I have been an online entrepreneur for over 20 years now. Actually, some of you may remember a company that really helped me take my online businesses to the next level. They had the most successful internet launch in history back in the day, the company was StomperNet.
Before this time, I was getting my feet wet trying to get my real estate appraisal website ranked. I was also attempting to get my e-book to climb on Clickbank (Foreclosures & Flips). In order to rank better, I needed help and StomperNet was the answer.
The build up to their internet launch felt like it was yesterday. When they finally launched, their monthly recurring training was $797.00. When they launched, I was in downtown Chicago doing an appraisal.
I knew I needed to do join… So, I called a few friends that respected what I was trying to accomplish online and luckily, I was able to get 3 friends to pay me $200.00 per month.
It was an easier sell to my wife because at the time, my real estate appraisal business was tanking hard and fast. The refinance boom became a bubble and it was starting to burst. My thriving appraisal business that averaged 40-50 orders per week was at a measly 4. I was close to not being able to pay the mortgage on my house. An $800.00 hit per month wasn’t in the cards now.
Getting back to the story…
I remember the excitement and nervousness after joining StomperNet. I charged the first month of $797.00 on a credit card and recouped $600.00 from my new clients.
The Idea of Selling Treadmills Online
Being an idea guy, I always had a pad of sticky notes with a pen on my nightstand. Whenever I had a new idea, I would write it down. I faintly recall waking up one night (right before the StomperNet launch) and writing down the word TREADMILLS. Needless to say, the idea stuck and I decided to sell Treadmills online.
I was so green at creating a brand new website that StomperNet chose my site as an example of what NOT to do. They even created a “what not to do video” using my site! How embarrassing… Ugh.
You don’t have to worry about being embarrassed like I was. Today, there are many great e-commerce platforms and templates you can easily use to build your website.
It was definitely a rough start for me but eventually, things started to come together. I was so passionate about this new endeavor that I was able to come out of my shell and contact manufacturers directly over the phone. This was crucial for an e-commerce site since manufacturer deals are needed in order to drop ship products.
Being an affiliate where customers would click on links and be taken off my site wasn’t an option, I wanted to be paid directly.
I was in absolute awe when I got a deal with a major manufacturer to sell their treadmills!
I studied search engine marketing day and night. It helped me structure the website in order to rank on Google.
I creating separate pages for every treadmill. More importantly, I rewrote all of the treadmill product descriptions. Because the first website that has the content WINS since they are crawled by the search engines first.
All websites that copy and paste the content will LOSE due to duplicate content filters.
Again, rewriting ALL of the manufacturer product descriptions is Key. Google loves unique original content, they eat it up. Consequently, they hate duplicate content and they discount websites that have it.
After completing this work and taking the time to add keyword sensitive titles, the site began to rank. It took search engines about 5 months to start to trust and rank the site.
After some additional work, the site started to rank more and it was ranking #1 all over the web. The site even achieved #1 spot on Google for the biggest keyword there is “TREADMILLS”. This happened right around the one year marker.
The #1 ranking for treadmills stuck and ICON contacted me for a phone meeting. They were pulling information out of me. They wanted to know what I was doing to get the rankings and soon after the call, I discovered their title tags started looking very similar to mine.
At the 1 year marker, my site was ranking #1 for treadmills and was grossing over $100,000 per month.
When you build a new e-commerce website, carefully craft each page to be unique. It won’t be easy and it will take quite a bit of time but when done correctly, it will pay off.
DO: Create Unique Content
DO: Create Solid Titles Tags
DO: Create A Description Tag
DON’T: Keyword Stuff
DON’T: Have Thin Content
Those are a few things you can do to stay on task when creating your website pages for an e-commerce store.
While there are tried and true things you can do to get quality online traffic, there are also many negative factors that can hurt your chances from getting ranked. You don’t want to have your new friend Google put you in the corner. Because if they do and since they are the leader, other search engines like Bing and Yahoo will likely follow suit.
Where Do You Even Begin to Start with an E-commerce Store?
How To Start An E-commerce Business
You have to start by picking a niche. You want to find a niche that isn’t too competitive but that has potential. For example, a niche like “weight loss” is super competitive so that is something you want to stay away from.
Even though treadmills is a specific niche in the fitness equipment industry, you should consider staying out of that niche too. Why? It is relatively simple to know if a niche is overdone and too competitive. All you really have to do is Google search the keyword and see who comes up on page 1 of Google. If you see mom and pop type websites on page #1 and there is sufficient keyword search volume, you might just have something worth looking at.
However, if you search a keyword such as “treadmills” you will see the top competitors are Walmart, Amazon and Dicks Sporting Goods. There are also Google Ads with companies with deep pockets. Why would you want to compete with them? In my opinion, you shouldn’t!
Where Should I Build My Ecommerce Website
There are many solutions for building your online e-commerce website. But I will give you the top 3 most popular platforms. I have personally used these platforms and have succeeded with them. There are others, but these are the ones I prefer.
Shopify
Big Commerce
WordPress with Woo Commerce Plugin
I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new! If you liked it, please Like & Share.
Are you ready to become an expert with a consulting business so you can become invaluable to your clients? Here are the bullet points of what we will be discussing in this post.
Expert Online Training
Social Media Groups (Facebook)
Search Engine Optimization
Paid Advertising (Google & Facebook Ads)
Website Analysis
Landing Pages
Go Daddy w/WordPress ($12 for 1st yr.)
Free Trials: AWeber, MailChimp
Free Tools: Chrome/Firefox For Online Tools
Google Keyword Tool, SimilarWeb, SpyFu & AnswerThePublic
Social Media Groups (Facebook & LinkedIn)
When you get started, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. You can do expert online training for pennies if not free in most cases. And you can start with social media groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. All you really need to do when you’re logged in to the social network is do a search in the search box. Search with a specific keyword for what you’re looking to get trained in.
It could be Facebook Advertising, Social Media, Google Ads, or anything like that. You’ll come across many groups. Some of them are closed groups, so you have to go ahead and try and get yourself approved. But in most cases you should be able to, and the biggest thing you want to do once you get in these groups is listen and learn. Do not promote yourself or your site!
You want to absorb all of the information in the group like a sponge. That’s the biggest thing you can do. So that’s your first piece of the expert online training. Join social media groups and get involved with them. You’re going to be able to learn so much.
There are a lot of experts in these groups and some of them are even considered high level mastermind groups. Connecting with these experts is a big deal.
Why Are Experts Offering Great Free Content
Online industry experts understand the importance of moving the free line. The more they give to their customers for free, the more opportunities they will have to market to them later. There is no better time for you to become an expert for free.
Once you really get rolling, you’re going to want to understand Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Now it’s, it seems like it could be technical but it’s really not.
With SEO, you optimizing your web pages for search engines. In most cases, the way you optimize pages for search engines is the same way you will be optimizing Google Ads or Pay Per Click.
Because when optimizing website pages for search engines, you’re also making them optimal for pay per click. One of the biggest things you do to your website pages or your clients pages for SEO is to make your title, description and your page content relevant.
For example, I had a treadmill site. One of the keywords I had in the title tag was “treadmills” and “proForm treadmills”. So you want to have different keywords in the title tag, but you don’t want to be redundant such as “treadmills” – “treadmills” – “treadmills” as the title, right?
You want to be more specific to phrases. If you want to have a main keyword in the title, that is fine. Just don’t over do it.
For a title tag, the character maximums vary from search engines from time to time. I recommend staying under 55 characters. If you want to check your character count, you can use a the free tool that I use here: Word Counter
After searching the keyword “treadmills” in the Google search box, the top three organic listings are below. No surprise there!
The 53 characters is what the search engines are allowing to be recognized. If a site has anything over 53 characters, it will be truncated, meaning it isn’t going be seen.
The screen capture from Open SEO Stats below shows Dick’s actually having 73 total characters. In this case, but not always, the characters and words are being truncated but it isn’t going to be do or die for their ranking. Why?
Because the characters being truncated are: “Available At Dick’s”. This isn’t the primary keyword they are trying to rank for.
Since Google and other search engines aren’t going to recognize any characters over the allotted maximum, try to keep it between 50-55 characters. That is the safe zone. But in saying that, if you are trying to get additional brand recognition, you can add a company or site name at the backend of the title tag. That way, it will still be seen in the browser for the user.
This is valuable information for your new client. While it might not seem like a huge deal, it is! This is critical for you clients web pages. Most potential clients you talk to won’t even understand this jargon.
Remember, your goal should be to know enough to be dangerous and to definitely to know more than your clients. You want to be able to help your clients and you don’t want your clients to be able to stump you either!
Descriptions & Page Content
You want your description tag to be very relevant to what the topic is. When writing a description tag your targeted keywords should naturally flow.
Tip:Never user duplicate content from another website. Your content needs to be unique and your own. I use CopyScape to make sure I don’t duplicate the content I write on more than one page.
Sometimes you could duplicate content by mistake when quoting someone or using a resource. I have been doing this lately and only relaize it after checking my content against CopyScape. Don’t do it!
It’s True, Content is Still The King
On the website homepage itself, you want to have solid content, but you don’t need 5-10 paragraphs of content. Again, you don’t need a ton of content on your homepage. It doesn’t have to be changed unless you need an update.
Adding more content to a homepage or changing homepage content for no real purpose isn’t necessary. If your content remains relevant, leave it be. Also, if you have good homepage content, it is getting aged by the search engines and this is a good thing!
A paragraph or two of relevant content is sufficient. This is good for search engines. They will crawl the content and if it’s relevant to the description, title and the keywords people are searching for, you are optimized. Google and other search engines want to give the best possible experience to their customers.
Google Ads To Help Your Clients
For your training, with paid advertising, the two things you should know for your clients are Google and Facebook Ads.
When you set-up a Google Ads account, you’re going to start getting coupon vouchers in your email. I have several account and I have received $50.00, $100.00 and even $150.00 vouchers. Once you spend the full amount of the voucher, they’ll credit you back the same amount.
Understanding the Google Ads platform is going to be helpful to your clients. Even if you sign-up a clients for non-paid services, it’s a good add-on service to add later for free.
I have clients that signed up to a monthly service for website maintenance, content writing and search engine optimization but didn’t want Google Ads or Social Media. However, since the plan was highly profitable, I added these services on later at no cost to the client. One of the clients I did this for has been with me for 8 years! It’s still incredibly profitable too.
Facebook Ads To Help Your Clients
If you’re just getting started with Facebook Ads, just make it easy on yourself and when creating a post on a business page, simply boost the post for as little as $1.00 for the day.
You can do a lot of things with Facebook Ads Manager (not simply a boost). But it can be a little more complex for someone new, let’s not over complicate things just yet.
Have you ever created a Facebook Business page?
If not, I recommend going in your Facebook account and creating a business page for what your business is going to be. If you aren’t 100% sure about your name, don’t worry. You can change the name later or easily create a new page.
Note: You can only change a business page one time and it has to be in the same niche.
On the page you can put up relevant content, a profile picture and background.
Create a post on your page and then all you have to do is click on boost on that post. This will get your feet wet so you can help future clients monetize their traffic and online business.
Boosting is easy! You can boost posts for $1.00 or $5.00 and you can pick different demographics. Who are you trying to target? 35-40 year old males or females? You can choose specific niches. It’s a good way to get started.
If you want to create the post showing that it is coming from your business page and not your personal account, be sure to click the down arrow to make the change (see capture).
When you become accustomed to boosting Facebook posts, you can test out the Ads Manager. From there, you can take a deep dive into your analysis and conversions. You can look at which Ads and images are performing the best, you clicks per impression views and more.
Looking for Facebook Ads Manager help? You can do what I did and get free strategy sessions with a Facebook Marketing Expert. I did this a few times already. My rep Malachi was very helpful!
Tip: If given the option in settings, don’t automatically click “optimize for website clicks”. When doing it this way, you might get a lot of visitors that don’t take action in terms of purchasing. But these users are flagged as being users that only click on ads.
Diving Into Website Analysis
In order to analyze a site, you need to be able to understand what is happening on the web pages. Similar to what we discussed earlier on search engine optimization. For example, if you are looking at a site for a Chicago Attorney, you are going to start by looking at the website home page and the title tag.
If the title tag says: “Law Firm”. And they want to rank for that, well guess what? It’s extremely competitive!
As an expert trying to help a client, you would be better to help them by carving out a specific niche and a keyword modifier of the broad keyword “Law Firm”.
An example would be “Chicago Attorney” or “Chicago Law Firms” or something with a longer phrase. Longer and more targeted phrases are also considered longtail keywords.
Longtail keywords often convert better than broad keywords because they are more targeted. The search volume will be lower than the broad keyword but that is okay! Better traffic, equals more conversions and sales.
To check keyword search volume you can use the Google keyword planner tool. This will help you determine which approach will be best suited for each client.
Remember, not all clients will have the same strategy. Not all clients are going to have the same keyword search volume.
Some clients may have very little search volume for their keywords. But one customer for them could mean 10x or 100x the revenue vs. another client with 10x or 100x the search volume. The way you help them convert their traffic is going to be Key.
Landing Pages & Sales Funnels
Now that we are on landing pages, I should let you know that my plan is to basically Miyagi you the way Mr. Miyagi did to Daniel son in the Karate Kid Movie.
Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel son a lot of different things. He put him to work first, right?
Wash my cars, wax my cars, paint the fence and stain the fence. All of these tasks were a form of training.
Daniel son was getting so frustrated! He was so ticked and said “when am I going to learn Karate?!”
And finally when Mr. Miyagi threw a punch at Daniel, he was able to block it because of his master training. He learned that through the repetition and processes of washing the car, painting the fence and the other chores Miyagi gave him. That’s what we’re kind of getting to right now with your expert training.
When your search engine optimization is effective on a landing page, your customers experience will be better. Whether your website visitors are coming from a Google Ad, a Facebook boost or organically from search engines. All of the traffic sources that hit your clients pages will be converting better with optimized landing pages.
Let’s Get A Little Technical So You Can Impress Your Clients
It’s not mandatory for you to know this but it is good discussion while on clients calls. Latent semantic indexing or (LSI) is basically used by a search engine to determine and examine the keywords that potential web visitors are using for a specific subject.
When talking about LSI, just know that Google’s Algorithm looks at this as the keywords searched, the phrases people use and the content that surrounds it. It’s all about relevancy.
The way I see it for a landing page is relatively simple…
A search is done on Google
The user sees an ad or a website page that is relevant to the keyword searched
The user clicks the Ad or the site in the organic rankings due to a match
The user reaches the site / landing page and sees a continuation of the match they searched
The page is titled with related content and keyword modifiers that are natural
The entire process is crawled by the search engine and is not looked at as spam in any way
This becomes a highly effective experience for web visitors
Click thru rates and conversions are likely to be high
Help Your Clients By Helping Yourself For $12 Bucks
If you want to start practicing on your own site or even a brand new site, you can do it for 12 bucks. This will cover you for the entire year.
First, Google “Go Daddy Coupon Code”. You will find a site called Coupons.com Inside the site under Go Daddy, there will be an offer for “Basic Managed WordPress $1/Month”. With this offer, you will also get a free domain.
When you are in the Go Daddy shopping cart, make sure the domain reflects Free and the Hosting reflects $12.00. Start with the hosting plan and then add the free domain.
That is $12 for a year including a domain and hosting with WordPress. This will allow you to train on the WordPress platform! Roughly 36% of the websites built, us WP.
Collect Emails To Build A List for Your Consulting Business
You should consider having an opt-in on your own landing page in order to capture email addresses. This will help grow your new consulting business.
There are many options for doing this and they integrate into WordPress. AWeber, Constant Contact and Click Funnels are popular paid choices. They offer free trials. For a free option, I highly recommend using Mail Chimp.
Whether you use a free version or paid version for collecting email, if you’re new, it will be a learning curve. But it’s well worth it!
There are free tools you can get when using the Google Chrome Toolbar. If you’re using Internet Explorer, I recommend to start using Chrome. There is a search box for you to download plugins.
These tools you can use such as Open SEO Stats will help you analyze client sites very quickly.
These tools will also help to make you look like an expert to your customers.
Analyze Title Tags
Check Website Speed
Linking Status
More Free Tools For Your Expert Online Training
SpyFu
SpyFu is going to tell you how much companies are paying per click. The tool also shows what keywords are being targeting and even the companies monthly pay per click spend. I’s a very cool site to use!
Google Keyword Planner Tool
This is a free tool. You could see how many people are actually searching in the Google search box and the combined total of any other search partners on the Google network. Create a free account and you can begin searching.
In the example below, I searched treadmills. For the criteria, I picked United States, English, Google and search partners.
After I clicked the search box, here’s is the result:
673,000 searches for the broad keyword “treadmills”. It gives you trends and you can break it down by location and platforms.
You also get the keyword depth of the broad treadmills term. Meaning, you can see the other related keywords and their search volume as well.
This niche has become extremely competitive since the days of my Treadmill-World site in 2008. You will be competing with the big brands like Amazon and Walmart. So this is more of an example of a keyword that you should probably stay clear of.
My Treadmill-World.com site was ranked number #1 on Google for the keyword “treadmills”. I had a lot of sales that way because the volume was significant. But the keyword “treadmills” is a broad term so it wasn’t considered a “wallet out” targeted search like “buy treadmill online” or “shop treadmills”. That’s why it was important to have many other website pages created for targeted keywords.
Pay per click advertising was utilized as well. Because if people were searching the keyword “buy treadmill online”, what are they likely to do? Of course, they’re looking to buy a treadmill online! So it was important to be in top positions for those keywords.
But if users were searching the broad keyword “treadmills”. It is more difficult to determine what they are looking for. Was the search for a treadmill workout, a used treadmill or to shop for a treadmill?
Similar Web
Similar Web is a Google Chrome Extension you can add to your toolbar. It’s going to give you a plethora of information about a website. Searching your clients competitors site against your clients site is a good strategy. Here are some of the useful insights:
Bounce Rates
Pages Per Visit
Monthly Visits
Direct Traffic
Search Traffic
Social Traffic
What Questions Are Being Asked About Your Clients Business?
AnswerThePublic is a unique site that offers a free version. Enter a search in the search box of their home page and you will be amazed and the data you receive. I recently started using this site and I couldn’t believe how useful it has been. You literally discover the most populated questions and phrases used by your audience. This site can help your client businesses in an immense way.
AnswerThePublic – Where, Why, When, Who….
Conclusion
If you use the information that was offered, you will be able to become dangerous. That is all you need to do right now.
Starting out, your goal should be to know more than your potential clients. Helping clients succeed is Key, it’s a Win Win!
Now is this too much information? I know how you feel because I’ve been there before. Basically, whenever I start a new project or onboard a new client, I feel like I am getting blasted in the face with a hose.
It’s a lot to take in, but guess what? Once you start to understand this stuff and you get consistent with it, it will begin to come natural.
When you are on a call with a potential client and you blow them away with your knowledge, you will feel empowered. And when you close the deal, you will be rewarded!
Gaining expert status will help you close deals one after another, after another…
You’re going to able to do this on your own schedule. That makes it priceless! It’s hard work for a while. I’ve worked hard for many months at a time when retaining clients. But, I’ve also coasted for many months and even many years at a time while retaining a substantial monthly income.
A Home Service Business is the perfect business to start on a shoestring budget. They can be started for very little. Plus, they are a great choice since they are in high demand!
I can tell you with absolute certainty that a service business is the one true business that anyone can start with No Experience & No Degree Required.
You could start making a daily income in very little time. I have personally done this with service businesses and my family has done the same thing many times over.
When my dad was struggling with income after my parents were divorced, he said to himself “what is the fastest and cheapest way I can start a business and make really good money”. It was a service business. You can read more about this type of service business in a post I wrote here: How To Start A Cleaning Business
Angie’s List & HomeAdvisor (ANGI) Exceed over 300 Million
There is a compelling reason why Angie’s List & HomeAdvisor exceed over 300 Million per quarter and their actual corporation “ANGI” is in excess of 4 Billion Dollars, YES Billion with a capital B! They make their Lion Share of money from Service Businesses.
If you want to experience the lasting satisfaction of starting your own service business – then check out these “3 Profitable Home Service Businesses”.
Let’s dive in and see if one of these service businesses are perfect for your new full time or side income hustle.
House Painting Job
#1 House Painting
Great Profit Margins
A local house painting company can do extremely well. I know many painters including a childhood best friend. He works for a small business.
My friend Scott always tells me how busy this two-man shop is.
He is always posting pictures on Facebook of his location and is proud of the work he does. His boss continues talking about expanding and hiring more workers but seems to like the way things are. It just proves there is room for expansion – if you really want to go in that direction. Here is an actual post my friend Scott added on Facebook while working in a Downtown Chicago high rise.
You never know where your service business will take you next!
Back downtown working at that expensive condo, here are some night-time views (awesome) – Scott F.
HomeAdvisor reports hiring a Painting Company ranges from $963 – $2,742 with a National Average of $1,780.00. For an entire 2,300 SF house, expect to charge $4,000.00 – $11,000. This is accurate data as it is taken from reported 42,300 HomeAdvisor members.
If you lack the confidence in your painting abilities, check out the free workshops and videos at HomeDepot.com. You can get completely educated in this industry for free.
House Painting Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers and Cards, Cell Phone, Sign Magnets, Painting Supplies – Brushes, Rollers, Tarps, Buckets, Ladder, Rags, Tape, Appointment Book, Van or SUV.
Wash on and wash off, pretty simple for the money.
#2 Window Cleaning
$211 Average Window Job
This is a specialized niche where you typically don’t see an abundant of service vehicles driving on the street like Landscapers, HVAC Companies or even Painting Businesses. But, can you imagine getting window jobs from delivering flyers in your local area and from having a large sign magnet on your vehicle? I sure can!!!
HomeAdvisor reports the typical range for window cleaning is $149 – $293 with an average cost of $211. Smaller jobs are reported to start at $80 with larger home prices reaching $421.
Do you have a fear of heights? If you answered no, you could target high rise buildings. The hourly rate is a minimum of $85 per hour!
Per CostHelper.com, the cost is typically anywhere from $2 to $7 per window. In addition, Angie’s List members have reported paying an average price of $266 for a full house window cleaning.
There are approximately 56,000 janitorial businesses in the United States and close to 8,000 of these businesses are carpet cleaning. They make up a part of this $45 billion dollar industry. $5 billion dollars of the industry is carpet cleaning!
Do you think there is an opportunity to make money in the niche? Definitely.
HomeAdvisor reports the cost of hiring a Carpet Cleaning Service ranges from $121 – 233 with an average cost of $176.00.
Carpet cleaning is another industry where I had hands-on experience. What can I say…? I worked a lot of jobs in my lifetime!
Working for the family cleaning business included commercial carpet cleaning for businesses. I also worked for a carpet cleaning company called Zero-Rez. They are in the top 5 in the industry.
Zero-Rez wasn’t the typical cleaning model of extracting the dirt from carpeting. They have a unique process of cleaning carpets. No hard chemicals or solution and soft water with easy extraction.
The most common carpet cleaning method is extraction. It involves using hot water, carpet cleaning solution and a powerful wet/dry vacuum for suctioning the dirt.
The Top Carpet Cleaning Brands vs. No-Name
A few of the biggest carpet cleaning companies are Chem-Dry, Stanley Steemer, Service Master and Zerorez. However, upon searching “Carpeting Cleaning Companies Near Me” on Google, I have not even heard of the majority of the companies listed.
After doing the searching, I noticed Yelp at the top of the search engine results pages. Therefore, I decided to take this one step further. I clicked Yelp to see if there were any major brands listed like Chem-Dry. Nope!
Here are the Yelp results:
As far as I am concerned, every single carpet cleaning company listed is a mom and pop shop or a small local business.
Personally, with these kind of results, it almost makes me consider starting a carpet cleaning business!
I know what you are thinking… “But look at all of that competition?” That’s A-OK! Many businesses, also mean solid demand!
To get new customers, all you have to do is have a better marketing strategy than your competition.
The incredibly great news is this: You are not competing with the big Amazon’s or Walmart’s of the world, it’s just a few locals. You can beat them!
Sales Tip: When I used to carpet clean for Zero-Rez, I used to up-sell a carpet rake for $20.00. My partner and I used to up-sell additional rooms to carpet clean while on the job too. It wasn’t a hard sell since we were already on the job. We would simply offer these services or products and often at a discounted rate.
Side Note: With a previous marketing client, our contact Kelly was the director of marketing. On one of our monthly meetings, she told us about her husband starting a carpet cleaning business. Flash forward to 3 months later on another meeting, Kelly informed us that she was leaving her job to work full time with her husband. She said the business was exploding!
Carpet Cleaning Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers, Business Cards, Cell Phone, Sign Magnets, Carpet Cleaning Machine or Rental, Cleaning Solution, Rags, Appointment Book, Vehicle.
Marketing Ideas
How to get customers for my new Service Business:
Delivering Flyers to Neighborhoods
Facebook Business Page
Pay Per Click Advertising
Word of Mouth / Referrals
Car Sign Magnets
Online Business Directories
Passing out Business Cards
Square Card Referral Tool for Service Business
TIP:Referral Strategy: Customers love getting referral fees! Create square shaped business card. The square shaped business card will offer a referral fee for your customer and a special discount for their friend.
You want to make sure the business card is unique and either rounded in design or square. You need to make sure they stand out! Also consider applying magnets to the back of each card for your customers refrigerator.
You will be surprised how many people would be willing to give you a referral while knowing they are getting 50 bucks and helping out friend or family with a good service and a 10% discount too.
CONCLUSION
It’s clear that service businesses are in demand and profitable. If you are looking for a side income hustle or even want to branch out and go full-time, it is a possibility. Having a thriving service business is a path many started before you and grew beyond their expectations. As long as you do good work, referrals and word of mouth become a big part of this business. That costs you nothing!
Here are 5 of the best no-contact service businesses you can start without ever having to come in direct contact with a homeowner. These 5 service businesses are considered exterior-only services. They can all be started for a very low cost.
Unlike other service businesses such as interior painting or house cleaning, these service businesses don’t require you to enter the home.
No license or certification is required
Entering your customers home is not required
No experience is necessary if you are willing to learn
Payment processing can be a no-touch environment with Square Up
If customers aren’t home, you can still perform the necessary job
Cutting Grass & Landscaping – A Profitable Service.
#1 Landscaping & Mulch Service
Average Installation $3,240
A service business with many different layers so you can easily choose your desired niche.
There are many tasks in a landscaping business that may include raking and blowing leaves, mowing, mulching, trimming, planting, digging, fertilizing, sod installation, landscape design, and even snow removal.
But in order to apply the KISS Method (Keep It Stupid Simple), and if you are just starting out, I believe it is best to start with Mowing.
Once you start mowing lawns, your business will naturally increase to other areas. Your clients paying for lawn care will likely ask for more services such as planting, cleanup or even junk removal.
This isn’t just a hunch, I know this from experience. Because while using lawn care services for many years, we frequently ask for other services. In addition, my family had a cleaning service for decades and our commercial clients would ask for other services like grass cutting and window washing.
Mowing lawns can be hard labor but once your business starts to grow, you will be able to get hired help — in order to take the load off of yourself! My friend Antonio started this way. I remember when I hired him, he was all on his own. I referred him to my mom, my sister, and then my dad.
Suddenly, Antonio had 4+ weekly clients. I told him he needed a Sign Magnet for his truck. He purchased one but it was small and hard to read so I said “Tony, you need a BIG SIGN that clearly displays your services with a phone number”. He listened and his referral business exploded! He is always booked solid.
The landscaping industry has an annual revenue of 99+ Billion and 39 Million homeowners had landscaping work completed in the previous year. Landscaping companies have seen 74% of their business coming from returning customers ~ iPropertyManagement.com
HomeAdvisor reports hiring a Landscaping Service ranges from $1,381-$5,346 with a National Average of $3,240.00. The Low End to the High End is $300.00 – $10,500. This is accurate data as it is taken from their reported 17,653 HomeAdvisor members.
There are several reports indicating that you could be making well over a six figure income from working in landscaping in a little over a year.
Landscaping Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers, Business Cards, Cell Phone, Lawn Mower, Rake, Shovel, Sign Magnets, Appointment Book, and a Pick-Up Truck or SUV.
Deck Staining Service Business
#2 Deck Sealing & Staining
Deck Sealing Range $552-$1259
According to HomeAdvisor, the National Average for deck sealing or staining is $875. The low end is $250 & the high end is reported as $2000!
Target both sealing & staining for maximum income and customer potential.
I contacted deck staining companies many times in the past. I located these companies in the free Clipper Magazine that frequently came to my mailbox. The quotes I received were between $550-$950. Once I hired a company, I was surprised at how easy the process really was. Since I worked from home, I was able to watch the entire process from start to finish.
Prior to the company showing up, I was told to make sure the deck was clean. They also made sure to show up on a day where there was no rain in the forecast. When they arrived, they blew the deck off with a leaf blower and pounded in a few nails that were sticking up a bit.
Next, they poured the colored stain directly on the deck and they started swooshing around the stain with regular mops that you would see a janitor use at any local mall or school. It seemed so easy!
TIP: When selling a job, try to persuade the customer into picking a stain that is a close match to their current stain color. This will make the application go easier. If they choose differently, consider charging more for your services.
Deck Sealing & Staining Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers, Business Cards, Cell Phone, Sign Magnets, Mops, Brushes, Rollers, Rags, Leaf Blower, Power Washer, Appointment Book, Vehicle.
Blacktop house driveways & then land commercial businesses for even bigger profit margins.
#3 Driveway Blacktop Sealing
You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel
Buy a squeegee and you are in business! You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s not necessary to come up with an original idea. There are plenty of service businesses that you can start today for under $100.
HomeAdvisor reports the cost of hiring an Asphalt Sealing Company ranges from $242-$656 with an average cost of $447.00. This is accurate data as it is taken from reported 4,329 HomeAdvisor members. The Low End to the High End is $135-$1,400.
I recently had a conversation with my stepbrother about a driveway sealing business that he sold. He said it was very profitable. Most of the work came from word of mouth and from neighbors while working on the job.
Originally, he posted about the business on Facebook but quickly stopped after getting more business than he could handle. Since he only wanted the business for a part-time income, he ended up selling the business to a friend.
It just goes to show you that for a service-related business, word of mouth and just simply working on the jobsite can get you all the business you need to be successful.
I live in a cul-de-sac and a few times in the past, a few neighbors came to my door to let me know they were getting their driveway sealed. If I wanted to get my driveway done too, the sealing company would give us a 10% discount.
This is a good strategy for you to tell potential customers! Let them know if they convince other neighbors to get their driveway sealed too, you could offer a discount.
Professional pressure washing and cleaning surfaces.
#4 Pressure Washing
Pressure Washing Surfaces
Combining pressure washing with fence & deck staining will likely increase jobs and income substantially.
HomeAdvisor reports the cost to pressure wash a house is $185-$383 with an average price of $284. This cost data is actual project costs as reported by 29,453 members.
I was the president of my homeowners association for a few years. I ran for the board because my subdivision started looking subpar. One of my very first calls was to get a quote from a pressure washing company – in order to remove the black soot from the entranceway concrete.
This $250 was money well spent! The entranceway looked amazing and homeowners were raving about how nice it looked when they pulled in and out of the subdivision.
A few years later, I decided to buy a cheap pressure washer in order to clean my sidewalks and patio. It turned out to be a long and arduous project. I guess I wasn’t prepared! The nozzle had many settings and I didn’t even realize I needed a concrete cleaning solution. Talk about a time sucker!
Going forward, I let the professionals do the work and I am glad I did. Their equipment is commercial grade and they were able to get the work done 10 times faster than me.
Power Washing Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers, Business Cards, Cell Phone, Sign Magnets, Leaf Blower, Power Washer, Cleaning Solution, Appointment Book, Vehicle.
Cleaning Gutters Out – In-Demand Service Business
#5 Gutter Cleaning Service
Cleaning Services are Big Business
If you have a fear of heights this service business might not be for you. Cleaning businesses as a whole are big business. You really only need to tap into one of these specialized niches in the cleaning industry to do well.
A gutter cleaning business has an extremely low start-up. You only need protective gloves, a ladder and some other miscellaneous supplies.
HomeAdvisor reports the cost of hiring a Gutter Cleaning Service ranges from $118-$225 with an average cost of $157.00. The Low End to the High End is $75-$350.
I recently had a new roof installed on my home and the roofing company included gutter clean-out in their agreement. However, there is still build-up in my gutters and downspouts. Every time there is a hard rain, my gutters are overflowing and there is seepage coming from the outside box miter and the downspouts.
Since I am currently experience this problem and it’s not the first time I had the issue, I can clearly see this business to to be an in-demand service.
Note: It is recommended to have your gutters cleaned up three times per year. I was shocked to read the experts making these recommendations but it’s starting to makes more sense now.
Gutter Cleaning Start-Up Basics: Business Flyers, Business Cards, Cell Phone, Sign Magnets, Ladder, Cleaning Supplies, Appointment Book, Vehicle.
TIP: Having a repeatable process for your business is Key. That’s why franchise models work! Your success is dependent upon it.
Notable Service Businesses
I covered 5 of the Best No-Contact Service Businesses You Can Start from Home for Around $100.00-$200.00. But there are many other notable service businesses that you could start on a shoestring budget.
Check out other notable service businesses below. I included the job range and averages for each business per the HomeAdvisor TrueCost Guide.
Carpet Cleaning – Job Range $121-233 & $176 Average
Handyman Services – Job Range $177-647 & $389 Average
Junk Removal – Job Range $134-357 & $234 Average
Moving Company – Job Range $600-1,638 & $1,118 Average
Pool Openings/Closings – Job Range $121-375 & $231 Average
Chimney Sweeping – Job Range $127-356 & $241 Average
Construction Site Cleaning – Job Range $275-652 & $441 Average
Mosquito Services – Job Range $108-261 & $173 Average
Pest Removal – Job Range $169-495 & $329 Average
Tile & Grout Cleaning – Job Range $279-644 & $451 Average
Kitchen Cabinet Painting – Job Range $384-1,112 & $697 Average
Tile Installation – Job Range $858-2,692 & $1,774 Average
Air Duct Cleaning – Job Range $268-483 & $367 Average
Garage Organization – Job Range $649-2,509 & $1,459 Average
Drywall Installation – Job Range $955-2,531 & $1,727 Average
Fence Installation – Job Range $1,641-3,952 & $2,762 Average
Feel free to check out the HomeAdvisor TrueCost Guide for yourself by clicking here: Cost Guide
Final Thoughts
Starting a new business can make many people feel uncomfortable. It certainly was an uncomfortable experience for me at first. Don’t make too much of this, it’s natural to have fear when starting something new. This may come from self-doubt, an insecurity, or even from other people in your life telling you that you can’t do something. Don’t let this stop you from getting what you want!
TIP: Do you have any friends or family? I figured you would say yes… That’s good because you could increase your business by having your friends and family put a sign magnet on their car for you. There are companies out there today that pay drivers for advertisements like this. But your family and friends might be willing to do this and help you out for free. My mom did this for me. Thanks Mom!
Starting a service business is all about filling a need. You goal is to serve homeowners to the best of your ability. If you do this, your business will likely succeed!
My final thought for you is to remember to keep it simple. Many people get overwhelmed and overcomplicate starting a business. This doesn’t have to be complicated! Pick a service business that’s a good fit for you and get started using the start-up basics.
Remember, this post is aimed to be an accurate depiction of how lucrative and easy it is to get started with a service business. Although this post offers a tremendous amount of valuable and relevant information, it is not intended to be an absolute step. But this step, is a necessary step to help you start the process of being a highly successful Service Business Owner.
CONCLUSION
Take action by picking a business that not only you desire the most, but also that suits you the best. You want to give yourself the best chance for massive success. Once you decide on your specialized niche, re-read the start-up basics and begin gathering all the items needed and then get to work!
