Category: Start a Home Business

    LLC or Sole Proprietorship

    Businessman working hard at office

    There are many benefits to having an LLC company for your business.
    First off, I’m not a lawyer and you should consult a lawyer in your local area to find out all the pros and cons of having an LLC business.

    It was not even a question for our Structural Engineering firm to start with a LTD (limited company in Canada). The benefits outwayed the challenges to having a LLC.

    The LLC exists as a separate entity from any of the shareholders of the business. So, other than (in Canada) the Taxman who can get what they are owed regardless, the company is liable instead of the shareholders for any claims against it whether it be general comprehensive liability (someone drives the company car and injures another) or errors and omission liability for any errors done in the commission of the work. Of course, as a business (whether sole proprietorship or LLC) you should have general comprehensive liability and errors and omissions liability so this way the claim is against the company and any liability claims are against the company rather than you personally.

    As well in order to have a business bank account for more than one person to have access to as shareholders it is best to have an LLC entity. Of course, you have to make sure you need two signatures of shareholders on cheques so there isn’t any possibility of improprierty by one of the shareholders.
    You will need to “create” the LLC documents with the rules of the company and shareholders etc. but there are plenty of free LLC agreements you can see if they work for your business.

    As a LLC, you can probably also write off many expenses to the company and our accountant can do many things like carrying over liabilities to the next year and he is worth the investment to do the end of year taxes as LLC have many write-offs that a sole proprietor does not have in business.

    For the future, you can sell the business to another person much easier if you retire as the company is separate from your personal assets and liabilities.

    One or more persons can be employees of the company with the tax advantages of being employees to get money out of the LLC company. Of course, you could still be independent consultants and bill the company for your services.

    LLC company has so many advantages that once you get beyond a certain revenue that you personally claim on your personal income tax, everyone who is in business should have a LLC as a consultant for the benefits and write-offs. However, once again, I will say I am not a lawyer so you should consult one in your local area. Our structural engineering firm has been a LTD (LLC) since 1992 and the company has been healthy in its growth and it provides us with salaries take home as employees as well as a hired bookkeeper.

    For more on starting a home business you can check out Members | The Business of At Home Business  for anyone interested in being in business!

    Categories: Legal Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Will The New Business Fail?

    As the phrase goes, “there is no guarantee in life” but there are certain steps you can take to make sure your new business doesn’t fail.

    Step 1. Research research research

    Do your research before you even start your new business as to whether there is a market out there for your business. There are many ways to research whether anyone wants your new business by looking at your ideal customer and the demographics of the audience.

    You can check if there are any competitors in your market which can be a good thing because it means there are people buying but dig deep to make sure they are a viable business or holding it all together with smoke and mirrors. There are many Internet marketers who “make a million” one year and crash the next because they don’t put in the foundations of a good business.

    Now, if there are competitors and they have a sustainable business, what makes your business unique from their business so you can stand out from your competitors. For example, when this auto repair shop fixes a repair, they also wash the car whereas you could be the auto repair shop that fixes repair, washes car, rotates tires and installs new window wiper blades. Who doesn’t love free window wiper blades!

    Whether you want to or not, it is good practice to do a business plan for your new business before you start because once you look at the expenses vs. income, market research, marketing plan and obstacles to your success, you will be able to see before you spend a penny whether your business will fail.

    Step 2. Start your new business part-time

    I’m not a believer in quitting your job without knowing whether your new business is going to be successful so you should do it part-time while you are working at your job. Any business whether it is internet-based, production or offline , you can do it part-time. Steve Jobs worked in his parent’s garage while creating the Mac. So, even a cleaning company you could start part-time and clean in evening offices that are closed. You could go to weekend trade shows or events to display your product to see whether people will buy or they are interested enough to invest. You can join your local Chamber of Commerce and talk about your business to see what feedback might be from other local business entrepreneurs. You could create a Meet-up with the title “Internet Marketing Success” or if you are an artisan, “
    Crafting Business made Easy” and share free information and make connections with others to form collaborations on a part-time basis. With your first sale, celebrate but don’t quit your job until you are getting enough money to replace your monthly expenses. You could be a part-time consultant for other companies and work from contract to contract.

    Step 3. Start your business

    So, you have been working part-time at your business and you’ve made the sales that have been consistent or got the contracts to fulfill that could give you the income per month to start your business. You have done your research and you have been marketing to your ideal customers who have given you repeat business. You have reviewed your business plan and made adjustments needed from doing the work part-time. You have done future projections of income and how you will increase it once you work at it full-time.

    For our structural engineering home office, we worked part-time weekends and evening doing design and putting in hours to finish work to deadline while commuting back and forth to a job. We had three to four regular clients who gave us regular work so when we got laid off from work, we could easily go full-time in our home office.

    You have all your government required licenses and you are set for making your business into a system with foundations to make the business grow. You are ready and there may not be any guarantees but you have done all you can to make your business a success!

    For more on starting a home business, go to The Business of At Home Business Community at http://boahbtips.com/member

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

    Home Business Startup Checklist

    Who is your target market?
     What products or services will you be offering?
     Who is your main competition?
     What is your value proposition?
     How will you deliver your products or services?
     What will you name your business?
    Administration
     Where will you work? Determine where your office space will be.
     Purchase or set up your office equipment and supplies (eg, desk and good chair, computer, printer, phone line, software, basic supplies, etc.)
     Set up a separate business address for correspondence.
     Set up a separate business email address.
     What kind of legal entity will you create? Complete the legal requirements and registration. Identify a lawyer or accountant to help you.
     Obtain an Employee Identification Number (EIN). If you are a sole proprietor, this may be your social security number.
     Register your name and buy the matching domain name.
     Purchase web hosting, if you are going to have a website.
     Order business cards.

    Home Business Start-Up Checklist (continued)
    Finances
     Set up a separate banking account for your business. Obtain a separate business credit card.
     Determine how you will pay and get paid. Set up the systems you will use (eg, Paypal and/or credit cards).
     Set up a system for tracking your finances.
     Prepare an initial budget and financial forecast.
     Set your initial business and financial goals.
    Support
     Identify relevant industry websites and forums. Start networking.
     Identify and join a mastermind group.
     Decide which training you will use, if needed. Get started.
     Find people who can perform the tasks you will not be doing yourself. (e.g., website design and development, accounting).
    Promotion
     Create your marketing plan and calendar.
     Create an action plan with deadlines.

    Take a deep breath and get started!!
    Come and get resources, support and action moving forward in your home business at http://boahb.com/

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Start a Home Business

    What should I know about starting a Home Business?

    You should be aware of the regulations that might affect the business you are interested in running from home.

    I know rules and regulations are boring.

    However, the government whether overall or local has the power to close your business down once you get started.

    Whether your business is in your local community or on the internet or both, there are always rules.

    Other than the government wanting their taxes from your revenue and the government wanting to make sure your business work environment is safe for your employees, your neighbours whether living in the home beside yours or apartment across the way from yours will be the biggest issue which some people don’t consider when starting their business.

    Your neighbours can complain about the new traffic coming to your home office. Your neighbours can complain about lack of parking from your client visitors taking up spaces. Your neighbours can complain about the increase in noise or the increase in smells etc. from your new business. The neighbours go to local authority who can fine you depending on the bylaws or rules in your community. In an apartment complex, all these complaints can apply and you could be evicted if there is rule on no businesses in your apartment bylaws.

    We started back 20 years with our own home-based local engineering business when home-based business bylaws were only just being created but we have always made sure we are a quiet neighbour by making visits to clients residence a priority and clients come on infrequent basis to your home office.

    Believe it or not, even if you have a business always on the internet, if your neighbours notice increased deliveries they can complain to local authority.

    So, always be a quiet neighbourhood business. 🙂

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

    Fast-Track Method to Selling Info Products Online

    If you are looking for a way to earn an income online while working from home, creating and selling info-products is an excellent way to get started.

    What sort of info-products should you create?

    Choosing a niche to create your product in can be one of the most difficult steps. Most information on this subject will tell you to follow your passions, your desires, and your hobbies. Just write about what you love. However, this doesn’t always work.

    Just because you are passionate about a subject, doesn’t mean there will be flocks of buyers, ready to throw money at you to access the information you provide. It has happened many times before. Product creators have been known to put in massive amounts of time and effort creating a resource on something they enjoy, blindly thinking that there will be a huge demand for this, only to be disappointed with meager sales.

    If you want to earn an income with this model, you’ll need to treat this work as a business and not a hobby. There is no point in creating a product if you are not 100% certain that there are buyers out there, looking for what you are offering. Not only that, but there needs to be *enough* buyers to ensure continued sales.

    The best way forward is to find a niche that already has “hungry” buyers. Tap into this market, build a reputation for yourself, and eventually, you’ll create a loyal customer base ready to consume whatever you create for them.

    To find this golden goose, research the most on-demand topics at the moment. The current trends, the most talked about subjects and evergreen categories. Look at Google trends, best sellers on Amazon, social media and current news to find this.

    From this list of ideas, you’ll be sure to find a subject that you’ll find enjoyable to write about.

    Topics to write about

    The fastest way of finding subjects to write about within a certain niche is to find popular guides and books that are already selling well. Study these and note what they are teaching. Certain ideas will pop out and you, and you can focus on these ideas and expand upon them. This does not mean plagiarizing and copying, it means taking concepts from other successful sellers, re-thinking, re-purposing and improving these ideas, then producing it as a solution to buyers problems.

    Keep company with people within your target market. Socialize with the crowd of people you would like to do business with. Listen and take note of the way they talk, the things they complain about, the things they wish for and desire solutions for. By doing this, you can find out how to create a perfect product, providing answers for the problems you heard about.

    Creating the product

    The type of product you produce will entirely depend on how much content you want to provide, the medium you want to provide it on, and your price point.

    It is far beyond the scope of this text to advise on exactly what to do in this area. However, remember that as long as you deliver on your promises, the meat of the product can be delivered on a simple written PDF document. Your buyers are looking for information and answers to their problems. It doesn’t always matter about the way it is delivered. Your product can range from being a half an hour long recorded audio file, to a six-month drip fed membership.

    Getting your first sales

    Your product will, need a sales page. This acts as a platform and branding effort to build anticipation for your product, and drive desire for the visitor to click the buy button. After your sales page is created and tweaked, it’s just a matter of sending potential buyers to your offer.

    Visitors to your sales page and website is known as “traffic.” To create the best chance of making a sale, you need to ensure that this traffic is targeted to your offer. Targeted traffic would be people who are already interested in the type of thing you have to offer.

    The most targeted, easy to convert traffic will be people that have purchased similar items before. An excellent way to find this type of traffic would be to partner with another vendor in the same niche.

    You can offer a percentage of each sale to someone who is willing to promote for you. This is known as affiliate marketing. You can’t depend entirely on this model of promotion, but is an excellent way to get started. Success (no matter how small) is the best form of motivation. Your first few sales will provide this.

    To get somebody to promote for you, you need to focus on building relationships. It is almost guaranteed that there are already dominant players in the niche you have chosen who have built up a good following. Your job would be to connect with these people, and offer an excellent deal for their customer base.

    For this, use this basic rule: always give before you receive, or at least offer before you ask. Think about this number one question: what’s in it for them? What benefit would the vendor get for promoting for you? If you can provide the answer to this, you’ll be successful. Build healthy relationships with several affiliate marketers, and each time you create a new product, you will be able to earn a nice lump sum when they promote for you.

    Once you have become more established, affiliates will happily promote for each new product release, as they know the quality of your material. Other avenues to explore for further sales would include paid traffic, joint ventures, list building and more.

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Pros and Cons of Working from Home

    This article will discuss the pros and cons of becoming self-employed, working from home or running your own business from home. If you still haven’t decided whether this kind of lifestyle is right for you, keep reading.

    Working from home, or becoming self-employed sounds like the ideal life. You can get out of bed when you want, work whatever hours you feel like, and literally sit around all day in your pajamas (if you really want to). However, like anything in life, there are some negatives that come along with the benefits. You have to take the rough with the smooth.

    Not everyone is cut out for working from home. You have to decide whether the positives outweigh the negatives if you want to continue.

    The following list will start with the cons; let’s end this content on a positive note!

    Cons:

    Motivation

    Because you may not have a boss, it can be easy to put work off for another time. Motivating yourself can be difficult because there is little risk there if you do not complete the work.

    When you have a boss or manager, there is a danger of losing your job if you under-perform. An employee would usually complete the task assigned to them with the best of their ability and, as quickly as needed. When you only have yourself to answer to, however, you have as much freedom and choice as you desire.

    When work becomes difficult or tedious, it becomes tough to motivate yourself to get the work done when there are so many distractions around. If you had total freedom, which would you be most likely to choose? Writing that 3000-word article, or staying in bed an extra hour and catching up on the latest season of your favorite Netflix show? The work can be done later, right?

    Family never seem to understand

    It doesn’t appear to make sense to other family members and friends who have held down traditional jobs for most or all of their working lives. For them, seeing somebody who wakes up whatever time of day they want to, seems to be at home while other people are at work, and does whatever hours they want to, doesn’t seem right somehow.

    This can lead to very awkward conversations about what you do for a living. No matter how hard you explain, regular people with normal jobs never seem to understand exactly what you “do.”

    Cabin fever

    Working from home can become lonely. If you’re not the type who enjoys being on their own, this line of work can be difficult. You’ll be at home for long periods, sometimes without socializing or speaking with anyone face to face for hours at a time.

    Distractions

    Your home is a place of comfort, traditionally a place to retire to at the end of a busy workday, somewhere where you enjoy your weekends outside of work.

    Home is set up the way you chose to please you, to comfort you, and contains all of your favorite things and enjoyable activities. When you’re trying to knuckle down and work hard on something, all these pleasures become distractions.

    The TV, your favorite food, the internet at the click of a mouse. All these simple distractions will seem to become an excuse on why you only got half an hours work complete in a full day.

    Success comes later

    If you start your own business or become a freelancer, success does not come immediately. It takes time and momentum to build things up. Like most businesses, you might not even break even until year 2, and then slowly break into making a profit. Do you have the fortitude and persistence needed for this? The first year or two may be entirely about building the foundation of your business, which can sometimes seem like there are no little to no returns for a lot of effort. It takes time to build your reputation and bring in enough regular work and custom to get the amount of income you desire.

    Pros of working from home:

    No more living by the clock

    You no longer have to get up at 6 am to commute to your place of work so you can be there on time, for a job that you hate. Time is yours. Set your own hours to achieve what you need to each week, and work these hours at whatever time of day you want to.

    Traffic

    No more sitting in the rush-hour traffic each day. Imagine the time you will gain back and the freedom you’ll feel by not having to sit in traffic all day, or having to put up with public transport?

    Wear what you want

    No uniform or dress code. You can work at home in your pajamas if you really want to. The only communication you need is by phone or email. Your clients, in general, won’t know or care about what you are wearing as long as you perform your task well for them.

    Flexible schedule

    If you have children, you can take them to and from school; you’ll be there if there’s ever any emergency, you’ll never miss a school play or performance by them ever again. You can work when you want, and you can make up any missed hours at any time.

    Answer to no-one

    The only people you will be accountable to will be your clients.

    Earnings can be limitless

    If you are working for yourself, there is no real cap on your earnings. The rewards come from the amount of hard work and business planning you put out.

    Working from home offers many benefits as well as drawbacks. As long as you come to the conclusion that the benefits are worth the hard effort and sacrifice, everything will be good. Even though there are a lot of cons of working for yourself, and things can be rough in the beginning, working from home can turn out extremely lucrative, and expansion is almost unlimited. The sky is the limit!

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Work From Home Ironing Service

    If you are looking for an ideal work from home opportunity, something that you can run in your spare time from the comfort of your home and set your own hours, then this article is for you.

    Although ironing is only a simple domestic chore, offering it as a service can be very lucrative. It is a task that many people dislike doing, or simply do not have the time. If everyone could afford to delegate this task, they probably would. There aren’t many people out there that really enjoy ironing.

    What is involved in ironing as a service?

    An ironing service is as simple as having a client drop off items of clothing to you, or you picking them up from their address. You would charge a certain price per kilo or pound and charge each customer accordingly for each load. Typically you would leave specially designed garment covers with the client after the first meet up. When you visit to collect the ironing (or they drop it off), you weigh each bag with a special hand-held scale and tell the client the cost of this particular load.

    After this, you are responsible for ironing the clothes and pressing bed sheets and bigger items. Once complete, the items of clothing are then returned to the client, handed to them personally or placed somewhere of their choosing. Payment is received after an invoice is delivered.

    What equipment is needed?

    Beginners to the business usually start by using their own ironing board and iron.
    Professional equipment can be purchased at a later date after becoming more established, and the client list has been built up.

    Professional ironing equipment can speed up the ironing process and will be a lot more reliable and industrial compared to the traditional domestic iron. Professional equipment would include deluxe heated ironing table, commercial steam iron and boiler, and heavy duty garment rails.

    Additional equipment needed may include wire hangers, foam hanger guards, trouser guards, skirt clips, garment covers, and customer labels.

    How to get your first clients

    The best way to get your first clients is to ask people you already know. Even family members. Once word gets out, and people start to talk about you and recommend you, the effect will snowball. Word of mouth will always be the best form of advertising.

    Going further than this, print up some leaflets/fliers and some business cards. Put up ads in local shop windows. Give a few business cards to people whenever the conversation comes up. You only need a few regular clients to get started.

    Another excellent technique is to advertise on search engines. Paying to put your ad right at the top of your the search results will lead to many inquiries.

    This is called PPC or pay per click. You pay a certain amount of money every time someone clicks your ad. This means that whatever keyword phrase you bid on, your ad will be at the top of the search results every time, and you will only pay when someone clicks.

    When people search for ironing service in “your town,” and your business name is right on top of the search results, viewers will usually click the number one search result (your ad) and not consider any of the others.

    You will need a nice looking “landing page,” which is what the visitor will see when they click the ad. The landing page can be a simple one-page website, detailing your business, your service, and your pricing, and enticing the visitor to take action. In this case, the action would be to call you or send a web inquiry or email.

    As you can see, starting an ironing service as a business can be a very lucrative venture, and can provide a full-time income. The busier you get, the more you can expand your business and team, resulting in a higher income.

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    How to Become an “Infopreneur”

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    Information marketing is one of the earliest business models on the Internet. It goes way back to the pioneer days of the internet when it was still in its infancy. The idea was simple; you find hungry buyers markets, create information products that solve problems within that niche and sell it to them.

    This information was originally a simple word document. Payment was sent via bank transfer or check, and the vendor sent the document in the post or email in return. The same idea exists to the present day. Nowadays the information can come in virtually any format: audio, video, memberships, special events, webinars and of course the traditional written form.

    But what is an infopreneur?

    An infopreneur is one who has chosen this model as his or her primary business. Multiple info-products are created and sold on a continuous basis.

    Why do people buy information when you can find it for free on the web?

    Even though you can get pretty much any information you want for free with a quick search on Google or YouTube, do you feel you can get the right kind of value from this?

    For example, if you wanted to learn how to train your cat to use the litter tray, would you rather use YouTube, Google and random forum threads to come to a conclusion? Or would you feel better enrolling on a recommended online course that presented the information to you in a logical, clear step by step way, and offered support?

    The beauty of selling information products for a living is the fact that they can be duplicated so easily, costing next to nothing. Imagine this; you created a guide that was well received and costs $27 for access. After purchase, the customer downloads their info-product from a server, or are given login details to access the membership area.

    What does it cost to duplicate a PDF or a set of videos? Hardly anything. You upload it once, and each time someone makes a purchase they receive login details to download the file or access the membership. Even if you sold 50 of these a day, your outgoings would be close to zero.

    Now, what if you had 10 of these products, and produced new information products fairly frequently. Each of these sold well, and consistently. Even one product, at $10 sold ten times a day is $100 a day. That’s a $36,000 income from very little work.

    How do you come up with an idea or something to sell?

    There are two directions you can take here. The first is to find a market that is already buying. It can be a huge, evergreen niche like weight loss and fitness, or a tiny niche like “how to train your pet parrot.” To coin a phrase by the late great Gary Halbert, “find a starving crowd.” If you ran a hamburger stand, who would your best buyers be? To find the starving crowd for your niche, the best way is to research products that are already selling well, and create a better version of it.

    The second direction you could take is to follow your passion. Create information products about subjects you already know, topics you are passionate about. The motivation will always be there to carry on through the difficult times, as you love what you are creating products about, and your enthusiasm for the subject will shine through.

    There are advantages and disadvantages of both directions. When choosing a “starving market,” if the niche isn’t something you’re familiar with or interested in, it can be difficult to keep striving. You can become bored quickly and burn out.

    The second direction, to follow your passions can be great in one way because you will love creating the products and sharing the passion you have for the subject, but if there is not a buyers market for the niche, all that work may result in low sales.

    Okay, I’ve created a product – now what do I do?

    Creating a product may seem like the biggest task of your business, but it is not always the most important. The number one thing that should take up most of your time in an infopreneur business is selling. You could create one decent product, and spend the rest of your time promoting and selling it and things will really take off.

    On the other hand, you could spend months creating multiple products, but if no one knows about them, sales will be minuscule.

    You need to spend most of your time building a brand, getting the word out there that you have something to offer. Gather a following, give away reports and advice to build up your list of prospects.

    Running an information product marketing business is a great way to make a real income working from home. There have been many internet marketers that have earned millions from creating an info product empire.

    Categories: Start a Home Business

    Work from Home as a Handyman (or Handywoman)

    Property maintenance can be a profitable home based business, and should you choose to delegate or subcontract all of the work out; you could indeed “work from home” just managing jobs and scheduling work.

    If you wanted to do the work yourself, consider this: perhaps you do not think of yourself as a skilled “handy person,” but you would be surprised. Many of the jobs requested by clients are very easy and unskilled. Some people only need help to complete their to-do lists. They do not have the time to do things, and these tasks simply get put to the bottom of the pile. People would rather pay someone to do the jobs and get them out the way then let them just sit there and never get done.

    Can you change a lightbulb? Cut the grass? Assemble flat-pack furniture? Drill a few holes in the wall to put up some shelves, or add a window blind? Do some painting and decorating? These are all the types of jobs that will make up the bulk of inquiries. You don’t need to be an ex-construction worker or have been in a trade for years. These are very simple tasks that can be learned quickly. As for the more complex jobs beyond your expertise, if you wanted to complete this work for your clients, you would just subcontract to a specialist and charge this to the client with your cut on top. The service would still be offered under your company banner.

    A lot of the work will be from people moving into a new property. Moving house is a very stressful experience, and during all this they have to find time for putting up curtain rails, assembling new furniture, repainting rooms, moving things around, putting up pictures and the other finishing touches that make it more homely. A lot of people will ask for these things to be done before moving house, or sometimes they just want somebody else to do it while they’re there because of all the stress of moving in saps all their energy.

    If you wanted to expand your business further, you would need to partner up with someone, take on an employer, or use subcontractors as previously mentioned. This way you could offer more services that you can’t do yourself.

    Below is a basic list of services you could provide:

    General carpentry
    Cleaning
    Kitchen fitting
    Door repair
    Decking
    Appliance repair
    Electrical wiring
    Fence fixing
    Flooring installation
    Door hanging
    Gutter cleaning
    Window cleaning
    Landscaping
    Painting & decorating
    Remodeling
    Roof repair
    Odd jobs
    Plumbing
    Tiling

    Handyman or Handywoman?

    Although traditionally associated with the male gender, being a female handyman can have huge advantages too. Many clients can feel intimidated and untrusting by having a man in their house and would feel a lot more relaxed with a female completing the work.

    Handyman services are in demand like never before. As housing becomes more expensive, owners are more inclined to fix up, remodel and repair their existing dwellings, creating steady work for property maintenance (handyman) companies.

    Categories: Start a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Garden Service Work from Home Business

    If working outside is an activity love to do, then starting a garden service business may be something that you would definitely enjoy.

    Although you aren’t physically working from home, a garden service would be a home based business, meaning you would be your own boss, set your own schedule, and work as many hours a week as you want to.

    What kind of services should you offer?

    This depends on your skill levels and the type of work you are willing to take on. You could provide super basic level services like grass cutting and weeding, and become busy enough with work all year round, or you could offer more skilled work, like fencing, landscaping and garden design. Of course, you don’t have to do everything on your own. It may be a good idea to partner up with someone or use subcontractors that already have the right skill-set.

    How do I get started?

    Once you have the equipment needed, the best way to start is to offer to do jobs for friends, family, and neighbors. Tell them you are new to this business and are happy to offer good rates as you’re trying to build your reputation. Give outstanding value and complete the work to the best standard, and eventually word of mouth will start to spread, leading to more work and inquiries.

    Advertising your service and bringing in more work

    Garden services will always be in demand, so a door to door flyer drop around your local area can bring in some work instantly. Use a distribution company to deliver between 5000 and 30,000 leaflets for a good start. Effective flyer design templates for garden service companies are easy to find online.

    You can also purchase pre-qualified leads from websites like Home Advisor. These sites serve as aggregates for people who need work completing. There are many targeted prospects here that need the services you offer, allowing you to contact them directly. Although this is not the best long-term strategy to secure clients, it will help you in the beginning to get work in straight away.

    Another form of advertising, guaranteed to get you quick results is search engine marketing or PPC. You will need at least a basic website for this, detailing your service and contact information.

    PPC marketing will place your ad at the very top of the search engine results of the search phrase you choose (and bid on). Google is the best place to start because it is the number one search engine that most people use. You can usually obtain a $75 voucher to use on a new account, so it might not cost you a penny to start getting work.

    With PPC, you target the relevant keywords that people will be searching for, and bid on a price to pay per click for your ads to be placed right at the top, or next to the search results. Local keyword search phrases will be best at first. For example “grass cutting Oswego,” or “landscaping in Ayers Village.”

    People who are searching for the services you offer will, nine times out of 10 click on the top search result – this is why Google AdWords is so powerful.

    Depending on your budget, your ad can be left on display in Google all the time if you needed to, just set a budget that you don’t want to exceed like $10 a day for example.

    Other than leaflet drops, PPC marketing, and word-of-mouth, most other advertising mediums will turn out too costly to pursue, especially for the return that you will receive. Most garden service companies stay extremely busy from word-of-mouth alone.

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