How to Start a Business
Opening a Driveway Sealing Business
Starting a driveway sealing business? We cover everything you ought to think about before starting a driveway sealing business.
Thinking about opening a driveway sealing business? We tell you what you need to know to get started.
Breaking Into Driveway Sealing
For new entrepreneurs, low barriers to entry in the driveway sealing industry can be both a blessing and a curse. Although it doesn't cost much to get started, driveway sealing companies come and go at a fast clip, making it difficult for serious entrepreneurs to capture enough business to sustain a viable business over the long-term.
The best advice for new driveway sealing business owners is to treat your business like a business. If you approach your business like a money-making hobby, that's all it will ever be -- a hobby. But if you are committed to applying sound entrepreneurial principles to your startup, you'll have a much better chance of rising above the din and clamor of a crowded competitive field.
Customer Acquisition Tips for Driveway Sealing Startups
Forget about leveraging service characteristics to boost your pricing model. In general, consumers view driveway sealing as a commodity: as long as the asphalt has been sealed properly, one provider is just as good as the next.
When it comes to revenue generation, the name of the game is customer acquisition. The provider that is most capable of converting homeowners to customers is the one that will rise to the top of the pack.
- Local Advertising. Driveway sealing is a local business. With that in mind, you will need to heavily advertise your business through marketing channels that target local residents. Community newspapers, flyers and other promotional vehicles are essential for establishing your company as a reputable local asphalt sealing provider.
- Door Hangers. Door hanger promotions are an effective way to reach and convert driveway sealing customers. With typical rates ranging from $50-$100, driveway sealing is often an impulse home improvement purchase. You'll be surprised by the amount of business you get from having your brand and pricing featured at the right place at the right time.
- Online Advertising. Since few driveway sealing companies advertise online, an online promotional push can give your driveway sealing startup the extra firepower it needs to compete during the busy spring and summer season. Social media sites like Facebook allow you to target online ads to specific zip codes and customer demographics, driving prospects to a business website where you can offer a mechanism for them to request a quote or book your services.
Writing a Business Plan for a Driveway Sealing Business
Does your driveway sealing business have a business plan? If not, your company is lacking a critical business tool. With the right ingredients, a business plan can help your startup secure financing, attract investors and execute a strategy for growth.
To assist your efforts, you may want to consider enlisting the aid of a professional business plan writer.
Time and time again, the best entrepreneurs we see rely on professionally crafted plans to guide their decision making. Even so, we caution new business owners against removing themselves entirely from the business plan creation process.
Startup entrepreneurs are well advised to materially participate in the writing process, even after they have engaged a proven professional.
Investigate the Competition
Long before you open a driveway sealing business within your community, it's worthwhile to find out how you will fit in the competitive landscape. We've provided the link below to help you generate a list of competitors nearby. After clicking on the link, type in your city, state and zip code to get a list of driveway sealing businesses near you.
Is the established competition doing a good job? It's important to understand their strengths and weaknesses and think through how you'll stake up against those established businesses.
Learn from Others Who Are Already In This Space
After you've evaluated your local competitors, it's essential that you learn as much as you can from somebody who is already in the business. It's very unlikely that the local competition will talk to you. Why would they want to educate a future competitor?
Fortunately, somebody who runs a driveway sealing business in a different city may be willing to share their entrepreneurial wisdom with you, as long as they don't view you as a competitive threat. Many business owners are happy to give advice to new entrepreneurs In my experience, you may have to call ten business owners in order to find one who is willing to share his wisdom with you.
How do you go about finding an entrepreneur who is running a driveway sealing business outside of your area who is willing to talk?
Easy. Find them using our link below and start calling until you are successful.
Is It Easier to Buy an Existing Driveway Sealing Business?
Tough decisions are what business ownership is all about. And one of the first decisions you'll have to make is whether to start a business from scratch or buy an existing driveway sealing business.
Time and time again, we see entrepreneurs struggle to launch a new driveway sealing business when they could have bought a first-rate driveway sealing business. When you buy an established driveway sealing business, you gain access to a functional business operation with a customer base and a steady revenue stream.
Entrepreneurs who are committed to a highly unique value proposition may need to pursue a startup approach. However, in today's business-for-sale marketplace, there is an abundance of driveway sealing businesses worth considering.
Consider Franchising
The probabilities on your achieving your top business goals greatly improve when you choose to franchise and benefit from the prior work of others and their lessons learned.
As part of your process in starting a driveway sealing business, you may want to determine whether buying a franchise could be worth investigating.
The link below gives you access to our franchise directory so you can see if there's a franchise opportunity for you. You might even find something that points you in a completely different direction.
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