Ironing
Typically we do not recommend service related ideas, but here is a business that you can start with no cost (assuming you have an iron), from home, in your neighbourhood using nothing but a low tech approach to marketing.
If you are successful then there is an opportunity to expand rapidly by leveraging relatively unskilled labour from your area. You get to provide jobs and alleviate the more affluent from the drudgery of ironing.
There is no stock to buy for this business; your stock in trade is simple hard work in its purest form. The skill level required to start is minimal and the equipment you will need is likely to be sitting in the same room where you are reading this. This means that your entire business will love or die based upon your marketing ability and your levels of service.
Start by telling people what you intend to do, know what the going rate is.
Understand the options; do you use dry cleaning type plastic bags, your hangers
or the customers? Will you automatically starch collars or offer the choice?
When you have found your first few customers and are happy that you want to
take on more a simple card in your local newsagent's window or on the bulletin
board at your local church, golf club, or nursery school may suffice.
If you are doing this in your spare time then you are likely to be swamped
quite quickly. We do not recommend giving up your job. Rope in some helpers
from friends or family and pay them 90% of the going rate while you build your
customer base.
When you have several of you ironing away at capacity you will need to either
advertise for more helpers, or advertise for more customers. Local newspapers
can start to play their part at this stage; a cheap advert in the classifieds
should suffice.
Build a system to track who ironed which pieces, ensure that everyone is accountable
for quality. If you have to refund a customer or pay to repair a damaged item
then your helper should also be made to pay. I would use different coloured
raffle tickets and pin them onto the garments. It is then very clear who did
which pieces.
Don't fight with customers pay in full for any damage; re-iron anything that
the customer is not happy with. Smile, apologise, and build your reputation.
If you have not thought about it then start to think about delivery, pick up,
service standards (all items returned within 24 hours/2 days/a week). As you
develop these add-ons your customers will appreciate it and new customers will
be blown away by your professionalism.
A lot of business will come from word of mouth. Keep hiring if the workload
gets too much. For every 10 people you can hire you will make as much as you
can do at your own maximum.
When you get above 10 people start to think about insurance, business licenses
etc. You may even start to think about having people working full time and/or
separate premises.
Without doing much more than basic things you can build a small but lucrative
home business, but you can take it further. Leaflet central office buildings
and offer pick up and drop off on set days to build volumes further.
Add additional services such as washing, or repairs.
When you start this is a lot of hard work, and customers will be picky and complain about the quality, perceived damage etc. You need to take this all in as learning and build processes to deal with it as you get bigger.
The hard work will eventually be replaced by others, as you focus on the marketing and building the business. Start paying 90% of takings to the ironers and as you build into a more stable employer you can start to move this to 85% and lower. You may ultimately want to put some staff on salary, although I prefer paying piece rates which reward hard work and higher skill levels.
If you plan to use mothers then try to provide a facility for the children to play, mums to feed & change etc. The convenience will build you loyalty that other small firms cannot replicate.
Most important, there is nothing that says this is a woman's business. Guys you can do this too. It is not difficult and the business owner's main role is to build the business. In fact you have an advantage as you are better suited to later drop offs and pick ups.