The tool that saved us from scheduling nightmares

When I was running my home service business, I wanted a way to grow without taking on huge overhead costs. One of the best moves we made was using shipping containers as our home base.

Instead of leasing a commercial shop for thousands a month, we used one-trip Sea cans. These are 20-foot shipping containers that have only made one trip overseas, so they’re in great shape with no rust and easy-to-open doors.

Here’s how it worked:

We’d find a central location in the new area we wanted to serve. Sometimes it would be a farmers field, or some yard space that another business wasn’t using. We’d drop a sea can there, park a work van beside it, and just like that, we had a mini-branch.

Inside the container, we kept a working stock of supplies and all the gear the crew needed. It acted like a basecamp. Crews could load up in the morning, clean their gear at the end of the day, and even store extras so we weren’t running things in and out of the main shop every time. We would outfit them with solar lights, shelving and you could even setup a battery bank with starlink so you can run wifi cameras.

We called it “a sea can and a van.” Simple, cheap, and fast to set up.

There was one Spring I recall where we outfitted 3 shipping containers at our main branch, then had them sent out to surrounding cities that we were looking to expand to.

This setup saved us a ton of money. Instead of paying for a lease year-round, we could scale up or down depending on the season or demand. It also made entering new markets way easier. Less commuting crews for hours. When a new branch started to build up steam, we would hire local staff so we weren’t paying for travel time or hotel stays.

If you’re in the home service space and thinking about how to grow without burning cash, this kind of setup might be worth considering. It’s not fancy, but it works, and your P&L will love you for it.

Talk soon,

Brandon Lazar