You will need a reliable vehicle (preferably a van), a pager, a cell-phone and a small area where you can call your office. It is also preferable if you live in a large metropolitan area and have access to a good number of businesses in your area.
Pricing
The rate that you charge will vary slightly, depending on the area, demographics and what the competition is charging. However, most errand services charge between $15 and $20 an hour.
Your Target Market
Your target market will most likely be white collar businesses. You will be targeting people with higher paying jobs such as business executives that are willing to pay a fee to have an errand run in order to free up some of their time. These errands will include services such as: food and delivery pick-up, dry-cleaning delivery and pick-up, grocery pick-up, etc.
If you are thinking of transporting people (including children), this typically requires a proper license.
Marketing Your Business
Once you have your first regular customer, the best marketing is positive word of mouth. You will want to always have your business cards available. A good idea is to advertise to business professionals that are in your area and stress the benefit of the time saved by using your service.
You will need to know the area that you will serving well and most importantly you are going to need to have good interpersonal skills and keep confidential with regard to your customers' business.
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Starting A Service Business
When it comes down to it, the general population is always in need of particular services. Without them, the world would just stand still. For this reason you can start a service business and make yourself a whole lot of money if you know what you are doing.
Listed below are a few service home businesses that you may want to think about starting if you are interested in a new business opportunity.
1. One of the best online service businesses is marketing. Companies are always looking for a way to market themselves online. You can set up an internet marketing firm with relative ease, and make a killing at it.
Marketing yourself in this area should never be too much of a problem as long as you have a bit of expertise in the field. If online marketing is something that you are good at, look into starting a business in this area.
2. Another service that people are always in need of is pet sitting. Of course this is a land based service business, but it can be quite profitable. If you live in a highly populated area, you should be able to garner a lot of business right off the bat.
A lot of people would rather use a pet sitting business then leave their animals alone, or take them to a kennel. This is one of the most overlooked service business ideas going today. If you can get established in this area there is a lot of money to be made.
3. Paper shredding is becoming very popular in businesses all over the world. Companies are looking for a way to get rid of excess paper that they no longer need. Plus, some companies must shred papers in order to protect personal information.
This service business can be quite profitable, especially if nobody else in your area offers it. Set up costs may be a bit high, but if you know what you are doing you can recover this investment in a relatively short amount of time.
4. Courier services are good business ideas. Even though they are not as common as they once were, there is still a place for them. If you are going to start a courier service you will need to set yourself apart from the competition.
Overall, service businesses are all over the place. You can find them both online and land based. Listed above are four service businesses that you can start. But the fact of the matter is that there are thousands of options. Find the one that is best for you.
Both Jose Valdez & James Lowe are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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