I am in the process of starting my business from scratch. I was originally going to do grout/regrout work, but then started learning more about and becoming interested in stone restoration(marble/granite). Now I am trying to decide which route to take to start, or just offer both? I don't live near a large metropolitan city like LA/Beverly Hills(like Al Spaet) or Detroit or Chicago so I am assuming the stone restoration(very high end residential) is limited because not that many people have marble in their homes, whereas everybody has grout in their homes. Any feedback from you people would be appreciated.

Ed -

We were in the same boat as you. Like both, but see marble as less common...

Offered both, ended up doing more grout work.

But, we do some marble restoration residential but the larger jobs are commercial and we have not pushed for that so much. Just lazy, I guess.

The largest marble job we did was commercial so far.

I don't think they are 'competing businesses' - they can be complementary.

In fact, when you polish marlble, it's often necessary to regrout the stone during or afterwards....so there you can do both if it's unsanded grout which it should be on natural stone.