If you’re like millions across the globe, the past two years may have caused you to re-evaluate your career and shift your priorities. Maybe you’re a home services professional who wants more flexibility and control of your schedule. Or you could be a talented and passionate DIYer who wants to turn your favorite hobby into a career.
Whatever your motives, following your urge to start a home services business doesn’t have to be scary. Break it down into steps and focus on one thing at a time. Soon, you’ll be helping clients build and maintain their homes while pursuing your passion.
Home Services Business
A home services business refers to any business (such as HVAC, electrical, roofing, landscaping, or plumbing) that works on projects (such as maintenance, repairs, or training) on residential homes. Some home services businesses will also take on commercial clients.
Home Services Business Ideas
Your first step in creating a home services business is determining which type business you’ll actually start. If you’re already working in the industry, you might have a good idea of where to focus. For example, if you have been working in the plumbing industry for years, you might decide to stick with what you know and start your own company. Or you might explore other avenues depending on your bandwidth and the amount of time you’d need to allocate for training and/or education in your desired field.
Home Service Business Strategy
When you’ve landed on your home services business idea, gather the necessary intel to help write your business strategy. There are some details you’ll want to know before you decide what your business will look like. Your business plan — which should be about 30-50 pages in length — will become a strong foundation that you can use as a guide when building and managing your company. Here are the steps you should take to write your business plan.
1. Conduct a market assessment.
Before you write your business plan, determine if there is a market for your business. Consider potential customers in your area. For example, how many homeowners live within your planned service area? What is the average home value? What are the average age and income level in your area?
Next, think about the competition. List the other home services businesses in your area that are working within your field. If there's a lot of competition for the services you provide, people may be less likely to fund your company. You might also find it harder to attract new customers. Keep these factors in mind.
2. Name your business.
Next, name your business. You’ll need a business name to get a business license. Narrow down a list of names and review your Better Business Bureau or the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine whether or not the name is in use.
3. Write your executive summary.
In this section, tell people what your business is about and explain the problems you solve for your customers as well as how your service benefits them. Explain the reason your company exists. Talk about what you do and include your mission statement. Your mission statement is your reason for doing business summarized into one or two sentences.
For example, Superior Plumbing is a successful plumbing business based out of Georgia with the following mission statement: “Our mission is to deliver value to our customer. Value demands we render high-quality service, with integrity, in a professional manner, at a fair price.”
To write yours, answer these questions:
- Why do we exist?
- Who do we do business for?
- What makes us different?
4. Choose your team.
People reading your business plan will want to know what qualifications you have to run the company. In this section, talk about your experience in the field, including relevant education and/or certifications you have. If you have a business partner or other coworkers, include their bios here, too.
5. Select an organizational structure.
Explain how your business will be organized. Are you going to form a limited liability company (LLC) or an S corporation? If you’re not sure which legal structure is best for you, meet with someone from your local small business administration. They can introduce you to the various structures and help you decide which is best for you.
6. Create a marketing plan.
Offer a high-level look at how you’re going to market your business to new customers. Talk about how you plan on reaching people in your area to spread the word about your business. Will you hire a consultant to help with your marketing strategy? Do you know which channels and tactics (e.g. social media, website, paid ads, and search engine optimization) you will leverage for your marketing strategy?
We’ll talk more about marketing your home services business shortly.
7. Conduct a financial analysis.
Offer a detailed picture of your finances. Think about your start-up costs, such as licensing, rent (if you’re using an office space), marketing, office supplies, equipment, vehicles, legal fees, software, and more. If you’re not sure what to include, check out this worksheet from the Small Business Administration (SBA), or talk to someone at your local SBA chapter.
Next, estimate how much money you will make. Start by listing your prices for each of your services and make an educated guess about the number of projects you think you’ll sell during your first year in business.
Take into account factors like seasonality. For example, if you’re starting an HVAC company, you’ll probably be really busy in the middle of the winter and the peak of summer, but you might have some downtime during spring and fall.
Home Services Marketing
Once your business is approved and registered, it’s time to start attracting clients. After all, you can’t serve customers if they don’t know you exist. A good marketing plan will help you accomplish just that.
Home Services Marketing Plan
An effective way to establish your marketing strategy is by creating a plan that details how and where you’re going to target your customer personas.
1. Define your customers.
Identify and define your target audience as well as their unique characteristics and traits. You probably thought about this when you were doing your market research. Understanding this information will allow you to create marketing materials and content that resonate with your target audience and make them want to become paying customers.
2. Conduct a competitive marketing analysis.
You researched your competition while writing your business plan, but use this step to go into even more detail about the marketing tactics and channels they use. This will help you determine what’s working well among an audience like yours, as well as think about ways to ensure your marketing materials stand out.
3. Set marketing goals.
Describe what you want your marketing strategy to achieve. In doing so, you’ll be able to identify the steps you’ll need to take to actually make those goals a reality. When you’re starting out, your main goal will be to improve brand awareness. Over time, you can work towards larger goals such as establishing yourself as an industry thought-leader. For this process to be as actionable as possible, make sure your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
4. Choose marketing channels.
Next, apply all of the above steps to determine where your audience spends their time. For example, ask yourself which platforms your customers are on, which websites they visit frequently, and where they spend their free time. This will help you determine the marketing channels — such as social media, organic search, physical ads, and digital ads — you need to focus on. You should be meeting your audience where they already are and where they spend their time with your marketing materials and content.
Here are some of the most commonly used marketing channels. You don’t need to leverage all of these, but you should hone in on a few.
Your website is a critical marketing tool. If customers can’t find you online, they'll do business elsewhere. The good news is that you don’t need coding skills to make a professional website. There are plenty of website providers with design templates that are easy to use such as WordPress or Squarespace. At the very least, your site should include an About Us page, a Services and Pricing page, and a Contact Us page.
To use your website as an effective marketing channel, ensure the content and information on it are up to date, relevant to your target audience, and search engine optimized. This will allow your audience to find you organically based on the content you host on your site and/or your local customer reviews.
Search engine optimization is also a key component of blog writing. A blog can be a valuable marketing channel — it can help your target audience find your business, convert more prospects into paying customers, promote your content, establish yourself as an industry thought-leader, and more.
Many small business owners turn to social media because it’s cost-effective and a good way to reach out to people in your area. To begin, set up a business profile on a platform of your choice (such as Facebook or Instagram). Once your profile is active, you can begin creating a brand presence. You can also publish paid ads that appear in front of your target audience based on parameters you select such as geographical area or interests.
Maybe you have found through customer research that some of your target customers listen to drive-time radio, respond well to billboard ads, or watch the local news. In this case, include a section for more traditional media channels to market through.
Email marketing is a great way to find new leads and maintain relationships with your existing customers. In your marketing plan, describe how you will grow and maintain your email list. You can use email for multiple purposes. For example, send coupons and promotional offers to your top customers. Or send a monthly newsletter with tips and tricks for preventive home maintenance or other topics that appeal to your clients.
Marketing Tools
There are a lot of marketing methods you can use to reach out to customers in your area including marketing tools that are specifically meant for home services businesses like yours, such as Scorpion. The easy-to-use platform helps you manage all aspects of your marketing strategy across each of your channels to ultimately generate more leads and convert more prospects into customers.
Start Your New Home Services Business
Although starting your own home services business may feel a bit intimidating, the key is taking it step by step. Roll out your business plan, and then focus on effective ways of marketing your business.
