Doing odd jobs for professional people?

daydreamer16

I had to wait in all day for a delivery recently and got to thinking that it must be a pain for working people, especially those with highly paid/demanding jobs so it got me thinking that there must be loads of little niggly time-demanding things that maybe I could do for people? I was thinking of waiting in for parcels, deliveries, tradespeople etc., picking kids up, shopping and stuff like that.
I'm new to this as my hubby has just been made redundant so apologies if there have been posts like this before (I'm sure there must have been!) but was wondering if anyone has any info or advice?
I will probably need a CRB check but other than that I haven't a clue. I have never done anything like this before and I'm sure it can't be as easy as it seems!

DCFC79

I thought only the employer could get a CRB check done, could be wrong.

Flyonthewall

You'd need insurance. You'd need insurance in case anything goes wrong and certainly business insurance on your car. Plus you'd have to factor in fuel costs and wear and tear on the car.

If you're waiting in all day for a parcel or tradesman you wouldn't be able to do any other jobs unless they came early (and left early for a tradesman) and you managed to book something in last minute.

I can't imagine people wanting to pay much for someone to take delivery of a parcel. Depending on where they live the amount they're willing to pay may not even cover fuel nevermind about your time and considering it would be your only job for the day it's the only money you'd be getting for the day. How will you get the payment for doing it? Will they have to get keys to you so you can get in?If so, how will they do that? If you go to pick them up that's more fuel costs if not the same day. If before they leave for work you may have to get there really early in the morning.

For shopping, if people don't have time then online shopping is an option or late night shopping for those who work all day. If doing shopping then you'd need to decide how it'll be paid for (before or after). What if an item isn't in stock? What if it's gone up or down in price? What if there's a offer on? If they're not in you'll have to be given keys to put the shopping away.

I have seen a job before for picking up kids but it also involved feeding them if I remember right. You'd basically be a babysitter. Again, you'd probably have fuel costs unless you and them live near enough to the school to walk.

You would need a DBS (CRB) check and to prove that you could be trusted.

While there probably are people who need such services you'll probably be paying out more than you're making.

SeduLOUs

Shopping would be a difficult one to compete with - I pay £6 a month to Tesco for all of my delivery costs and they deliver at evenings and weekends as well as allowing me to reject items at the door if they are not suitable.

As poster above has already said I doubt you'd be able to charge a high enough fee to wait around for deliveries to make it worthwhile for you.

Cat sitting might be worth looking at. Lots of people go on holiday and want someone trustworthy to nip into the house a couple of times a day to change litter trays and put food down etc.

daydreamer16

Hmmm...not the answers I wanted to hear! Thanks anyway though Back to the drawing board...or more surveys (groan)

Flyonthewall

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Cat sitting might be worth looking at. Lots of people go on holiday and want someone trustworthy to nip into the house a couple of times a day to change litter trays and put food down etc.

I'm constantly see people advertising or considering starting pet sitting and dog walking. Either no one's looking after their own pets anymore or there's a lot of people sitting around bored and wondering why they're getting no business. I'm guessing it's more the second. So do your research beforehand if you do consider that.

Remember with pet sitting that some pets may need medication as well as general looking after. Some may not be happy you're in their house and if you deal with all pets you may have to deal with some big dogs or rodents that may nip. Also if anything goes wrong you need to be covered and know you can deal with it.

It's not as straight-forward as it sounds.

superhooper1972

Thing is a lot of people have arrangement's with neighbours for things like parcels. With tradesmen if its a one off all day job, then most take the day off themselves, If its an on going job that lasts for weeks then most would trust them to work while you go to work.

Home care, Dog Walking, Gardening and the things others have suggested will get you more chance of earning. Unless the people are stupidly rich and they don't mind paying for someone to wait around for parcels and tradesmen.

Good luck though.

daydreamer16

I have a dog myself so could only consider little ones that she would get along with and I don't think there is so much demand for walking little ones unfortunately.

SeduLOUs

Yes I agree, it's why I said cats and not dogs as dog walking has it's own complications and almost certainly would need some form of public liability insurance.

Nothing in the self employed world is entirely straight forward, it's all risk versus reward, I just wanted to throw a suggestion into the mix rather than only posting negatives at the ideas already presented.

Gardening might not be a terrible one. I'm not rich or at work 7 days a week, but I can't be bloody bothered to mow a lawn so I'll happily pay someone else to do it as long as they turn up vaguely when they say they will and charge a sensible price.

Doing the things people don't want to be bothered with is usually a winner - things like washing and ironing. But again, there seem to be a lot of ads for people doing these things already so I don't know how easy it would be to get going.

Flyonthewall

daydreamer16 wrote: »

Hmmm...not the answers I wanted to hear! Thanks anyway though Back to the drawing board...or more surveys (groan)

Better to get them answers now than to just start it and end up worse off. There may be something similar that would work. There are people who do odd jobs but generally it's more DIY stuff.

dacouch

There are plenty of people in London with more money than sense who would pay for this type of service if it was well marketed and thought out