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Awesome thread ICK!<br />
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Curious to know; if you were to start a service business like this from scratch and didn't have the skill (carpet cleaning, tiling, law service etc..), would you learn the skill first and do the jobs yourself? Or jump right into hiring your first employee while you focused on the marketing and business side of things?
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</blockquote>If I was starting from scratch, I’d probably apprentice for another company first just to see if I even like the niche. There’s nothing worse than trying to grow a company in a niche that you have absolutely zero love for. It’s like Chinese water torture. Learn on someone else’s dime first then quickly decide if you are going to move forward with the biz.<br />
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Here’s a 10,000ft above view of how I’d recommend you plan your attack:<br />
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<b>Level 1</b><br />
Learn the actual skill(carpet cleaning, tiling, lawn service,etc). Preferably learn from someone already in the trenches because you can seriously damage carpet if you don’t know what you’re doing. For example, some high pH cleaning solutions will actually bleach rugs but work well on carpet.<br />
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<b>Level 2</b><br />
After you learned the skill, proceed to launch your own biz to your friends and family. Your circle of influence. Get feedback from them. Find out what can be improved. You’re not spending money on ads yet. Tweak the product/service based on criticisms and compliments.<br />
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<b>Level 3</b><br />
Set up a customer support system. Start picking up the phone and call strangers. Ask what they liked/didn’t like. Strangers will be far more brutal than friends and that’s a good thing.<br />
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You want to continually tweak the product/service according to market feedback. Your goal in this level is to create good will with your base of customers so that you can get testimonials in the next level.<br />
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Set up a split test. Long ads vs. short ads. You’re still not spending much on ads. Only testing.<br />
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Level 4</b><br />
Now you’re scaling your advertising budget. Still try to keep the ad budget low. Check the math and analyze ROI. Tweak, tweak, tweak, until you eventually hit something that really clicks.<br />
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<b>Level 5</b><br />
Aggressive expansion. Scale the paid advertising. This is where the real fun begins. Expand the customer support team, staffing, consider expanding to an office if necessary.<br />
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Create routines, schedules, and lines of communication for the team(E-mail, Skype, FB messenger, etc). Try to keep the expenses to a minimum. Don’t be stupid by buying t-shirts and coffee mugs with your logo. You may be tasting success at this point, but don’t think you have arrived just yet.<br />
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Focus and discipline are the keys in this level. I’ve seen too many people lose everything after they let their ego get in the way. It’s not time to party and go crazy yet.<br />
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<b>Level 6</b><br />
Legacy. Think about investing profits back into the biz for further expansion or invest in other vehicles. Next year, I’ll be discussing how to correctly invest in stock options for weekly cashflow. There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to do that. It will be in the Insiders section of the forum though.<br />
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Line up CPA, accountant, CFO, set up bank accounts better, insurance, etc. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s.<br />
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Set up tax planning, estate planning, etc<br />
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<b>Level 7</b><br />
Liquidation event. Throw a party with lots of pizza. Don’t buy a Ferrari/Lambo unless you own an asset that produces enough monthly cashflow to pay for it. Weekly/monthly cashflow is the key to wealth that lasts for multiple generations.<br />
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<b>Level 8</b><br />
Create more stuff. Invest in more stuff. Innovate. Donate to some non-profits or even start your own.</div>
