Ten Tips on How to Start a Concierge
Business
By Katharine Giovanni
- Do a business plan. It really
doesn’t matter how short or long it is,
nor does it have to be fancy with
colored charts. However, you really
should do one so that you know where you
are going, what you are doing and how
you’re going to get there.
- Create your brochure, business cards,
website and sales kit. This can all
be done on a shoestring with today’s
software, but having them is a vital
part of a business. You can obtain some
terrific free business cards by visiting www.vistaprint.com, and you can do a
website pretty inexpensively as well. If
you don't want to do it yourself, here
are a few links to some "instant"
website creation sites where you can
have a site up in minutes … http://go.bigstep.com/, www.networksolutions.com, www.godaddy.com or www.1and1.com.
- Get some business liability
insurance! Please don’t start a
business without it. You can visit my
resource directory at www.triangleconcierge.com and you’ll
see a few insurance companies who are
currently insuring the industry. You can
also join www.ICEAweb.org and get insurance
through them.
- Legal Documents – contracts,
agreements, etc… Get this right the
first time and you won’t have to put out
fires in the future. You’ll need both
client contracts as well as vendor
agreements.
- Do NOT quit your job! Nor should you go out and
rent an office, buy or rent furniture
and hire employees. THINK ABOUT
IT FIRST! First and foremost, you need to be able
to feed your family and pay your bills,
so make sure that you have either enough
money saved to last you at least 6
months, possibly even a year, or you
have some other form of steady income
flowing into your household.
- Find a target market! There are
so many niches for this business that
you might be tempted to do them all when
you first open up. However, I strongly
suggest that you choose one or two niche
markets and go after them first. Do them
well and then you can choose a few more.
If they don’t do well and tank, then you
have hundreds of other niches to choose
from! Choose a new niche and then
re-focus, re-work your business and then
re-launch! The key here is to never
ever give up!!! Some niches around the
US include hospitals, small/medium/large
companies, condominiums, shopping malls,
airports, office buildings,
neighborhoods, individuals,
colleges/universities, country clubs,
senior market and more. I could go on
and on there are so many out there!
- Market, market, market … join
your local chamber of commerce,
networking groups … get out there and
shake people’s hands and tell them what
you do! Talk it up everywhere you go.
Attend as many expos and receptions that
you can! I think face-to-face marketing
is key when starting up a business … so
talk it up, people!!
- Be warm, friendly, approachable and
extremely courteous 100% of the time. This is the key to being a great
concierge! People may not remember what
you did for them, but they will always
remember how you made them feel and how
you treated them.
- Keep your focus on where you are
going … and not on what is hitting
the fan at any particular moment. KNOW
that you can do this!! See the future
that you want, daydream about it and see
yourself being there!!!
- Finally, the most important part of
concierge work … Customer Service! It’s the hallmark of the concierge
industry … over-the-top unbelievable
customer service. I think everyone
should build a customer service plan.
You should talk to your staff about
customer service every day, not just
once in a while! It’s a way of life and
something that you practice every minute
of your life and in every facet of your
business.
Copyright © 2007 by Katharine C. Giovanni
About the Author: Katharine Giovanni, the world's leading
international concierge training expert, has
been training concierge for over 10 years.
She is Triangle Concierge's senior trainer
and speaker, and is the author of their
best-selling book The
Concierge Manual. Katharine has
traveled around the country teaching
workshops to groups, individuals and
corporations. She has appeared in dozens of
newspaper articles, magazines, radio and TV
shows around the country including ABC News
Nightline, CBS News, ABC News, Delta
Airlines Sky Radio, WOR Radio, the
Washington Post, LA Times, the Wall Street
Journal, Forbes, Women’s World Magazine, The
New York Times and Conde Naste to name a
few. A dynamic public speaker, Katharine
has been a speaker at seminars and
conferences around the country. Raised in
New York City, Katharine has a B.A. from
Lake Forest College and currently lives in
North Carolina with her husband Ron and two
children. Katharine is a member of the
National Speakers Association. She can be
reached through her websites at www.triangleconcierge.com or www.katharinegiovanni.com |
