Last Updated on February 3, 2023
Are you looking for the best available service business ideas to explore? Here are some of the most profitable smart service business ideas to start. Let’s get started, shall we?
Table of Contents
What is a service business?
In general, a service business performs an activity designed to help and support its clients in a specific area of their businesses or personal lives. If a business does not sell a physical or digital item to be purchased and used by the customer, it is most likely a service business.
Benefits of Starting a Service Business
One of the main benefits of a service business is that it often costs less to start and run. Product businesses often have hefty overhead costs like manufacturing, inventory purchases, and shipping. When you provide a service, you simply need your own skillset and any necessary tools to complete the job.
Additionally, because many service-based businesses can now be run virtually with just a computer and internet connection, this type of company often provides more flexibility than opening a restaurant or a retail shop.
Tips for Getting Started with a Service Business
If you think you’re ready to start a service business, follow these tips to set yourself up for success:
- Understand what your service is worth in the marketplace. As mentioned above, service entrepreneurs often struggle to set fair prices. You don’t want to come out of the gate charging an exorbitant price, but you also don’t want to lowball yourself just to get your first few clients. It’s important to research what other successful entrepreneurs with a similar skillset and experience level are charging for their services and set your prices accordingly.
- Prioritize customer service. As Frances X. Frei wrote in the Harvard Business Review, a crucial element in service business success is properly managing your customers “who are not simply consumers of the service but can also be integral to its production.” Therefore, a strong focus on customer relationships will benefit you as a service provider. Make it a priority to listen to your clients and ask them how you can better serve their needs.
- Don’t be afraid to self-promote. Service-based business owners are essentially selling themselves as their “product,” so you’ll need a good reputation and a strong value proposition to continue growing. However, actively spreading the word about your business is just as important. While it can feel uncomfortable to promote yourself at first, marketing your business and building a strong personal brand are essential to gaining recognition and credibility as a service provider.
101 Service Business Ideas
- Career coach
As a career coach, you help others reach their career goals. You can choose a specific niche and help women get hired for executive positions or millennials get ahead. Or you can be a general career coach for people who want to reach their goals faster.
- Executive coach
An executive coach helps executives achieve their goals and become better leaders. As an executive coach, you could be hired by an individual or by a company to coach one of their executives or high-potential employees.
- Cover letter and resume writer
Do you have a knack for writing cover letters and resumes? Then, you could start helping professionals achieve their career goals by teaching them how to write better job applications.
- Health coach
Did you take specific steps to transform your own health? Maybe you lost weight or transformed your lifestyle for the better. Now you can help others do the same.
Who can become a health coach? You don’t need formal training. But you do need results. Have you helped yourself and/or others achieve health goals? In that case, health coaching could be that perfect business for you.
- Personal fitness trainer
Like spending time at the gym? Set up shop as a personal fitness trainer. As a PT, you help your clients create exercise plans, teach them proper exercise techniques, and motivate them to achieve their goals.
Who can become a personal trainer? If you’ve trained others, you’re a fitness expert, and you can get other people results, you could make a great personal trainer.
- Running coach
Enjoy running? If you’re a running guru, helping others learn how to run could be your business. For example, if you’ve trained for and participated in marathons, why not help others do the same?
- Sports team coach
If you enjoy working with teams, you could sell your services as a sports team coach. For example, if you have team coaching experience, this could be your business idea.
- Strength coach
As a strength coach, you help athletes improve their performance and prevent injuries. Have strength training experience? You could start offering this as a service.
- Nutrition coach
Nutrition coaches help people eat better. You could specialize in many different ways. For example, you can help people eat clean or vegan, plan and prep meals, help them with their food allergies, help them lose weight, or help people get clearer skin. If you love all things food and nutrition and you know your gut health, why not get started as a nutrition coach?
- Weight coach
Want to help people lose weight? Maybe you’ve done it yourself or you’ve helped others do it? In that case, you could start a weight coaching business. You could teach exercise techniques and/or help people eat right. And think outside the box. To stand out, you can help busy women lose weight. Or you can specialize in herbs or spices to teach people how to lose weight with the right diet.
- Meditation instructor
Love meditating? Becoming a meditation coach could be the right thing for you. You help others learn the right meditation techniques and that way, live a more mindful and balanced life.
- Yoga instructor
And finally, you can become a yoga instructor. If you’re a passionate yogi, this might be the business for you. How do you become a yoga instructor? You need to be a skilled practitioner of a yoga variant. There are several courses and trainings you can take to build on your existing skills.
- Relationship coach
Do you know what it takes to find the right partner? Perfect, then you could start your own relationship coaching business. For example, you might advise clients on how to find the perfect match on dating apps or how to find love even if your clients are busy professionals with high standards.
- Coach for couples
If you enjoy advising couples on how to take their relationship to the next level, then coaching for couples might be the right business for you. If you have experience in this area, then you’re ready to get started.
- Doula or birth coach
Doulas and birth coaches provide emotional support to women before, during, and after they give birth. The support might also extend to the woman’s partner or family. You don’t need a medical degree to become a birth coach, as you’re not giving health advice.
- Parenting coach
Do you enjoy helping parents? Then, you might make an excellent parenting coach. As a parenting coach, you give advice on parenting-related issues. This could be general advice on how to raise children or more specialized advice on things like supporting children with ADHD. If you have experience of this yourself or you’ve worked with children, parenting coaching could be the right business idea for you.
- Sleep coach for babies
If you have experience of sleep training babies and it’s something you enjoy doing, sleep coaching can be a rewarding business idea. Do you have results to show? Then, put sleep coaching on your list of business ideas.
- Potty training coach for babies
Similarly, potty training coaching is a potential coaching business you could start if you have experience in this field. Why? Lots of parents are looking for help on how to make potty training easier.
- Home baby proofing consultant
And last, baby proofing. If you have experience of baby-proofing homes, why not help new parents make this a struggle-free (and safe!) experience?
- Life coach
Life coaching. As a life coach, you help your clients maximize their full potential and reach their desired results. You can specialize and help a niche group of people like women, entrepreneurs or a religious group. Or you can focus on specific problems like resolving fears or goal-setting.
Who can become a life coach? You don’t need certificates or training (life coaching isn’t therapy), but to build your credibility, you need to have results to show.
- Stress coach
Do you know how today’s workplace is full of stress? If you’re good at helping people manage their stress, stress coaching could be something for you.
- Productivity coach
Similarly, more and more people want to become as productive as possible to get more work done and have more time outside of work. You can help them achieve that if you’re great at helping people manage their time better.
- Public speaking trainer or speech coach
Are you a Toastmasters member? Or are you just great at giving speeches? Then, you could help others do the same. As a public speaking trainer or speech coach, you can help employees create better presentations, startup founders pitch for more funding or speakers train for their speaking engagements.
- Social skills coach
A lack of social skills can be incredibly limiting. As a social skills coach, you can make a huge difference in your clients’ lives. So, if you have great social skills and you’ve helped others improve theirs, consider starting up your own business as a social skills coach.
- Mindset coach
Are you familiar with Carol Dweck’s book “Growth Mindset”? Then, you know what we’re talking about here. Helping people change their mindset is highly rewarding work. If you’re good at identifying other people’s mindset blocks and helping them overcome them, you could make a great mindset coach.
- Copywriter
If you enjoy writing, copywriting is a great business idea. As a copywriter, you could work with marketing or sales texts, such as web, email marketing, or sales copy. To become a copywriter, you don’t need formal training. Instead, you learn by writing.
- Travel writer
Love traveling? Love writing? Why not combine the two and become a travel writer? That’s right, you can earn you living traveling the world.
- Content writer
Content writers write content for social media and websites. For example, you could get hired to write blog posts, whitepapers, or social media posts. A successful content writer is someone who can engage readers and optimize texts for lead generation and conversions.
- Sales page copywriter
Enjoy crafting texts that persuade others? Sales page copywriting is the business idea for you. As a sales page copywriter, you help companies create pages that sell their products. The most successful sales page copywriters earn six and seven figures… Because they know that their writing will bring in sales.
- Proposal writer
Do you know how to write attention-grabbing proposals? That’s a skill you could turn into a business. Help individuals, startups, nonprofits, and other organizations write winning proposals.
- Ebook writer
Want to write books? There’s a huge market for ebooks and ebook writers. You can turn your passion into a business and start ghostwriting fiction or nonfiction ebooks.
- Technical writer
You’re a good writer AND you have a technical background? Great! As a technical writer, you write articles, instruction manuals, and more to make complex, technical information understandable.
- Editor and proofreader
If you’re a grammar whiz and you love details, you can use your skills as an editor or a proofreader. But what’s the difference? As an editor, you polish texts and as a proofreader, you focus on correcting errors.
- Web designer
Have web design skills? Turn those into a web design business. By helping individuals and business owners create websites, you can quickly grow a profitable business.
- Graphic designer
Love visual communication? Startup your own graphic design business. You help businesses create visuals for their websites, ads, brochures, and more.
- Branding consultant
Have you worked with brands before? In that case, you can offer your services as a branding consultant or strategist. Help businesses define their brands and create brand strategies for them.
- Social media manager
Are you great at getting likes, comments, and clicks on social media? Help businesses grow on social media by becoming a social media manager.
- Facebook ads strategist
If you’ve worked with paid advertising, you could set up your own Facebook ads agency. That’s what I did to quit my corporate job.
- Instagram marketing strategist
If you enjoy using Instagram personally or professionally, you could become an Instagram marketing strategist.
- Pinterest marketing strategist
Similarly, if you enjoy Pinterest as a platform, there are tons of businesses looking for help with their Pinterest marketing. So, you basically get paid to pin!
- YouTube marketing strategist
And if you create amazing videos and you know your way around YouTube, you can start a YouTube marketing business and help businesses grow that way.
- SEO strategist
Do you know search engine optimization (SEO)? Help businesses rank on Google as an SEO strategist.
- Email marketing manager
As an email marketing manager, you help businesses set up and implement their email marketing strategy. You will need some experience from a job or skills you’ve developed on your own.
- Public relations consultant
A PR consultant spreads the word about businesses. If you’re great at building relationships, outreach, and storytelling, this might be the business idea you’ve been looking for.
- Influencer marketing strategist
Influencer marketing is booming. If you have experience in this industry and/or a PR background, you can start your own influencer marketing agency and help businesses grow.
- Sales consultant or coach
As a sales consultant, businesses outsource part of their sales activities to you. If you have experience from a sales role or similar, you could start your own sales consultancy. Alternatively, you can start a sales coaching business. Here, you help business owners improve their sales instead of doing the work for them.
- Google ads consultant
Are you an experienced search engine marketing expert? If you know how to get clicks on your Google ads, you can build a Google ads business.
- Presentation designer
Enjoy creating presentations? Improve how businesses and other organizations communicate with their presentations by becoming a presentation designer. After all, many business deals, investments, and funding pitches rely on that presentation.
- Conversion optimization consultant
Know how to improve conversion rates? You can set up shop as a conversion optimization consultant. Go general or specialize. For example, as a landing page specialist, you focus mainly on creating converting landing pages.
- UX/UI designer
Are you a UX/UI designer? Offer your services independently by helping your clients design better apps and websites.
- Conference marketing
Ever been part of a conference team? You could help businesses and other organizations set up and market their conferences successfully.
- Video editor
Do you know how to edit videos? You can start a video editing business to help people create better videos. For example, helping businesses edit explainer videos, YouTube videos or ads can be a great way to get started.
- Podcast producer
If you enjoy creating podcasts, you could become a podcast producer. Help individuals, businesses and other organizations share their message with podcasts.
- Voice acting
Have a great voice? Have acting skills? Put them together and become a voice actor.
- Virtual assistant
One of the easiest businesses to start? A virtual assistant business. As a virtual assistant, you support your clients with administrative tasks. The best part? You don’t need any formal training. What you do need is to be proactive, detail-oriented, and happy to help out.
- Project manager
Are you a pro at organizing and managing projects? Start your own project management consultancy and help businesses save time and money by managing their projects.
- Bookkeeper
Are you a bookkeeper? Then, start your own bookkeeping business. You can provide your services to different businesses.
- Accountant
And if you’re an accountant, you can start your own accounting business. Help businesses keep track of their expenses and income.
- Financial auditor
If you’re a financial auditor in your corporate job, you could set up your own consultancy. You help businesses audit their own finances and that way, keep their businesses financially viable.
- Online business manager
What does an online business manager do? You manage online-based businesses by helping them with their day-to-day management. For example, you manage projects, team members, key performance indicators, and income streams. To run a successful online business management consultancy, you need to be organized and good at managing projects.
- Online course consultant
Many businesses end up creating online courses, either as a marketing tool or to sell as an information product. If you have a background in education or have experience with creating courses, you can help these businesses create their own online courses.
- Research
Enjoy doing research? If yes, would you love to spend your days researching different topics? Offer your services as a researcher. You don’t need to have a research background, but you do need to love researching and helping people find answers.
- Customer service operator
Love talking to people? Solving problems? Start a customer service operation business. You can handle businesses’ customer service and even improve it to help them make more money.
- Business systems consultant
If you’re great at automating and streamlining, you could become a business systems consultant. You help business owners organize their businesses in a more cost-effective way.
- Data analyst
Data analysis is in-demand skills that can help businesses make better decisions. You analyze data and translate that into tangible outcomes. You don’t necessarily need a professional background as a data analyst. However, you do need the skills so if you’re unsure about your data analysis skills, you could take a course to freshen them up.
- Translator
As a translator, you translate different documents, such as marketing content, legal documentation, or books. A general requirement is that you’re a native speaker of the target language, so the language you’re translating into.
- Language tutor or coach
If instead, you would like to teach languages, you can become a language tutor or a coach. You can help employees improve their language skills, teach a language to people who’re interested in it, or helping expats learn their host language.
- Tutor
Want to help students thrive? Then, tutoring might be a business for you. Fun fact: My first business was a tutoring business that I scaled to six figures.
- Home school teacher
If you love teaching children, you could become a homeschool teacher. And yes, this works online. All you need is a reliable connection, email, and Skype.
- SAT tutor
If your SAT score was exceptional and you want to teach others how to achieve the same, you could start an SAT tutoring business. Privately tutor students so they can improve their score.
- Essay editor
And if you’re great at writing essays, why not start an essay editing business? You teach students how to improve their essays and that way, achieve more academically.
- School applicant coach and consultant
Did you get into a great school? Or maybe you’ve helped someone else, like your children, achieve that? You could work as a school applicant coach or consultant and help students improve their applications so they get into their dream schools.
- Human resources consultant
Have you worked in HR? If yes, you could start a business in this field. Help businesses recruit the right talent as an HR consultant.
- Executive headhunter
Or, if you enjoy working with executives, you can become an executive headhunter and help businesses find the right leadership.
- Workshop instructor or speaker
Do you have a skill you love teaching? You can become a workshop instructor or speaker and train or motivate teams in different ways.
- Corporate coach
If you love working 1-on-1 and helping employees thrive, you can become a corporate coach and coach entire teams.
- Corporate retreat coordinator
And if you’re all about corporate consulting and you love setting up events, corporate retreat coordination might be the thing for you.
- Legal services
You could consult as a lawyer, help people with their legal contracts or a mix of these two services.
- Paralegal services
Or, if you’re a paralegal, you can offer your paralegal services as an independent consultant.
- Financial planner
If you want to offer financial plans to people and help them reach their financial goals, you can become a financial planner. Note that depending on where you live, you might need to obtain licenses to work as a financial planner.
- Personal finance coach
Or, if you want to teach people how to do it on their own, you can instead become a personal finance coach. Teach people how to track their expenses, negotiate credit cards, and more.
- Interior design consultant
If you have a great eye for interior design, you can start your own interior design business. You don’t need formal qualifications, as long as you know how to create beautiful interiors.
- Professional organizer
Love organizing? Then, become the next Marie Kondo and start your own professional organizing business. You help people organize their homes and businesses to become more productive.
- Garden planner and consultant
Do you have green fingers? And an eye for beautiful gardens? Then, you could offer your services as a garden planner and consultant.
- Pet care and grooming
Did you dream of becoming a veterinarian when you grew up? Here’s the next best thing. Help pet owners take care of, train, and groom their pets.
- Makeup artist coach
Are you someone who can talk all day about makeup? Why not teach others how to choose the right makeup for themselves and makeup techniques they can use? Or teach others how to become a makeup artist.
- Personal shopper or stylist
Love fashion? Start your own personal shopping and stylist business. As a personal shopper or stylist, you help people find their style and clothes that fit them.
- Fashion designer
Do you know how to design clothes and accessories? You can sell your services as a fashion designer. You can either design for other businesses or set up shop as a specialized designer. For example, maybe you design wedding dresses for brides.
- Haircare
If you know a thing or two about haircare, you can help people with their hair problems, teaching them things like how to take care of their hair or create hairdos.
- Crafts teacher
And if crafts are your thing, then you can teach your skills as a crafts teacher. Pottery, knitting, sewing… Whatever it is, you can teach people to improve their skills.
- Portrait photographer
You love taking photographs? Set up a portrait photography business.
- Wedding photographer
Or, a wedding photography business. And if you love traveling, why not do it as a location wedding photographer?
- Birth or newborn photographer
In fact, you can start your photography business in many different niches. For example, as a birth or newborn photographer.
- Calligraphy
Are you an amazing calligrapher? Then, use your skills to set up a calligraphy business. A huge calligraphy market? Wedding and party invites.
- Illustrator
What if you could earn your living as a painter? Start offering your services as an illustrator to businesses, magazines, and individuals.
- Cooking and baking coach
Are you always coming up with new recipes? And you love teaching? If yes, you can set up a business as a cooking and baking coach. Teach others how you create those delicious dishes so they can do the same.
- Private music teacher
And if you know how to play an instrument, you can teach that to others. Guitar, the piano… There’s so much potential for you here.
- Dance instructor
But that’s not all. If you’re a dancer, you can teach people how to dance. For example, set up online classes and show them how.
- Art consultant
Have a passion for art? As an art consultant, you can help people or businesses decorate with the right art.
- Writing coach
And if you know how to write, then why not start a business as a writing coach? As a writing coach, you help others improve their writing skills.
There you go, smart service business ideas. Now, which of these service businesses is the right one for you?
Write a quick comment here below and let us know.