15 ideas to turn neighbours into customers

Hey,

This is Pat, founder of Starter Story — I wanted to give a warm welcome to the 994 people who joined us since our last newsletter. To anyone reading this, your support means a lot! I hope you enjoy reading our content as much as we enjoy creating it.

Three times per week I write this email to share the lessons we learned after talking to successful founders around the world.

If you're not interested in our emails, you can unsubscribe here.

Together with Vitally

How confident are you in your customer health scores? How about your ability to identify customers who are ripe for expansion or at risk of churning? 

Vitally will enable your Customer Success team to stop your customers from roaming.

Easily identify high churn risk customers and be proactive in helping them reach their desired outcomes.

Take a qualified demo* of Vitally & Collect your speaker.

15 Ideas To Turn Neighbours Into Customers

Every neighbour in the world presents tons of money-making opportunities because every household needs certain products and services. Also, these may vary depending on the neighbourhood that you’re targeting, of course. 

There are many upsides to this like strengthening your ties with the community and expanding your network.

Plus, this is the perfect way to start a side hustle. Just spend a couple of hours per week working on it to see if the idea you picked gets traction and you can start investing more time on it. 

If your customers are happy, recommendations will spread like wildfire.

Many of these business ideas are super simple, pretty easy to start, require a very low investment, and can help you start making money right away.

Keep reading and check the list to see if any of them is the right one for you. And remember that, as always, they’re all backed by real-life case studies you can learn a lot.

#1. Become the tech go-to person

Many people, especially the elderly need help with electronic devices. 

With just an internet setup or a quick TV fix can help you make a couple of easy-earned tens of dollars.

Smartphones, tablets, wifi, setting up Disney+ in the TV,... there are tons of services and devices you can take care of.

Real case study: This guy got mad for paying $300 to repair his phone he decided to start a business… today makes $120K/month fixing computers and tablets.

#2. Offer plumbing services

If you’re like me and the only thing you know about plumbing is a guy called Mario, anything related to pipes and drains feels like dark magic.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of plumbing that can unplug pipes or repair a dripping faucet can earn decent money this way.

Most people would love to be able to text a neighbor that could quickly come fix those. 

Well, you could be that person and easily make $30-40 per hour.

Suggested case study: This guy learnt from his father and now makes $40K/month with a plumbing business.

#3. Run a DIY car wash

Go to the store to get some cheap supplies, and leave some handmade leaflets on the dirtiest cars you see in the street.

A hand car wash can usually cost around $20 to $30. If you can do one car per day, that’s an extra $1K you can add to your income.

Learn how to start: After 17 years in the tech industry, left his job to start a car detailing service that makes $5K/month.

#4. Babysitting

If you’re good with kids, you got a money-making skill.

Depending on where you live this service could cost up to $25 per hour.

To maximize profits, organize sleepovers with multiple kids or offer a higher-priced last-minute service.

Do you have friends that are also good at doing it? Start running a crew!

Crazy real story: This nanny started her own business and she’s been able to grow it to $940K/month.

#5. Start a cleaning service

Like most house chores cleaning can be a pain. Especially when you have a full-time job and have to take care of children.

Around 10% of U.S. households paid for a house cleaning service last year. That means that 1 in 10 of your neighbors is likely to hire you to do it.

Hack: Focus on getting the customers and then pay someone else that you trust to do the actual work and get a cut. (You could apply this to most of these ideas).

Related case study: This former office worker started a cleaning side hustle that went from $400 per week to $100K/month.

#6. Lawn mowing

Did you buy a lawn mower that you only use once or twice per month?

Put that investment to work and generate money with it.

This is another task people despise doing. Take advantage of that.

Next level: This guy started Uber for lawn care and it grew to a $30M business.

#7. Take care of people’s pets

It can be dog walking, pet sitting, or simply stopping by every day to feed the fish while the owners are on vacation.

Easy peasy and super enjoyable.

Real story: Looking for part-time jobs to make extra money, this student came across a dog-walking gig. That was the spark which made him start an $8K/month pet care business.

#8. Start a pool cleaning service

It’s awesome to have a pool (I guess) but it’s also a bit of a pain to keep it clean and keep it properly maintained.

Nobody wants to spend 30 minutes removing leaves and dead flies before jumping into the water!

You can get a set of basic cleaning tools for $60 bucks and start offering this service. Even better, offer the service and get the equipment once you’ve closed a couple of clients.

Copy this strategy: How this guy makes $8K/month cleaning pools.

#9. Sell stuff online

People’s houses are full of old stuff they’d like to get rid of but that’s usually at the bottom of their priorities.

Start a service and do it for them.

Sell that stuff on eBay, Craigslist, etc. and make a cut of the revenue or charge a fixed price per item.

Added bonus: You can build an account with an extraordinary reputation and reviews that you can later use to sell your own stuff.

Learn from this: Generating $10K per month selling stuff on eBay.

#10. Help kids with their homework

This is a suuuper easy business idea to start.

Some kids do need help because it’s harder for them to understand some concepts.

But most parents will pay just to create the habit of working on their homework every day at the same time.

If you’re able to land a couple of customers and fill your afternoon schedule, this could generate thousands of dollars per month.

How to do it: See how this college student started a $15K/month tutoring business as a side hustle.

#11. Let’s get fit

Do you play sports? Work at a gym? Are you a yoga teacher?

You can gather a group of people once or twice per week at your place or go to the park to do some exercise.

If they enjoy it they’ll be happy to invite friends, etc.

Real case study: How this yoga teacher makes $6K/month by doing her classes anywhere.

#12. Become the neighbour’s Master Chef

As you may have noticed, people pay money in exchange for services that save time.

Cooking takes time (even more if you include the shopping, etc).

If you can cook delicious meals, just make larger batches and sell them!

Start a group text: “For tomorrow we have a delicious veggie lasagna, who wants some?”

Get 10 orders, charge $6, 4 days per week, that’s an extra $1K per month in your pocket.

Unreal story: This woman went from selling homemade snacks to building a $36M company.

#13. Sell homemade soap and cosmetics

These supplies are necessary for every household.

Wouldn’t it be better if you could get them from a neighbour instead that giving your money to an evil corporation that uses lots of dangerous chemicals? Plus, free delivery to your door.

I’m sold!

These can be done in your kitchen. And once you get the hang of it, you can get creative with the scents and ingredients.

Real case study: These two moms make an extra couple thousand dollars per month selling homemade body butter.

#14. Start a junk removal service

The only requirement for this is owning (or being able to borrow) a truck and a pair of gloves.

Spot a neighbour doing some renovations? That’s a potential customer right there! Just knock on their door and offer your services.

This is such a profitable business that these digital marketers shut down their agency to go full time with their eco-friendly junk removal business and now they bank $15K per month.

#15. Just turn your skills into a service you can sell

Are you good at graphic design? Offer people to create their Christmas cards, wedding invitations and other materials.

Can you build a website? See if there are business owners that don’t have one yet.

Got a big car? Offer people to share their groceries list and charge $10 to do the shopping for them.

Get creative!

Together with Vitally

Stop Guessing What Your Customers Think (About You)

Vitally is the best way to predict when a customer is going to churn way before it happens.

Take your Customer Success to the next level thanks to its:

• Effortless setup.
• API that can aggregate customer data from anywhere.
• Highly customisable views and dashboards for one-glance insights.
• Easy to use and intuitive interface.

Plus, it’ll also help you make more money by providing your sales team with upsell opportunities and recommendations for new use cases to your client base.

Book a demo today and get a free Sonos Speaker© as a thank you gift ($200 value)

 

Quick hitters