Contractor: Delivering Flowers

Need some extra cash? Like to deliver things? Have a van or car able to hold lots of items? Have I got an idea for you! Why not deliver flowers for Mother's day, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas (among other holidays)? You can definitely make some good cash if you do it quickly as most places pay about $5-$6 (sometimes more) per delivery and if your deliveries are close together, you could do quite a few making some major cash.

My first try at this was last year, 2007 Mother's Day. I had my husband with me along with my first born as we did not have a baby sitter. It's fine with most places to bring kids, but it's tough for them if you are going to be out all day delivering. We took out the back seats of our Van and loaded them up with every flower we could fit in. Our first run was not great because we used the little map they gave us, until we went back home and grabbed my laptop to mapquest each address. Mapquest.com now has the ability to be able to add multiple addresses so that you can get from one place to the next and that is exactly what we did! Everything went smoothly. We did this for two days, Friday and Saturday, with two hours on the actual Mother's day and made almost $400 dollars in those two and a half days. That's more then what my husband makes in a week!

How can you get started?

Well, you can call your local flower shop to see if they are currently looking for contractors for the up coming holiday, try the newspaper or you can try the job listings on craigslist. Each store will pay differently from one another but some offer some incentives if you have to make a longer drive and give you more money for delivering those flowers. Sometimes they start you out as a contractor to see how you do and may eventually offer you full time employment if you prove yourself to them. Ask them about this if you are interested in doing this on a daily basis.

Is there anything special I will need?

Well of course you will need a vehicle with current insurance (unless the company provides the vehicle) and a drivers license. You will need to provide these before you go out on the road or you will not be able to drive. If you don't have a drivers license, generally you can team up with someone and you can help the other during your deliveries. It does go faster if you have more then one person with you as the other person can keep track of the orders and flowers, plus get them ready for you when you arrive at each of your destinations while the other one takes them up to the door.

Worried about Taxes?

While you are a Contractor, taxes won't be taken out of the money you make while delivering as a contractor. This isn't such a big deal because while taxes won't be taken out, you will have the ability to be able to write off certain expenses at tax time which will lower your tax liability on the money that you make. You can write off your cell phone bill (if used), gas expenses, computer expenses (if used) and anything that is used to make your job easier. Even if you pay on your car you can write off part of the expenses since your vehicle is used for work, so don't worry about taxes. You can also send in a quarterly report each month with an estimation of how much your taxes will be so that at the end of the year you are not surprised with a huge tax bill.

Overall, if you need some fast cash, have the ability and tools to be able to deliver flowers, why not? It could lead to a long term employment with some great benefits, not only that but you can meet some neat people and be your own boss. Give it a try, you just might like it.