15 spots · Cohort 01
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15 spots · Cohort 01

Start your service
business this June.
Together.

A free 4-week program for 15 Australians launching local service businesses.

Four Saturday mornings online, starting 20 June 2026. From idea to first paying customer by 1 August — or we keep going until you do.

Professional window cleaner with equipment approaching an Australian suburban home
Why now02

Roles are changing.
Demand is shifting.

Some roles are quieter than they used to be. Costs are higher. Australians are spending differently — more on local services, more on the things that make daily life work.

Lawns still need mowing. Dogs still need grooming. Houses still need cleaning. Cars still need detailing. The work that has to happen in person, near where people live, isn't going anywhere. And the people doing it well are in higher demand than ever.

That's why we built Service Starters. To help fifteen Australians at a time start a local service business and land their first paying customers. It's not overnight success. It's a start.

The bet03

A small bet that
pays itself back.

Affordable
to start

A second-hand mower, basic supplies. Most gear pays itself back in weeks of work.

Money in
days

Time-to-revenue is measured in days, not years.

Recurring
work

One good job becomes monthly. The same lawn next month, the same dog next groom.

Customers tell
their neighbours

The next customer comes from the last one telling theirs.

Slow to grow into something big.
Fast to start.

The kind of business you can begin on a Saturday — and still be running ten years from now.

What you might start04

What people will pay you to do.

Real services. Already in every Australian suburb. We don't teach you the work — we teach you how to turn it into a business.

Lawn & garden

Mowing. Edging. Hedge trimming. Garden tidies.

Professional lawn mowing service
Garden edging and landscaping
Hedge trimming service
Garden maintenance and tidies
Professional lawn care equipment
Professional lawn mowing service

Cleaning

Residential. Commercial. End-of-lease. Builders cleans.

Professional cleaning service
Residential cleaning service
Commercial cleaning service
End-of-lease cleaning
Builders cleaning service
Professional cleaning equipment

Pet services

Mobile grooming. Dog walking. Pet sitting. Training.

Mobile pet grooming service
Professional dog walking
Pet sitting service
Dog training session
Pet care professional
Mobile pet services

Mobile trades & handy work

Handyman. Painting. Repairs. Small builds.

Professional handyman service
Painting and decorating
Home repair services
Small building projects
Mobile trades service

Beauty, hair & wellness

Hair. Beauty. Massage. Personal training.

Professional hair styling service
Beauty treatment service
Massage therapy session
Personal training service
Wellness and wellbeing service

Specialist services

Detailing. Pool servicing. Pressure washing. Tutoring. Personal cooking. Aged care.

Car detailing service
Pool servicing and maintenance
Pressure washing service
Private tutoring service
Specialist cleaning service
Professional specialty service

Don't see yours? If it's local, hands on, and people will pay for it, it probably fits.

The program05

Day 0 is a plan. Day 1 is a first paying customer.

Day Zero
0

A plan you can act on. Pricing set. Service named.

Day One
1

A first paying customer. Money in your account.

Most people don't fail because the work is hard. They fail because they can't see what "start" actually looks like. Service Starters takes you from one to the other. Four Saturdays. Fifteen people. That's the whole job.

Nik Leigh, founder and facilitator
Nik Leigh

Hey,

For 12 years I helped people start service businesses. Not as a coach or consultant, but as the franchisor of a brand that grew from one location to over 30 across Australia and New Zealand. Some of those operators built something they loved. Some didn't. That's how it goes.

I exited in 2024, and since then I've spent a lot of time with existing and aspiring service business owners. The pattern I keep noticing is that people who haven't started are trying to solve problems they don't have yet — scaling, hiring, route efficiency, fancy branding, the perfect business name — when none of that matters until you have a paying customer.

That's what led me to build Service Subscriber, and it's why I'm launching Service Starters now. There's a lot of people sitting on a real skill or a real idea who just need a structured month to actually start. So that's what we're doing. Fifteen people, four Saturdays, real businesses by August.

— Nik

Looking forward to meeting you.

Four Saturdays06

Four Saturdays. One real business at the end.

  1. 01
    Offer · Sat 20 Jun

    Pick it. Price it. Switch it on.

    Define the offer, set pricing the right way, get your page live. By Sunday night, someone could find you, book you, and pay.

  2. 02
    Reach · Sat 27 Jun

    Get in front of real customers.

    Map your channels, design a flyer, send it to print, start warm outreach. The hardest week, but the one that brings customers to your door.

  3. 03
    Deliver · Sat 04 Jul

    Get ready to deliver.

    The systems, the show-up, the ask-for-the-next. Most first customers land in week 3 or 4 — be ready when yours does.

  4. 04
    Work · Sat 11 Jul

    Build the rhythm that compounds.

    Read what's working. Set the weekly rhythm. The program ends. The work doesn't.

A Saturday morning07

What a Saturday actually looks like.

9:30am

Coffee in hand. Log into Zoom. Fifteen of us.

9:35am

Quick check-in. What we're working through this week.

9:50am

The week's teach. Pricing. Channels. Delivery. Whatever this Saturday is.

10:30am

We work the exercise together. Real numbers, real decisions.

10:50am

Questions, sticking points, peer feedback.

11:00am

We close. The week's work begins.

What you get08

What you get.

The promise09
August 2026 1 Saturday

First paying customer by 1 August.

If you've shown up every Saturday, done the homework, and still haven't landed a paying customer by 1 August — I'll personally work with you 1-on-1 for another 30 days. Free. No fine print. No "but actually." If you do the work, I'll keep going until you get there.

— Nik

What this isn't10

A list of things this isn't.

A course. A video library. A $2,000 coaching upsell at the end. A Discord where you're on your own. A mindset retreat.

It's also not for ecommerce, dropshipping, digital products, agencies, or online-only anything. Service Starters is for real local services — someone pays you to do something for them, in person, near them.

And it's not for people who haven't worked out how they'll deliver the work. We help you find your first customers. The means of delivering — equipment, vehicle, supplies, whatever it takes — needs to be sorted, borrowed, or planned before we start.

The honest answers11

Questions you're probably asking.

01Is starting a service business actually a good idea right now?

Better than most alternatives. Service businesses are local, hands-on, paid in cash, and unautomatable. They survived every economic shift of the last hundred years and they'll survive this one. The barrier to start is lower than it's ever been; the demand is steady. The harder question isn't whether to start — it's why you haven't yet.

02Why service businesses, of all things?

Because they reward showing up. Because nobody is going to offshore your local lawn round, automate your dog grooming, or build an AI that fixes a leaky tap on Sunday morning. Because the most boring businesses are also the most resilient. And because the time-to-first-dollar is days, not years — which matters when you need this to work.

03Is this really free, or is there a catch?

Really free. No card, no tier, no upsell. Service Subscriber (my company) funds it because it's how we find the people who'll use the tool. That's the whole business model — said out loud.

04What if I don't have an idea yet?

That's fine. You need a skill you could honestly sell locally. We help you turn it into the business in week one.

05What if my service doesn't fit a subscription?

Service Subscriber works best for services with some repeat cadence, but the program helps anyone launching a local service business. If yours is genuinely one-off, we'll point you to the right tool. No hard sell.

06What if I can't make every Saturday?

Miss one and you'll be fine. Miss two and you'll struggle. Sessions aren't recorded — showing up with the group is what makes it work. If you genuinely can't commit four Saturdays, wait for Cohort 02.

07Why should I apply instead of starting alone?

You absolutely can start alone. Most people don't — they think about it for another year. Four weeks, 14 people doing it with you, and a specific week you land your first customer is what turns thinking into doing.

08I already have a few customers. Is this still for me?

If you have under 5 and want the structure to grow properly, yes. If you have 10+ and you're looking to scale, this isn't the right program — different stage, different work.

09I've tried other programs and they didn't work. Why would this?

Most programs are content libraries with a Discord attached. You watch videos alone, and the watching is mistaken for progress. This isn't that. We're 15 people in the same Zoom on Saturday mornings, doing the same week's work, with one week to land a customer. The accountability is the program.

10What if my partner or family thinks this is a bad idea?

Normal. Most people who go on to build real businesses had someone in their life skeptical at the start. The honest answer is: 4 weeks is short, and the worst case is you tried something. Show them the page if it helps.

11How much will it cost after the program?

Service Subscriber is $18/month after the free program — your call whether to continue. The tax tool we recommend (Hnry) is around $1.50 per $100 of income, so you only pay if you're earning. Everything else (the cohort, the coaching, the WhatsApp group) stays free for life.

12Will you actually read my application personally?

Yes. Every one. I reply within 48 hours whether you're in or not. If you're not the right fit for Cohort 01, I'll tell you why and where to go from here.

If you've read this far12

If you've read this far,
you're probably the kind of person Cohort 01 is for.

The application takes two minutes. I read every one.

— Nik

Apply for Cohort 0113

Tell us about your start.

Two minutes. We read every one. I'll reply within 48 hours whether you're in or not.