Top Niche Ideas

The lawn care business is all about customer service.  Your workers no doubt have the perception that all you do is cut grass.  But in reality you are creating an environment for a home or business.  You don’t “work for” that lawn or green space that you work on.  You work for a customer and the satisfaction of that customer is what will determine if you will be working on that lawn one time or if you have landed a long term customer who will use you for a wide variety of projects.

The lawn care business thrives on customer service.  And as the owner of that lawn care business, it is you who has direct contact with the customer.  In a way, you have to have two skills.  You must be a master of yard care to guide your workers to do a professional job on each yard.  But you also must be a master of customer relations and even psychology to understand the customer and to find out what you can do to make that customer happy.

Part of great customer service means giving your customers ample opportunity to stay in touch with you.  That means if they need to call you to reschedule their yard care appointment, to ask a question or even to complain, they don’t get put through a phone answering system that sends them to a recording.  Give them your cell phone number and no matter where you are, answer that phone. You might even have a cell phone you carry at all times that is only for customers to use to get in touch with you.   This might change when you have thousands of customers.  But most lawn care services are very local and you know your customers well.  Let them get to you so you can answer their concerns instantaneously.

Instruct your workers to also have a customer service mentality.  If they are working at a site and the customer comes out to talk to them, they should stop working and talk to that customer.  If a sweet grandma wants to bring them lemonade, drink it!  When you go onto a persons property every week, you become a trusted part of the home. So behave like you are part of the family and that bond with the customer will serve you well.

Also be on the alert for anything you can do for the customer that is above and beyond the call of duty.  Never miss a chance to do something for free for customers that you are building a long term relationship with.  It may be no more than cleaning up a mess around the trash cans or nailing a few boards up on their back fence to keep the dog in.  Those little acts of generosity will endear you the customer and build that sense of trust that results in long term customers who recommend you to friends and neighbors alike.

In every way behave like a guest when you are on the property of a customer.  Don’t smoke or allow your workers to smoke in presence of a customer and above all, don’t throw the butts on the ground.  Dress like professionals and have in a civilized manner even when working on the lawn of your customers.  Don’t embarrass your customer to his or her neighbors. Every minute you are working at a customer site, people are watching from the other homes in the neighborhood and they can see the sign on your trucks identifying your lawn care service.  Be aware of those eyes and use the time you are working to present a professional image to onlookers.  Those hidden watchers may be evaluating you to use for their lawn care service too.

Maintain scrupulous behavior standards for your workers when at a customer site.  You should clean up after yourself and leave the site looking immaculate when you are finished.  When the job is done, go to the door and thank the customer for the chance to work for them.  As you depart with a cheerful, “see you next week”, you build relationship and expectation that you will be back when needed to knock the customer’s socks off with outstanding customer service once again.

If you’ve always had a skill for planning birthday parties and other events, you might want to think about starting an event planning business from home.

This is an ideal choice for moms who can do much of the planning from home and even have business meetings in their house. You do need to attend the party of event, of course.

What do you need to know?

If you want to start an event planning business, you should have either experience or training in event planning, or a combination of both. You can actually get a degree in event planning or management. There are many 2-year and 4-year schools that offer such degrees.

If you have done event planning in any capacity in a professional manner, you can us that experience to help you establish yourself in your own business. Think about the skills you might have acquired from other jobs. Have you had to arrange travel or luncheons?

In addition to any specific jobs you might have done before and your desire or ability to get a degree in event planning, you also should know some basics of how to plan an event, how to organize people and how to acquire the necessary items for a party.

Although having planned your own wedding and your children’s birthday parties might provide some experience in event planning, you can’t rely on this alone. Try to acquire more experience through a professional job or specific training.

What skills should you have?

Aside from specific experience, you should have some basic skills. Most important of these is organization. You should know that you are very organized and can plan an event from beginning to end without too many bumps in the road.

You should also be a self-starter and independent worker. Some customer service skills are also necessary, since you will be working with clients who might or might not know exactly what they want. They might also be stressed while planning and during the event and your ability to stay calm and professional is essential.

How to start your event planning business

Knowing people is the most important component to getting your business going. You need to connect with people who can give you business, or connect you with those who can give you business. You should take advantage of the connections you do have and let them know that you have an event planning business.

For many moms, event planning businesses start as birthday party planning business. If you have a real skill at putting on spectacular birthday parties, you can make a small business from that, and often your contacts will turn up larger events, from formal dinner parties to weddings.

To get the word out, have business cards printed up, and perhaps make a flier offering information about the services you provide and sample prices. Include any information about previous experience you have.

This kind of business requires in-person networking skills. You might attend local community events and talk to people about their event-planning needs. You could go to the chamber of commerce luncheons and offer to do some event planning for free. You can build a website and offer limited information about how to plan events. If they want more information, they must call you for the information, which allows you to market your services further.

If you want to start an event-planning business, just make sure you have the contacts, the experience and the know-how to get it done.