Help Starting a Full Blown Business

I would create a different website for each, maybe even a different company name for each. You could have one parent company, with all the others being subsidiaries of the parent company.

This way you don't look like a jack of all trades, and master of none.
If you have a parent company, someone can write a check to the subsidiary or the parent company.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Parent Company: Aduttonater Inc.
Subsidiaries: Tucson Painting Services
Rent A Maid, Pool Cleaning By Frank, Etc.

You can do this by filing for a corporation (Inc., LLC, etc.) for each, or just the parent company.
If you only do this for the parent company, file a DBA (Doing Business As) for each subsidiary.
Then you can set up a different website for each. Which will help establish the brand. And have one of your employees "recommend" one of your other companies to the customer each month.
You can either get different phone numbers for each company, or use a forward service, like Kall8, to direct calls to one number.
With caller id you will recognize which number is for which business and answer accordingly.

Also if you have different business names, you can have different Google Places accounts.

I would take a different approach, I would build a site based on a generic keyword domain (PM'ed you an example) and build each page on the services (although I am unsure what you mean by advertisement).

There is a lot of search traffic and local traffic for your serives.

Hope that helps

John

I would contact your local chamber of commerce they usually have a lot of resources that can be helpful plus you get the opportunity to network

I concur with the second post.

Separate entities doing separate things. That can cross sell to each other.


Really.... branching off into the other services makes you lose professionalism and authority status if done all under one roof.

You would then just become a glorified handyman.

I did XMas lights as a window cleaner. We focused on high end residential so the money and lack of time to do it themesleves were there.

You can easily bring in an extra net $20,000 per year doing xmas lights.

You really have to start marketing it in October/September though. That way you can do estimates, presell, order the lights, add staff, and fill your schedule starting Nov. 25th. It will keep you busy taking them all down until mid January.

Good Money for easy work. All you need is your ladders and some lights.

So you're going to be able to get licensed, insured, bonded. Find quality help, and be able to manage this. While still competing with companies whose sole business is just one of these professions?

I think first you need to sit down, carefully think about all of this. And start writing a business plan up, if you have not already. Probably focusing on how you can increase revenue from the one business you have. Instead of trying to start 4 other one's you have no experiencing managing. Because I'm fairly certain you're lawn mower doesn't moonlight as a maid/cleaning service.

Intead focus on services that make sense for the laborors you have and poll your customers.

When it comes to any business....

Fail to plan. Plan to fail.

I wholly and absolutely concur that your best bet is to stick to one niche until you have it perfected and have a solid plan to make sure everything goes well.

A book that was suggested to me and I suggest to you is....

The Emyth by Michael Gerber.
How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie
The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

just to name a few.... that will get you started. For your planning and thought processes for starting your business off right. The Emyth

For having repeat and referral business and smooth management. The other two.

Also..... anyone can do landscaping. But not anyone can market a landscaping company.

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
and
Anything written by Dan Kennedy

You don't go to a brick mason about diamonds.

One of the irrefutable laws of Gold.

I'd suggest that you play to your strengths and partner with others regarding the other services that you want to offer your customers.

Essentially, you find people that already have established businesses in the areas that you want to enter (painting, pool cleaning, etc.).

You screen them to make sure they're going to provide quality service and work out an arrangement to get a "cut" of anyone you send their way. On the other side of the fence, you can get them to ideally send business your way for your primary service and provide them a "cut" of anything that comes from it.

Doing it this way, you can leverage the expertise, effort, and reputation of others that have already built their businesses and specialized in the areas that you're interested in entering. You'll be able to focus on bringing in new customers instead of actually "doing" the services or managing a team that's doing the work, and you'll be able to help far more people because you're able to effectively provide multiple services (even if some are through your strategic partners).

--Joshua

PS - If your question was more along the lines of legal structuring (LLC, Sole Prop, etc.), then I would suggest talking with a qualified CPA and/or attorney. Everyone's tax and liability situation is going to be different, and it's worth sitting down with someone to make sure you're protected. Especially if you're doing work on people's houses, pools, etc.