Would you use this service?

[makingitin2012]

Please could you advise if you would use this service, or at least view it as feasible that others may use?
I propose to set up a business aimed at helping to cut family household expenditure. Primarily, I will do this by offering to cut existing household utility bills, and insurance bills, grocery shopping etc.
I would pitch to each customer that I guarantee to be able to reduce their monthly bills, and if I don't, then there will be no fee to pay at all.
If however I do save the customer, say £50 per month, then my only fee would be the first months saving, i.e. if I saved them £50 a month then I would charge them £50, but they would still make an overall saving of £550 throughout the year.
The way I would do this would be to independantly use the price comparison web sites, and other independant sites.

I am well aware that any person may use such sites for free. However, I believe that there is a 'gap' of customer who may not have internet access, or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, simply not have the time to regularly compare such bills.

So, if I offered to assess your bills for free, and if you knew that if I couldn't make a saving there would be no charge, or that if I did make a saving I would charge only the equivalent of the first monthly fee that I saved you, would you use it? If it helps, could you bear in mind that I am more than happy to sell to customers, and have no hesitation in selling a product to them.

I would also pitch that by using this service, as opposed to a national 'payperclick' site direct, then they would be supporting a local business, and that my business also donates 10% of all profits to a local Childrens Hospital.
I genuinely feel this is a fair deal, I hope you do too! The basis of this idea is that I am excellent at sourcing good deals on the net and have become rather known for it among friends, who all ask for my help when purchasing items / services etc on line.
I also feel that the service does do 'good' in that yes it charges, but only if it actually saves a customer (ie a family household) money in the first place, and then does plough 10% of the profit back into the family community.

Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Thank you.

great idea! And it sounds your clients have nothing to lose if your business doesn't deliver to them, so yes, I would possibly give it a go.

Playing devils advocate here, so a couple of things though:

• isn't bills and bank statements a bit of a personal thing? do you think people would be happy for you to look into this info?
• sounds like the idea can be easily stolen by rival businesses as it sounds that "anyone can do it".. i guess you need to add in a special factor that only you deliver...

good luck!

I wouldn't because imo the hassle part of it is digging out all the information in the first place. So I might as well do it myself once I'd got all the information that you need. Sorry. But I am an internet scouring, moneysavingexpert visiting sort of person so not really who you would be targetting anyway I suppose.

Thank you for the replies thus far. I did think that I should make the point, when marketing, that I would never need to know any incomings, or see a bank statement, that would all remain private. I would for example need a latest statement of gas usage, or home insurance, which I suppose I'm hoping wouldn't be too difficult to find!
Would it help that I'm aiming to build a client base who would like to have the personal touch of a 'face' doing this work for them, I'm thinking back to the days of when the insurance man used to call at my parents house! So if I built up a good relationship, then say when the car renewal came in, the customer would automatically call me to see if I could beat it on their behalf? I'm thinking perhaps pensioners in particular may like this service, and that pensioners in particular may not see price comparing on line as 'normal' an activity as 'we' do?

Would really, really appreciate any more views, if anyone else is lurking! Thank you.

I think it's a good idea - there are so many deals to be had, but many people seem unaware/not bothered. I wouldn't use it though, as an quite a savvy shopper and online deal finder.

It sounds great, HOWEVER, very few services can be directly compared on price basis only. Too often it is also about the quality of the service by the provider, conditions and many other qualitative issues that make direct comparison difficult/impossible.

I would be very worried about a company that would be driven to save me money on a monthly basis without any concern for these other issues.

Data security would be my number two concern. You would be handling a lot of super sensitive info from conviction on driving licence details to exactly what valuables I have in the house - that would not make me comfortable.

Thank you bemybebe, that's a really good point about being driven by cost only, which I'll have to address. I also take on board your point with reference to giving a 'stranger' data, I am hoping however that I'll still be able to gain enough trade from less sensitive data, or from customers less hesitant to disclose it. I really do think that in a way I'm onto something, I don't think there's a more current market than the 'credit crunch' etc, but definitely agree that yes this idea is rough and needs definite (possibly dramatic!) tweaking. Thank you again, I really am appreciative of the feedback.

In hindsight, could anybody suggest, prompted by my initial idea, any other way that I could use such skills? In essence, I am ready to start a business that utilises my following core skills: Organisational / Admin skills, excellent ability to source deals etc on line, and also not afraid (in fact very experienced!), to cold-call potential clients, leaflet drop face to face, or pitch at stands in local stores / events etc. I'm not at all abandoning the initial idea, but am very eager to consider new views! Thank you.

My dh had toyed with the idea of becoming a freelance sales person ie that he would spend, say, a day a week 'selling' for a client. For the smaller companies that couldn't afford/need a f.t sales person. Iykwim.
Maybe even attend networking events, trade fairs etc on behalf of the small company.
Or you could offer to source better deals for companies, mobile deals etc.
But I'd be a bit wary if, say, you got someone a cheaper insurance deal, for them only to make a claim and something wasn't covered or the ins company were crap.
The same for the utility companies that have shocking customer service records. say an oap went with one you found to be cheaper, they had a boiler problem and they got shoddy service.

What about a "virtual assistant plus" service? I have a VA who does some admin for me but I would be interested in someone who could, for example, trawl through the options for my company health scheme renewal and find me a good deal. Someone who does more than the basic admin stuff. I guess a bit like the exec assistant I had when I was a senior manager elsewhere.

I'd rather be building my businesses rather than listening to a VERY dull presentation by some salesbod from an insurance company.

If you're good at selling then maybe pitch to some companies to attend networking events for them. Some insist on the business owner or MD attending but not all. Someone who doesn't like the limelight might welcome the service.

good idea - though once you 'launched' people would realise they could do it themselves so you'd have to think of a good way to differentiate what you can offer.
good luck!

Read this and was thinking about your idea last night. I think I would instinctively shy away from wanting to pay someone for having done something I could do easily myself.

What about instead if you offered people a service showing them where they could cut money out of their household budget?

They could simply say how much they have to spend - and what's in their household budget including how much they pay for stuff, and who their providers are, and you could point them towards cheaper alternatives, or tell them what to cut out in order to reduce their budget to what they have to spend.

I think it's quite hard to see in your own budget where you can cut spending because it's quite an emotional area, but it might be easier to see where someone else ought to be doing it.

You could have a sliding scale of charges:

a relatively small, set, amount to look through the budget and tell them what they should cut out/look for a better price on.

a larger amount to find some alternative deals for them that they could sign up for themselves.

and a larger amount still to do all the legwork for them.

Thank you all for taking the time to post. Some of the points in particular have been valuable, particularly as I have now focused myself onto a new project, as consequence of considering all the views!
I'm really excited for 2012 and hope to post by the end of the year that yes, I have made progress - that is the goal, anyway! I've decided that I'm absolutely fed up of always yearning for more, of always wanting to do more and so have decided right, it's now or never and, this time, I'm not giving up! No time will be spent this year being wistful of other people's achievements - instead I'll spend my time and energy on making my own achievements!
Good luck to you all for your work in 2012.

Be careful whatever you do that you hold the appropriate insurance

Do you think you can make a living out of offering this service. You always have to assume worse case - you may only have one client a week! Being self employed you want to earn £800 plus per month - you'll need to take overheads out of this so what would you profit margin be on each job? Assuming you'll need website setup, transport, insurance, your legal fees, phone, computer overheads etc etc. You must work out yr hourly rate less than min wage then its not worth it.

Dont confuse a good idea with a great business - they dont always work.

You need a considerable amount of clients for a low value business - same principle as a supermarket really.

Hi Bacon
Thank you for the reply, I agree that a good idea doesn't necessarily equate to a good business idea. I have diverted completely from the original idea, but am glad that I had it, as the process of considering and digesting points has pushed me into a direction - and one that I am sure is right for me. It takes full advantage of my background and education, and am very happy to pursue it.
So yes the original idea is abandoned! If you don't mind me saying though, I don't think it is good practice that you should always assume a worse case of potentially only having one client a week. Whilst of course this is possible, I daresay if everyone based a business plan on such an assumption, nobody would go into business! Unless of course one sale per week was sufficient to survive - which I doubt very much!
But yes, it probably isn't possible to make a living out of the service as described above.