Most families come to me with a list. And somewhere on that list is a category they've already crossed off without a second thought.

Home services.

Too unglamorous, too hands-on, not the kind of thing either of you went to business school for.

Meanwhile, it keeps outperforming nearly everything else I work with.

In 5 years of matching people to franchise businesses, this is the category that has surprised me most because of what it actually delivers when you're inside it.

Let me show you what I mean.

A typical quick service restaurant will cost you somewhere between $600,000 and a million dollars to get off the ground.

You're signing a lease, building out a space, buying equipment, hiring a full staff, etc. And this entire process before you open your doors can take more than a year. That’s a long time. Compared to the Home Services businesses, that can be up and start running in a few weeks or months.

A well-run home services franchise? Total startup costs often come in around $200,000. Sometimes less.

The margins are higher.

The payback period is faster.

And you're not lying awake wondering if enough people walked past your storefront today.

This is the part that surprises most families.

Neither of you is the one fixing the HVAC unit or cleaning the gutters.

You're running a business that delivers those services.

One of you can handle sales and client relationships, the other operations and the team - or however you naturally split it.

That's the part that makes this model work so well for two people building together, especially when one of you wants to keep a paycheck coming in while the other gets the business off the ground.

In most home services models, the actual work gets done by either subcontractors or W-2 employees, depending on the model.

These are skilled tradespeople who are excellent at what they do but have no interest in running a business themselves. And this work is also done by folks with no special skills other than those who are trained. This way, they earn more and have a steady career path by working for a franchise.

They want steady, reliable work. You provide that - together.

The umbrella advantage.

A lot of the strongest home services franchises sit inside larger parent companies.

Neighborly is the best known, with 19 different brands covering everything from heating and air conditioning to appliance repair to restoration.

Being inside one of these umbrellas matters more than most families realize.

You're not just buying into a single brand.

You're getting the buying power, the operational infrastructure, and the vendor relationships of a much larger organization. The discounts and rebates alone can meaningfully impact your margins.

They also come with sales, marketing, and call center support that your local mom and pop competition can't compete with.

It's one of the structural advantages that makes home services so strong - and so much easier for two people to run without either of you being stretched too thin.

Why this moment is particularly good.

People will always need their roof fixed, their HVAC serviced, their gutters cleared. These aren't discretionary purchases that disappear when the economy gets uncertain. When something breaks, it needs to get fixed.

That kind of stability matters even more when you're building something as a family - you want a business that holds up, not one you're crossing your fingers over.

Home services aren't the right fit for everyone. If neither of you has any interest in this world, that matters.

The best franchise owners are families who can get genuinely engaged in what they're building, regardless of the category.

Exciting categories attract a lot of cutthroat competition. That's the part nobody mentions. So, if you've been ruling home services out because it doesn't sound exciting enough, that's worth reconsidering.

The most successful franchise placements I've made haven't always been in the flashiest categories.

They've been in businesses where the economics were right, the model was proven, and the family was willing to build something real together.

Home services keep showing up on that list.

If you want to see what options might be open in your area, let's talk.

Book a call at meetings.hubspot.com/keith-liscio

Ever upward!

Keith Liscio