits are needed. Don’t let the fact that you don’t have an education in business or instant knowledge of what you need to do hold you back. If this is something you really want to do, you can and will find a way.

One good resource for information on starting your own business can be found at www.entrepreneur.com and click on starting a business. Two other good resources are www.sba.gov and www.sbdcnet.org

Have faith in your own ability to meet your goals. Today is the day to begin.

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