My little idea for extra income - thoughts and advice please

lawtz04

I'm always (like most of you guys probably!) looking at ways to make a little extra cash!

I live in a village with mainly lots of older people and I was thinking of some kind of twice weekly small shopping drops. I know the leading supermarkets do free delivery but I think most of these are a certain spend.

I'm also aware of homehelp services but I know very little about these.

I was thinking maybe on a Monday and Friday evening, 10 items or less. One delivery could be £5 and two £7.50.

Havent really given much thought to the logistics yet because its only just popped into my head on my lunch hour.

Any thoughts anyone? Its a reasonable size village so I was thinking if I could get 20 people could be a decent second income.

Thought about going door knocking or leaving a "would you be interested in this service?" poster in local chemist/post office.

Cheers

Choc

Very good idea Lawtz. There are probably many services the eldery could use help with.Why not call into elderly centres aswell.Drop off some info for them.Sounds like a good idea.Dont let it take up too much of your time though,like you said between 5pm - 8pm or something like that.
Good luck with it.

Mark

Scaredy_Cat_3

Not sure about your pricing. You said one delivery £5. Well the big supermarkets will deliver for £5. You get free delivery if you spend over £50 usually - but less than that and they'll charge you a fiver. So, if you want people to use your service instead of the supermarket, I think you need to charge less than a fiver for delivery.

Just my opinion - I realise it's probably not what you want to hear.

lawtz04

all info welcome cat!!!

getting-sorted-sarah

Hi, in my area domicilary care agencies charge about £16 an hour and it takes an hour if you want shopping done, so if you charge less than this you are undercutting them - I think the idea is to undercut them, not the supermarkets, because you'll be catering for people who aren't necessarily able to use the internet shopping services.

I work for Age Concern and there is a huge demand for this sort of service. However, older people are very concerned (rightly so) about who they give their money to or allow into their home. The advantage that an Agency has is that the employees are CRB checked - you could look into getting a check done so that you can produce it. On the other side, you'd need to protect yourself from false accusations. You are potentially working with a client group who might be forgetful or confused. That makes both parties vulnerable where there is money involved.

This is an idea that I have thought about myself many times, still getting my head round the legal bits though! Will be interested to know how you get on - good luck! (If you do get going, have a word with your local Age Concern, they may have some advice or be able to add you to their trusted providers list if they have one. They'd have a good idea of demand too.) Good luck!

LindsayO

I'm disabled with mobility problems and can't drive. I get transport to and from work and do all my shopping online. None of the supermarkets here do free delivery, atleast not for disabled people like me. I can also get transport to medical appointments for a low price, but they need weeks and weeks of warning, so if I'm organised everything runs smoothly, but sometimes I need to go to the doctors at short notice, and sometimes I run out of something

What I would really appreciate is someone I could call on who could "help" me with these last minute things for a fee. Someone I could ring up and ask to get me some toilet paper, say, or who could drive me to the dentist and then come pick me up and drive me home again. I'd be willing to pay more, the more urgent it was.

melmar_2

LindsayO wrote: »

I'm disabled with mobility problems and can't drive. I get transport to and from work and do all my shopping online. None of the supermarkets here do free delivery, atleast not for disabled people like me. I can also get transport to medical appointments for a low price, but they need weeks and weeks of warning, so if I'm organised everything runs smoothly, but sometimes I need to go to the doctors at short notice, and sometimes I run out of something

What I would really appreciate is someone I could call on who could "help" me with these last minute things for a fee. Someone I could ring up and ask to get me some toilet paper, say, or who could drive me to the dentist and then come pick me up and drive me home again. I'd be willing to pay more, the more urgent it was.

sorry to hear about your problem,but have you tried the local taxi firm/driver and try some agreememt ours used call to at kentucky for a few quid extra, lol

Elle00

Yes our local taxi firm to a fixed rate shopper trip too. You can get picked up from Tesco with all your shopping and go home to anywhere in the town for a maximum charge of £5 (which is about the home delivery charge).

Supermarkets like Tesco will usually send a member staff round the store with you too if you want to go in and do your own shopping but need some assistance to get to things.

benbenandme

I agree a service like this is probably in demand, but also feel your fees are high especially if it was for up to 10 items, eg, bread, milk etc would probably come to less than a tenner for their shopping, so an extra fiver could be a big percentage to add onto this.

Do you have many blocks of old peoples flats etc near you? Maybe you could charge a fiver and they split this between 3 or 4 of them? I've no idea what wouldbe a good amount tbh, but I reckon it is worth looking into it as it couldbe a great way to make money

LindsayO

Elle83 wrote: »

Yes our local taxi firm to a fixed rate shopper trip too. You can get picked up from Tesco with all your shopping and go home to anywhere in the town for a maximum charge of £5 (which is about the home delivery charge).

Supermarkets like Tesco will usually send a member staff round the store with you too if you want to go in and do your own shopping but need some assistance to get to things.

Thank you for your kind thoughts, it's not really an option for me, given my particular set of problems, to go to the shops myself on any kind of regular basis

Elle00

LindsayO wrote: »

Thank you for your kind thoughts, it's not really an option for me, given my particular set of problems, to go to the shops myself on any kind of regular basis

See then perhaps your input would be invaluable to the OP in thinking through this plan. It sounds like you'd be just the sort of person who would need this kind of scheme.

I'm back on the road again recently and was thinking of offering my services on the local volunteer board. I couldn't get paid because I'm on Income Support (lone parent) and already earn my disregard through selling Avon. But not everyone would want to use a volunteer board would they? Like you say, you want to phone for assistance sometimes don't you rather than always know in advance (which no-one really can!).

You should try putting a card in your local newsagents you know. I bet there's a single Mum out there with a car who'd love to earn her benefit disregard (up to £20pw) - we're flexible people lol.