Many people glamourize the idea of being an entrepreneur. They imagine the freedom from not having a boss and not needing to show up to a job that is slowly sucking their soul from them day after day, week after week. They fantasize about being able to do what they love and make good money doing it.
As someone who has owned their own business for three years, I can confidently say that all of these things are realistic and attainable. But in order for that to become a reality, you have to find a way to market your services effectively and create a steady stream of new customers out of thin air, and quick.
For me, that avenue was through the neighborhood social media app NextDoor. Unknowingly, it would be this app that would allow me and my business partner to launch our business with relative ease for almost zero marketing cost.
And it all happened by total accident.
Our Accidental Entrepreneurship Journey
Admittedly, my story of entrepreneurship kind of just happened by total chance. It was spring of 2020. My friend, who was laid off from his restaurant job due to Covid, purchased an old truck and began getting odd jobs through the app NextDoor. Many of these jobs were people searching for someone to help them with their garden, something he had recently taken an interest in.
Using NextDoor opened the floodgates to lots of projects/ongoing maintenance opportunities for him, which led him to reach out to me to see if I’d be interested in starting a gardening business together, since I had the experience working as a gardener for another company.
For me, it was a no brainer. The pandemic had caused me to invest more of my energy into my own garden that spring and made me consider whether I could branch out on my own. When he asked if I was interested in starting the business, I jumped at the opportunity.
Some people are fully self-starters, able to go on their own and achieve whatever they want by putting their mind to it and never stopping to look back or let self-doubt enter their head. Other people require a nudge from someone else to help pursue their goal. While I am a self-starter on some things, I also needed this nudge to finally take a chance on myself and enter the world of entrepreneurship.
Starting a business on your own is intimidating, especially if you quit your current job and go all in on it. In fact, it’s not just intimidating: it’s terrifying. You have bills, obligations, and the prospect of completely failing in a very public way if it doesn’t succeed. It’s not for the faint of heart or for those who revel in comfort and predictability.
For that reason, entrepreneurship was especially appealing to me. I thrive in the moment, juggling chaos and am fueled by the desire to make something out of nothing, especially when it comes to my own career. And the thought of being in total control of my financial future is especially appealing, for all the peaks and valleys that come along with it.
NextDoor Was a Goldmine
NextDoor is an app that I had never used in any form prior to starting the business. I had heard about it in passing as a way to communicate with your neighbors about what’s happening nearby. Often, it would be people complaining about loud noise, commenting on crime, or just using it as an outlet for random worldly grievances.
For my business partner and I, it became our lifeblood for attracting clients. For a local service business, NextDoor made more sense than any other social media, as it was hyperlocalized to specific neighborhoods. This allowed us to target specific areas of the city, specifically the wealthier parts of town with large properties.
By claiming to be a resident of that neighborhood (I admittedly live in the working class part of my city), I was able to respond directly to potential clients seeking a gardener/landscaper.
Above any other form of marketing, this proved to be the biggest direct access to gaining new clients. When people would post asking for a gardener, I would comment directly on their post, tagging our business and our direct phone number under the post and providing a concise, well-written description of our services.
It worked incredibly well.
Not only would the people we responded to end up using our services, but many other people who simply saw the post would reach out directly. In effect, we discovered that responding to a person’s post could serve as a fantastic way to market our business to the neighborhood as a whole.
As someone who is a big believer in the Pareto Principle, where 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your activities, I decided to dedicate all of my energy to this outlet. Local newsletter listings, google ads, and every other marketing strategy hadn’t worked well, so instead of diversifying our avenues I decided to focus almost exclusively on NextDoor.
Instead of mindlessly doom scrolling other forms of social media, I decided to use my spare time searching for posts to respond to. For landscapers, spring and early summer are the times where people are usually seeking a gardener, whether for a new project of simply to find a new company to do their maintenance.
This strategy of persistence paid off, and we’ve been a profitable, fast-growing gardening company based in Denver for the past three years. I’d wager more than 95% of our clients have come from NextDoor, and our business reputation has continued to soar above our competitors.
If you're a fellow landscaper, a plumber, and electrician, or any other type of local service business, you absolutely need to utilize NextDoor. It's free and it allows you direct access to the types of clients you want to work with.
Your level lowered and you are now a Red Fish!
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