Chapter 3: Service Related Businesses
6.) Food Delivery Service
This type of business is quite effective if you’re located near offices and establishments filled with workers. Remember, not everyone has the luxury of going out for lunch just to grab a bite. Start out by scouting several offices in your location. Ask around and offer your services to employees within the vicinity. It will be hard at first especially if you don’t know anybody in that location. Be friendly and talk to anyone. This is how it all starts. The word of mouth will later pass on a good word about your service. If you can manage, try to bring along some samples with you. This will pretty much give the people there what you’re offering, how much it costs, and how good it is. This often comes with a lot of persuasion. Although you wouldn’t need it that much if the clients are satisfied. They’ll come looking for you the next time around.
Check for any competitors and see what they’re offering. This will give you the advantage over your competition for some time. On the other hand, if the other party is smart enough they’ll soon catch up with a better offer to entice your clients to switch to them. Just prepare a counter measure. Do promos or add on a few extra. It won’t hurt your budget. Although it might cost you a bit but it’s worth more than what you’ll earn.
Let Your Brand Be Known!
Once people get to know you and your services, all you need to do is to set a high level standard for the food and your delivery. It’s the taste and on- time delivery that counts. Whatever you do, never be late. An empty stomach often cooks up an angry mind and a hungry and angry person isn’t what you would want to deal with. Not only will you lose a customer but it will cost you your reputation as well.
7.) The Handyman Service
If you’re pretty much a know-it-all kind of guy when it comes to fixing things, you could very well make it a nice business. There are a lot of homes that need a helping hand every once in a while. Although this job is not for everyone. It takes a lot of skills and know-how to do some repairs. People who do this kind of job aren’t afraid to face doing odd jobs like fixing a ceiling, fixing stuff down the basement, and just about anything that needs repairing.
Of course, at first you may need to have a handyman certification. Everyone who would want to have something repaired would want it done by a certified professional. Start out locally. You could start fixing your neighbor’s broken stuff for a fee. You could do all these to create a portfolio for yourself. On the other hand, if you want to take an alternative route, you could always grab a handyman franchise.
Getting A Franchise
Certain companies that offer handyman services are open for franchising. If you have the cash to spare you could get a franchise and get going. Although this is a bit of the expensive route rather than running on a tight budget. However, this route gives you the advantage of its branding. Given that the company already has an outstanding background, all you need to do is uphold the quality of service and you're good to go.
8.) Landscaping / Lawn Care
Remember kids coming over to your place offering to mow your lawn for a small fee? This is the adult version of it. If you're good at landscaping, gardening, or perhaps you like a job that’s more physical, this is it!
Landscaping and lawn care is basically doing the dirty work to transform a bare lawn into a beautiful, well maintained garden. This kind of service can be offered throughout the neighborhood. You could take pictures of your finished work, put it in a scrapbook and show them to your future clients.
It’s a fun job! The more artistic you are the better the results will be. Your prospect market should first be your neighborhood. This way, you’d have less problems looking for clients. Other than that, there wouldn’t be any issue with credibility since they already know who you are and how refined your work is.
Although this may not be the most profitable business out there but it sure is fulfilling. Think about this, you’ve got 30 houses in your neighborhood and all of them got lawns. Just imagine that each one of them would need to have their lawns maintained. You’d have a client for each day of the month. It’s not that much of a hassle, gives you a lot of exercise, gives you enough money, and you could enjoy what you're doing.
9.) Tutoring Services
If you have the knack for teaching this one is surely for you. Surely there’s a lot going on the internet that would make tutoring services a second option. However, for some people, tutoring service are a lot easier. The learning process is a lot faster. Teaching is of course, a lot better if someone is there with you while you study. If you're good at relaying information to other people this is especially made for you. However, you might need to get a certification before you could really practice tutoring at a wider scope. But if you're simply starting up, you could always begin with a few students starting with your neighbors perhaps.
How Well Will Tutoring Pay Me?
It’s all up to you. If your services are quite profound, you could charge a decent fee but if you're still priming yourself, you shouldn’t yet put your hopes up of getting paid well enough. Well, it’s all about practice and dedication. Just like how your teachers did when you were still in school. It’s a matter of knowing how to handle people and convey learning as if you were just having a casual conversation. You could also expand and tutor people online. There are a lot of websites and people who are in need of tutoring.
10.) Translator / Language Tutor
Do you speak many tongues? If yes, this is definitely one that’s worth your while. It’s no surprise to see people from different countries trying to learn the local language. Being multilingual isn’t something that everyone could do. It’s an acquired talent that not all people possess. Other than being useful in its own right, you could use this multiple language fluency to your advantage. There are a lot of companies, as a matter of fact, a lot of people who are looking for individuals who could teach them a new language or two. The good thing about this is that this job pays well.
The best thing about this is that you could work from home without the need to go elsewhere. Just a computer, stable internet connect, and the ability to speak fluently different languages. Working from home as a translator for a foreign company is one things that will land you a nice pay. A lot of companies are always in search for people who are fluent with different languages. These people are essential especially when companies make arrangements with foreign clients.
Well of course, you do need to become familiar with different languages first before you could become a translator. Not just word for word translation but the local dialect as well. Companies would gladly pay anyone who is really good at translating.