Here’s a business idea for you: be the delivery service for the outside-of-town folks.
My house is eight miles outside of Alva. I would gladly pay extra for an occasional pizza delivery, especially on weekends. (Like last weekend, for example!)
My cousins live outside of Norman, Oklahoma, and I was sitting at their house when this idea originally occurred to me. They can’t get pizza or any other deliveries out there.
In our part of the world, we’re seeing lots of folks moving to country homes, so demand is going to go up.
You can decide whether to take orders directly, or let customers order the take-out, and then order delivery from you. Expand it to grocery deliveries, or anything else that seems to make sense.
This is an example of one business that is going to work better in higher-trust rural areas, I think.
What do you think? Viable? Know of any examples?
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
On a very discreet instance… I know of 3 kids that work at a local pizza place that if you specifically ask for one of them, they will for extra cash (for the three of them) go past the set boundaries! Is that entrepreneurial or a racket?
I have often thought that ,if thought out correctly, a grocery deliver service to rural folks who are willing to pay, would be successful.
Cody, I’ll bet there are kids like that at every local pizza joint.
Probably would work. Local outfits could probably benefit by expanding their delivery services. For example, if you live within a certain distance (past delivery zone) there is a surcharge and a minimum order. Benefits:
Two related benefits:
1. Easy way to expand your business w/o having to open a new location
2. Test demand for new locations by offering delivery there…. if demand is high, then open a store.
Marco, that is a great addition: market research.
What a great way to accommodate your customers and expand your business, if only every business would go the extra distance to please their customers! It really creates loyal customers.