Starting a Home Improvement Contracting Business: Pros and Cons

About two weeks ago I started a series of the pros and cons of starting different businesses-- the first post was Starting a Vending Machine Business: Pros and Cons.  To refresh, I am going to brainstorm the pros and cons, as I see them, of starting various businesses-- sideline or full time.  This is by no means a compete evaluation of the pros and cons, but rather a starting point for further consideration by Defensive Entrepreneurs.

In this post, I am giving an evaluation of a home improvement contracting business, here is my brainstorm evaluation:

Pros-- home improvement contracting businesses are:

• Your own business-- you are the boss
• Cash business
• Low cost start-up
• Low to no permenent employees
• Flexible-- you can make your own schedule
• Capable of generating high profit off high efficiencies
• Based upon a very simple business model

Cons-- home improvement contracting businesses are:

• Your own business-- the problems are yours
• Schedule based-- you have to schedule multiple projects simultanously
• Competitive-- easy to enter the business/ low barriers to entry
• Subject to licensing and liability insirance requirements
• Sales intensive
• Technical skills required
• Equipment intensive
• Temporary labor intensive
• Reputation easily damaged
• Referral oriented
• High owner involvement