What service to provide in a unique & competitive area?

[dannyking]

I've been looking into service based businesses and following sweatystartup for a while but have been unable to find one that suits my area.

It's a unique place. It's a massive UK tourist hotspot with a very small local population. The locals are either working class or poor (one of the poorest towns in the country is nearby) or very rich and not much in-between.

Unfortunately, because of the unique nature of the place, many talented people move here to relocate their businsesses and therefore it is really saturated with high quality service businesses.

The normal areas that /r/sweatystartup suggests to beat these competition don't seem to exist. All of the top 5-10 companies listed on local area google have great reviews, answer the phone instantly, are friendly and polite, smart and punctual and even reasonable (or even somewhat cheap) priced. I know this because I've been calling & booking with lots of them, plus asking around for opinions. Most of them even hold relevant qualifications and have loads of experience too.

These are all of the businesses I have considered and researched directly over the last few months:

1. Property management / Airbnb management
2. Lawncare, basic gardening
3. Knife Sharpening
4. Pressure washing
5. Window cleaning
6. Basic carpentry
7. Deliveries / local courier
8. Wholesale supply to local hotels/restaurants
9. Stone walling & repairs
10. Car cleaning / detailing
11. Linen cleaning and replacement for hotel/b&b's
12. Basic property maintenence

While I could offer a competing service in any of these areas, it would end up being simply a "me too" business and not able to stand out based on customer service, service quality or punctuality. Just shaving off part of someone elses profits and being basically the same doesnt seem like a great way for a sustainable business to me.

I'd love to hear what people on here, or even /@mariusk would do in this situation? Come up with some unique idea? Move areas? Give up on service based businesses for this area? Something else?

 

[dannyking]

@casie Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't thought of appliance repair as I didn't think it was very popular in the UK. However, a quick search shows 10 appliance repair companies with 20+ 4-5 star reviews locally. Means it's a viable business but I will need to call around to check on prices and response times.

 

[casie]

@dannyking

call around to check on prices and response times.

You might be able to find prices, but a lot of places keep them "secret" and even if they tell you the rates, it doesn't really mean anything since they can change parts prices or charge by the job.

As for "on time" you'll probably have to ask your friends and neighbors if the guy they called actually showed up or was on time, since everybody says they'll do it, but few actually do.

The best way to see what people are charging is to ask your friends to ask all their friends what they had fixed and what it actually cost them. Bonus points if they can show you the actual receipt.

 

[misslindabeaz]

@casie Does showing up on time require scheduling longer blocks per call? Do you specialize in an appliance/brand, or are you more generalist?

 

[anonbeliever]

@casie I’m going to try for this. Maybe it’ll fill my void of purpose

 

[aries_113]

@casie Showing up when you say you will!!! Everytime I have had to call an appliance guy they are always late and it bugs the hell out of me

 

[casie]

@aries_113 I get more compliments on this than anything else.

My website gives actual appointments. The schedule is live. So if you want Friday @ 2PM, and you click the button, Friday @ 2PM I'll be ringing your doorbell.

 

[taters1]

@dannyking Could you provide an all in one service for the businesses that accommodate the tourists?

Maybe you are a one-stop-shop middleman for organising all their promotional items? T-shirts, touristy items, signs, etc?

Something they all sell or supply to tourists that makes their lives easier? Like if it was a surf town, repair wetsuits and surfboards, for example?

Or even provide that service directly to all the tourists? Eg stand up paddle board rental with delivery and collection to their accomodation? Tell all the airbnb businesses and they can include your information in their welcome packs?

Seems like all the tourists themselves could be a market to aim your service at, if you can't create a service for the local businesses.

 

[dannyking]

@taters1 Focusing on the tourists is a good idea around here, which is why we have so many tourist related businesses. I like your idea of being the middle-man for supplying them in some way though.

Things like paddle board rental are done to death here (loads of adventure type companies) but there may be other angles like that available. Bespoke supply of something all of these tourist businesses need regularly. Of course there are already lots of printers, web design places, wholesale food and drink delivery and that kind of thing. Doesn't mean they're all great though, perhaps there is a gap to be exploited.

 

[taters1]

@dannyking Good luck - it sounds like you are really analysing the potential opportunities and thinking this through.

 

[dannyking]

@taters1 I'm trying! Thanks for the suggestions

 

[613jono]

@dannyking Is it Cornwall per chance?

 

[dannyking]

@613jono No but very similar area

 

[aprilsingsalot]

@dannyking If tourism is the biggest aspect of your community then that would indicate a Food or Memorabilia, maybe guide like business. Tourists always lose their phone chargers, so a street vendor selling phone chargers and doing screen replacements could work. Grind like hell then get yourself into some AirBNB/Bookings properties.

If you have access to a pickup truck or small moving truck then doing the appliance repair/resale arena sounds like the way to go.

 

[dannyking]

@aprilsingsalot Loads of food, gifts and guides business around here yes. Phone chargers is one I hadn't thought of though honestly it doesn't get me too interested.

Appliance repair/resale is a good one, currently researching that to see if it will work

 

[seekinggodjesus]

@dannyking I struggled in a town with a small population. Mostly retired or college students. I ran into a problem with local incomes being too low.

Once I moved to a bigger pond there were no problems.

Your description of the area worries me. Hawaii / Maui businesses can have similar problems because they rely so heavily on tourism. But it might be worth looking at other cities like yours to see what might be missing?

Also if a lot of the businesses are very established, you can still gain a foothold by beating them with decent online marketing. Paying for some ads and building a website and GMB page.

 

[dannyking]

@seekinggodjesus Yeah that's my worry too, that I'd have to move because most people here are willing to accept less just so they can live in such a nice place. It's the kind of place that would be so much better to be retired or a millionaire already.

I get what you're saying about online marketing but around here that's a tough area to compete because a lot of people move up from London and are very experienced in that already.

 

[tom112]

@dannyking I see you are considering a deliveries/local courier business. Can you act like a small warehouse for merchandise like what Wish puts on the market ? (they are terrible with paying, by the way)

We were thinking about something similar (my partner has plenty of experience in building e-commerce websites, he also builds the hosting servers for them from scratch).

There is a need for an independently owned warehouses network across the UK, for the quick selling goods, to compete with the big players and make storage affordable and efficient.

 

[dannyking]

@tom112 Interesting idea! How do you even get started with something like that? I can see how renting some storage space with loading docks is needed, perhaps some software to manage some of the logistics but when you say "there is a need for..." who exactly is looking for this kind of thing?

 

[tom112]

@dannyking Wish merchands have very tight time frames for delivery to get paid (for Express merchands that is 5 postal working days, with a hefty fee to pay back to Wish if the order is not delivered within that time frame). How do they manage to fulfill their orders? Pickup locations is one answer: small warehouses that have a stock of the product stored and where you as a buyer can go and collect it. These small warehouses (simply storage spaces, really) are employed through https://www.wish.com/local and are not being paid for time/space while holding the products, only per item sold (picked up from their location).

So why do businesses use Wish? Because the owners cannot create websites, buy domains etc. Why do local shops act as warehouses for them? Maybe because there is no competition.