How to Start a Service-Based Business or Side-Hustle Part II

Step 3: Determining A Plan of Action to Start Providing Your Service

How am I going to find people to buy my service?

This step is about distributing your service — in other words, finding people who you know you can genuinely solve their problems.

In the beginning stages of your business, there is no hack or special secret to finding potential buyers of your service. It’s done through good old fashion grit, leg-work, and by simply talking to people.

If I were to ask you who your first ideal client is, you might be inclined to answer with a very detailed description of this person. However, at this stage, your ideal client is anyone you know who you can solve their problem. Therefore, your mission is to get your name out there as much as possible so you can increase the probability of finding clients you can serve.

Here are some ways to start doing that:

1. Start telling everyone you know.
   • Set a goal to tell 100 people about your new business venture. Start by telling friends, family, acquaintances, and people on social media. Every day make it a habit to tell 3 people until you get to 100.
   • Send out a simple text message, email, or direct message on social media simply informing people what you are doing.
   • Ask them to tell their friends. Besides telling everyone you know about your new business ask them if they know anyone who needs your service. Ask these people to tell their friends and family about it.

2. Start creating simple digital assets and marketing materials.

   • Create a simple website.
     Simplicity is key here — a complex, extravagant website is not necessary and a waste of time and money when you are just starting. All you need is some type of digital home base whether that’s a Facebook business page or a simple one-page website.
     
     If you need help building a simple website, you can sign up for a FREE one-on-one session with me in which I will guide you on how to build and get your site up and running quickly.

     You can also try Go Daddy’s Website Builder which you can get a basic website published for FREE and have the option to add on additional features as needed.

   • Create simple business cards.
     They don’t need to be fancy or polished. All you need is something that you can pass onto people at any time. There will be times when potential clients will pop up when you least expect it: social outings, family gatherings, having dinner a restaurant randomly running into someone in passing, etc. Being armed with your business card and ready to pass it along to someone during these moments is a great way to make connections and network. 

3. Think local first.
   When you are first starting your business, tapping into your local community is a great way to find clients. A good goal to set for yourself is to become the go-to resource in your local area for the particular service you offer. Of course, this will take time but you can start making yourself known locally by:

   • Getting involved in your local community by attending networking events. Every city or town has groups that provide networking and support to local businesses. The type of people and the businesses these people are involved in varies greatly in these groups. It’s typically an eclectic mix of professionals and it’s exactly what you want at this stage. You’re just looking to get more people to know about you and what you do at this point. A few places to check out:

     • Your local Chamber of Commerce

     • Meetup.com

     • Eventbrite 

     • Google the following:

       • [your city or town] + “events”

       • [your city or town] + “business”

       • [your city or town] + “networking”

   • Join Facebook Groups geared towards your town or city
     Your purpose here is to listen and observe what people are talking about and not to post about your services. When a conversation comes up that you have something of value to contribute, offer insight, advice, and start answering people’s questions. The goal is to consistently show up, exhibit empathy, and connect with your fellow community member. Try to schedule this activity in your calendar for an hour a day. If you don’t have an hour every day, maybe aim for 30 minutes a day 4 days a week. Doing this consistently will allow you to instantly provide value to others and build your reputation as someone who helps. You can also employ this same strategy with other Facebook groups that are specific to your niche or business.
4. Adopt a ‘Beat the Streets’ Mentality. 
   As I mentioned earlier, when you are just starting out finding buyers for your service is about being gritty and doing leg work. For many services, people tend to want to buy from local providers and they often will associate buying from a local provider with affordable pricing. Here are some tactics which I like to refer as ‘beat the streets’ tactics:
   • Distribute simple printed fliers about your service throughout your community. 
     Yes, you read that correctly. Create and print a simple one-page flyer that details your service at a high level — again nothing fancy. Either print these yourself on your home printer or take them to a place to get photo-copied. Find a high-traffic area within your local community and either post the fliers on telephone poles or distribute them to local mom and pop shops or if possible to local residences. Can you think of anything grittier than going door to door and delivering fliers?
   • Find local businesses and organizations that will let you leave your business card at their brick-and-mortar shop.
     Some businesses like a local coffee shop will have a designated spot within their store where they let people leave their business cards. Even if they don’t, it can’t hurt to ask.
   • Create lawn signs that advertise your business.
     If you want to take the ‘beat the streets’ mentality to another level and have the budget, create 50 or so yard signs and strategically post them throughout high traffic areas in your community. I see tons of signs like this throughout my neighborhood and I have contacted a few for services I’ve needed. Remember you want to appear genuine and professional when creating theses. 
5. Cold Pitching via Email
   Many people frown on this tactic but when done tastefully and with kindness, sending out cold emails or (direct messages on social media) can be of value. Here are some tips for cold pitching:
   • Personalize the email. Every person you cold pitch should get their own email that contains a very personalized message particular to them and only them. Do not send generic, copied emails with a canned message to people. Most people can see right through that and you will only end up irking them. When I get generic cold pitches either on social or through the email, the message immediately goes to the trash.
   • Instead, research the person/business you are emailing. Learn about them and their business and mention real solutions you can offer to help them. 
   • If someone is not responding to your emails don’t keep following up. One follow up is sufficient but in most cases, if you never hear back from the person, they weren’t interested so let it go.
6. Leverage your first competitive advantage of price
   In the beginning, your first competitive advantage is being cheaper than your competition. The reality is many potential customers will solely decide whether to buy your service based on your price. Price plays a big factor in the service business world. Just think back to a time when you had a much-needed home repair or required some other service — price likely played a big factor. I can recall many times when I hired someone because they were cheaper than other providers. Most people’s main objection for paying for a service is that it costs too much. Dropping your prices lower than your more experienced competitors can give you an advantage. I’ve done this when I first started building websites for people and more often than not it was the reason why I was hired over my competition. This doesn’t mean to set your prices to a level that you are uncomfortable with. But it does mean to be self-aware that right now you are just in the beginning stages and by having low prices will make you more attractive to some clients. You might be doing jobs for less money now but it’s allowing you to get your foot in the door by landing clients so you can build your reputation which eventually (and hopefully) will become your most important competitive advantage.
7. Have conversations
   Talking to people about your business is by far the easiest way to spread the word about it. This takes the first point about telling everyone you know about your business to the next level by igniting conversations with people who you feel you can help with your service. While simple in theory this a challenge for many people because they are worried about coming off too “salesy” or fear rejection. Don’t overthink this. Simply having conversations with people about how you can solve their problems can turn into leads. You’d be surprised how the most seemingly innocent conversation you have with someone can eventually lead to something somewhere down the line. Here are some tips:
   • Pay attention and stay engaged in conversations from both an emotional standpoint as well as from a literal standpoint. Listen to both the actual message and emotions the other person is communicating to you. Be empathetic to their feelings, circumstance, problem, or whatever it is they are conveying. Empathy is the highest form of intelligence [link].
   • Keep track of the conversations you have with people. Take the time to reflect and write down some notes on what you exactly talked about afterward. You eventually might find yourself coming up with an idea for how you can solve this person’s problem.