Start your Own Business with these 10 Best Small Business Services Ideas

If you think you need a unique product, or tons of money to get your own business up an going, then you might be surprised that there are tons of opportunities out there for people to use these small business services ideas. Because the truth is services are a much bigger part of business than most people expect. Trade.gov estimates that 79.6 percents of the U.S.’s gross domestic product is the service sector. Which is great news if you’re looking to get started, because not only are services a bigger market than products, but a lot of services don’t require a huge investment to get up and running!

On top of that, it is important to note that many services are recurring rather than only a one time thing. Because of this, you can create a client list that is going to pay you for months, or even years, instead of selling a one time product, and never talking to your customer again.

I like the idea in this video. Instead of putting a huge amount of money into the unknown, prove that it works by doing it, then the money will come.

1. Gardening/lawn maintenance

If you live in the suburbs and own a lawn mower, then you may be able to turn a pretty penny fairly quickly, just start a lawn car business. There are an abundance of people who own or lease properties with lawns that quite frankly just don’t have time to take care of it personally. All it takes to get started is asking around the neighborhood, and seeing who would consider it. The great thing about this opportunity is with enough clients it is very easy to hire other people to do the work while you sit back and think of more ways to get business. And while it may not be the most glamorous company, it’s certainly tried and true.

Do the math and you can see how simple this one is. You can easily charge 20 dollars per transaction, at two times a month, that works out to 40 dollars per customer. Get 25 repeat customers and you’re sitting on a thousand extra dollars per month!

2. Residential and Commercial Cleaning

This may be considered the lowest tier work on this list, but everybody needs something cleaned, and few people ever actually want to do it. Which is probably the reason it’s one of the best companies you can start. Get a few customers and you can outsource this pretty quickly.

Although houses can get pretty bad sometimes businesses tend to be more inclined to keep their establishments clean and user friendly. As an added bonus these people are far more willing to part with money for a reliable service. Do you really think a lawyer or doctor is going to clean the toilet in their office? Chances are they wouldn’t do it if they were paid to! Which makes people in this situation perfect clients. As an added bonus, it doesn't cost hardly anything to get into doing this. There's even a good chance you have the chemicals needed just under your sink.

3. Bicycle Repair

If you fix your own bike, and know other people who need theirs fixed frequently, then this is as easy as it comes. It will take a bit of specific marketing, and of course the correct tools to do this right. But if it’s something you enjoy anyway, then you might find this to be a good business to get into. I would recommend being open on the weekends though, a lot of cycle enthusiast have day jobs, which means their hours don’t let them come in from 9-5 on the weekdays.

4. Computer Repair

Are you tech savvy? Know enough about computers that you never need to call technical support? Then start doing it for a fee! I’ve done this before and I can tell you people are willing to pay you 60 bucks for ten minutes of work. Now you don’t get that much consistently, but when you do get clients who don’t know how to save their precious data, they will pay you a lot of money to fix it quickly. Although, for a long term strategy you are going to have to recognize that there just aren’t as many qualified candidates to employ. So expanding is going to take longer while you are searching for your minions.

5. Dog Walking

Of all the small business services ideas on this list, I would have to say this is the easiest one to start. You really don’t need much more than the drive to find people who have dogs, and the ability to walk them. It may seem overly simple, but that’s just because it is.

Think about it for a moment, there are thousands of pet owners who just don’t have the time or energy to get their pets some needed exercise, and plenty of them are more than willing to pay 5-20 bucks for someone else to do it. If you can just get enough clients this can become a full-time job. And so long as the animals you are walking are friendly, you can walk more than one at a time. You've seen those people walking around with seven dogs at the same time? Imagine seventy dollars for walking them for half an hour. Now that’s some good ROI!

6. Consultant

Do you have some special knowledge you can share with others? Be it marketing, bookkeeping, business planning, etc… you can almost always find someone to buy that knowledge from you. Though you will need to establish yourself as an expert, and starting your own blog can seriously help with that. You may want to go on social media sites and answer people’s questions about your topic to gather a following. If you can do that well enough, you can easily convince people you are worth your wages.

7. Personal trainer

There's certainly no shortage of people trying to get in shape in this day and age. Which is an amazing opportunity for people who are fit and need to earn a buck. There are some educational requirements if you want to start working with certain gyms, but not all of them require that. Do this right and you can set up a whole program online, where people exercise by the videos you make. Ever heard of insanity? Yup, if your program is marketed right you can bring in some serious income without even having to do the one on one anymore.

8. Flea Market Vendor

This may not seem like that great of an idea till you realized there are people who do this year round and make a great living. A booth at a market will run you somewhere between 20-100 bucks for the day, which is surprisingly cheap for setting up shop in a high traffic area. And when you consider that I have seen people selling polished rocks and turning a profit, you start to realize the possibilities.

9. Property Management

If you want to get into real estate, especially rental properties, then this is an amazing stepping stone. Learning just what it takes to run a rental property give you a better respect for the people who do this. It's all about keeping those units filled, and not letting the place get run down. Which is actually quite a bit of work.

Of course to get started you are going to need to know someone who has a rental property, and would rather pay you to take care of things rather than take care of it personally. If you don't know anyone like that, then try going to some investor conferences, a lot of those people own rental properties, and want to turn it into passive income as quickly and reliable as possible.

10. Painter

I like this one because you can actually get started for free. Find someone who needs a room painted, offer a good price, then charge a deposit which covers all of the materials you need. This may come as a shock, but some people have actually dropped out of college when they realized just how much this little endeavor was putting in their pocket. And great news if you want to hire someone to do this, it's stupid simple, so expansion is easy as pie.

I hope this helped you realize there are plenty of opportunities out there if you are willing to step up and talk to a few people. And while this list of small business services ideas is in no way a comprehensive guide, it's a least a good place to start if you don't have much money and are looking to take your income to the next level. Although, once you have a business up an running it's a good idea to learn about the common mistakes that cause businesses to fail.

If you have any other ideas that aren't on this list, or questions, please leave them in the comments.