DH's idea for a business - what do we need to consider?

[amydidit]

My DH and I have been trying to come up with ideas for businesses we can do on our own and make some money. We had several good ideas, but most cost more than we can afford.

DH had an idea of a delivery service. When we lived in Phoenix there was a service that let you order from several restaurants (that didn't deliver) and would pick it up for you and deliver it to you. There appears to be nothing like that here. DH was thinking we could start a service like that. But extend it to small shopping trips too. We were thinking of marketing it to retirement centers and places like that too.

We've never started a business before. What are some things we need to look into? Different car insurance I imagine. Research pricing. Maybe see if local business would give a small discount for orders that are places through this service? (Though probably need to wait until the business takes off and proves valuable.) Anything else we're overlooking? General thoughts?

[dogmom327]

I think it might be hard to make a profit. That type of business is really time consuming and it's a lot of wear and tear on your car. Realistically I wonder how much you could charge and until you really have a lot of customers (and can combine orders from the same restaurant, etc.), it's just going to be a ton of running around.

I also think you will have a very difficult time keeping customers happy. Traffic, food that doesn't taste right or not what they ordered (restaurant's fault but you are the closest person to yell at), cold food, etc. I can just see about a million things a customer could find to complain about and that would get very tiring on your end.

[kokonutmama]

NYC there are services like what you're describing, called "errand services" in the super pages, and I think they market to the rich because the cost is high.