Home Services Business Ideas
South Africans are busy people. When they get home, they don’t want to have to fix things or mow the lawn. They’d much rather hire someone to come and do that. Here are 10 home service business ideas you can start right now:
11. Deep House Cleaning
Not everyone has the equipment or the time and energy to deep clean their homes. But people still want their carpets and furniture deep cleaned as well as those hard to reach places.
How to start this business idea
You could invest in some of the equipment and offer to deep clean people’s homes. When starting out offer your services to family and friends, so you have a track record and to iron out any kinks.
How to keep this business idea successful
You’ll need to keep establishing prospects as customers will typically only use this service once or twice a year. You can even approach smaller businesses to offer to deep clean their premises.
12. Garden services
If you have a green thumb and enjoy designing garden spaces, you can turn this into a business opportunity.
How to start this business idea
Start out with family and friends so that you have examples of what you can do. You’ll want to focus on designing a garden and creating a beautiful green space, as you’ll have a lot of competition with garden maintenance as the barrier to entry is so low.
How to keep this business idea successful
Keep up with the trends in this industry and learn new skills and techniques, which you can offer to your clients.
13. Apartment Prepping
Are you good at sprucing up a living space? You can offer a service where you fix-up an apartment when the landlord is looking for a new tenant or to sell the property.
How to start this business idea
Approach landlords and real estate agents offering your services. You’ll need some handyman and painting skills, but there is a growing market for quality apartment-prepping services.
How to keep this business idea successful
The more you know, the more you can offer. Gain experience in tiling, electrical wiring and plumbing to offer more services to the current or future landlord.
14. Interior decorator
If you have a natural talent for designing and decorating spaces, you could make this into your next business opportunity.
How to start this business idea
Start decorating and designing for your friends and family so you can have examples of the work you’ve done. Offer your services at hardware stores and decorating shops to connect with people renovating their homes.
How to keep this business idea successful
Offer your clients more expertise and experience than they themselves have. Keep upskilling yourself and expanding the products you work with, while keeping up with trends and styles.
15. Handyman Services
You can launch a business as a handyman, even if you aren’t skilled but pay attention to detail. People are looking for someone else to fix their homes and handle tasks they either don’t have the time or the skill to deal with.
How to start this business idea
You’ll need to showcase what you can do, so doing jobs for family and friends will help to spread the word about your skills. You’ll receive a lot of your initial work from word-of-mouth.
How to keep this business idea successful
You’ll need to continue to add to your skill set so you can offer your clients more and more services.
16. Solar energy consultant
Solar energy is becoming more feasible especially considering the cost of electricity and its unreliability.
How to start this business idea
You’ll need to educate yourself on all the solar options and how your clients can use the various options in their homes. Once you’re familiar you can offer your clients anything from solar panels, to solar geysers, to solar lights or all of the above.
How to keep this business idea successful
Stay up-to-date with the current trends in solar and find multiple solutions or combination solutions to help your clients reduce their reliance on the grid.
17. Home energy auditor
For those who don’t want to switch to alternative energy, you can optimise their energy usage and reduce any wastage.
How to start this business idea
You’ll need a thorough understanding of where a household uses the most water and electricity. You can then provide clients with an audit and give them actionable insights into how they can save.
How to keep this business idea successful
With experience you’ll be able to offer numerous energy and water saving techniques, but you can upskill yourself, so you can offer your suggestions for enhancing economical and efficient solutions into your client’s homes.
18. Pool and fountain care
Keeping a pool clean and blue all year round can be challenging for busy South African professionals. You can offer your services to private homes, hotels, businesses and retailers.
How to start this business idea
This isn’t a trial and error business, so you’ll need to know everything about water pH and how to keep it balanced. Using environmentally-friendly products, could give you an edge over your competition.
How to keep this business idea successful
You can upskill yourself to be able to repair swimming pool pumps, motors and any equipment. This allows you to offer this service to your clients as well.
19. Home-inspection service
Property owners aren’t always certain what state their house/apartment is in. You can offer to regularly inspect it to ensure there’s no structural damage and the building is still safe to live in.
How to start this business idea
You’ll need experience in construction and a keen eye for structural abnormalities. You can offer your services to real estate agents, and landlords.
How to keep this business idea successful
Once you’ve established yourself you can either upskill yourself to fix any problems you encounter or partner with a high-quality contractor to ensure your client’s home remains in good repair.
20. Personal Organiser
If you’re good at staying organised and organising others, you could offer to help others to organise everything from their garage, to cupboards and routines.
How to start this business idea
Start out by helping the hoarders in your family and friends to reduce their collections and organise the remaining items as well.
How to keep this business idea successful
You can also write books to help people organise their lives themselves. Amanda Kuzak, a professional organiser for over ten years, recommends to always say yes to a project even if you’re not sure how to tackle it. This will help you to learn and grow your services.