Green Small Business Idea
Winter’s coming, heating bills are a pain to deal with, homeowners are too busy to do minor home maintenance tasks, and I smell a 100% green small business opportunity.
Home renovations are a big deal, so long as you’re dealing with things like moving walls, installing cabinets, finishing a basement, etc. For the average entrepreneur, the barrier to entry on performing home renovations is too steep to actually give it a shot. Aside from needing expertise, you need tools, a truck or van to haul gear and supplies, references from past jobs, actual skill, and so forth. Its a great business for people who can do it well, but its is no business to the average Joe to pursue unless they’re 100% serious about it.
A Green Home Renovation Idea for Total Amateurs
However, many smaller aspects of home renovation, particularly with regard to ecologically-friendly upgrades, are simple and accessible to the average entrepreneur. That means you, provide that you’re willing to invest a limited amount of time and energy.
As heating bills begin to pounding tight budgets over the coming months, you can bet that homeowners across the nation will be looking for ways to reduce monthly bills AND to make their home more environmentally sound. Given concerns over mortgage payments and other financial uncertainty, its hard to find someone who wouldn’t like to slice a few bucks of their monthly utility bills…
So, here’s a green small business idea to fill this niche - put together a package of green home improvement services that:
a) you can actually do;
b) will be helpful to your customers (it will help them save on utility bills);
c) are things your customers don’t want to do or can’t do themselves.
Its kind of like shoveling snow off people’s driveways or mowing people’s lawns, except the actual services provided in this small business idea are slightly different.
So, what type of deliverables could you actually provide? Well, how’s this for starters…
Green Small Business Idea
$0 1 hour free Home Winter-Readiness Assessment (looking around the house for the biggest or easiest things that you could fix for someone; offering this for free entices prospective customers to let you in their house without any risk, allowing you to subsequently pitch specific services; or, possibly, this could be a $50 assessment which becomes free for all people ordering at least $50 dollars’ worth of services.)
$25/window Putting internal plastic barrier on windows
$25/window Putting on external storm windows (where storm windows already exist)
$50 Sealing leaks or gaps in older windows using silicon or a caulking gun
$50/door Replace side and top weather stripping on external doors
$50/door Replace bottom seal on external doors
$15/door Secure hinges, doorknobs, etc. on all external doors for better sealing
$50 Secure and maintain pet doors for better sealing
$10/foot Provide wind/temperature barrier around the outside of the house along the ground level (if possible, using flax-straw bales or equivalent)
$25/rug Delivery and installation of area rugs for cold floors on specific landings, hallways, or rooms (letting the customer choose and purchase from an online catalogue of your choice)
$____ (additional services of your choosing)
$50/hour (Or an hourly rate of your choosing) For the completion of any additional tasks not mentioned above.
For the more serious handyfolks:
$____ Reinsulation of attic, walls, or basement
$____ Installation of double doors (storm doors)
$____ Furnace or hot water system maintenance
$____ Heating duct cleaning service
$____ (additional services of your choosing)
Simple Marketing Plan
Put together a one-page printable sheet that includes all of your small business’s services (chosen from above), clearly highlighting the fact that you will do a free assessment. Print copies and either go up and down the streets of your neighborhood, post signs on community billboards with your phone number, or publicize according to your local situation. Mention the benefits that your clients would receive if they bought your stuff: lower heating bills and a more environmentally friendly home.
The goal of this business, in sum, is to provide an easy and relatively cheap home upgrade to people who either don’t want to do this for themselves or who can’t. It is not a complex home renovation business, but more along the lines of a neighborhood kid who mows lawns for all the old people on the block. But, instead of simply mowing people’s lawns, you’ll be providing services that most 10 year old kids aren’t nearly sophisticated to pull off.
Hey - if I could pay someone a few hundred buck to take care of these things for my place, I’d do it in a heartbeat!
