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.