If you would like to start a home – based business, but you do not want to be confined to providing only one type of service, you may want to start a business doing odd jobs. If you are handy and you can do many of your own home repairs, this is a great niche for you. It might be hard for you to believe (since you can do all of these things yourself) that not everyone can shovel their stairs, fix their leaking toilet, install curtain rods, or hang a door.
Some clients are simply physically unable to do those things, others lack the knowledge and skills. Still other people are perfectly capable of doing those repairs, yet they are busy and their time is better spent doing other things like playing with their kids when they are not working at their full time job. There is always a market for people who can do odd jobs.
One good thing about doing odd jobs is that you get plenty of variety in your work. In the summer, you may mow the same few lawns every week. However, you might also be asked to help someone set up their yard for an outdoor party or to open their pool for the season. You can shovel snow and help harvest garden vegetables, water and weed gardens while people are on vacation and build shelves in garages to help people get organized. The potential variety of projects is endless.
Word of mouth and community – based forms of advertisement work well for people who do odd jobs. A small ad in the local newspaper and some professional – looking posters with tear strips containing your phone number (placed on bulletin boards in town) may be all you need to get started. Also, get some business cards made and hand out a few to each client. Clients that are happy are usually quick to pass your name along to their friends who may have projects that they want done.
Photo by Melodi2 on morguefile.com.