WHY DO I NEED TO DEVELOP A SERVICE OFFERING?

When you’re establishing a concrete floor coatings business, there are numerous factors to take into account. Your focus might revolve around identifying a reliable supplier, acquiring the necessary equipment and tools, and determining your pricing structure. However, before delving too deeply into these aspects, it’s crucial to ensure that you have a well-rounded and manageable range of services to offer to your prospective customers.

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Maintaining simplicity in your service offering is crucial for effectively managing and growing your business. One of your first objectives in developing your business plan should be to carefully select a target market and specific product offerings and concentrate all your resources and efforts in that direction. By doing so, you can channel your focus and expertise, optimizing your business processes and strategies to cater to the needs and demands of your chosen market. Simply put, you can’t be everything to everyone. It’s better to be a master of one particular area than provide mediocre or subpar services across the board.

Although it may be tempting to provide a broad offering that will appeal to a large target market, attempting to serve too many markets can have a detrimental effect on your growth trajectory. The inherent complexity of managing a wide range of applications in different markets can potentially slow down your business’s expansion. Moreover, training installers becomes a more intricate and resource-consuming task when dealing with a broad range of applications and market dynamics. Minimize the number of flooring systems and potential options you will offer and be sure to have suppliers setup that can quickly provide materials for your projects.

By adhering to a focused approach and specializing in a specific market and product offering, you position your business for more efficient growth and operational excellence while ensuring that your team of installers can be effectively trained and proficient in delivering high-quality services.

So, now that you understand why it is important to focus your service offering, what does that look like? There are quite a few areas that you can choose to build from so we’ve put together a quick graphic to show you the six main areas of focus.

POTENTIAL SERVICE OFFERINGS

Residential Garage Flooring:
• Color Chip Flooring; 2-Day and 1-Day systems
• Solid Color Systems
• Metallic Flooring

Residential Exteriors:
• Driveways
• Patios
• Color Chip Flooring
• Solid Colors Systems
• Stains & Clear Sealer Systems

Pool Decks & Exteriors:
• Deck Repair and Restoration
• Installation of New Pool Deck Systems
• IE Knock-Down Texture
• Faux Flagstone Overlay
• ECT

Residential Interiors:
• Concrete Polishing
• Stains & Clear Sealer Systems
• Grind and Seal Systems
• Metallic Flooring.

Commercial Flooring:
• Concrete Polishing
• Concrete Sealer Systems
• Grind and Seal Applications
• Thin-Film Epoxy Coatings
• Color Chip Flooring Systems
• Metallic Flooring
• High-Build Systems
• Epoxy Broadcast Systems
• Urethane Cement

Industrial Flooring:
• Thin-Film Epoxy Coatings
• High-Build Epoxy Broadcast Systems
• Urethane Cement
• Concrete Repair

NARROWING IT DOWN: QUALIFYING QUESTIONS TO ASK

When you’re looking at these potential service offering categories, you’ll want to consider some qualifying aspects that will ultimately help you land on the best offering for your company.

1. Expertise & Experience: Do you have an area of expertise or extensive experience? If so, this is a great place to start. For example, if you’ve been installing epoxy color chip garage floors for years, you might look closer at garage flooring, residential flooring or commercial flooring. If your experience falls within multiple categories, you should next determine if you are able to provide the full range of installations within that area.

2. Education & Training: Do you require training and education before you can confidently provide quality services within a specific offering? If you simply need to round out your training on one or two systems types, that may be attainable but be sure that you have the time and resources to commit.

3. Installers & Labor: Do you have access to qualified installers and labor for the service area that you are interested in or will you be working solo? If you are working alone, it’s important to develop an offering that you can confidently manage on your own. Taking on too much can cause quality and efficiency to suffer and creates trust and credibility issues for your business. If you need to hire installers and labor to carry out your installations, it’s important that you have access to industry networks that help to facilitate job searches and hiring.

4. Training: What’s necessary for the training of new employees? Establishing a training program for new recruits is advantageous for all businesses. The primary aim is to create uniformity, quality, and efficiency across all of your installations. If your goal is for your business to operate seamlessly, it’s imperative to onboard each employee, providing them with the knowledge of installation procedures and the company’s expectations. The greater the number of systems and system options you provide, the more time and resources will be demanded for employee training. This can also make it more challenging to sustain consistency across all tasks, ensuring that every job is executed correctly. Keep this in mind as you develop your service offering.

5. Colors, Options & System Options: What colors, options, and system types will you offer to your customers? Within each service offering, there exists a multitude of system types and options, each offering a range of colors and choices, including the possibility of custom orders. If your aim is to streamline and simplify your offering, it may be wise to limit the number of systems, colors, and options you provide. Not only does this make the decision process easier for customers, but it also grants you greater control over your business operations, ensuring efficiency and coherence in your services. By carefully curating your selection, you can tailor your offerings to meet specific customer needs while maintaining a manageable and profitable business model.

6. Target Audience: Do you have a clear understanding of your target audience? If not, conducting research on this specific demographic is paramount. Understanding their purchasing behaviors, income levels, influential factors, and general demographics can help you fine-tune your communication and marketing strategies. When your messaging and product offerings align with the values and needs of your audience, it increases the likelihood of creating strong and enduring relationships with your customers. This, in turn, fosters brand loyalty and encourages repeat business. Furthermore, audience research can provide valuable insights into new opportunities for products or services, as well as potential enhancements to your existing offerings, promoting innovation and ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction.

7. Supplier: Do you have a supplier that stocks the materials, tools and products that you will need for your service offering? You want to ensure that you’ve got a good working relationship with a supplier that stocks materials that align with your needs. For example, if the majority of your systems will be epoxy or polyurethane based coatings, be sure to choose a supplier that stocks a robust line of these materials and the tools to work with them. Ideally your supplier will also provide field support and training in the areas specific to your service offering.
Dedicate time to address each of these questions in order to construct an overview of your service offerings. Subsequently, you can further fine-tune and enhance them. The primary objective is to simplify and guarantee the manageability and sustainability of your business. Once your business experiences growth and operates smoothly, you can contemplate expansion when you’re confident and prepared to do so.

NOTE: Last month, we posted an article called “10 Tips for New Concrete Coatings Contractors” that outlines important factors that can set you on the right track to ensure a strong start in the industry. This article provides a fundamental framework for your business development. If you missed it, pop over and give it a read.

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