I want to start a lab enchant service

But don't know how to go about doing it. I know the buyer supplies the twice enchanted, and offerings but how does one start one of these services? How do I know how much to charge for the service? And how do I become a known trusted player doing these services? How do I advertise my services?

wat.

This is the first I've heard of these services being started formally - I've done it one or two times on a person-per-person basis, and I didn't ask my 1 or 2 customers to provide that enchantment. I'm fairly certain I (personally) did not ask for Twice Enchanted or Offerings, but instead rolled it into my price; I'm sure people would be fine with either option (pay more and don't worry about proph/offerings, or pay less and provide the proph/offerings).

When I did it (again, personally) I assumed 100% of the liability; the person told me what item they wanted and what they would be willing to pay for it, I produced that item, and then that person paid. I guess this doesn't work so well with non-Unique items, though, which are, ironically, more unique than Unique items.

In the case of rares, I would presume a collateral system would work best, at least before you get a vouch thread filled up with supportive posts. That is, you pseudo-buy whatever item they want enchanted, plus any supplies, and then once you hit the desired enchantment, they "buy it back" for any unused supplies, plus the enchanted item, plus your desired profit fee.

When I did the service, I charged 1 ex gross price + discretionary fee increases for bad luck for a Boots enchantment, and got lucky enough to get it within 8 offerings or so; so for me my desired profit for labor was something like 40c (apparently). I suspect people would be willing to pay much more for helmet enchants, maybe up to 15 ex max, but more typically somewhere around 4 ex.

Anyway I believe the moderators prefer vouch threads to be put in Communities: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-forum/communities but I've seen a few here and there pop up in Gameplay Help and Discussion too without getting moved.

I presume with enough posts in your vouch thread you may be able to enchant without depositing collateral with your buyers.