How to run an ironing service without doing any ironing yourself

If you are unemployed and would rather earn something than nothing then starting an ironing service is a good start. There is little capital investment, most households have an iron and ironing board and are connected to electricity supply to run your ironing service, so your three main requirements are already fulfilled. The rest involves your skills with ironing, knowing the settings of your iron, finding your clients and ironing for them. This is alright if you fancy spending several hours every day ironing clothes for others. If you are desperate for money, or love ironing as a job, you may want to continue doing this on your own. But, if you are clever and want to earn your money in the ironing business without doing then ironing yourself, then you need to rethink your strategy and come up with another solution where you are not ironing but have others do it for you.

Finding People to Ironing for You

One way to not iron while running an ironing service is to get someone else to do the ironing while you run the other aspects of the business. This may be tempting as you are not doing the ironing and still running your service. There are several ways you can make this work for you, but to be able to make a decent amount of money that pays you well, you need to have a lot of clients and a lot of business. Since you have to hire people to iron for you, pay for the running expenses, take care of the tax and other legalities you need to take a good look at your business and its possibilities before you consider hiring someone. One good way to do this may be to go into a partnership with the person who irons for you, while you take care of the delivery and other administration issues, your partner irons for the two of you and you split profit two ways. Still ironing is not a very well-paying job, it is perhaps the lowest paying so it is doubtful you will have much left over for yourself and your partner at the end of the day. You sure need a lot of ironers working for you to make this a viable option.

What Other Way Can I Run an Ironing Service?

Another way to run an ironing service without having to hire ironers yourself is becoming delivery agent for ironing services or ironers in your locality. You will need to find laundry services and ironer who do not offer pickup and drop services in your area. Work with them as a pick up and drop service. You can collect the clothes from the clients and deliver to the ironers and then return the ironed clothes back to the clients. This can work two ways, you can either work for the ironer or the client. If you are working for the ironer you have it easy, you do not need to find clients, just need to pick up and drop the clothes from the client to the ironer and back.  If you are developing your own clients then you need to invest in advertising and marketing as well as public relations too. You will need to find your clients, cultivate them, give them satisfactory service and deal with any problems that may occour while running an ironing service. Be sure you take out an insurance on your services before you start cultivating clients and taking their clothes in for ironing. Accidents can and do happen. One of your client gets an expensive dress back with a burn on it and you will probably be seeing all your profits go down the drain with the claim. You need to protect yourself from any such accidents and getting you ironing service insured is a good place to start. You could target small businesses around your area to help them with their ironing needs. There are plenty of restaurants, café's, B&B's and other such business who would like to hire the service of an ironer who could pick up and deliver their laundry after it is ironed. Other places where you could find business is seamstresses, tailoring shops, dress shops, clinics, offices, etc. where there is a need for ironing services.

How Can I Find People to Iron for me?

Best way to hire people for ironing is to give an advertisement in the local paper. The classifieds are a good way to start. Go around college campuses or the less wealthy parts of your town and post flyers and posters, leave word around that you are looking to hire people who could iron for you. Look in your neighbourhood for people who are already in the business and see if they would like to associate with you and work for you. They might be interested if they are new in the business, or do not have enough clients. List your requirement for ironers in the local internet directory. You are sure to find some people who are interested in making extra money on the side ironing for you, or enhance their already existing business by working with you.

What Do I need to Do To Start Such a Business

You certainly need a car or a vehicle to start your ironing delivery service. You need to get your business registered and get the required licenses and pay the needed fees. Get to know how to file your taxes and set up your accounting. If you are planning to hire ironers to work from your business premises, then you need to get the equipment for the ironers – basically an ironing board and an iron and a space to fold and pack the ironed clothes per worker. Do get liability insurance for the business and insurance for your employees. Accidents do happen. Know what your competitors are quoting for similar services and set your prices accordingly. Use the same terms and conditions that your competitors are using. Have something unique to push so people will choose you over your competition. Be creative and innovative, to make your business a success.