Simplest way to start a service business

Introduction

Dr Marcela: One of the biggest mistakes that new entrepreneurs make is that they make the whole process of starting a business really complicated when it doesn't need to be. They think that they need a brand new website, that they need a complicated bunch of systems. They need a perfect logo, a perfect business name, and all of this. Causes analysis, paralysis, overwhelm, and it causes them to never get started in the first place. I am here to tell you that you do not need any of that, and I'm going to teach you how you can start your business from scratch without overcomplicating it so that you can take action and gain momentum.

Hi, I am Dr. Marcela I am a business strategist and coach for service businesses. And on this channel I share practical strategies, tools, and insights to help you grow and scale your service business without burning out. So let's get started.

Why Service Based Businesses Are the Easiest to Start

The good news is that service-based businesses are some of the easiest businesses to get started if you know what you're doing, and especially in this day and age with the technology that we have available to us, I focus specifically on helping service-based businesses, so businesses where we provide a service in exchange for money.

Step 1: Choose One Specific Problem to Solve

Okay, so how do we get started with the service business? It's likely that you have realised that you have some value, expertise, knowledge, and experience that you can now start using to be able to sell in exchange for money. This is the start of most service-based businesses.

Step one is to choose one specific problem that you can solve. So if you think about the expertise, the knowledge, and the experience that you are thinking of turning into a business, you need to really get very specific on what it is that you are helping your ideal client to solve with your expertise.

Depending on your area of expertise, there are many different problems that you could potentially focus on in order to help your potential clients. You could help your clients to transform their financial situation. You could help your clients to rebuild their health. You could help your clients. Transform themselves after a bereavement or a life [00:02:00] changing situation. There are so many examples, and it obviously applies to your own business, but the main point is that you need to focus on a very specific problem that causes your ideal client's pain, frustration, and that they're looking for a solution that is where you can start your service-based business.

With this in mind, you do not need a complicated offer. All you need is to have clarity on what is that one specific problem that your ideal customers are willing to pay to have solved.

Step 2: Build a Simple Service Offer

Step two is to build a very simple service. This doesn't need to be complicated at all. We usually start service-based businesses by exchanging time for money. And yes, I definitely teach how to scale this later on, but to get started, we need to understand how we can provide value to our customers. And the easiest and most effective way is to start learning how to do this one-to-one.

The easiest way to start providing your service is to create a structured way in which you deliver that value. So usually this looks like [00:03:00] creating a structured session, so either a coaching session or a consulting sort of session where you deliver the value to your client that they're willing to pay.

At this point, I think it's useful for you to think about whether you want to deliver done-for-you services or you want to coach and mentor people to do things themselves.

Done-for-you. Services are where you have a specific expertise and you sell that expertise. So for example, if you know how to build a website and you build a website for your clients, that is a done-for-you service. That is very valid. So it completely depends on your expertise and how you want to approach your clients.

On the other hand, you can take more of a coaching approach, for example, whereby you are teaching people how to do certain things that they want to learn themselves. For example, how to transform their health in their mid forties after a divorce. That could be a really specific niche where you are taking someone through a transformation programme. They have to do the work, but you explain to them how and you coach them through. So there's two kind of different models here, and it's up to you which one you would like to experiment with first.

Step 3: Define Your Ideal Client

Now the next question is how do we get started in terms of finding these ideal customers? We need to know who it is that we're targeting, and that will be covered in different videos here on this channel. But for now, let's say that you have clarity on who your ideal customer. What you need to start doing is to start reaching out to people where you could have conversations to explore the kinds of ways that you can potentially solve problems for them.

The most efficient way is to reach out to your immediate network. Reach out to your professional network, reach out to former colleagues, reach out to even friends and family. Let them know that you're offering this service and ask them to spread the word so that you can start getting known for this particular service that you're now offering.

One really useful thing you can do at this stage is to have a think about who you would love to help, because with your experience, your expertise, your knowledge and so on, you can probably help a lot of different people. But this is where entrepreneurship gets really interesting. Because you are allowed to choose exactly who it is that you want to help.

So let's say that you are a fitness professional. You could help any number of people with your knowledge, right? But you can choose who you want to specifically help. And the more specific you can be, the more likely you are to be able to take off and for your business to become profitable and sustainable.

So let's say that you are really interested in women's health and you want to help women specifically to rebuild their health after they give birth. That is way more specific than saying. I'm a health coach and I help everyone. So at this stage, it's really important to start thinking about who your ideal customer could be and to start targeting that kind of person from early on so that you can start building that specific niche, which is going to help you to stand out in the market.

Step 4: Start Building Through Conversations

You are probably asking yourself at this stage, I don't have any followers. I don't have an audience. How am I going to be able to build my business? Well, service businesses are actually built through conversations and relationships in the early stages. Yes, of course you can do content marketing and you can build your online brand, but that is going to take time to compound.

So for your first clients, and to get yourself established, you need to work on building relationships, and reaching out to people where you can have that kind of high touch connection to be able to start building that momentum in your business.

You can start attending relevant events, whether online or in person. I would recommend in person if you can initially to start building the relationship side of things, and this is what's going to build the foundations for your service business.

A lot of inspiring entrepreneurs don't even get to this stage ever because they get stuck thinking, I need a website, I need a logo, I need a brand. I need to trademark. I need to have a business plan. You don't need any of that. You need to have your expertise, which you already have. You need to have one specific problem that you want to help people solve, and you need to have an idea.

You don't need to have this perfect to begin with, but you need to have an idea of who are the people you want to help with these three ingredients. You can go out there and have conversations, and then you can start. Getting some pro bono work done so that you can start gaining experience of how that value exchange works and eventually you can start getting paying clients.

It's as simple as that. You do not need a website or any kind of logo or brand name or anything like that to begin with. I have been a coach since 2021, and I still don't have a formal business plan for this business. I haven't needed it. It's not important, not for this type of business that we're building here. Okay? So you can relax. All you need to do is go out there, have conversations, build relationships, let people know what it is that you're doing, and start getting some pro bono clients.

In other words. Clients where you are gathering testimonials but you're not yet charging. Just so that you can get the ball rolling, and you can start gathering that momentum, and when you're ready, you can start looking for your first paid clients and build from there.

Summary: The 3 Things You Actually Need

So to summarise, in order to start your service-based business, you need just three things.

1. You need to know that with your expertise, knowledge, and experience, you are able to solve one specific problem for one specific group of people.

2. You need a way to be able to deliver that value. Usually you can just do it through a call, through a Zoom session, through a structured conversation where you help deliver the value and you do a time for money exchange. And

3. You just need to start speaking to your immediate network, your extended contacts, and get the word out there so you can start building momentum and get known for the thing that you are solving.

That is all you need to get started. Remember, you just need yourself with your expertise, a really clear idea of what problem you want to solve, and you need to start testing this out with the people that you would love to help.

Final Bonus Tip: Don't Overthink Your Business Name

One final bonus tip is if you are getting stuck in terms of what to call your business, please stop right now and listen to me. Call your business your name. You need to build your personal brand. That is absolutely crucial in this day and age. So please do not try and come up with some fancy name. If you want to have a business brand later on, that's absolutely fine, but you need to focus your efforts in terms of building your personal brand.

And the best and only way to do that really is to use your name. Okay? So don't get stuck. Trying to think of some. Fancy business name. Use your name, that's all you need. Have conversations and go out there and get practising . I'm really excited for you and I know that your service business is going to go really well as long as you keep it really simple, really focused and trust the process.