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| HOW TO START
A ROOMMATE FINDING SERVICE
|Business >
HOW TO START
A ROOMMATE FINDING SERVICE
The
average income for owners of this kind of business in California is $65,000 a
year. Best of all, here's a business that you can start with an absolute minimum
investment. Practically anyone who lives in a city anywhere in the country can
expect to do just about as well, and with a bit of imagination, mixed with some
business "moxie", you should be able to do even better!
Income and market potentials for a service such as this are truly fantastic!
Rent increases that have far outpaced wage increase have brought about a
tremendous need for a method to alleviate the cost of housing. Also, many
apartment complexes are being converted into expensive condominiums. These two
factors have created a problem of gigantic proportions for millions of people
who are concerned about keeping a roof over their heads.
You can make big money solving the problem with your own Roommate Finding
Service. We're going to tell you how.
Many of the nation's leading economists are predicting this kind of living
arrangement to be the "money-saving answer" for apartment dwellers for the rest
of this century. Others are predicting the roommate finding service to become as
popular as the employment agency by 1990.
This is an ideal absentee owner business. Most of those operating on the West
Coast have a woman doing the managing - sometimes as just the manager, and some
times as the owner - manager. This apparently has something to do with the
nature of the business, and how most people seem to naturally trust a woman to
find the right roommate for them.
As to the fee structure, I suggest something similar to the successful
employment agencies. Charge everyone a $25 registration fee to start the ball
rolling toward finding them a suitable roommate. You take a Polaroid snapshot of
each registrant, have them fill out an appropriate application card which will
indicate the kind of roommate they'd be happy with, and start searching through
your files for people with similar likes and dislikes.
To get started, you'll want a bank reference; a legal reference, a telephone; a
business name, letterhead paper, envelopes and business bards; and office
supplies such as a 3 x 5 index cards; typewriter; file cabinet; and a printed
questionnaire-application form. You'll also need a responsibility disclaimer,
which can be combined with the applicant's agreement- to-pay contract. Once
you've found a roommate for your prospective client, you should have it spelled
out in your agreement that each of the "matched room mates" will pay you 15% to
20% of the first month's rent. You could charge a bit extra for particular
requirements, and perhaps somewhat less for older persons, or for persons with
handicaps.
The approval or disapproval is left up in the parties involved. You simply look
through your registration card file, pull out five or six apparently suitable
roommates, call each of them on the phone and arrange separate meetings for them
with your client. Your client reports back to you, and tells you of his or her
decision, and you call the person chosen and finalize the deal.
Good advertising will play a most important part in getting this business off
the ground. Make up a good circular or "flyer" detaining your roommate finding
services, and listing your phone number. Get these flyers on as many bulletin
boards in your area as possible. Get them in grocery stores, barber shops,
community colleges, beauty salons, bowling alleys; the list of places to
"billboard" your flyers is endless. Another idea is to set up "take-one" boxes
in as many retail places of business as you can. Don't overlook the value of
placing your flyers on car windshields - particularly around apartment
complexes, and in the parking lots of the colleges in your area. You might even
pay the downtown
parking lot attendants to slip one under the windshield wiper of each car he
parks on Monday. If you do a good job with the make-up of your flyer, and use
your imagination in getting them into the hands of your prospective clients,
you'll have no trouble moving your new business into the black quickly.
Even so, you'll need to run regular ads in your area newspapers. The best
headings to run your ads under is the Personals Column. Your ad might read:
Need A Roommate? We'll find the ideal roommate for you! Everything handled on a
strictly confidential basis. For details, call Jan, Mary, or Carol.
Within only a couple of months, you should be well enough established, and with
an income large enough to afford an office location. When you establish your
office, do some publicizing of your business with press releases to all the
media in your area,
and plan some fanfare that will bring attention to your services. Tacking up on
your office walls the enthusiastic testimonials of people you've matched with
roommates is a very good idea. Later on, you might want to input all your client
information on computer, and take video pictures of each client for showing to
prospective roommates. In the final analysis, once you have your business
underway, your further success will be limited only by your imagination.
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