Running Errands To Earn Extra Income

Most of us find it difficult to make the ends meet with the income earned from the primary job alone. The cost of living keeps climbing up at breakneck pace while the meager incomes crawl lazily. As a result millions of Americans have now become creative and have devised ways to earn those extra bucks. It seems like every one is doing one side job or other to keep their lives going with the extra income.

While the financial experts will advise you to invest your money in mutual funds and annuities, the fact remains that you first have to actually have some extra money in order to invest it. To obtain this extra income, some people have starting turning their prowess at running errands into a paying business.

It's really quite simple, you run errands for people who have the money but don't have the time to do their grocery shopping, gift shopping, running movies back, picking up dry cleaning, and a host of other rather tedious activities. You can do all these chores for them and earn a profit for yourself. If you have the time to spare and you need cash, you run errands for those who have the cash but not the time to do all that.

Fortunately, the start up costs of an errand service are relatively low so special financing considerations will not be necessary. You will need a computer to help track business expenses, generate invoices, and perform general bookkeeping duties. Plus, you will definitely need a cell phone so that you can always be accessible to your clients. After you get some business cards and the necessary business license, you are ready to start your errand service!

Now it may be difficult at first to get clients that are willing to pay you to run their errands. Frankly, the errand service field is definitely a word-of-mouth business where every past success or failure sets the stage for the next step. You may want to try marketing in fitness clubs, coffee shops, and beauty salons that allow you to leave a business card for people to look at and get your number from.

You have to remember when trying to build your customer base who precisely your target market truly is. Business professionals and small business owners are those most likely to have the money, but not the time, to run their errands. This is your target market so you need to focus all of your marketing efforts on this demographic.

It's a good idea to start off by offering your services to friends and family for little to no charge. It will help you gain experience and build goodwill. It pays in the long run as you can then use these people as potential references to get more business.

Even if you never visualized doing something like this, the fact remains that running an errand service is a viable means of earning some extra income, and has unlimited income potential. Once you establish your errand business, you can earn anything between to dollars an hour for your services. And, if all goes well this part-time business can turn into your full-time profession that gives you the freedom and financial independence that was not possible doing a job.