How to Get Started Working at Home as a Personal Concierge

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By Holly Reisem Hanna

Do you want to launch your own home-based business, but you’re not sure what type of business to start?

Then consider working as a Personal Concierge, or sometimes called, a Personal Assistant. Not only does this allow you to work from home, but it falls under the most basic human needs of not having enough time and having way too much to do. And people are more than willing to pay good money for an extra set of hands so that they can get stuff done.

As Personal Concierge you’ll assist individuals with their overflow of tasks and errands:

Booking travel
Bookkeeping
Appointment setting
Running errands
Picking out gifts
Planning parties
Meal prep
Dog walking
Grocery shopping
Sending out correspondence
Organization
Internet research
Mailing packages
Picking up kids
Managing repairs
House sitting
Waiting in line
Dropping and picking up items from the dry-cleaner

Being a Personal Concierge does not require any special skills, training or a large startup budget, however, you will need to be professional and organized.

So how do you get started working from home as a Personal Concierge?

1. Have a Business Plan.

Since it’s unlikely that you’ll be taking out a loan to launch your business, you don’t have to have a formal business plan, but you do need to create a simple plan so that you have a roadmap to chart your journey. Within your plan, you’ll need to include things like what services you’ll offer, what to charge, how to accept payments, how you will market your business and take care of bookkeeping and financials. Need a little help? Life Hacker has a free one-page business plan to get you started.

2. Business Structure.

As a Personal Concierge you’ll most likely work by yourself, so choosing your business structure should be relatively easy (Sole Proprietor). But if you are going to have a partner or you’d like to have some extra legal protection you’ll need to file for a Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC), or S Corporation. Each structure has its own pros and cons, meeting with an attorney or an accountant can help you to determine which structure best suits your needs.

3. Register Your Business.

If you plan on using something other than your own name, you will need to apply for a DBA – Doing Business As. You will also need to research to make sure that someone else isn’t already using the name you want to use. This is also a good time to look at available domain names for your website.

4. Financials.

You will need to keep track of all of your business expenditures and sales by opening up a separate bank account for your business. Along with having a separate business bank account, you’ll need to figure out how to accept payments and what type of bookkeeping software to use. PayPal is a third-party payment solution that is both widely used and accepted, and it allows your customers to pay with a credit card. You'll also want to keep track of income and expenses, this is can be done on a spreadsheet, but I've found that using a bookkeeping platform helps to keep things more organized. Platforms like GoDaddy Bookkeeping and Wave are affordable and easy to use.

5. Online Presence.

There are many affordable ways to create a website for your business, but I highly suggest using a multidimensional content management system, like WordPress. In fact, WordPress is what I use and most other small business owners and bloggers use. Note sure where to get started? No problem. Setting up a WordPress website via BlueHost is easy and affordable. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set it up (this should take less than 20 minutes, seriously). Once you go through these steps you can purchase a theme (this is the design element of your site) to create a custom design. This site was designed using StudioPress — it's so easy to upload and to modify, and it gives you a highly professional looking site.

6. Communication.

You will want to designate a separate email account for your business activities. Once you purchase your domain name and hosting, you’ll be able to get an email address that reflects your business name. Having a separate phone line for your business can be nice, but it’s also an added expense and it may not be needed. Explore different options, like using your smartphone, Skype or Google Talk.

7. Marketing Your Personal Concierge Business.

Now that you have your website ready you will need to get traffic to your site. Start by setting up social networking profiles on Facebook and Twitter to promote your business. Place free ads on Craigslist, start a weekly e-letter, print business cards, blog weekly, and ask family and friends to spread the word. You may also want to post flyers or promote your new business at your local chamber of commerce. Remember to take a little time each and every day to market (promote) your business.

8. Getting Your First Clients.

Now that you have all of the essentials in place, you’ll need to secure your first client to start making money. While there are numerous ways to go about this, take a look at these articles for more in-depth instruction.

For some more resources on becoming a Personal Concierge check these out:

This page includes affiliate links. Please be aware that we only promote advertising from companies that we feel we can legitimately recommend to our readers. Please see our disclosure policy for further information.

Do you want to launch your own home-based business, but you’re not sure what type of business to start? Consider working as Personal Concierge, not only does it allow you to work from home, but it doesn't require any special training, skills, or a large startup budget. Read on to see if this is your dream work-at-home career!

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