Good Morning, All!

I am interested in offering concierge services, and my company will be a hybrid of the two (virtual and concierge for more personal requests).

I intend to start off with virtual concierge services because I do not have any vendors or partnerships in place.

For those of you who offer concierge services, how did you locate and establish vendor partnerships? Are there books or resources you can recommend?

Thanks,

Caroline

Caroline,

I highly recommend The Concierge Manual by Katharine C. Giovanni.

I started out as an entrepreneur with a Contractor Referral Network. I interviewed people who had recently had work done about their contractor, along with friends and family and then approached the contractor with my proposal.

From there, I began to build a Concierge service (both virtual and physical) but I didn't enjoy it. I found that people were interested in the service, but I didn't stick around long enough to gain more than 3 one time clients. It's kind of hard to sell packages or work on a retainer, so you'll need to be constantly adding to the pipeline. I HIGHLY suggest marketing wealthy neighborhoods for the physical concierge service, and really look at existing websites for virtual concierge. Also, join the ICAA (I think that's what it's called) if you can.

I stopped doing both because I was putting out more money than I was bringing in, and I was more passionate about real estate and office systems. The commissions on both business models tend to be pretty slim.

I really don't mean to be a downer! I do have lots of information that I'd be happy to share with you. I'd love to see it work out for you!

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April Sullivan
The REVA Academy

You're not a downer, it's great to have honest feedback from someone whose tried it so the rest of us know. Thanks April.

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Sandy