What Really Is A Service Business? It’s Not What You Think

What Really Is A Service Business? It’s Not What You Think

Think you know what a service business really is? These 5 different definitions will help you know if you’re building the right business or not.

What Really Is A Service Business? It’s Not What You Think

I always like to see rendering services as being the handy man…the fixer…the magician who knows what’s wrong with a system by just looking at it.

And in the real sense, that’s what it is anyway.

However, it’s much more than that.

According to business dictionary, a service business is,

“A commercial enterprise that provides work performed in an expert manner by an individual or team for the benefit of its customers.”

Following the definition above, a service business involves much more than fixing stuff. I’ve been able to divide that definition above into 5 different definitions to help you understand exactly what kind of business you’re into. They are also 5 elements you’d want your service business to possess, if success is what you’re after.

 

1. It Is A Form Of Exchange

In other words, your service is not free, nor should it ever be free.

Why?

Because you’re doing your client a favour.

Rendering a service is commerce. The definition above stated that a service business is a commercial enterprise, not a “free-for-all foundation”.

Depending on your arrangement with whomever you’re offering your service to, you can exchange it for either cash or kind.

Most of the time, we “service people” like to think that if what we get back is not money, then it’s not worth our time.

Wrong!

That mind-set would cause you to lose some real opportunities, especially if you’re just starting out.

Apart from money, a service can be exchanged for exposure, experience, connections, testimonials, etc.

One particular strategy that most experienced entrepreneurs say is “if you want to get your name out there and you’re just starting out, do some free service for the influencers in your industry, then use the testimonials they give you to boost your brand.”

In the real sense, when you do that, you’re not rendering free service. Those influencers have actually paid for it by giving you a testimonial back.

What you must NEVER agree to is rendering service and not getting anything in return. That’s no longer commerce…it is extortion!

And I hate extortion!

 

2. It Is To Be Delivered In An Expert Manner

In other words, do it like a professional, even if you feel you’re not one yet.

The difference between a service professional and the handy man is that the latter doesn’t care about the delivery. The handy man just gets the job done and stretches out his hand for the check.

The professional on the other hand delivers his service so well, that even if the end result has a few mistakes in it, the customer is already wowed by the experience.

If you’ve been attentive, you’ll notice I just mentioned two keywords you must never ignore in service delivery:

The customer experience and the results.

Give your customer a splendid experience working with you, and he’ll talk about it to his friends. Give him the results he needs and he’ll hire you again.

Give him both, and you have a recurring referral machine :).

 

3. It Involves A Group Of People

You should always dream of getting people to work with you on projects.

As motivation speakers always say, “Dream Big”. But don’t ignore the place of starting with small steps.

And small steps in this case involve only you doing all the work. However, the time would come where you’ll have so much work to do, to the point where you can’t do it alone.

At this point, depending on how big you dreamed, you’ll either…

  1. Tell clients to back off and find someone else because you’ve got a lot on your plate (of course you won’t be that harsh).
  2. Get someone skilled on your team (as a partner or employee) to help you with the project.

I don’t need to tell you which one leads to business growth and a lifestyle of freedom.

So, you choose.

 

4. It Always Satisfies A Need Or Fulfils A Demand

In other words, you become the superhero and your client becomes the damsel (or dude) in distress.

Just so you know, your clients can’t survive without you or the service you render!

Whenever they try to do this, the consequences are always terrible.

For example, when a client knows he needs someone to help him get more leads, but strongly decides to do it on his own because he’s trying to avoid the cost, he’ll probably spend 12 months trying to do what he could have otherwise accomplished in 3 months.

Yes, he’ll survive, but even though he hates writing, he’ll probably have a hunched back after writing tons of articles…when I’m here offering my content marketing services to people like him who need more leads.

I wonder.

You’re not just rendering that service for the money you get. You’re doing it for the life you will change.

So ask yourself, “What’s my motive for rendering this service? Is it for the money, or to solve a problem?”

 

5. It Has And Needs More Customers

They say the customer is always right. I say the customer doesn’t even know what he wants.

A few days ago, I was on a call with a potential client who wanted to drive leads to sign up for a training course he was selling. Here’s what he said,

“I want a system that won’t cost so much money. So here are the methods I want us to use. We’ll blah blah….”

The methods he stated were not only more costly, but also ineffective.

My response…

“If that’s what you have in mind, then we may not get any return on investment. Here’s what we could do instead…”

And I went on to explain methods that were not only cheaper, but that would give him is money back multiple times over.

When working with clients, you need to know what you’re doing, or else you’ll dance to their tune, then get your name dragged in the mud for the horrible results you’ll get thereafter.

Regardless of whether your customers are the experienced ones with egos, or the inexperienced ones who feel they should boss over you, you still need more customers. But the ideal thing to do here is to focus on getting your ideal customers.

It’s your ideal customer that will help drive your business to success, not the brain draining ones.

With all this in mind, you should be well on your way to building a service business that rocks!

However a word of caution!

Never render a service you don’t like or don’t have passion for.

If you do that, it’ll only get worse. This is because the more orders you get, the more headache you’ll have.

And the harder it will be to pull out of it.

So start well, deliver like a professional, build your team and help your ideal customers. That’s the only way you’ll finish strong.

What do you think? What elements does your service business lack? I’d love to you’re your thoughts in the comments.

 

Image credit: parentedge.in

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