3 Service-Based Businesses to Start Today

If you’re feeling the desire to start your own business, you’re part of a wave of entrepreneurship that’s gripping the nation. A February 2024 article from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealed that 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023. That’s a record-breaking number – half a million more than were filed in 2022.

More and more people are exploring how owning a business can deliver on their financial goals and flexibility needs, and businesses in the service industry are certainly atop the list for consideration.

What are Service-Based Businesses?

Service-based businesses are businesses where you sell a service to someone who cannot perform that service themselves. They may be unable to do so because of qualifications or certifications required (i.e. accountant), or they may be unwilling to trade off something else in their life (i.e. time) to perform the service. Whatever the reason, there are plenty of examples of successful service business ideas for the aspiring entrepreneur.

The types of service-based businesses generally fall into three categories: business services, personal services, and home services.

Exploring Business Services

If you’re looking to work in the B2B industry, the business service sector may be enticing. Examples of business services include financial advisors, lawyers, accountants, business management consultants, human resources advisors, tax accountants, and other roles that provide a service to small and large businesses.

It is not uncommon for many of the opportunities in this space to require certain designations and education, such as lawyers, accountants, and financial advisors. You may have this designation from working in corporate America, and if so, your business opportunity may be more in line with replacing your job – working for yourself as opposed to working for someone else.

For other areas of this category, you could take the appropriate training to learn how to be a professional advisor in human resources management or corporate expenses. This is where a franchise could present the best opportunity – you receive the training you need in a timely fashion with support to guide you through providing advisory services.

Exploring Personal Services

Businesses that fall into the category of personal services focus entirely on individuals. It might include owning a beauty salon, providing fitness training, tutoring children, offering wellness consulting, the provision of home healthcare services, and other person-focused services.

This can be a profitable industry with the right business. As an example, the U.S. Census Bureau anticipates that by 2030, there will be 73 million people over the age of 65, and a survey by AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) found that 90% of seniors prefer to age at home. This suggests that a service-based business in homecare may do quite well into the future.

While many personal services businesses do not require formal training or could be easily learned through a franchise system, they will require you to work directly with people on an almost constant basis. You truly need to enjoy being around and serving people in very personal situations, so be sure you can do that day in and day out for five or 10 years.

Exploring Home Services

Other service business ideas that provide a balance of customer-facing work fall in the sector of home service businesses. These types of services can be divided into outdoor and indoor services. While most often thought of as serving homeowners, they can also serve the commercial industry as well. Still, in the U.S., 65.7% of Americans own a home, so if you only focused on homes, you would have a strong market.

Outdoor home services include window cleaning, yard maintenance, tree trimming, landscaping, outdoor home improvement, and trades work. Indoor home services include cleaning, remodeling, and trade work. If you’re in the trades (i.e. plumber, electrician) you’ll likely need some licenses or certifications. This sector of service-based businesses offers a variety of both kinds of opportunities.

A Strong Market

The home services industry has some strong statistics behind it. Consider these findings from Angi’s The Economy of Everything Home:

• The total addressable market for home services is $657.4 billion
• The total home service market serving single-family houses is $500.2 billion
• The average age of the housing stock is 47 years
• Home improvement spending is the largest part of the home services market

At PremierGarage, we focus on a specific area of the home services market that is both highly used and often in need of organizational help. A study by the National Association of Professional Organizers found that 50% of homeowners said their garage was the most disorganized space in their home.

PremierGarage: A Service-Based Business Franchise

Since partnering with Home Franchise Concepts in 2022, PremierGarage has honed our focus on garage organization, remodeling, and optimized flooring solutions. We provide solutions for homeowners to capitalize on their garage space whether they want to be able to park their car in the garage, or whether they want to transform their garage into an additional, usable room in their home.

Garages are common in the homeownership space, and that is continuing with new construction. Atlanta Real Estate reports that in 2022, 98% of new construction homes featured at least a one-car garage. You can see why garages are our entire business.

Evaluating the Best Business Opportunity

When we meet with prospective franchise owners, they have usually looked at a few service-based businesses and have learned a little bit more about what they’re looking for in a franchise opportunity. Some of the things you may also wish to consider include:

• Seasonality: is the service business seasonal or does it come with a high likelihood of peaks and valleys?
• Barriers to entry: can the business be started easily with appropriate training, or is it a more entrenched process to launch the business?
• Scalability: can the business be expanded easily or is there a ceiling on what can be earned?
• Flexibility: can this business meet me where I am and accommodate the lifestyle I am looking for as an entrepreneur?

PremierGarage is a year-round home improvement business with easy start-up and scalability. You can book appointments around the schedule you want to keep, and you can work hands-on in the business or choose a management role. There is plenty of flexibility to build this business, in a great industry, exactly the way you want it.

Inquire Today with PremierGarage

It’s important to choose a business that will make you excited to go to work every day, and we definitely provide that at PremierGarage. Our business is creating solutions for people to enjoy their homes while increasing equity more fully for when it’s time to sell.

Inquire with us today about our franchise model and how we can support your business goals.