Make Money Running Simple Errands
If you are looking for a simple business - yet you don't want to be bored staying at home, this may be the ideal work for you. By helping people out with their daily or weekly tasks, this work can be extremely gratifying.
If you are a new entrepreneur, and have limited business experience and start-up capital, errand running is an easy business to start. You can work with companies, individuals or both, depending on the tasks you want to do.
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Start a Concierge Business | Start a Courier, Delivery or Driver Service
You may not be interested in learning How to start an Errand Business right now but that is likely because you are not familiar with just how easy this business is to start up and operate. Simple things like grocery and gift shopping, waiting around for the cable guy, and even taking back movies are all things that we have to do anyway, so why not get paid for it? With more and more people busy with their careers and complaining about having more time than money, there is a growing market for people looking to learn how to start a errand business and real money to be made.
Estimated start up costs:
So long as you have reliable transportation, a cell phone, and some basic office supplies to fill out and create invoices for customers, you have all the essential supplies needed to own an errand business. There are starter kits available to you for less than $50 that can set you up with all the materials you will need to prepare professional looking invoices and keep track of your expenses. Other than that, learning how to start an errand business might involve some “seed money” in the beginning to cover miscellaneous expenses required to complete errands.
Pricing Guidelines:
Pricing guidelines are only limited by what your market can bear for the services you offer. Many professional errand services charge by the hour for their time while some prefer to set up monthly or even annual packages so that they get more money up front. On average and depending upon the service, someone learning how to start an errand business can expect anywhere from $15-35 per hour for their services for most residential customers. But, if you can break into the office support services market, then learning how to start an errand business can really turn into a profitable endeavor.
Recommended experience, skills, training:
Having the ability to prioritize tasks and organize your time are probably the most essential skills to this job. As with any business owner, however, you will need to market yourself and your company to people so any kind of sales or marketing background will be very useful. Some general business and accounting courses will prove handy when dealing with the financial and administrative tasks inherent to any business.
Marketing tips:
Success tends to breed more success and that is precisely the way your errand service will grow. As you network and build your reputation, so too will your ability to charge more. In the beginning, word-of-mouth advertising will be what makes or breaks your business. But, you may find it useful to advertise your services and company in the classified ads and be sure to print and distribute business cards every place you go.
Financing sources:
With relatively no start up costs to really speak of, securing financing is not really necessary when learning how to start an errand business. However, you may want to try starting out on a part-time basis as the going will be slow in the beginning and you may still need the income from another job to pay the bills until you get things rolling.
Income Potential:
The income potential for those owning an errand service really goes up if you can manage to break into the office support services market. There are people looking for workers with office skills to just come in and help them once a week or even once a month and they are willing to pay top dollar for this limited time. For people just looking to help others with their groceries and errands around the house, it is nothing for someone learning how to start an errand business to make $35-40,000 a year doing the things that they would normally do for free anyway!
Randy has dozens of home based business articles at Home Businesses that are Profitable such as Money Making Opportunities that are Unusual. | Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com
Advice for Concierge and Errand-Running Businesses:
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10 Tips on How to Start a Concierge Business
- Do a business plan. It really doesn't matter how short or long it is, nor does it have to be fancy with colored charts. However, you really should do one so that you know where you are going, what you are doing and how you're going to get there.
- Get some business liability insurance! Please don't start a business without it.
- Legal Documents - contracts, agreements, etc... Get this right the first time and you won't have to put out fires in the future. You'll need both client contracts as well as vendor agreements.
- Create your brochure, business cards, website and sales kit. This can all be done on a shoestring with today's software that is available, but having them is a vital part of a business.
You can obtain some terrific free business cards by visiting s site such as vistaprint.com and you can do a website pretty inexpensively as well. If you don't want to do it yourself, here are a few links to some "instant" website creation sites where you can have a site up in minutes ... bigstep.com networksolutions.com and godaddy.com
- Do NOT quit your job, go out and rent an office, buy or rent furniture and hire employees. THINK ABOUT IT FIRST! First and foremost, you need to be able to feed your family and pay your bills so make sure that you have either enough money saved to last you at least 6 months, possibly even a year worth set aside or you have some other form of steady income flowing into your household.
- Find a target market! There are so many niches for this business that you might be tempted to do them all when you first open up. However, I strongly suggest that you choose one or two niche markets and go after them first. Do them well and then you can choose a few more. If they don't do well and tank, then you have hundreds of other niches to choose from!
Choose a new niche and then re-focus, re-work your business and then re-launch! The key here is to never ever give up!!! Some niches around the country include hospitals, small/medium/large companies, condominiums, shopping malls, airports, office buildings, neighborhoods, individuals, colleges/universities, country clubs, senior market and more. I could go on and on there are so many out there!
- Market, market, market ... join your local chamber of commerce, networking groups ... get out there and shake people's hands and tell them what you do! Talk it up everywhere you go. Attend as many expos and receptions that you can! I think face-to-face marketing is key when starting up a business ... so talk it up people!!
- Be warm, friendly, approachable and extremely courteous 100% of the time. This is the key to being a great concierge! People may not remember what you did for them, but they will always remember how you made them feel and how you treated them.
- Keep your focus on where you are going ... and not on what is hitting the fan at any particular moment. KNOW that you can do this!! See the future that you want, daydream about it and see yourself being there!!!
- Finally, the most important part of concierge work ... Customer Service! It's the hallmark of the concierge industry ... over-the-top unbelievable customer service. I think everyone should build a customer service plan. You should talk about every day, not just once in a while! It's a way of life and something that you practice every minute of your life and in every facet of your business.
You can visit my resource directory on Triangle Concierge's website and you'll see a few insurance companies who are currently insuring the industry. You can also join the International Concierge and Errand Association and get insurance through them.
About the Author: Katharine Giovanni, the world's leading international concierge training expert, has been training concierge for over 10 years. She is Triangle Concierge's senior trainer and speaker, and is the author of their best-selling book The Concierge Manual. Katharine has traveled around the country teaching workshops to groups, individuals and corporations. She has appeared in dozens of newspaper articles, magazines, radio and TV shows around the country including ABC News Nightline, CBS News, ABC News, Delta Airlines Sky Radio, WOR Radio, the Washington Post, LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Women's World Magazine, The New York Times and Conde Naste to name a few. A dynamic public speaker, Katharine has been a speaker at seminars and conferences around the country. Raised in New York City, Katharine has a B.A. from Lake Forest College and currently lives in North Carolina with her husband Ron and two children. Katharine is a member of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached through her website at http://www.triangleconcierge.com | Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com
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