Deliver on Your Business

We are into the last few episodes of the 31 Day Courier MBA series, with only 2 more episodes after today. We will then start a weekly episode schedule starting with Friday, August 9.

We mentioned the challenge that we put out in our weekly Courier Nation Motivation email that went out this morning. In that we encourage you to listen to Episode 8 on Measuring your performance, choose one of three key measurements we discuss there, and set a goal to be slightly better than you were last week.

Once you set a goal, tell someone. That helps you be accountable. If you want, you can tell the community your goal:
Email [email protected]
Post your goal in the comments on this facebook post
Post your goal in the comments on this LinkedIn post

Today we talk about six things you can do to make your work more enjoyable. This is about employee relations, because every business has a responsibility to take care of their employees, even the self employed.

Some of the episodes we refer to today include:

Episode 3: Understanding your Why
Episode 7: Develop an Exit Strategy
Episode 8: Measuring your Performance
Episode 10: Choosing equipment
Episode 29: Work Life Balance (today)

For a full list of episodes you can go here.

We start our last section on the 31 Day Courier MBA series, where we talk about employee relations.

We don't have employees, you say.

When you're an independent contractor, you are considered self employed, so guess who your employee is? You have a responsibility to take care of that employee.

We talk about three major types of benefit that are often provided only for employees. Is it possible to give yourself these benefits?

Paid Time Off

Insurance

Retirement.

These are all things you can give yourself. There is a cost, just like there is a cost for an employer to provide these things. You need to realize that these kinds of benefits DO add to the disparity in earning power between being an employee and being an independent contractor. See Episode 6 for more on that.

It's important to think about these things and ask how much you need them. What happens if something happens to you while working? What insurance do you need? It's worth getting with a good independent insurance agent to discuss where you are vulnerable, and get with a good tax pro to udnerstand how these things affect your taxes.

In the episode, we referenced this article from Dave Ramsey on how to tell if you need life insurance.

For a blog version of this episode (not necessarily word for word) you can go here.

For a list of all episodes on the series, go here.

There are times when a business has to ask if the relationship with the customer is helping them meet their business goals or is it getting in the way.

When I was in telecom, we had customers who, when all was said and done, were more hassle than benefit. We were able to operate better and more profitable when we ended the relationship

Remember that the customer in our case is the delivery company we are contracted with.

We may have times we want to fire THEIR customers. There are certain restaurants that we make the business or personal decision not to deliver from any longer. They will take too long, they are rude or disprespectful. It's okay to move on. There may be certain end users that we determine not to ever deliver to again.

Firing your customer is different than deciding to move on from the delivery gig altogether. If you are thinking about that you might want to listen to Episode 22 on when the business decision is best to move on.

When it comes to the delivery apps like Grubhub, Doordash, Postmates, Uber Eats, Caviar, Instacart, Shipt, Deliv, Bitesquad or a number of others, there are times when the relationship is no longer the best to continue:

When the relationship just becomes emotionally a headache

When the customer crosses the line and is disrespectful

When your worth is more than what they can or will pay.

A few episodes that might help when thinking about this:

Episode 3: Understanding your Why
Episode 22: Know when to say when
Episode 7: Develop and Exit Strategy.

For a complete list of episodes in the series, you can go here.

For a blog version of the episode (not necessarily word for word) you can go here.

With some platforms, tips are still made after the delivery is completed rather than ahead of time. Uber Eats and Postmates are the primary examples.

The key to good tips is to deliver what the customer expects:

• Quick delivery
• Food arrives in good condition.

When you can demonstrate that you are doing everything in your power to ensure that these objectives are met, you can increase your chances of getting more tips on these platforms:

Get in and out of restaurants quickly
Communicate well with the customer (but not too much)
Be professional when delivering and demonstrate that you are meeting THEIR goals, not just yours.

I think we can overdo it. Sometimes if we make it look like the tip is more important than our service, it can work against us. Don't look desperate, don't ask for tips. Do a great job at demonstrating that you are getting their food to them quickly and that you are taking good care of their food, and that will help.

In the episode, I talk about appearance. We only have a few seconds with the customer. Appearance can demonstrate that we care about what we are doing. I referenced this post on our blog that you can look at.

Do I have to wear a uniform?

For the blog post version of the information provide here, go here.

For a list of all episodes past and present in the Courier MBA Series go here.

You hear the phrase used a lot in businesses that the customer is always right.

We know that our customers - the delivery apps we contract with - are not always right. In fact they are often wrong. What do we do when they are wrong?

We discuss this in today's episode

In yesterday's episode, we identified that the delivery company is your primary customer. Since we are contracted with them, THEY are our customer. The restaurant is their customer, and the diner is, well....  sort of everyone's customer.

When you think of Grubhub or Doordash or Postmates or anyone like that, how does that make you feel when you think of having a customer first attitude? Is it even possible when the relationship so often seems adversarial?

A customer service attitude is NOT just accepting whatever they give you and NOT just putting up with everything. It begins with understanding the parameters of the relationship.

A customer service attitude IS a commitment to do your best with what you agreed to do for the customer. That begins with accepting a delivery offer and ends with the completion of the delivery. At that point you agree to do your very best.

A customer service attitude is an attitude that treats all entities with respect and professionalism.

For a list of all the episodes int he series, you can go here.

If you ever saw the movie Inception, it was about a dream within a dream within a dream. As gig economy contractors for Grubhub, Doordash, Postmates, Uber Eats, Caviar, Shipt, Instacart, Amazon Flex, Deliv, Bitesquad, etc., the customer relationship is almost that complicated. It's about a customer of a customer of a customer.

As independent contractors, our real customer is the one we are contracted with, the delivery company. At the same time, we have their relationship with their customers, and of course with the end user to keep in mind.

Customer service requires being respectful and being professional with all levels of our customers.

This is the first of five episodes on Customer Service. For future episodes, here is a schedule. 

While we may love doing gig delivery work, there always comes a time when it makes sense to move on. When is that time?

The most important answer to that is going to be, when it doesn't support your why any longer. We talk about finding your why in Episode 3.

It is important to be realistic about what you are really making. Ask yourself the following questions:

Is it enough?
Can it be enough?
Am I making progress?

When the time comes that it doesn't make sense to continue, what do you do next?

This is part of our 31 Day Courier MBA Series. For a list of past episodes and what we have scheduled, you can go here.

Other episodes that are relevant to today's episode include:

Episode 3: Understand your Why
Episode 6: Understand your financial requirements
Episode 7: Develop an Exit Strategy
Episode 8: Measuring your performance
Episode 17: Understanding profit and loss
Episode 18: What are your REAL expenses?

Taxes may be the one thing that trips up and causes more problems for independent contractors in the gig economy.

We are used to having taxes withheld. We are used to something straight forward like income tax. We are used to deductions keeping our income taxes low.

And then the self employment tax throws a wrench in the works. Everything is different. Self employment tax is 15.3% of EVERY. DOLLAR. OF. YOUR. PROFIT. There are no deductions. 

The best piece of advice that I can give you on taxes is don't take advice on the internet. And don't take it from a blog or podcast, not even mine. None of this information is intended as advice, but more education about how taxes work. It's important that you understand some basic things about taxes for independent contractors like ourselves: 

• Your taxes are based on your profits, not on your overall earnings. Keep good records of your expenses so you aren't paying more than you have to
• You have income tax AND self employment tax. Self employment tax is our version of FICA (Social Security) and Medicare that you see on a W2 - only we pay double what we do as employees (because the employer pays half).

Understand the differences, understand how the taxes work, and get a tax pro to help you understand what you need to be tracking and saving.

We linked to another blog post that was posted earlier that went into a bit more detail on taxes.

Earlier episodes that help lay a foundation for this week include:
Episode 17: Understanding Profit and Loss
Episode 18: Understanding your real expenses
Episode 20: Be prepared for major tax and vehicle expenses

A complete list of future and past episodes for the series can be found here.

This is episode 20 out of 31 in the Courier MBA series, where MBA stands for Mastering Business Attitude. This is a weekly podcast but we are kicking of with this 31 day series.

There are always surpises that happen when it comes to money. But too often independent contractors in on demand delivery for Grubhub, Postmates, Uber Eats, Doordash, Caviar or any others are surprised by things we shouldn't be surprised by. Here's the reality when driving your car to earn money:

You will owe taxes on the money you earned

You will wear your car out by driving.

We talk about taking steps to be prepared. Ultimately, we recommend that you NOT treat the money deposited by delivery companies as your income. You treat it as a business does their revenue. Your PROFIT is your income. It's the money that's left after expenses that is your income.

Quit spending money as soon as it comes in
Get away from instant pay
Save money for taxes

The big one when it comes to preparing for vehicle costs.
Calculate cost per mile on your car and set that money aside very week based on how many miles you drove. Then as you have vehicle costs (gas, maintenance, insurance, etc) take that money out of your vehicle fund.

Take control of your money, don't let it control you. This practices helps you be realistic about what you are really earning, as there's less money left over when you do this. Make decisions based on that reality that you're not making as much as it appears.

Some episodes that might help further:

Episode 6: Understand your financial requirements
Episode 7: Develop an exit strategy
Episode 16: Reduce your miles driven per dollars earned
Episode 17: Understand Profit and Loss
Episode 18: Understand your actual expenses

For a complete list of episodes past and future in the series, you can go here.