The realistic, cost-effective way to

Build your own local business
from scratch.

The mindset, process, and tools to launch and grow a real local business. No prior experience needed. Taught by someone who ran his own for a decade, from the other side of the world.

Join the MBA See the full curriculum
Watch first

Running a company from
7,000 miles away

The long-form interview on how the remote local model actually works, from the man who teaches this programme.

Back when I started my cleaning company there wasn’t much out there on building a local business from scratch. At best, old blog posts and threads. It took me many hours of trial and error, and tens of thousands of dollars in mistakes, to get to where I am today.

The Local Business MBA is the course I wish had existed: truly step-by-step, from launch through hiring great teams, managing daily operations, and growing with the same strategies I used in my own businesses. It’s current, and it’s in use by hundreds of companies in sixteen-plus countries right now, from first-time owners to Inc 5000 companies.

After taking this course, you’ll have launched and be running your very own local business.

— Chris
The philosophy
“In a traditional MBA, businesses are studied. Here, your business becomes the course of study.”
Hundreds
of companies using it
16+
countries
New → Inc 5000
the range it spans
Who this is for

Anyone who wants the guesswork
taken out of starting

Aspiring entrepreneurs
9-to-5ers starting a side business
Stay-at-home parents
Tradesmen setting up their own shop
Small business owners
Students (I started as one)
“This isn’t academic theory, nor is it a surface-level ‘course’. It’s a decade of real-world operation, distilled into a clear path.”
The curriculum

Five stages,
in the order businesses grow

Starting, scaling, systemising, delegating, and the quiet fifth stage the rest make possible: going remote. Open any stage to see its modules.

I

Starting

Foundation & launch
The fundamentals. Mindset, commitment, choosing your niche, residential vs. commercial. The foundation. Website, CRM and booking software, virtual phone system, online presence, bare-minimum systems. Pricing your services. The maths that keeps you profitable from job one. Launch. The checklist, the soft launch, and getting your first job.
II

Scaling

$5K · $10K · $30K/mo
To $5,000/mo. The maths behind it, growing with laser focus, your top two paid and two free channels, benchmark goals. To $10,000/mo. Your biggest roadblocks, one month per marketing channel, reinvesting profits, the fastest way to add $1–$3,000/mo. To $30,000/mo. Getting unstuck when the old playbook stops working. Marketing, organic and paid. SEO, Google Business, Nextdoor, Facebook groups; the Thumbtack strategy (300+ hires), Craigslist, LinkedIn. Becoming a sales machine. The closing script, follow-up sequences, and the review engine.
III

Systemising

The business runs on paper
Systems 101. Rapid-fire testing and turning what works into written process. The health check. The 5×5 growth plan and the honest conversation: what am I worst at? Customer service. Professional responses to common complaints, retention, the no-show protocol. Operations. The daily workflow, automated follow-up and reviews, running the day without guesswork.
IV

Delegating

People do the work
Hiring your teams. Subcontractors vs. employees, the full hiring system: posts, scripts, interviews, background checks, pay. Delegating the office. When to bring on an assistant and what to hand over first. The complete hiring-and-training system is the separate VA course. Personal productivity. 80/20, ABCDE, batching, the three-list method, the Sunday night review.
V

Going remote

The owner becomes optional
Build your business from anywhere. The remote local business model, end to end. The remote daily workflow. What a week looks like when you’re 7,000 miles from the nearest customer. The template vault. Marketing plans, seasonal emails, landing pages, the if-I-started-again 30-day plan.
How it fits together

One home,
three doors

The programme builds a business from scratch. The live group takes one that already exists and scales it. The VA course hands off the office. Everything lives in one home on Skool.

01 · Self-paced

The programme

All five stages of building a local service business, from first idea to a company that runs without you. With quarterly business health checks through your first year, direct access to Chris, the template vault, and full software walkthroughs.

Best from $0 to $500k/yr Join the programme →
02 · Live · By application

The live group

For owners who already run a business and need it unstuck. Six months of structured work: three rebuilding the foundation, then three putting it all into action. Intense, and deliberately structured.

Best from $500k to $2m/yr Request the details →
03 · Standalone

The VA course

Hire and train your own virtual assistant and hand off the office itself. Thirty-one lessons, from writing the job post to your first month of delegating. A separate, focused course, sold on its own.

For owners at any stage See the VA course →
From students

In their words

“I love Chris’ emphasis on rebuilding your foundation. The momentum you gain with small, consistent bites is REAL. My family has started to dream about moving to London once my business can be run remotely.”
Candice Hamilton
“If you do nothing else Chris teaches, do the Google strategies. I just booked out my last spot available, all clients at higher rates, and they didn’t even blink at paying it.”
Danielle Chaney
“Since we started our business we’d been stuck at the $10k/mo mark. Fast forward after joining and we already broke $15k in record speed.”
Ian Njogu
“Within one month I had enough regular clients to replace the income we had lost.”
Michelle Jenkins Rackley · mom of 7, Oahu
“First legit job! It gives me the faith this is going to work in a massive way — it came in organically, simply from having a website.”
Dominik Mikula · first booking ever, Bristol
“I’m on track to hit $1,000,000 this year thanks to you.”
Josh Brown · cleaning company, year two
“Scaled from $6k to $35k in monthly revenue in six months. It has been intense over here.”
Joel Wall · home services
“This course is beyond anything I’ve ever purchased in the past, and I’ve spent thousands.”
Dennis John · student, first jobs booked in week one
“I love Chris’ emphasis on rebuilding your foundation. The momentum you gain with small, consistent bites is REAL. My family has started to dream about moving to London once my business can be run remotely.”
Candice Hamilton
“If you do nothing else Chris teaches, do the Google strategies. I just booked out my last spot available, all clients at higher rates, and they didn’t even blink at paying it.”
Danielle Chaney
“Since we started our business we’d been stuck at the $10k/mo mark. Fast forward after joining and we already broke $15k in record speed.”
Ian Njogu
“Within one month I had enough regular clients to replace the income we had lost.”
Michelle Jenkins Rackley · mom of 7, Oahu
“First legit job! It gives me the faith this is going to work in a massive way — it came in organically, simply from having a website.”
Dominik Mikula · first booking ever, Bristol
“I’m on track to hit $1,000,000 this year thanks to you.”
Josh Brown · cleaning company, year two
“Scaled from $6k to $35k in monthly revenue in six months. It has been intense over here.”
Joel Wall · home services
“This course is beyond anything I’ve ever purchased in the past, and I’ve spent thousands.”
Dennis John · student, first jobs booked in week one
The results wall

Real businesses,
real numbers

A few students who kept me posted. Ordinary people, ordinary towns, doing the boring things consistently.

Joel Wall · home services
$6k$35k
per month · in six months

“Scaled from $6k to $35k in monthly revenue in six months. It has been intense over here.”

Ian Njogu · cleaning company
$10k$15k+
per month · after years stuck

“We’d been stuck at $10k/mo for ages. After joining we broke $15k in record speed.”

Josh Brown · year two
$1M
annual run rate · on track this year

“I’m on track to hit $1,000,000 this year thanks to you.”

Individual results vary and depend on the work you put in. Real students, shared with permission.

What’s included

Everything you need,
nothing you don’t

AccessImmediate access to the full programme, all five stages, forever.
Health checksA quarterly business health check through your whole first year.
ChrisDirect access to Chris by email and in the community.
WorksheetsDigital and printable worksheets with every module.
MilestonesScaling milestones to work toward at each stage.
TemplatesThe template vault: a set for every area of the business, marketing to hiring.
WalkthroughsFull systems and software walkthroughs, tool by tool.
CommunityA private student community that’s proving as valuable as the course.
Inside the programme

See the classroom
before you walk in

The whole MBA lives on Skool: the classroom, the community, the coaching calls, and the template vault in one place. These are real screenshots from inside.

The Skool classroom of the Local Business MBA, showing the Start Here course, the Launch Path, the Breakthrough Path, the Remote Local Business Path, Coaching Calls, and the Template Vault
The classroom: the paths, the coaching calls, and the template vault.
Inside the Local Business MBA course player: the welcome video beside the lesson list, 134 lessons in total
Inside the programme: 134 lessons across the five stages.
Inside the Hire and Train Your Own Virtual Assistant course player: the welcome video beside its 31 lessons
The standalone VA course: 31 lessons on hiring and delegating.
Join the MBA

One price. Built to end in
a business, not a credential.

$2,497
or 6 monthly payments of $499
Join the Local Business MBA

You’ll need stable internet, 5–10 hours a week, and $1,000–$1,500 in startup costs. 30-day withdrawal policy: 50% refund after completing the first three modules and a call with Chris.

The live group

No checkout here.
An application.

The live group is for owners who already run a business and want it unstuck and scaling. Six months of structured work: three months rebuilding the foundations of our businesses, then three months putting it all into action, strengthening the part of your business that matters most now. It is intense, and the group stays small. That is why there is no buy button.

Read personally. If it looks like a fit, you’ll get the full details and a call with Chris.

Application received. You’ll get the full details back, and if it looks like a fit, a call with Chris.

Prefer email? Write to chris@localbusinessmba.com.

Chris Schwab in a Think Maids t-shirt beside the company's booking site
Who’s teaching this

Chris Schwab

For nearly ten years I ran an award-winning Washington, D.C. cleaning company from Japan, 7,000 miles from the nearest customer, and shared the whole journey publicly. That became the remote local business model, now studied and run by thousands of operators worldwide.

Four exits later, this programme is where all of it lives: everything I learned building, buying, and selling local businesses, taught in the order you’ll actually need it.

The full story at christopherschwab.co.uk →

A question before joining? Email me directly at chris@localbusinessmba.com.

Questions

Asked often,
answered honestly

Are there any prerequisites?
Three: stable internet, 5–10 hours per week to devote to this, and $1,000–$1,500 for startup costs.
What if I have a million questions?
You will, and that’s expected. The private student chat gives you direct access to me and experienced students for exactly how to tackle the problem in front of you. It’s proving just as valuable as the programme itself.
What if someone else in my city is already doing this?
Local businesses have been stable forever, even with high competition. Five hundred cleaning companies in your city and you can still build yours comfortably. The more competition your industry has locally, the more demand it signals. It’s a good sign.
What kind of business will I build?
A local service business: cleaning, home services, trades. Boring on purpose: proven demand, low startup cost, and suited to remote operation later.
Do I have to do the cleaning or the labour myself?
No. The model is built around subcontracting and hiring from early on. My own first company started with a subcontracted crew and someone else answering the phone; the Scale and Delegate stages teach you to build that team yourself.
Does this work outside the U.S.?
Yes. The examples are American, but students run local businesses in more than ten countries, from the U.S. to the U.K. The systems, hiring approach, and stages carry across borders; only the currency changes.
What is self-paced and what is live?
The programme itself is fully self-paced: all five stages, the worksheets, and the template vault, yours forever, on your own schedule. Direct access to Chris by email and in the community comes with it. The live group is separate and application-only, for owners scaling an existing business, and the VA course stands alone for handing off the office.
What happens right after I buy?
Immediate access to everything: all five stages, the worksheets, the template vault, and the community. Most students start the same day. Your quarterly health checks run through your first year, and the 30-day withdrawal policy above applies from purchase.
How do I join the live group?
By application, not checkout. Request the details above with a few lines about your business, and you’ll get the full picture back. If it looks like a fit, you’ll book a call with Chris. It runs for six months: three rebuilding the foundation, three putting it into action. If you’re starting from zero, the programme is the front door.
How quickly will I make money?
There is no responsible universal answer. Your service, market, price, sales activity, availability, and judgement all matter. The programme helps you test demand early, so you learn from customers before committing more money than the evidence supports.
Will this make the business passive?
No. A well-built company can become owner-independent, but that follows active work: sound economics, capable people, clear standards, and tested transfers of responsibility. You may eventually contribute by choice. The business still has to be operated.
Is this an accredited MBA?
No. The Local Business MBA is a private educational programme focused on building and operating a local service business. It is not an accredited Master of Business Administration and does not confer a university degree. Its value rests on the operating method, the work you complete, and the business you build.
What if I’m not set on a local service business?
Then this probably isn’t your room yet. The Mini Hustles Lab at minihustles.com is the easier entry point: a $197 a month community, less industry-specific, where we start and build side hustles live. The MBA is for building a local service business properly.
The monthly letter

The one email you’ll want to read
every month.

You’re in. See you next month.

Taught from Yokohama, in use across sixteen-plus countries.