Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have owned and operated my own services businesses for over a decade.  My wife and I have a cleaning business, catering to private homes, and she runs that for the most part.   We opted to never expand the business in favor of keeping things simple and free from headaches.  It is a very good business for us, but moreso just self-employment, which pays the bills.  I also have a mobile auto detailing business that I run on the side.  However, I will be shutting that down in all likelihood, as I can no longer physically take the toll that it puts on my body.  I can deal with the work, but the heat and the humidity cause me to sweat profusely and I end up with huge headaches and feel terrible after work.  It isn`t worth it.

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Michael Shemwell
www.mymobilecarcare.com
www.evercleancleaningservices.com

Hi Mike,
One of the things bothering me these days, is the number of people who want to create a business brokering something. In other words, they don`t want their own product or service, they want to connect other people with other things or other people.

I believe that despite the financial news, we are in a completely unsustainable condition these days. With stunning debt, consumer credit, unemployment and so forth, more and more people are out of work and out of money.

Advertising budgets are down, prices are dropping, and people everywhere are looking for a way to start a small business. But they`re all doing the same things. They want to sell cheap crap from China, start a forum, use pay-per-click or banner ads, and so on and so forth.

The two businesses you have actually produce something. The one is a clean home, the other is a clean car. There`s a real and tangible value derived from paying you money. The customer clearly gains convenience and saves time and effort.

In this new idea, where`s the similar tangible value? A few years ago, things would have been different. But today? With 10,000-bazillion sites offering other sites a place to put an ad, who cares?

I`m not saying it won`t work. I`m saying that you`re already experienced with direct, one-on-one customer contact. It`s apparently your strong point, so why not stay with that?

I feel you should start of marketing using the telephone and at most the website provided by companies. You will then be able to develop some idea of selling a good or  a service. If you look at it the expanding are are services not goods.
About starting a website, I`d say wait till you are sure you have a winner of an idea.

Quality of life is the most important issue. Your idea can work if you experiment enough. You just got to try it. You could help businesses establish referral relationships with each other. However, I think that you should look at a per per performance model. I don`t believe small businesses will go for an "payment upfront" approach.

Hi Mike,

Another option to consider:

Your car detailing business was successful. You, personally, cannot maintain the physical requirements to sustain the business. How about hiring two individuals to do the physical labor while you market the business? The business can grow and increase profits, you can do what you love (marketing) and you can stay within your core competency (car cleaning).

Just an idea. It sounds like you are looking for a new direction. Good luck with your business ventures - regardless of which path you take.

Mike:

 

From your description, it sounds to me that you want to start something focused on local independently owned businesses. Call it a Declaration of Independents – the value of the locally owned businesses for the community.

 

These companies would benefit from co-op marketing to compete with the bigger budgeted branded corporations. However, simply making them more visible to the local customers probably won’t be enough because word of mouth or third party recommendations are always more defective than what the businesses say about themselves.

 

You would be competing with the local Chamber of Commerce, ValPak and Value-Pak so you need to decide how best to differentiate yourself. Besides creating a booklet and online presence for promoting the independents current promotions, you can create a blog with interviews of the different businesses and feedback from the public – write ups, ratings, etc…

 

You could go door to door like the Welcome Wagon used to for promoting the businesses, gathering info from the residence and building a rapport. If you don’t want to go door to door, set up block parties. Get with local media to see about getting some PR for the events.

 

If you focus on the independents, I think that you can create a USP based around that. Just some quick ideas here. Let me know if you would like to discuss in further details.

 

All the Best,

 

Doug Dolan

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Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur`s Guide
http://thesologuide.com
thesologuide@gmail.com