Stealing Some Time -- on Their Watch

Errand-Runners Cater to Growing Pool of Busy Workers

It's 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday and already, PTA moms Libby Kinkead and Aida Middel have prepared breakfast for 38, booked a limo for a Foo Fighters concert, commissioned a watercolor piece, picked up dry cleaning, ordered custom couch slipcovers, delivered a trunk full of soda and fixed a needlepoint rug.

That doesn't include making breakfast for their own children and chauffeuring them to sports practice and doctors appointments.

The two are the founders of Potomac Concierge, a do-it-all errand-running service that aims to complete the "to-do" lists of Washington's stressed-out, time-starved workaholics.

Their business is part of a growing niche of micro companies with few to no employees that have sprung up as an offshoot of the local economic boom. As unprecedented federal spending creates a bounty of jobs in the government-contracting and high-tech sectors, as well as the law firms, banks and accounting firms that serve them, further down the chain are companies such as Potomac Concierge that have made businesses out of serving the personal needs of the region's growing and more affluent workforce.

While such services have existed for years, they were reserved largely for the rich. In the Washington area, which has the nation's highest median income, at $72,800, such businesses have become increasingly popular among the busier and higher-income workers. Employers also see the appeal, as such services keep their workers happier and in the office longer.

"Wealthy people have staff to do this full-time," said Middel, 53, who carries two cellphones -- one for the business and another for personal calls and very important clients. "We work for all sorts of people by taking care of the things that would normally keep them away from family or personal time."

The number of businesses in the Washington area with fewer than five employees grew about 6 percent from 1999 to 2004, according to census data. Even companies with no employees are growing in the region -- up 5 percent in Montgomery and Fairfax counties between 2003 and 2004, according to the Census Bureau.

Errand-running businesses base themselves on the lifestyles of the affluent. They call themselves personal concierges, gofers and lifestyle managers. There are businesses that train aspiring errand-runners with lessons on etiquette and discretion, among other things.

At $50 to $150 an hour, depending on the errand, Kinkead and Middel's services aren't exactly for working-class or even many middle-class families. They say that many of their clients are single professionals and that they have a growing base of corporate clients that hire them to serve several of their employees at once.

There is not reliable data on the number of such businesses, though Katharine Giovanni, chairwoman of the International Concierge and Errand Association, estimates that about two dozen have popped up in the Washington region over the past five years. The association says that the personal concierge industry is booming and that its membership -- which is mostly U.S. companies -- has doubled to 500 members from 250 last year.

In Northern Virginia, On The Go 4 U LLC and At Your Service Unlimited LLC have regular rosters of customers who pay them to watch pets, run bank errands, service their cars, buy their groceries and pay their bills. In the District, Capitol Concierge is one of the oldest personal concierge services, and it makes its business from lucrative corporate contracts.

"We're all trying to squeeze 36 hours into 20 hours," said Giovanni, who also runs Triangle Concierge Inc., a business that trains people to become personal concierges. "Why not have one person do the tasks that you would normally have 20 or 30 people do or do all by yourself?"

Kinkead said she and Middel use their network of parents at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac for resources on good plumbers and electricians, as well as potential new clients.

Juggling several tasks is a natural fit for Kinkead, a mother of three teenage girls. She was recently in the middle of moving, but on this day she would also deliver 20 cases of soda to a bank office in Tysons Corner, drop off blankets to a consignment store in Rockville, help count and measure gems for a diamond broker, sort and organize bills for a woman who owns several businesses, and pick up dry cleaning at three locations.

"This is a very intimate business sometimes and requires someone with compassion and who can think out of the box and come up with fast solutions, which I think is natural for many women," said Kinkead, 42, as she hopped into her white sport-utility vehicle.

Potomac Concierge was once asked to order food for a child's birthday party, but the caterer would not work for a small group. Solution: Knowing the child was a fan of police officers and fire fighters, the company invited off-duty officers and firefighters for free food at the party in exchange for tours of the police cruisers and fire trucks.

Middel once went to watch over the installation of a client's home alarm system when the installer unintentionally drilled through the sprinkler system, causing the basement to flood. Within minutes, she found someone to pump the water out and dry the basement with fans so the client would return from vacation with the home intact.

Middel has become friends with some of her clients as they deal with deaths, illness and divorce.

"You are trusted with so many personal details of their lives, you can't help but become close to your clients sometimes," she said.

Potomac Concierge is profitable, according to its owners. Middel said that in one year, she expects to make more than she used to as financial adviser at a large accounting firm, a job she left three years ago. The company has five employees at any given time -- stay-at-home moms looking for part-time work during the school year and college students in the summer.

Much of its success has come from its corporate business; it has contracts with banks and accounting firms to serve their employees.

At Mercantile Potomac Bank, President Kenneth C. Cook knows that work demands can hurt employee health and morale.

The bank is going through its fourth merger, a stressful period that requires many employees to work overtime, so Cook decided to hire Potomac Concierge for three dozen employees.

"We need our employees to put forth a little more energy and a little more work, which means fewer hours for them to take care of personal needs and can have negative effect on your family needs and health," Cook said.

So twice a week, Kincaid and Middel set up a makeshift office in a conference room where they take orders for picking up dry cleaning or concert tickets and give manicures, pedicures and massages on site.

The businesswomen said their flexible work schedule allows them to balance their family and professional lives better.

"We did this to have more time with our children," said Middel, who just returned from a week at Bethany Beach with her husband and three teenage sons. "Neither of us need to do this business as far as income is concerned, but we did it because we saw a need and thought it would be fun and rewarding."

As she is driving her college-age son's car with more than 200,000 miles on it, Middel gets a call on the business line.

She pulls over at a furniture store parking lot and takes notes on the steering column with an elbow supporting the paper.

"Light packing for a move? Yes, of course we can do that," Middel said in a deep, measured tone.

When she gets off the phone, she tells a reporter, "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy time."

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