How to Start a Service Business

Let’s go Hey, I’m Emma your GoDaddy Guide and today, I’m super excited to be joined with my co-host, Justin Nealey, Hey Justin! What’s up What up? How are you, What are we going to talk about today, Starting a service business, Exactly We’re talking about starting Your service business, I’m already dying to Know where do you begin?’Cause there’s a lot of things.

That I’m sure you have to do, but what’s first and foremost, Right and you have to take That first step of really figuring out what you want: You want your business to be Right, You can’t just go. I want to Be a service-based business! Well, what do you want to do If you want it to be something that you’re actually passionate about, because you’re going to Get a lot of the things that you don’t want to do like the admin or just the run-around.

And if it’s not something You’re really passionate about it’s not going to last. I love the passion component To me if you’re doing something that you’re passionate about you’re, going to give it your all your 110 % Right, absolutely You’re going to do the best work Right. It’s your! Why It’s? Why you do what you do Yeah? So what do you need? Where do you start So probably step one just to make sure that you’re productive is to buy a computer If you don’t have one, If you read this on a computer, then just disregard this Move on to step two, but That’s going to be step one.

What about a smartphone, though I feel like I do everything On my smartphone, You can do a lot absolutely, but it’s all about being productive. You can flip to different tabs. Go to different screens. Do a bunch of stuff that You potentially couldn’t do or if you have to go and type everything out on a smartphone. It’s going to take you a lot. Longer than on a computer, It’s good to have both, though That’s a good point.

Okay, so you have a computer got it Then. What’s next, I’m thinking social media, but that’s just’cause. I’m Obsessed with it domain, where do you go from there? So probably the next Step is to figure out what your name is and buy a domain name and get your social media handles. We’ve got a couple of articles. That we talked about really diving into Instagram Twitter and Facebook in the links or descriptions below As soon as you have that Domain then you need a website.

Social media is great, but you can’t always control social media. Do you remember Vine (, laughs, ), Yeah Yeah? It was a super popular platform Right. What happened to Vine Everyone invested all their time and it’s gone So all those followers went with it And with your website, it’s there to help. You generate Leads and you control it and it’s there for as long as you want it, And then you piggyback into social Another thing, I’m so just wrapped up! In the digital world, — Absolutely, But I was at a trade, show recently walking the floor.

Networking and I forgot my business cards And it’s easy to do’cause. I do so much in the digital world Right, But I got by, but I just am curious as a small business owner and the local heroes listening in are business cards still An important thing, Absolutely it’s absolutely relevant. In fact, I got a business card today and it blew my mind. The quality of it Right. Look at that Super cool There’s even a texture with the font It’s something tactile and if you’re on the go, sometimes you may not Remember the domain name or the handle, or things like that, but that business card is just something to really make yourself stand out, Especially if you got a cool one like that.

That’s different It’s a cool one. It helps you out. Did you want it back? I mean I might ( laughter ), We’ll get it later. I didn’t even notice you Put it in your pocket Yeah thanks Some place, you can get business cards. There’s places like Moo.Com, that’s pretty cool, There’s Vista Print They’ve been around forever, We talk about Canva a lot. You can create your own Business card on there They can print it off for you.

What do you use? I use Canva’cause I like to really design every part of it and there’s a couple of templates, but to each their own. Now, when it comes to Getting your actual work done, I imagine you need to have what An office space work space Space in your home, It’s going to vary right. Is that important? It’s somewhat important! It depends on what type Of service you provide, If you don’t ever really Talk to someone face-to-face, you don’t need an office, but if you want to be able To have meetings with people things like that, you don’t have to invest.

In an office space, There are a ton of just co-working spaces popping up all over the country. Some are free, some are Freemiums some are paid, It just depends on what the budget is, but with those co-working spaces. What I love about it is it’s Not only a place to work, but it’s a place to –, Free coffee, There’s, free coffee, too (, laughter, ), There’s coffee and Kick Flips, but it’s a great place to network And you get all these Like-Minded people around you that you can just piggyback ideas off of or find just complimentary businesses That maybe I’m a web designer right And you’re working there and You’re, a graphic designer You start sending me web design leads, I start sending you graphic design leads and your service just builds.

And builds and builds Or work at home Have a little office space. Something that’s just yours, free of distractions. I know I’m like a squirrel. I just get distracted all day, Just I’m working and Then Netflix will pop on and my dog runs by and I get distracted so what I like to do, Is go to a coffee shop and drink coffee, (, laughs, )! I love the working at home, It’s not for everybody, but — Not for everyone.

It is if you like to work in your PJs. That’s how I do my webinars ( laughter, ), Okay! So one more question: for you All right: How do you stay productive doing this? Oh, that’s! Tough! It really depends on the type of service business you provide. There’s not one answer fits all, but I’ll go over. Some of the Things that helps most people First off. You need some Type of productivity suite Most popular out there are Google Suite with all their Google Docs Sheets all that good stuff and then Microsoft Office.

I would almost caution people to have basically get a second number And what I mean by that is not going and getting another phone Right. There’s lots of digital services, where you can basically have Another number on your phone so that way people aren’t Calling you on your mobile line and you’re like is this personal. Is this business And then it gets confusing Separate the two Absolutely and then you Don’t answer like a weirdo like hey, this is Nealey’s Web Design and it’s your mom right.

You want to make it professional, so you have that difference. She’ll be happy to hear That you’re always working and working hard, (, laughs, ), She’s, so proud, (, laughter, ) And just separate your personal Life from your business’cause, otherwise it’s going to Start getting overwhelming, I say the same for social media. If you have a business, go And get a business page, Don’t use your personal page, Yeah Absolutely All right and then let’s Talk about getting paid, You’re a service business right, Oh right, yeah, You want to get paid You’re not doing this — That’s an important part of all this This is not just a hobby, Not just a hobby.

We all got bills, Yeah passion that pays Yes, lots of tools out there If you’re going in person, probably Square or something like that, so you got that little dongle and you can swipe that credit card. Venmo’s, probably my favorite just to read the comments. Personally, that people talk about, but quick and easy way to get paid, otherwise, there’s PayPal and Stripe for your website and things like that Sounds like a lot of options.

We got options All right, that’s a wrap. I want to thank my co-host. Justin for being here, It’s been awesome, You’re the expert, and we learned a lot about how to start your service business. But I’m sure you have questions so go ahead and drop them below and be sure to subscribe to our blog for more articles. Like this See ya, Bye