If by a ‘good career path’ you mean one that has the potential for a good salary as well as plenty of room to grow and learn new things, then yes, going into business services is an excellent career path! Below I will outline what fields you could specialize in business services, and how to pursue a career in each one. If you are planning on going into the software side of business services, then I also have a coupon you can use for certification courses.
What are business services?
While business services can apply to quite a range of things, it mostly just means that your customers are other businesses rather than direct consumers. You might offer to handle bookkeeping, janitorial and maintenance work, or advertising for other businesses. While they are myriad, let’s take a look at a few examples of high-value business services and what you can do to get into those fields.
Legal Services
Unless a company is very large, they typically won’t have a legal team on retainer as it’s quite expensive. For most small to mid-size businesses it makes the most sense to hire legal help on an as-needed basis for things like setting up a corporation, trademarking, or in the unfortunate event that legal action is being taken against them. As a business that provides legal services, you might decide to specialize even further and work with specific types of businesses, or to provide only specific types of legal services. As we like to say, the riches are in the niches!
Now, to provide legal services you either need to be a lawyer or hire lawyers. Neither of which are inexpensive prospects, but on the flip side legal services are very necessary and most businesses are happy to pay a premium for them. It can definitely be a very lucrative career.
Consulting Services
Typically a consultant is brought in when a business is at a major turning point, such as changing management or being on the verge of bankruptcy. Consultants provide strategy, they do not usually oversee actual implementation. That is the responsibility of the company that contracts them. If you’re a person who loves coming up with ideas and plans but doesn’t enjoy executing on them, then offering consulting services might be a great fit for you. You could consult on a variety of topics such as sales and marketing strategy, improving processes and workflow, developing organizational structure, or budget and finances.
There aren’t really any requirements to be a consultant, but it does help to have a proven track record in your area. Whether it was through a traditional employee role, or even friends and family that you helped in the past, gather those testimonials. You’ll need social proof and a good marketing strategy to get your consulting business off the ground. There isn’t really a standard rate for the industry either, so you can set your prices at whatever you like.
IT Services
This is a big one for a lot of small businesses. Most business owners don’t have the time to learn how to build a website and set up email on top of, you know, actually running their business. IT services are also what most business owners seem to run into trouble with when outsourcing. To save a few bucks they got their niece to set up their website a few years ago and now it’s hopelessly out of date and she no longer has the time to keep it updated. Or they hired a freelancer who has completely disappeared, and now the custom contact form they built for the website isn’t functioning.
My point is, IT problems cause a lot of headaches for business owners and they aren’t typically problems they can just solve on their own. You can make a very lucrative career out of being able to make that pain go away for other people. There are some credentials and certifications that may be necessary or at the least very helpful to have, but reliability, people skills, and quick thinking and research skills will go a lot farther.
And many more options
Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business services. I picked a handful to highlight that have good potential for earning as well as professional growth, but there are many, many more. Whatever field you choose to go into (in business services or otherwise), your success and overall fulfillment ultimately comes down to the attitude that you bring to your work. Remember that it’s up to you whether you love your job or hate your job.