I don't think there's a general answer: different services are very different. The lawn industry is very different from other home services, and we've seen different things work in those two businesses.

Usually, marketplaces get started around the margins. Today, eBay sells everything but at first it was obscure collectibles. For lawn care, weather and seasonality drive the short-term market dynamics. So when there's rain or drought, the supply-demand curve shifts rapidly and that's when lawn care providers might look for work to fill up their schedules. You should look into how your marketplace might work on different kinds of days, to see if will be a useful part of the ecosystem.

Thanks for doing this and answering,

All this is assuming minimal outside funding.(as a solo founder I doubt I can get funding)

I guess my plan is to play $50-$100 million game of "moneyball." Lawn care was the lowest hanging fruit to get 10k-50k/mo fees with in a year or two. Next was probably to try and go after cleaning and maybe even do a little cross selling. I'm also looking at launching www.bid2flyer.com which will help with a channel to feed businesses looking for marketing. The code is about the same for each of these and the marketing channel is what I have experience in. Obviously not a traditional way to do things.