Home Grocery Delivery Business

1. Home Grocery Delivery Business Welcome to home grocery delivery business. We are going to teach you step-by-step how to run and operate a home grocery delivery service in your city and state.

2. Table of Contents • Business Name • Choosing Customers • Delivery Options • Scheduling Your Time • Vehicle Maintenance • Delivery Cities • Delivery Hours • How it Works • Advertising • Adding an Employee

3. Business Name Your business name is going to make or break your grocery delivery business. You want a name that is easily identifiable with your service. If you were looking for a grocery delivery service in your home town and state, what are you going to write in your browser to find one? Think like your customers do when they are searching for you as their grocery delivery business. www.yourgroceryshopper.com/cityname.html

4. What kind of customers do you offer your grocery delivery business too? There are many individuals that need this service. Elderly Working Women Working Men Non-Drivers Handicap Post Surgery College Students Babysitters Pregnant Women Customers

5. Delivery Options Start out delivering groceries only until you get the hang of doing just one service. Your customers will contact you and ask for other services. Realize you can not be everything to everybody. I know you want to but it’s not an easy task. Stretching yourself too thin does not help you or your customers. They get dependent on you and if you are not available you will lose them due to your lack of commitment to them.

6. Scheduling Your Time Most all grocery stores open at 7:00 a.m. That does not mean you have to be the first one to open the store. But, if you are an early riser go for it. Each delivery will take you at least 45 to 90 minutes. That includes driving to the store, picking out the grocery items, calling your customer if there are items not available, going to more than one store, checking out and driving to the customer’s home to deliver their groceries. Go above and beyond the call of duty and offer to put their groceries away for them. Don’t snoop. Do your delivery and leave politely.

7. Make sure it’s clean Don’t leave oil or transmission fluid spots on the driveway Muffle must be quite Check gas, tires, oil and wiper fluid before each delivery Vehicle Maintenance

8. Delivery Cities What cities you are going to service? Figure out which ones are closest to you and the ones that require driving time. Get a map out and draw a big square. Start off with a 15-35 mile radius unless you feel you can offer a bigger delivery area. You can always add more cities later, the closer to you the better. You will get your deliveries done sooner and have time to make more deliveries throughout the day. Normally you can make 5 to 6 deliveries a day. More if your customers are close to your home. Choose your cities wisely. You might want to take a drive to each one and calculate the miles. Remember to calculate your miles round trip not one way.

9. Delivery Hours There are only 7 weeks in a week. What time of day and what days of the week will your grocery delivery service will be available? Will you make deliveries on Sundays? Are you in a tourists state? Other than Walmart, most grocery stores close around 10:00 p.m. You could offer early bird delivery hours if you are an early riser and charge for the special delivery hours.

10. How It Works Your customers order their groceries from the internet by selecting a grocery aisle and adding each grocery item to their cart. Checkout and pay by credit card.

11. Advertising Your Grocery Delivery Business The best advertisement is word of mouth. Advertise in the newspaper and online classifieds. Make some flyers and have the neighbor kids or your kids pass them out at your local grocery stores, church, bingo halls, doctor offices, oil change shops, hair salons and any where you can think that people sit and wait for a service. Buy a mailing list in your area and write a letter about your grocery delivery service and mail it to 200 or more homes. Talk to your local pizza pubs and ask them to pass out flyers when they make a pizza delivery. Make them a spot on your flyer. Advertising for them also helps you. Use your Microsoft Publisher and make your own business cards, brochures, flyers and catalogs. Don’t feel like you can make them yourself, ask your local printer to help you out. Be prepared to spend a few hundred dollars.

12. Hiring Employees When your grocery delivery business starts growing you may feel overwhelmed. Asking for outside help is going to solve that problem. You need to offer your helper or employees a small fee for making deliveries that you can not do yourself. Sign your employees up as contractual help. Write a contract and you both sign it. In others words they are self-employed. You will not be responsible for any insurance and you do not need to give them a 1099 form. They are responsible for paying all of their own taxes, not you. They carry all their own liability and car insurance. No insurance no job! Make sure they have a legal driver’s license. If you deliver alcohol or cigarettes make sure you are 21 years old or older.