ChicagoTribune.com:
June Saruwatari is so organized that she’s made a business of it. The owner of Organizing Maniac clocks 12-to-16-hour days helping other people eliminate clutter, set up filing systems and learn to manage their time.
But even the tidier-than-thou have their limits. Saruwatari didn’t have time the other day to hang around her Los Feliz home waiting for a repairman. So she summoned Gofer Girls, a LA company that does errands for $30 an hour. ‘I run a business,’ she said. ‘I value my time.’
The rich and famous have long understood the value of hiring people to handle their chores. They call them servants or, in Hollywood, personal assistants. But now regular people are doing the math and increasingly are outsourcing life’s tedious tasks to an army of small businesses.
Need someone to drive your pet around town? There’s the pet chauffeur service that promises to lug Fifi to the vet or the airport.
Need help working through the honey-do list around the house? Rent a husband. For a small fee, he can rearrange the living room furniture or clean out the rain gutters. And you don’t have to worry about fighting him for the remote.
Some people are so lacking in time or social skills that they can’t find their own dates for a night on the town. A ‘female wingman’ is ready to come to the rescue.
Long workdays and 2-career couples have created a market for all sorts of service providers. The assistance business is becoming so common that Working Mother magazine’s September issue printed a tip sheet for moms seeking professional errand help…
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