Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2013, during the economic crisis. The 10-euro flat fee per worker per month and the claim that these companies were “holding up through the crisis” reflect that moment.
Continuing with our business ideas, today we’re focusing on some of the needs of a company’s employees, while at the same time helping that company make those employees more effective.
As we all know, there are all sorts of errands and paperwork that working people have to deal with, or else lose part of their working time taking care of them. Today, companies need all their employees focused and free of worries. Taking the car for its ITV (Spain’s mandatory vehicle inspection), finding a babysitter for the kids, or any other errand, however small it may seem, eats into our time. The first companies covering these needs have already appeared, and they charge the employer a kind of flat fee per worker.
That flat fee, which in some cases is €10 a month per worker, entitles the company to request any errand its employees, or the company in general, need: for example, calling them to send over an IT technician, asking them to find a caterer for a small office party, finding a restaurant, or booking the Christmas dinner.
Delegating this kind of task means the company doesn’t have to give up an employee’s time, and that employee can be more productive.
To this idea we can add a virtual assistant service for one-off needs or holiday periods. Some time ago we wrote about Ignacio Mellado, an entrepreneur from Granada whose company runs small errands such as taking papers to a court, picking up a gift, collecting some suits or delivering a parcel. Sometimes simply having to go into the city centre, park, queue and so on can take a couple of hours or more for one small errand.
Now, is this business profitable charging only that flat fee?
I don’t know what system is being used in Spain, but at least some of the companies that have been working in this sector in the United Kingdom for a while usually charge, in addition to the monthly fee per worker, a small commission to the businesses that partner with them.
Let’s say a company needs us to find a restaurant for a lunch or dinner. The services company would charge a small percentage of the total amount of the sale it has sent to that restaurant, because these companies are just intermediaries, and some of them work in the same way as estate agents, who charge a percentage to both buyer and seller. Some of these companies offer different plans, from the most basic to the most comprehensive.
That’s the idea in broad strokes, and everyone can add or remove elements to adapt it to their own market. It’s worth saying that, for now, these companies are holding up through the crisis. What’s more, many of them were born out of the crisis, and they’re proving very profitable in the medium term, once you’ve built up a small portfolio of clients and suppliers.
More business ideas
- 9 business ideas that don’t need commercial premises
- Profitable businesses for 2013: a roundup of ideas
- Businesses that work despite the crisis
Featured image: J o, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
