5 Things To Keep In Mind When Setting Up A Courier Business

Setting up your own courier company is an exciting venture into the world of business- there are plenty of opportunities for your brand to constantly expand and develop.

However, you need to make sure that you have everything in place to nurture the growth of your company – if you rush into things your business can quickly go sour. With that in mind, SoftGoza has put together a list of five things you need to remember when starting your first courier business, so you won’t forget a thing!

Make A Business Plan

Planning is key, and this is particularly important for your business. Without a plan, you have no aims or goals and nowhere to progress, meaning your business will get stuck in a rut. It also means you may come into more problems, and not know how to fix them. This could damage your business massively – or even be the end of it. In a business plan, you need to include:

Executive Summary: This is a brief outline of your goals for your business, as well as a short summary detailing anything you may consider essential to be aware of in the future of your business.

Description: Describe your business in more detail. Analyse the courier industry, as well as how it may change and how that will impact your business.

Market Research: Conduct market research to find out what will be able to persuade people to opt for your company. Research competitors to make sure you can make yourself different and stand out.

Marketing: Determine how you are going to reach consumers and target your audience.

Management: How you plan on running your business, and any requirements (e.g. staffing, expenses)

Finances: Outline how you will keep your profits steady – produce an income statement and a cash flow statement

Contingency Plan: Come up with strategies if things don’t go to plan (e.g. a shift in marketing strategies)

It takes time, but it’s necessary to ensure your business will be successful.

Get Vehicles That Are Reliable

The most important thing you need to consider when setting up your courier business is, of course, your mode of transport. You need to invest in something reliable that will last, or else you’ll end up spending a lot of hard-earned money on unnecessary expenses.

If you’re looking for vans, we recommend a Ford Transit Courier – this gives you a lot of room to grow without starting out with something huge and wasting your money.

Courier Insurance

As well as ensuring you have reliable vehicles, you need to make sure that you’re prepared if the worst does happen.

Whether you deliver it yourself, or you hire someone to deliver it for you, it’s important to have insurance in case of damages or losses, or if your courier is injured whilst on a job. Accidents can happen, and it’s important to be prepared. We recommend checking out Quotezone to find the best courier insurance from over 55 top UK insurance providers.

It’s also worth looking into other types of insurance, for example,insurance for your building and contents to cover flooding, fire or theft in your main office.

Purchase Equipment

Once you have your vehicles sorted, you’re going to need to invest in some other equipment – mobile phones, two-way radios, office supplies, and a Sat Nav are just some of the things you’re going to need to invest in in order to make sure your company is set up for success, and not for failure. Giving each of your couriers a pen, clipboard and sheet recording each delivery they make will not only help you increase the efficiency of your business, and but also make it easy to file paperwork later without having to remember each and every delivery.

Establish Your Brand

You need to make sure you consider how your company will be viewed to the public – it has to be appealing and make people want to use your courier business over someone else’s.

Coming up with a name may sound like a simple task, but it takes a lot of time to make sure you have the right image. You want a name that will tell people straight away you are a courier business, as well as delivering the message you want to deliver.

For example, are you specialising in delivering something specific, like medical supplies, or more general items? Do you want your business to be viewed as fun and bright, or more serious and higher brand? Whatever you plan on doing, you need to convey this in your company name – as well as your company logo. When it comes to logos, keep them simple so that they will easily stick in someone’s mind, and use a maximum of three colours – more would be overkill.

These are just five things you need to do that will make sure your courier business will thrive – as long as you’re prepared, you’ll be able to deal with any challenge you’re faced with. Good luck!