Building A Business In The Home Services Industry: 6 Ways To Get Started

The home service industry is going through tremendous growth. Most homeowners hire home service providers for help due to time constraints and a lack of the right skills. As a result, many giant conglomerates, including Google and Amazon, have gotten in on the action.
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By Tommy Mello

The home service industry is going through tremendous growth. Most homeowners hire home service providers for help due to time constraints and a lack of the right skills. As a result, many giant conglomerates, including Google and Amazon, have gotten in on the action.

I've worked in the home service industry to build a growing eight-figure garage door repair and service business. It hasn't easy, and there have dozens of obstacles in the way, but I've been able to make it happen. If you're also in the home services industry - or are thinking about entering it - here are six ways you can jump on trends in this booming industry.

Cater to "Aging" Baby Boomers

In the garage door niche, we have seen a rise of maturing adults needing more help on their home service projects. Baby boomers are now creeping past the age of 50, and many are unable to climb ladders and replace a light bulb or hang wallpaper. They'd rather hire someone to do it for them. Here's a quick list on how to cater to this "aging" population:
  • Always offer specific discounts for AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) or retirement areas -- we got the best results by offering 10 percent off.
  • Get listed on Bing. Most people focus only on Google, but since many baby boomers use Internet Explorer and Bing is its default search engine, you'll be able to get more baby boomers to know about your service by making sure that you rank high on Bing.
  • If you're a family business, include the phrase, "Family owned and operated" on your site. Baby boomers grew up in a time where this was very important - this can be the deciding factor for them when choosing a company.

Tap Into Your Customer's Needs Using CRMs

CRMs (customer relationship management tools) make conducting business easy and convenient. In fact, they have become integral to modern business, as business owners can analyze and meet customer needs more easily. Now, we can track our clients' feedback, get an accurate estimate of our marketing ROI, send out customer surveys, and have daily reports in real time to let us know how our employees are performing.

Hire the Right People: Always Be Top Grading

The hardest thing is knowing how to find (and hire) the right people in the industry. In CNBC's show "The Profit," Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis looks for three things: people, product and process. He explains people are the hardest of the three. Here are the steps to getting the right people:
  • Post an ad everywhere: on Linkedin, Craigslist, Indeed, Career Builder, Monster and ZipRecruiter.
  • Perform a personality test (e.g. DiSC profiling) to match the candidate's personality to the job.
  • Conduct a background check and drug test each applicant - we use IntelliCorp. Your employee is the face of your business. Most of the time they will have to enter your clients' homes, so trust is a crucial factor.

Take Advantage of Technology

Always be aware of the cutting-edge technology in your industry. Offer it to your customers and see how well it performs. For example, innovations in our garage door industry, like Liftmasters MyQ technology, allows homeowners to see from their mobile device if their garage was left open. We tested new marketing campaigns and offered it as an upgrade to every customer. Needless to say, the technology helped boost sales and changed the game for us.

Build Your Reputation Online

It's never been easier to have your business listed online, thanks to sites like Angie's List, Yelp, Kudzu and Home Advisor. Here's what you should do to make sure your online reputation is set up for success:
  • List your business name, address and phone number on as many directory sites as possible. This helps the search engine find you.
  • Have clients who are friends and family leave a review (just make sure you actually did work for them).
  • Create profiles on every social media site out there: Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Houzz, Pinterest and more.

Follow the Market Booms

When determining the areas where more homes are being built, look for:
  • Job growth (new cities that are attracting large companies)
  • Low costs and high wages, which indicates a lucrative area
  • A good ratio between rents and purchase prices
  • Good climate (baby boomers tend to retire in areas with nicer weather)
The home service industry can be a fruitful business for the right owner. In light of the above information, it's easy to see why how starting a home service business could be a great opportunity for you as an entrepreneur.


Tommy Mello is the owner of A1 Garage Door Service, a ten-million-dollar per year company. He is a partner of Highest Cast Offer and a partner or owner of over 14 other businesses.

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