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Start a Home-Based Grocery Shopping Service
Is anyone busy today? Dumb question right, we are all busy to
some degree or another. They say time is money and for many
people that is so true, for some saved time does equal an amount
in money, but how about some sanity. Give me an hour of time to
myself to relax and I give you a more refreshed and happy
person.
So, there are some that are busy and need the help of added
services in their lives, but on the other side of the coin there
are those that just need some help to get through the day. Think
about our seniors, many of them may not be able to get out to
the store as often as they would like. It may be that they are
just too old to get about, but more practically speaking it may
be due to the harshness of the weather in their region of the
country.
This is where you come in, ready to make money from opportunity.
I am sure you are, and the home grocery delivery business can be
a wonderful opportunity for you to start a home-based grocery
shopping service.
This is how the grocery shopping service business works,
customers will contact you by calling you, faxing you or
emailing you their shopping lists. You shop for those items at a
local grocery store and deliver them back to the customer's
homes.
Before you start, you should consider drawing up a brief
business plan to aid you in implementing this home business.
Advertising - This is the only setup costs you will incur. Start
by advertising your service in local newspapers in the area. You
can begin by placing a larger aid in the middle sections of the
paper announcing your new home business. The following weeks you
can downsize your advertising to the cheaper classifieds. Other
places to consider advertising in are senior citizen newspapers
and newsletters.
Payment - Try to obtain payment upfront from customers as to
keeping open credit accounts. You can consider a credit account
for your best customers but this should only happen after many
months of service and then an extra service charge can be
considered. Collecting cash can be accomplished in a number of
ways, collect cash after your last delivery of the week or
month, ask customers to mail in checks or even for the more
savvy internet user, you can setup a PayPal account and
effectively have money wired into your account. The cool thing
about collecting money upfront from customers is that you can
run the float on the cash by charging everything to your credit
card, which will earn you points, or cash rebates.
Add on services - This is the next level to take your business.
Once you have established a solid customer base you can begin to
sell menu-planning services. You may need some food skills in
this area and if not you should take some classes to obtain
those skills. There are two broad types of menu-plans you can
start out designing, the regular sit down breakfast, lunch and
dinners and the express meals, those being meals that can be
whipped up in less than 15-minutes.
Pricing - Pricing is a combination of what you believe your
service is worth and the amount the market can bear. Before you
price your service, ask yourself how much realistically you
would like to make each year, and then divide that amount by
your time. If you spend, 3-hours shopping for one customer and
you charge $20 per hour and you do this three times per week.
That would amount to 9-hours of work per week multiplied by 50
weeks, equaling $9,000 per year.
About the author:
Peter Engelbrecht is President of Diagonal Street Business
Services which operates the website www.BestBusinesses4u.com
specializing in providing stay at home moms with home-based
business ideas so they can start a business at home while caring
for their children.
Written by: Peter Engelbrecht
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