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There are many types of businesses – and one business type that almost everybody with an expertise can start is a service business. What is a service business and how do you start one? Nate Woodbury will be discussing this with us in today’s episode. Check it out!
You’ve got a service. You want to start a business. So, we’re going to talk in this video 6 steps to take to start a services business. -Alright. Let’s dive right in. You said there were 6 ways to start a service business. A services business. a business built around services as opposed to products. -We can talk technical stuff about how you go on the website and register your LLC. We’re going to talk more practical. 6 practical things. Okay. The first thing, offer your service for free. -Okay. -But this is just in the beginning. Just for a couple clients. -Okay. -Why is there value in that? -Why would there be value? Well, for starters, if you’re just getting started, you have to have a past, a history. You have to have a baseline. A track record, yeah. You’ve got to have people who accept your services and hopefully have a great experience from them… -Let’s say the service is you fix washing machines. You want to offer a washing machine repair business. Hopefully you’ve repaired some washing machines before. -Yeah. How nice is that? -Fix a couple washing machines for people. Do a good job. Okay? Or you know, obviously, we do video editing. That could be… You could create a portfolio after you if you want to create a photography business. If you want to do a lawn care service. -Well and you’re also starting the referral process and you have to start somewhere. So if you can get 2 or 3 customers that will allow you to do work work for them for free. Which almost everyone will. You’ll have some nice referrals from that and word-of-mouth and you go from there. That’s how you launch. -So you do public speaking. -Mm-hmm. -Was the first speech you gave paid? -Absolutely not. No, the first several. And I consult other up-and-coming speakers as well. And I’ll always tell them where to go. some good places, some good sources for them to start doing freebies. Where they can videotape them and start getting a compilation of imagery as well. Proof as they call it. Evidence that you actually can speak to an audience, yeah. But free is the best. -So that’s that’s number 1 of the six. So number 2. -Boy. -Number 2 is to create a portfolio. Now, a portfolio might not be the word that applies in your situation. It could be testimonials. You know, create a list of testimonials or some type of way that you can show the results, show your history, show your experience to your clients. So really just create that portfolio. I think that’s good. Let’s move on to number 3. Number three is to market that portfolio or market those testimonials to your target audience. How do you do that? -Well, I would suggest that you use YouTube. -Now, this… We talk a lot of different ways you can market. We talk to YouTube a lot. We obviously talk to LinkedIn a lot as well. But in… For the sake of this video, we’re just going to say you’ve got your portfolio, you’ve got your testimonials, the next step is then to market it. Really, you got to find your target audience and you want them to see your testimonials or your portfolio. Okay, so we’re talking about starting a services business. If you really want to run a business and not just be self-employed, you’ve got to create systems. You’ve really got to systematize things. So I have a video editing service that I offer. But I don’t do video editing. And how is that? Well, I created a system. A step-by-step process that I then hired people that they now run that that system. So, that’s my recommendation for step number 4 is create systems to run your business. To actually do those services or provide those services. Step number 5 is closely tied in with it. It’s hire people to run that system. I’m going to recommend the e-myth revisited. I talked about that book a lot. Listen to it or read it. The e-myth revisited. It talks about the systems. It talks about creating experience. But then hiring people to run those systems. So step number 6. It’s actually related as well. Hire people in the Philippines if it’s computer-based. I talked about the Philippines a lot. I was just there. I met my team for the first time after 9 years of having people there. -Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean he’s had this team of employees of people that he’s hired that he uses for this work for 9 years and he just now met them face to face. It’s incredible what all of this technology allows you to do as an entrepreneur. -So, as you create these systems. If part of your services are part of your systems involve work on the computer or work that’s done online, then I definitely recommend hiring people specifically in the Philippines. If you want to know more specifically why do I pick the Philippines versus any other country, there’s a video you’ll find right there. Where I go into all the reasons why I hire people in the Philippines. But that really is. I’m not joking. That is step number 6. If you want to create a services-based business. Go through the first 5 steps first and then hire people in the Philippines. -Now, let me ask you this. You say you’ve been hiring people there for the last 9 years or you’ve had a team composed of probably a revolving door of people. But do you have any that have been with you the whole time? -One person that I just met for the first time. He’s been with me 8 and a half years. -It’s amazing. Just met for the first… -And if you want to know how I find them, you’ll find a link below virtualassistanttool.com. That’s just the database where I find people in the Philippines that want to work for… And clearly, it works because the finished product you see before you, the fact that he still had one of the same people for 8 and a half years. And he only has had to visit them once in all of that time is testament. -Now that I found, I’m going to go back. It was a great, great time. -I’m sure you would, yeah. I mean, that’s pretty neat. It speaks to the effectiveness of the whole model. -So, this was a short video. But I hope it was helpful. I really hope that you internalized and applied these 6 steps because that’s… That’s what I did to start my business. And I’ve pieced these together. It took me a lot longer to get there to figure out these 6 steps. And if I would have just known these 5 steps. Offer service for free, create a portfolio, market, systematized, outsource, right? Hire people to run the system. Use the people in the Philippines. -And then give away those 6 steps to however many people want to take them off of YouTube or LinkedIn. -So, if you like this video, be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you tomorrow.