Doing odd jobs for professional people?

brightonman123

Collect+ agent, for the deliveries. not sure re picking up kids!

greenbee

This article is from 2001 - what you are talking about is basically a 'personal concierge service'.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/37930

Essentially it's got to be more cost effective for people to use you than e.g. online shopping etc. So you may find people want help with last-minute shopping, but that means you have to be able to do it now, not tomorrow. Or they may want to get parcels sent to you, so you wait in for them, and then drop them off (if you have a key) or deliver them when they are home from work.

There are possibilities in this market, but it does depend on where you live, and whether there are enough people who use the service.

One of my neighbours has just started taking in ironing - she did it because no one else was doing it locally and there was a need for it. She's assumed that there would be plenty of people offering the service, but there weren't, so when she heard a few people discussing it, she offered to do theirs on a trial basis. She's now incredibly busy!

So don't dismiss the idea out of hand, but do research the local market. See what's being advertised locally, ask around, and then maybe try a few trial cards in shop windows etc and see what happens.

goggle

There are definitely possibilities in this area, but you need to be realistic about what you could offer & the price you would charge
You need to think about what you want to offer & how much you'd need to earn to make it a viable business - is it just odd jobs here & there or a full time job you are thinking of?

I leave for work at 7:30am - how much would you charge to wait in for my package which may be delivered at 1:30pm? What would you expect to do whilst waiting?
I need some shopping doing (not groceries as Mr Tesco can deliver them when I'm home from work in the evening) so I need you to get a birthday card for my Dad, some tent pegs from that camping shop the other side of town, a bunch of flowers to take to a friend later as a thank you, and a new pair of Wellies ... can you do that? how much would you charge for that?

daydreamer16

Aha personal concierge service-that sounds good! Thanks greenbee I live in an area with a lot of professional people and I'm sure there would be a market. It mightn't be a big market but as long as it brought in a few bob it could be worth it-it would need a lot of thought and refining like you say dacouch.
I couldn't hack washing, ironing or gardening-it takes me all my time to do my own!
Thank you all for your help-if I decide to do it I'll tell you how it goes x

Flyonthewall

daydreamer16 wrote: »

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.

Why does your dog have to get along with them? Some people will only want their dogs walked alone. Some dogs don't get on with others. It's not about your dog, it's about theirs. All sizes of dog need walking and some people rely on dog walkers as otherwise the dog wouldn't get a walk.

SeduLOUs wrote: »

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.

You'd need insurance with cats too or any other pet. Looking after any pet has complications but if you restrict yourself to one pet you'll get less business.

daydreamer16

Yeah I suppose you're right. It's one to keep on the back burner if all else fails:)

SeduLOUs

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Why does your dog have to get along with them? Some people will only want their dogs walked alone. Some dogs don't get on with others. It's not about your dog, it's about theirs. All sizes of dog need walking and some people rely on dog walkers as otherwise the dog wouldn't get a walk.

You'd need insurance with cats too or any other pet. Looking after any pet has complications but if you restrict yourself to one pet you'll get less business.

You could probably get away with not having your own personal insurance if you're occasionally popping into other people's houses to put food down and change a litter tray (i.e. not boarding cats in your own home). But other problems could still arise - what would you do if turned up to find an unwell cat that needed urgent vet treatment but the owner wasn't available to answer your call...

For these reasons I'd personally avoid doing anything to do with children or animals, or letting myself into someone else's house unattended - too many unknown variables.

Flyonthewall

SeduLOUs wrote: »

You could probably get away with not having your own personal insurance if you're occasionally popping into other people's houses to put food down and change a litter tray (i.e. not boarding cats in your own home). But other problems could still arise - what would you do if turned up to find an unwell cat that needed urgent vet treatment but the owner wasn't available to answer your call...

For these reasons I'd personally avoid doing anything to do with children or animals, or letting myself into someone else's house unattended - too many unknown variables.

Possibly but it's not worth the risk, especially not when it involves animals. What if the animal got (badly) injured or died on your watch and the owners decided to take action against you? Insurance
should cover you. Just because it's their house and you are only nipping in and out doesn't mean you don't need insurance.

So many things could happen that you'd need insurance for! If you're running a business, especially one based on trusting house and pets to someone, insurance is a must. Most customers would probably want to check that the person is fully insured.