How to Start a Personal Shopping Business
Starting a personal shopping business doesn't require much in the way of equipment. All you really need is a car and some gas. The real work comes in building your client base. If you can find the clients, and if you offer quality service and quality merchandise, your personal shopping business will be a success.
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Instructions
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How to Start a Personal Shopping Business
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Decide what kind of personal shopping services you are going to offer. Personal shoppers generally shop for gifts, groceries or clothing, or do errands of various kinds. Perhaps you want to keep yourself open and offer services for all types of merchandise.
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Decide how you are going to charge for your services and how much you are going to charge. Some personal shoppers charge a service fee based on the total price of the merchandise they buy. Some charge a hourly rate. If there are other personal shopping services in your area, check out their fees and consider keeping yours in line with theirs, or setting yours lower.
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3
Allocate money for advertising. Decide what your advertising budget is going to be. Don't spend more than you can afford. In general, small businesses budget 1 percent to 5 percent of their projected gross sales for advertising and promotion.
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Mount your advertising campaign. Take an ad out in the newspaper and the local business flier. Buy space in the Yellow Pages. Advertise on Craigslist. Get business cards, and hand them out to everyone you meet. Print fliers and leave them at retirement communities, and on bulletin boards at the grocery store, the laundromat and the dry cleaners. If you have the budget, do a direct mail campaign. Think creatively about other ways you can advertise your new business.
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Familiarize yourself with the best places to shop for the finest quality merchandise at reasonable prices. Check out gift stores, clothing stores and grocery stores. Find the ones you think will be the most suitable for your business needs.
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Tips & Warnings
When shopping for a client, get as much information from her as possible. You need to be a good listener and a good communicator.
Shopping can get tiresome. If you don't like to shop for yourself, you're not going to like shopping for other people.
References
- Photo Credit Lady Fox Photography
