Errand Runners in Demand
Kris and I are often asked for suggestions on starting a low-cost home business. Here's one that's easy, low cost to start and your customers will love you. People are working longer hours than in the past and are willing, even eager, to pay someone that they can trust to do their errands.
Errands? Well, if you want to look professional, you'll call it "Pay-per-Task Service" and charge a little more money.
Anything that takes time or is annoying is something people will pay you to do. Need to wait for a repairman? You can do it for your customer so that they can do something else. Need something picked up across town? Your time is worth their money. Typical services include:
- Pickup and delivery
- Delivering forgotten items to school or work
- Grocery shopping
- Wardrobe shopping
- Getting event tickets
- Gift shopping
- House sitting
- Waiting at clients' homes for repair workers or deliveries
- Ordering and delivering meals for business or home
- Pet sitting/exercise/cleanup
- Home-office organization
- Vacation/business trip support such as putting out garbage, bringing in and sorting mail
Getting Started
What do you need to start a pay-per-task business? Not much. You've probably got a car and a phone and a place where you can take calls. If you're reading this, you've also got a computer that you can use for scheduling and bookkeeping. You'll need a cell phone so that customers can reach you at anyplace during your business hours. And you'll need to talk with your insurance agent to make sure that your car and business are insured for normal business risks. (See our basic business insurance overview).
Next up? You'll need a business license. Lookup information for your state on our State Resources pages.
Do us a favor if any of the links don't work since the various states change them faster than we can update! We'll send you the new info and you can help us keep our site current.
Getting The Word Out
Pay-per-task services may start slow. Why? If you are going to do people's errands, your customers need to trust you. They may be giving you the key to their office, their house…and if you do personal shopping, their hearts. It can be difficult earning their trust even if they think it can really help them. Once they try, though, they'll want to come back again and again.
How do you promote the business before you've got that golden "word of mouth?" Tell people about it! Your own belief in your services can be mighty convincing. PPT business owners say that the most effective way of selling services is networking with people that they want as customers. Join networking groups and attend trade conferences. Public relations and advertising flyers also work well. See our short article on writing a press releas. Although media policies vary, reporters might use a free trial of your services and write up the results.
There is no better way to get a new customer than by having a happy customer recommend you, especially in this business. Help your existing customers recommend you by letting them do a favor for their friends and giving them a reward for sharing their network. You can be as creative as you want with this, not necessarily giving them discounts but providing a valued extra service.
Who Are Your Customers?
If you know who your customer is, you can provide the services that they want and need. Don't have customers yet? Most likely, they're going to be busy people who don't have time to shop, take care of their houses and run all of their errands. Professionals, such as doctors and attorneys, and self-employed people often work 60+ hour weeks. If they'll pay someone to do their lawn maintenance, they'll pay someone to take care of their personal and professional errands.
PPT businesses can save people and businesses a lot of money, time and administrative hassles. It costs less to hire PPT services than it does to hire an employee, especially if those services are only for a few hours at a time. Don't look just at having individuals hire you because you can build a pretty good business just pulling together other businesses that need delivery services and other tasks done.
Stay close to your customers. We suggest that PPT business owners work directly providing customer services on a regular basis. It'll give you a chance to monitor how your company is doing and you can directly observe customer needs and trends.
Money, Money, Money
How much should you charge? Cost per errand typically runs $8 - $30 with additional charges for longer-than-typical mileage or time. If you're shopping for groceries, adding 10 - 20% to the total bill is reasonable, especially if you can pull groups of customers together. Hourly charges can run $12 - $40 per hour, again based on where your business is.
Always make sure you've got someone who can do the job if you're too busy or unavailable. How much should you pay your subcontractors? A good starting point is 50% of what you'll charge the client. You'll need that markup for your direct costs, overhead and profit.
Other sources of revenue include management fees and commissions from vendors that you recommend to your customers.
What kinds of people succeed at offering these services?
Most PPT owners are hands-on, sociable and work well with other people. They get satisfaction of out meeting clients needs and "think ahead" to offer services that the client may not yet know they want. Reliability is key; if you disappoint a customer, you may not get a second chance with them. Worse, they may tell their friends about the letdown.
Your Costs
This business can be started for under $1,000 if you've already got the basics, such as a car. We recommend working from home when you start and only buying basic supplies.
When you set your prices, also look at your costs. How much time does it take you to do the work? How many hours do you have per day? Will you use gas; have wear-and-tear on your car? Every activity that you do has costs for you and your business must charge more than your costs. No profit, no payday for you.
Be careful when you grow. Don't hire people as employees before you know that your cash flow can support them. Hire them for specific tasks. Run your business out of your home to save on expenses.
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Typical Costs:
Computer: $500 - $1200 (yes, you can buy used!)
Letter Quality Printer: $200 - $500
Telephone: $ 70 landline monthly
Cell phone: $60 monthly
Flyers, brochures and business cards: $9.95 - $300
Business insurance: varies by area
Automobile: depends on you
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If this sounds like something you would enjoy please check into it. It could be an avenue to something that would match your skills even better. This is a relatively low risk venture. Good luck!
