Sometimes you just need a little help to get briefly over a hump. Or maybe you’ve got a bit of spare time on your hands that you’d like to turn into cash, without all the weird economics of In Time. That’s where TaskRabbit comes into play, and if you’ve got a small business needing just a little bit of help to get by in the very shortest term, then you’ll definitely want to look into this one yourself.
TaskRabbit basically takes people who can do stuff and connects them with people who need stuff done for them. You’ll post a task you want done, which is then turned over to the TaskRabbits of the service, who offer bids for your business. The lowest bid is automatically assigned to your task, who then runs said task. Once the task is completed, you pay the TaskRabbit in question who ran your task online via an automatic charge.
Naturally, there’s an added fee involved, but on the up side, all the TaskRabbits you may be dealing with are background checked to make for the lowest possible chance that you’ll be getting involved with someone you’d rather not. Plus, if you have a service business, like a plumbing operation or a maid service, you’ll be able to explore this yourself as an angle to get your name out there, especially if you’re willing to lowball a job or two to get your name out there, a very useful policy especially in the early going.
The down side here, though, is that the average task goes for between $20 and $30, which means if your service is more expensive–like if you’re a plumber or you deal in whole house cleaning–you may encounter some resistance. There are jobs that go for more than that, of course (one listing included “edit a document” and went for $177), but in a place where most jobs are going for less than $30 a pop, your $200 whole house cleaning special may not go over well, so you may need to adjust your services accordingly. But still, if you can impress the client sufficiently with your $30 “clean a room” task, you may do nicely with the house cleaning. Plus, since clients set their prices and you make bids accordingly, you may be able to find someone who wants a whole house cleaning done, and thus get yourself a brand new long term client.
So basically, TaskRabbit may be a great way to get your service business some new clients, especially if you can win someone over sufficiently that they call you back instead of going through TaskRabbit, and it can also be a good way to find very, very short term help. Your mileage may vary, of course, but there’s no reason to not give it a try.
Related Keywords: small business, service industry, online payment, marketing