Would you consider paying someone to do the jobs you hate doing? You would certainly pay someone to do the jobs you cannot do yourself or find difficult to do, wouldn’t you?
While you may find it easy to get your own groceries there are plenty of people who aren’t so lucky. In these situations they would gladly pay a little extra to have someone do their shopping for them and deliver it all to their home. Essentially you would be providing a smaller, more local and arguably friendlier version of the large scale services offered by some of the bigger stores.
While you can certainly deliver groceries for people who find it hard to get out and about and carry heavy shopping home, you’ll also find a ready market in younger people who are pushed for time.
This can influence how you promote your services as well, since you will want to be visible to the people who are most likely to use your delivery service. For example, younger people are far more likely to be connected to the internet, so it’s worth investing the money to get a website up and running that people can see.
Incidentally there are also a number of organizations in the US that offer to help you in this respect, and for a fee they will provide a fully customized website and lots of help and advice on getting started in this business. The website allows people to actually order their groceries online, and you then deliver them to the customer. This is grocery delivery on a much larger scale though, as it could really take off – so make sure you are prepared to go the whole hog if you go for this particular option.
If running things on a smaller scale appeals to you, you could always start off on by promoting your services via word of mouth and professionally designed business cards stating what you do. For example you could focus just on your elderly neighbors to begin with, speaking to people you know and generally spreading the word to get your first few clients. Once you have got underway you can then start to develop your business gradually.
What are the requirements? Well as we’ve seen you can do without a website if you want to start small, but you may find a car is a virtual necessity if you are doing a lot of shopping for one or more people in a single day. You don’t want to be spending all your profits on taxi cabs!
As for personal traits you’ll need to enjoy getting out and about and meeting people – and you’ll certainly get plenty of exercise. This isn’t for everyone but if you aren’t afraid of a bit of hard work then it could suit you right down to the ground.
If you’re thinking about giving this a try, leave us a comment by using the form below. We are always pleased to hear from you.