How to start a successful service-based business

Do you want to know the 6 easy steps you can take to start a successful service-based business? Read on

Service business definition: What is a service-based business?

A service-based business is a business that offers services to its customers in exchange for money.

People hire service-based business people because they do not have either the time or the skills to carry out such services.

For example, tutoring is a service-based business where the tutor passes across skills or information in exchange for money.

Service-based business is one easy way to start a home business because you do not require heavy upfront capital.

Offering services to other people to make an income makes it easy for anyone who desires to start a home business to quickly start one.

Why is this so? because all you need is your knowledge of how to deliver the service and some advertisement and you are good to go.

Offering services online makes it even easier for you to start a business because you do not have to leave your home to do your business

I have a bias for online businesses because of the flexibility it offers you as a stay at home mom to be able to earn money while staying home.

I also love service based businesses because it is something that you can quickly learn within a month and you are ready to go.

For example, I am currently building a course that will teach you 4 digital skills that you can offer to anyone interested in your services.

The skills can be acquired within a month and you are able to launch your business right before or after you finish the course.

The course is called the Skills2money course.

However, it is one thing to know how to start a service-based business, it is another thing to make a success out of it.

In this article, I will outline steps on how to start a service-based business from home and make a success out of it.

6 steps to start a service-based business

1. What service to offer

There are hundreds of services that you can offer to other people but you cannot offer all of them.

The first step to starting your service-based business is to decide what type of service you will like to offer to people.

Your service-based business should be built on what you can deliver individually. Except you have partners that can help you to deliver the services you want to offer.

To determine what service you want to offer here is what you need to do

List your skill set– What skills do you have and what can you do exceptionally well? If you don’t have any skills, which skills can you quickly learn?

How do you charge people for the skill? For example, you need to know if your skill is something you can itemize and charge for it as you deliver it or after you deliver the service.

Identify your ideal customer– Who are your ideal customers?

This is a basic question anyone offering a service-based business should ask because this will form the core of your marketing message.

I am currently building a course termed the skills2money course, this course is targeted at equipping those who do not have digital skills with 4 hot in-demand skills that will help them to make money.

My course is designed to help transform you from knowing nothing about digital skills to acquiring skills that you can use to start an online service based business within a month.

Because I understand the importance of helping you to start a business not just equipping you with digital skills, I have incorporated the above-mentioned aspects into my course.

To get notified when the course will debut please sign up below

2- Write a business plan

Once you are done with step 1, the next one is to write a business plan on how your business will be run.

I know there is a temptation to jump in with both feet when you want to start immediately, but a business with no written plan will be like traveling without a destination in mind.

A business plan does not have to be tonnes of excel sheet, that will tire anyone. It may just a simple planner that you can use to write out your business plans in a simple format that makes it easy for you to start.

If you want a checklist to quickly plan your service-based business then you should get my free service based checklist below.

Simply fill in your details below and you will get it in your email.

3-Package your service

This is the step where you get to design what packages you have to offer. In this step, you are itemizing the different services and adding the cost of delivery to each one to form a package that you offer to your customers.

For example, I provide Freelance writing services. My services are divided into Blog posts, lead magnets, web content, etc. This makes it easy for the customer to know what services you offer and what suits them.

4- Build a website

When you are ready to start selling your services, you need an online presence to tell people about what you do. This means you need to build a website.

These days building a website is quite easy, you can use services like Wix or WordPress to build your website. Before you start building your website you will need the following

Domain name- This helps you to claim a name which is usually your business name at a small amount. Domain name sellers are companies like Hostgator and Namecheap.

Hosting- Your website will need to be hosted by some company, they are like your online landlords. There are different hosting companies out there but the best of them and the cheapest is Bluehost.

Bluehost will help you with hosting your website for less than 4 dollars a month.

If you are wondering which of the options for building a website will work best, use WordPress with a paid hosting.

Do not go for the free website option, you will not be able to receive payment on that website if you do.

Only the paid hosting websites allow you to receive payment online.

The paid hosting WordPress is called WordPress.org and will usually come with the hosting company’s Cpanel. ( A cPanel is a software that holds the backend of your website together, it is also the place you install your website from)

If you don’t like Bluehost because of affordability you can use Ipage

Ipage offers a very low start up cost for building your new website, for as low as 37 dollars max, you will have a free domain name, a hosting unlimited emails for a full year.

They also have very clean looking interface and a helpful customer service that quickly resolves your issues.

To sign buy your hosting form Ipage click the link below

Host your website with iPage!

If you don’t want to deal with building a website for your business, you can outsource it.

You can hire me to build a website for you that is mobile responsive and set up to sell.

Click the button below to hire me

5-Market your services

Marketing is what makes or breaks any business that you want to do.

This is because marketing is what tells any would-be customer what your business is all about.

If your business is online you are marketing your business continually even when you are not there physically.

This means that your website should be built to allow ease of navigation.

To effectively market your business, here are steps to follow

Build a website that is easy to navigate– This makes it easy for your customers to easily navigate your page and get to the point of payment.

Make your website mobile responsive- Most people will access your website through their mobile devices, so you ensure that your website can be clearly read on a mobile device.

Create social media pages– When people discover your website, the next thing they want to do is to know where else you can be found. They check out your social media handles, this includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Be sure to create your business pages on these platforms and constantly update and share your content there.

Blogging: The quickest way to get people to believe that you know what you are doing when it comes to offering services online is to give out free information in the form of blogging.

Blogging attracts your ideal customer to your website because they usually are searching for solutions.

When they search for solutions, your article comes up which then attracts them to your website where you offer them the service.

Blogging is a long term effort but it pays because it helps you to build authority about a subject and brings in reliable customers.

Create social proofs- When you start a new business, people will hardly trust that you can deliver except they see other people say that you have done well for them.

Social proofs are methods you use to tell people that others trusted you so they can also. Examples of social proofs are reviews, testimonials, shout outs on social media, etc.

If you are just starting out and you have no social proof, you can generate some by offering free services to other people and asking them for reviews in return.

If you have friends that have used your services before, even if it was informally you can ask them to drop a review or a testimonial for you.

These are ways that differentiate you from other service-based businesses and make you successful.

6- Launch your business

Launch your business and invite people to take a look at what you have to offer.

An online business can be launched through a series of activities.

Some of the activities could be through Raffle draws, giveaways, and also contests.

This will get people engaged with your services and creates awareness about your new business.

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