Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Gia Veglia leaves a North End home on most mornings and walks a Yorkie named Ella, but the dog and house aren’t hers. Veglia’s fiance, Omar Doherty, wakes up a lawyer at 5:30 every morning and cooks him breakfast. Their friend Jason Cahoon often spends his time fixing broken computers.

The jobs are among a long list of services the trio offers through their errand-running company, Whaddya Need. They deliver food, clean houses, and do virtually anything else a client in the North End asks for. They’ve moved 6-foot garden gnomes, edited a thesis, and waited in line for Red Sox tickets.

The three friends started Whaddya Need last July. It’s a side job for the three, who all have full-time jobs: Cahoon, 25, is a software engineer downtown; Doherty, 27, is a lab technician at Quest Diagnostics; and Veglia, 27, works overnights at a rehabilitation program for troubled girls in Concord.

“The Whaddya Need job is a nice change of pace from my other job,’’ Doherty said. “I get to meet people from all over the neighborhood, use my brain in a different way.’’

In this era of instant gratification - getting what you want when you want it - the market for errand running is widening, and businesses are cropping up to fill the need. There are virtually no start-up costs and experience is rarely necessary. Though errand runners often endure late hours, demanding clients, and endless trips around the city, they also enjoy the freedom of a work-when-you-feel-like-it job with tasks that often border on leisurely, such as dog walking or grocery shopping. For years, Entrepreneur magazine has cited errand running as one of the best start-ups for people with an itch to run a company.