Make text larger   A | A | A

Home Services Agency


  Here’s an idea that could earn you some serious cash by matching up tradespeople with householders.

It’s incredibly difficult to find a good tradesman these days as anyone who’s tried to get some work done around the house will testify.  Most people rely on recommendations from friends. This presents an opportunity for you to start a business that will help to solve the problem for the householder and make yourself some serious money as a result. 

The first thing you need to do is to create a database with all the details of your local tradespeople.  Try and find tradespeople that you really can recommend rather than just going through the Yellow Pages.  How to go about this is discussed in more detail below.   

It’s probably more efficient to set up your database on a computer, but if you don’t have the necessary software or the computer skills required, you can still set up a simple file in a loose leaf ring binder.  You can get all the office software you need, including a database, without any charge at all by going to http://www.openoffice.org/product/ . You will need to make a record in alphabetical order of the type of service being offered, like Builder, Carpenter, Plumber, etc.  You will need to include their full contact details including mobile phone numbers, email address and even their web site address if they have one.  It’s also a good idea to include details of ‘out-of-hours’ services or if they are available at weekends and you’ll need to have an idea of charge-out rates.  


Which companies to Include on your database?

Talk to friends and neighbours.  Personal recommendations are always the best way to go.  You know that you can rely on a tradesman if he’s been recommended by someone you trust.  After that you can scrutinise the classified section of your local paper, cards in newsagents windows and your local Yellow Pages.  You can also contact your local Chamber of Commerce for tradespeople who are members. You must check that the firms you are going to recommend are members of their trade body and that they are fully insured.

References are essential.  Verifiable written references are the next best thing to personal recommendation, so you must ask for references and you must check them out.  You have to be sure in your own mind that the companies that you are suggesting are good, honest and reliable – your reputation is at stake here too.

Once you have a list of companies covering all the services that the average householder is likely to need, you will have to sign them up.  The best way to do this is to simply phone them and explain to them that you will get them more business.  If necessary, make an appointment to go and see them.  It’s an easy win for the company because it will cost them nothing at all to register with you and they will only pay a commission if you actually get some new business for them.  The amount of commission that you charge is up to you of course, but a good average is probably 5%.  You might want to have a sliding scale, so, for example, jobs up to £1,000 in value are charged at 10%; £1,000 to £5,000 at 7.5% and over £5,000 at 5%.  Emphasise the benefits that you are offering:  free registration; more customers; no advertising costs and a modest commission paid on results.  How could they fail to agree!  When they have agreed it’s a good idea to get them to sign a simple agreement so that there are no arguments later.  It doesn’t have to be complicated and a local solicitor should be able to draft something on one side of A4.


Finding Customers

The service that you are offering to householders is terrific.  They have a one-stop shop of recommended tradesmen for everything from gardening to building including emergency plumbing services, electricians, carpenters and cleaners.  They just need to make one call to you instead of spending ages doing the research for themselves. Their problem is solved immediately and it’s cost them nothing at all.  So how do you get your message out there?


The first thing that you can do at no cost, is write an article about your new service and send it to your local newspaper.  If there are other publications in your local area like free sheets or shopping magazines, you can send the article to them as well.  Or turn it into a press release.

Next up in the cost range is local shop windows and supermarket notice boards.  Put your cards up in as many outlets as you can find.

The local newspaper is the next stop.  Place a series of small classified ads under the relevant column heading.  They don’t have to be expensive, but try running several sequential ads and get a discount from the one-off rates.

Leaflets can be printed relatively cheaply these days, but it’s really important that they look the part and you might consider it worth paying a designer to do the artwork for you.  It’s a one-off cost and will ensure that you get your message across in professional manner.  Get your relatives and friends to help you with door to door leaflet drops.  You might also strike a deal with newsagents to drop off your leaflet when they are doing their deliveries.  If you need help with designing a leaflet or writing a press release you can find some excellent skills at reasonable cost by visiting http://peopleperhour.com .


How much are you going to make?

There are several great things about this business opportunity.  It’s not expensive to set up and most of the cost is in terms of your time.  It’s a winner for the tradespeople because it costs them nothing to register with you and they only make a payment if they get new business through your recommendation.  It’s a winner for the householder because they don’t have to spend hours on research to find reliable firms and it costs them nothing to use your service.

5% commission might not appear to be much in the scheme of things, but it adds up really quickly and you should have a whole series of jobs on the go at any one time.  When you think about the cost of building work these days even a small job can easily be £1,000 which is going to make you £50.  If you get something bigger like a garage or a house extension, you can easily be looking at £20,000 and this puts £1,000 in your pocket.  It really isn’t that hard to build up a business where you are pushing out £500,000 worth of trade a year to the firms on your database and that’s going to bring you in an annual income of £25,000.

Print Print this page
Free Newsletter
Signup now for hints, tips and interesting articles to help you plan for the future

I LIVE IN:

Follow us on Twitter