A Day in the Life of a Concierge…Lifestyle Manager… Personal Assistant…Virtual Assistant…Fairy Godmother
Lots of people ask us what we actually do so this blog is part of an occasional series to show what we get up to in our jobs, some posts will take the shape of case studies, others a list of tasks we have done in a day.
Today is Andrea’s turn…
It’s the first day back in the office in the New Year for me, I have my on-going to do list for ‘my’ clients and a legion of emails assigned to me in the Inbox. Ok heads down off I go
1 Property Management Camden – mice reported. Pest control organised.
2 Property Management West Hampstead – lights out. Electrician organised.
3 Property Management Waterloo – shower seal broken. Handyman organised.
4 Property Management Islington – lead stolen from roof. Police rung (surprisingly long on hold, then told someone will get back to you); insurance company rung; builders arranged to provide quote.
End of property management for the morning, yippee.
5 Invoice chasing on behalf client – no replies, is everyone still on holiday? Messages left and emails written.
6 Invoices raised and emailed on behalf of several clients for whom we are VAs (Virtual Assistants).
7 New client – a family is moving to the States with work for a couple of years and ask us to look after their home while they let it. We already do that for several clients: they’re happy so we’re happy!
8 Check with builders to see how a client’s refurbishment is going. Check with client that they agree! They are, site visit arranged for next week.
9 Order wicker wheelie bag for client A; monthly order for replacement printer ink for client B done; books from a list from client C ordered for delivery. I love Amazon!
10 Now some time for cushion the impact: arrange half a dozen meetings with potential suppliers to make sure our little black book is always fresh; talk to two companies who are interested in providing our services to their clients – meetings set up; try and update our website but the server keeps crashing (lots of swearing going on); cushion the impact blog updated with guest post from Digital Dragonfly – scheduled for Friday as the one I am writing now is supposed to go up on Wednesday! Better hurry up and finish it.
11 New client – a small business owner to whom we were recommended. One of her New Year’s Resolutions was to outsource her admin so she can spend more time with her family at the weekends. We arrange to meet to start on the admin in her home office.
12 Morning, lunchtime and before home time I read emails for a client currently on holiday: replying, actioning, deleting.
13 Open post for clients currently abroad who forward their mail to us. Paperwork variously scanned and emailed; shredded; filed; courier organised to Singapore for important papers.
14 Check to do list – all in all a satisfying day, I’m happy that lots of to dos have been done. As an inveterate list maker, I love seeing things ticked off. Different people have different methods and lists are my ‘thing’; when I first started working with a particular client she almost shuddered whenever she saw one of my lists, she preferred postits…it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it works for you but you must make sure it does work for you. Postits didn’t for her, at least not for her work; she’s lose them or they’d be in the office when she was elsewhere. Now she uses lists (although not as obsessively as I do!) for the business but postits for her personal life which is a happy and workable solution for her.
15 Set up to do list (you knew I was going to say that didn’t you!) for Wednesday as I’m out and about in meetings and with clients on Thursday and Friday. Delegate what I can… which means at the very least someone else can try and update our website…smile gratefully that I won’t be in the same office as the person I’ve delegated that particular piece of work to as I know they are not going to be thrilled!
16 Go home and while on the bus start to organise my own life: handyman booked to fix broken door handle in kitchen; friends rung to see who fancies going to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry with dinner at Tayyabs afterwards; confirm arrangements for weekend in February with sister; list made for ingredients for roast lamb dinner (first time I’ll ever have roasted lamb, am nervous!) for dinner with friends on Saturday…
What’s your day like?
