How to Start a Small Business Courier Service

Friday, June 7, 2013

How to Start a Small Business Courier Service

You can practically start a business courier service overnight. Make sure you have reliable transportation as you will need to pick up and deliver packages each day. You can probably start out with a car, van or SUV. You will not have that many clients early on. However, you may need to use a larger truck when your business grows. You can purchase a truck or rent one for a truck rental outlet.

Step 1

Create an office in a separate room of your house. Keep track of the hours you work at home as you may be able to deduct your home office for tax purposes.

Step 2

Create a name for your small business courier service. Apply for a doing business as license through your county or city, according to Business.gov. Use the fictitious name of your business on your DBA application. Apply for a vendor's license simultaneously as you will need to collect sales taxes from customers.

Step 3

Decide whether your want to focus on residential or business customers, or both. Decide what types of packages you will pick up and deliver, such as personal gifts, checks and money orders, perishable good or body organs. Limit the weight of the items you pick up and deliver if you desire.

Step 4

Call competitive delivery or courier services in your area. Obtain their rates for various package sizes, client types and mileage, if applicable. Price your services comparable to these other courier businesses.

Step 5

Create a website for your business courier service, or have a web designer create one for you. Place your website on all business cards, fliers, brochures and advertising materials. Place your website in various search engines, such as Google.com and Yahoo.com.

Step 6

Contact small businesses, office complexes, hospitals and schools to procure commercial clients. Leave a business card and brochure with the owner or business manager. Stress that you can provide more personal attention with your courier service over larger companies. Leave stacks of fliers behind in retail outlets to attract residential customers, and place ads in several coupon magazines. Start scheduling pickups and deliveries when residential and business customers call you.

Step 7

Advertise your courier service in the print and online Yellow Pages.

Step 8

Maintain a log of all pickups and deliveries. Arrive for each pickup on time as customers will be more likely to use your service again.

Step 9

Hire other drivers as your business expands. Create a manage a dispatch center, then hire employees to work the phones. Spend your time focusing on building more corporate business accounts. Sign these corporate business accounts to long-term contracts, offering a discount on single deliveries. Charge $12 for envelope pickups under contract, for example, if you normally charge $15 for single pickups and deliveries.

Things Needed

Tip

Use your computer and printer to print all customer invoices. Maintain a database of all residential and commercial customers on your computer. Contact these customers by phone or mail if you have not heard from them in awhile. Always be promoting your small business courier service.

References (6)

About the Author

Rick Suttle has been writing professionally since 2009, covering health and business for various online and print publications. He has worked in corporate marketing research and as a copywriter. Suttle holds a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Miami University and a Master of Business Administration from California Coast University. He is author of the novels "Hell Year" and "Suicide Peak."

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Friday, June 7, 2013