💡 Business Tip - The "Do It for Them" Model (Issue #26)
💡 Business Tip - The "Do It for Them" Model (Issue #26)
The most obvious service business
A successful product or service isn’t a mystery. It’s what people want or need but don’t have the time, skills, or desire to create or do for themselves.
That’s why “Do It for Me” services are so popular.
People will pay you to save them time.
They will pay you to avoid unpleasant tasks.
They will pay you to perform tasks they don’t know how to do well (or at all).
How much can you charge for your services for a task like this? That depends.
What happens if they don’t pay someone to take care of that task?
How much are they willing to pay to avoid discomfort, stress, and unpleasantness?
How valuable is their time?
Think about it. Almost everyone could bake their bread at home. In fact, many people started doing just that during the pandemic and quarantines. So, why do most people buy bread at the grocery store now?
Well, sometimes, they lack the knowledge and skills, so their bread turns out poorly. They prefer to buy tastier bread that an expert baked.
In most cases, I know people are buying bread to save time. They don’t believe they have the time required to prepare and bake their own bread.
There’s money to be made in taking care of unpleasant tasks, too. One of our neighbors owns a septic service business. Big surprise, most people don’t want to deal with the unpleasant task of pumping their septic tanks (and almost everyone lacks the proper equipment and disposal systems, too). So, he makes a ton of money providing this service that everyone around here needs but can’t (or won’t) do themselves.
So, take some time to answer these questions about your business or planned services model:
How can your business save people time?
How can your business handle tasks that many people don’t have the knowledge or skills to perform?
How can you take unpleasant tasks off people’s hands?
Provide one or more of these solutions, and customers will line up to hire you.
Tax preparation services are a great example of a business that checks all three boxes. Having someone handle your tax prep and filing definitely saves you time. Most of us don’t have the specific tax law knowledge that applies to all the complex issues we face during preparation (software helps, but it is still pretty complex). Finally, is tax prep an unpleasant task? Oh my, you bet it is! No wonder tax preparation services was a $14.3B industry in 2022.
What type of service business are you building? How can it check one or more of those three boxes?
Hi, I’m Larry Cornett, a coach who can work with you 1-on-1 to design, launch, and optimize your business. You might also be interested in my “Employee to Solopreneur” workshop (coming soon). I currently live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane while running my businesses 100% remotely.
