Personal Concierge Info

Getting Started with your Personal Concierge Business

Cameron — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:01:55 +0000

With so many articles on this site, I feel that it is time for me to make a link page for those looking to get started in the concierge industry. Here are the key articles for those just starting out:

About the Concierge Industry

If you are still considering starting a concierge business, you may want to start with the definition and history of the personal concierge industry. I’ve also provided articles on the pros and cons, your potential earnings, and what it takes to be a great personal concierge.

Researching your Community

It is very important to do some research on the potential market and competition in your area before jumping in. Here are some helpful articles to get you started:

Starting Your Business

To start your business, I strongly recommend writing a business plan, but have also provided a simpler start-up 101 article for those that are less inclined. You’ll also want to think about some specifics, such as:

Of course there are many more articles on this site to help you with other aspects of starting, managing, and succeeding with your personal concierge business, but hopefully this covers the big questions. Be sure to search or browse the site for any other questions you may have as I may have already answered the questions you have.

Best of luck in your new venture!

Image adapted from Death Valley – Alive! by *~Dawn~* per Creative Commons license

The Lowdown on Contracts

Cameron — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:16:20 +0000

I’ve avoided writing this post for some time. I’m often asked for help with contracts and recognize that it is a gap in the advice I have provided so far. The challenge in writing about this is that contract usage is very unique to the services one provides, site of your business, and your client base. The easy answer would be “ask a good lawyer,” but I recognize that most of you want some base understanding first.

There are a great variety of contracts you may use or come across as a personal concierge such as approval of job estimates, payment term agreements, credit card usage approvals, vendor agreements, and event liability coverage. The primary purpose of these contracts are to increase your odds of getting paid on time and protect you and your business from unnecessary liability risks. However, while it seems straightforward enough, contract usage varies a great deal throughout the personal concierge and overall service industry. Some don’t use them at all and others won’t come to an initial consultation without something signed. How often you will use contracts and which ones greatly depends…but here are some thoughts to help you in your decision-making process.

Services Provided

If you offer a lot of large one-time services such as managing a huge event or organizing a house, the client will want and you will probably want to give a job estimate that should be signed. However, if you’re trying to win over a new overwhelmed client who wants you for a lot of little time-consuming things such as groceries, errand running, small organizing projects, dealing with their mess of paperwork, etc., you may not want to flip out a contract for them to read when they clearly are calling you because they’re overwhelmed with things like bills, contracts, and running their household. With these clients, an informative email or letter of your rates is usually plenty and many may not even look at it. If you need the approval, you can have them respond to the email or sign a copy of your rates sheet for your records.

Business Location

A contract often provides a false sense of security as it is only as good as the lawyer who wrote it and the laws in your area. In some locations, a signed piece of paper may mean very little and, in others, a simple verbal agreement may be enough. In my state of Oregon, verbal agreements are upheld in a court of law and emails are as well. Because of this, I have found it easier to have clients agree to clear, concise, and informal emails on my rates or whatever particular concern I have. Because they are informal, I don’t need to pay a lawyer to draft them and clients are quick to respond affirmatively.

Client Base

For some of you, a contract will be a non-negotiable, but I find that it depends. Mostly because contracts are difficult to uphold and it is more important to me to win the business than have some legal protection if I were to win the business. That said, I focused on a very wealthy client base in a tight-knit community. Since most of my clients knew each other and my rates were the same across the board, there was an aspect of social reputation that kept people honest. Not to mention, most people are honest and I was very picky in working for people I liked. There was the rare occasion where I would be contacted by someone new and unconnected to my existing that rubbed me the wrong way and, for those, I’d either turn down the work or get a contract to them by email for immediate approval before work began.

Payment Assurance

So you had your client sign a full contract for your work and now they don’t want to pay. This is where the usefulness of a contract is tested. You may have something in writing, but it doesn’t change the challenge ahead of you. Whether or not you have a contract, the first step will be to talk with the client and see how to correct the situation. Then you may do some overdue invoices and strongly worded letters. If all fails, you’ll have to take them to court. Once you have gotten all the way to court (small claims or otherwise), the contract (be it paper or electronic), your proof of work completed, and your invoice paper trail will all have an effect on the outcome of the trial. However, it still won’t get you the money. Even if you win, the battle continues as now you’ll have to figure out how to get that money, often by doing obnoxious things like wage garnishment or liens….I think the point of all of this is that the contract won’t help you much if the client doesn’t want to pay. You’re better off communicating your rates clearly, providing quality work, and knowing when to threaten such things as taking them to court or when to ask again nicely.

Liability Coverage

Another reason for contracts is to cover your business for when something goes wrong. The reality is that all liability concerns should be covered by your insurance policy. The only time I’m careful with this is when I am hiring third-party vendors as they are usually not covered by my insurance policy and I don’t want to be liable for their mishaps. For this reason, I think pursuing vendor agreements is worth your time. While they can be as difficult as payment contracts to get a vendor to do the right thing if that vendor is of questionable ethics, it can help a great deal to have in writing that the vendor is insured and that they take responsibility for their work if you pay them their rate.

Blanket Policy or By Situation

So you may have noticed that I only used contracts on a situational basis. If you’re looking to scale your business, this model will probably not work and you may want to set up some overall processes regarding contracts. For those that are just starting out, remember that you don’t need a portfolio of custom contracts to start working. In fact, the lawyer fees for creating all those contracts may be quite cost prohibitive and not match up to the potential earnings you may lose if a client tries to stiff you. The experience you’ll get after doing a few jobs may help you hone in on the contracts you really need and those that will be a waste of money.

Examples and Templates

People always want examples or templates and, while I have them, I’m not going to put those on the web for free. Sorry. I give enough information away for free and I paid good money for those contracts! For those that have followed my blog since the beginning, you may know that I have been in the slow process of creating a personal concierge starter kit for almost a year. One of these days I promise that I’ll finish it and include all the contracts I have with it. That said, my contracts will only be guidelines as you will want a lawyer to review any legal documentation you intend to use. If you are reading this post and there isn’t a very clear banner for purchasing my starter kit along the top of the homepage, you’ll need to create your own. My recommendation is to ask other business professionals for examples and search the web for examples you find relevant to your needs. Use those examples to create your initial rough drafts and then have a lawyer review the drafts. Most law firms will have cookie cutter contracts drawn up that they’ll want to sell you for an exorbitant rate, but these won’t fit your business and you can usually get an hour or two of time for a lawyer to review what you did for a cheaper rate.

So there you have it: my perspective on contracts as a personal concierge. Hopefully it should give you a good baseline to make your own decision about contract usage.

The Little Things: Client Birthdays

Cameron — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:18:24 +0000

Here’s the first of what I plan to be many small recommendations mixed in with my other posts that will strengthen your client relationships and sustain your business.

Starting small, let’s talk about your client birthdays. And not just their birthdays, but the birthdays of their spouses and, more importantly, their children. It may seem like a hassle to keep track of client birthdays, but it can pay dividends. Here’s how.

Let Technology Track Dates for You

This should be obvious. Personally, I set up a separate “client important dates” Google calendar where I’d add any and all important dates I got out of my clients. I’d make sure to set up email reminders two weeks and the day before each date and that the entire event would repeat annually until I decided to delete it. Because of this setup, I never missed an important date I knew of. I’d also take the extra step of noting what gifts I provided in the past in the notes of the repeating event.

Only Track What is Appropriate

Some clients may feel it inappropriate for you to congratulate them on their birthday or wonder how you got ahold of that information so make sure you only track this information on clients you have built real relationships with and have personally provided you with this kind of information. Usually this occurs over time as they’ll tell you of their grandchild’s birthday the day of his party or that they’re having a few friends over that night to celebrate a particular birthday. Sometimes you’ll get birthday information while you are dealing with computer set-up or resetting passwords as well. If it seems right, enter it as soon as you know it!

Give the Appropriate Gift/Card/Email Every Year

While you could standardize the process, I found that I wanted to treat each client event in a particular way. I’d send cards to some or just congratulate them in person if I knew they didn’t want me to make a big deal of it. For my larger clients, I’d usually get them a real gift that I felt would be fitting of my role in their life. In other words, I’d usually get them something functional (or fun) that related to a recent project we had worked on. For instance, I had a client working through her old photos and gave her a newspaper that was printed on her birthdate in the early 1920s. She was thrilled.

This process can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be, but it will show your clients that you take the time to care about the little things that matter. Giving them something on their birthday is so much more meaningful than the standard holiday card (you can do that too if you want).

Just a thought!

Image adapted from Elshan by Aih per Creative Commons license.

A Quick Look at Corporate Clients

Cameron — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:06:36 +0000

I recently received the following request from a Nicole and felt it worth a post :

“I am in the process of starting a concierge service and I’m having trouble finding GOOD info on how to market to my corporate clients , a good proposal template for them to add my services as an employee benefit and the best way to set up the retainers for to get paid. ie. should the client pay me and then leave it up to the company to reimburse their employee?”

First, I want to reiterate that, while much of the information on this site will help any type of personal concierge, the focus is on affluent individuals. I had spent some time looking into corporate concierge work when my business was running full steam and wasn’t interested in the lower margins and limited scope of the work. That said, here’s some basic advice for those looking at corporate clients.

Corporate Client Defined - For the sake of this post, I’m defining a corporate client as a medium to large business looking to provide concierge services to management as a job perk and a way to reduce staff downtime.

Marketing - While marketing to a company will require a different approach than the marketing efforts I have outlined in prior posts, the most successful marketing will still be based on networking. You’ll need to get your foot in the door and meet with a decision-maker. This means working connections, pulling strings, and possibly getting lucky with a cold-call. This service is so unique that it is highly unlikely that sending a flyer or marketing your services in targeted publications will prove beneficial. Successful marketing will take researching businesses within your target market and making a determined effort to get a meeting with the right individuals within that company. Once in, have a presentation tailored to what you have learned about that business and how you think you can best serve them. That first pitch is a big deal.

Proposal - In the request, Nicole asked for a good proposal template. While I have created and seen a great deal of proposals in my life (much of my work is business consulting), I haven’t come across a proposal that would work as a blanket template to pass on. Your proposal will be heavily dependent on what services you are willing to provide, what the business is interested in providing their staff, and what prices you have determined appropriate during discussions with that business. You’ll want to scope the work, provide a cost estimate, note any client deliverables, and provide a timeframe in which this proposal is valid. Once the proposal is approved, you will want to provide a marketing pitch or materials that the company can provide employees to inform them of the services you will provide them.

Payment - How payment will occur will also depend on the services you’ll provide and the discussions you’ve had with the decision-makers. You may have a concierge come through the offices of management once a day to provide particular services (e.g. laundry pick-up/drop-off, food delivery, a limited range of errands, etc) or perhaps you provide staff with a number to call you at any time with requests they have. Ideally, the business would pay a monthly retainer for a standard set of services and maximum hours per month with additional hours charged at a reduced rate. I would also take the opportunity to market to employees for other services outside of the standard set of services that employees would pay you directly for, as individual clients.

If the business is not interested in hiring your company for a retainer, see if they’ll let you market to their employees as individuals. Maybe they’ll let you come in and give a sales pitch to staff of how you can help them in their personal and professional lives. You could even give them some sort of limited discount as employees of that particular business to get them to bite.

If any of you pursue corporate clients and have some pointers to pass on, please share!

Image adapted from Reception by austinevan per Creative Commons license.

Excellent Reading for any Small Business Owner

Cameron — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:32:38 +0000

In running my concierge business and starting this how-to site, I did a lot of research and A LOT of reading. If you’re looking for some resources that delve deeper into the topics I’ve covered, here are a select few of my favorites.

Stay on top of your tasks with Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. I’m not sure what I would do without the GTD philosophy and, more specifically, the resources that came out of it being defined. For an excellent blog on GTD, check out 43Folders.

To market successfully without blowing your budget, Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson is an excellent read. It will give you tools you need to successfully market your business with the greatest cost/benefit ratio and will help prevent you from making some costly mistakes. I haven’t read it, but in finding Guerrilla Marketing, I see that he has come out with Guerrilla Social Media Marketing: 100+ Weapons to Grow Your Online Influence, Attract Customers, and Drive Profits. I’ll be checking that one out!

To build your network, How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie is one of the best selling books of all time. It may be old, feel outdated in parts, and drive you a little crazy, but he makes excellent points that apply to sales and public relations. It’s worth the read…or skim.

If you fancy yourself entrepreneurial and your concierge business is your first foray into starting and running your own company, please read The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber. This book will be an eye opener for some and it will read as common sense to others. Either way, it’s a best seller for a reason and will give you a better idea of what you are about to walk into. It also helps you consider the type of business you want to create – a key thought process for anyone to go through. While it would be best to read before you start you company, it can help you shift your company into what you want it to be as well.

Some other key topics I’d love to recommend books or blogs for are accounting, understanding financial reports, and a more in-depth look into developing and analyzing a business plan. However, the books I read for these were heavy textbooks during my MBA that I don’t think anyone would thank me for recommending.

So a request to my readers: if you have any recommendations on these missing topics or other books you love, please share!

Image adapted from Dilletante by Sapphireblue per Creative Commons license.

Avoiding Unsavory Individuals

Cameron — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:21:37 +0000

I recently received an email from a woman concerned about putting her image on her website because “unsavory individuals” might target her. This is a potential reality, but there are two facts to keep in mind:

Most people are good and, with the business you are in, it’s unlikely there will be many unsavory individuals visiting your website.
Not to scare anyone, but you’re more likely to be accosted walking down the street than by someone tracking you down with your website image.

That said, this is a business where you enter strangers homes and there are some guidelines that will further reduce your chances of ever getting into a questionable situation. Here are the basics:

Research New Clients - You don’t need to say yes to every client. I you’ll be going over to their home, try to learn what you can about them beforehand. Ask who referred them to you and Google their names and home if you want a little more information. If something seems off, turn down the job or bring someone with you on your first visit. It may sound weird, but I usually pull up tax assessor records on the home to see if it is rented or owned and gauge the worth of the client. I prefer knowing what I’m walking into.

Pursue Clients within your Network - Have your existing clients and business acquaintances connect you to potential clients. This way the clients are already vetted. I greatly prefer pursuing clients that have been given the seal of approval by someone else! Remember that this is a relationship and working with someone who is kind and respectful of your time and talents will be a more rewarding experience for both parties than working for clients that are rude or impossible to please. I have had clients warn me about potential clients before I’ve accepted jobs and I’ve never regretted turning those jobs down.

Follow your Instinct - While this may seem obvious, we can sometimes ignore our gut reaction because we “need the money” or are too busy to gauge our internal reaction. Take a moment after your initial call with a client to note any negative reactions you may be experiencing. If something rubbed you the wrong way, respect that feeling and act upon it. It may force you to stretch a little longer financially, but your safety and sanity are more important in the long run. While I’m sure nothing would have happened, I once cancelled on a guy because he spoke to me like I was a servant in our initial call. It was a large job so it took me a minute to look past the income and realize that I did not want to have anything to do with the guy. I called him back and cancelled our arrangements.

Use a Business Address - If you still have concerns, do not register your business under your home address. If you don’t have an office, get a P.O. Box. Your business license is public knowledge and I’ve tracked down the homes of many individuals by looking up their business on the state business registry website.

There are surely more, but these are the big ones to me. Being in business requires a fair amount of self-advertising and it is completely normal (and will probably help business) to have your name and picture on your website. If this concerns you, think about realtors, lawyers, insurance agents and the array of service providers who put their picture on everything. Or simply think of LinkedIn where millions of individuals provide their picture and full work history to the public. We’re in a world where just about everything is public so the real trick is how you interact with those you may meet in person.

Spring is Coming

Cameron — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:50:23 +0000

It may seem early for this, but now is a good time to start discussing spring organizing and estate management projects with your clients. Many large projects occur on the spring and, if you’re on the ball, you might be able to book out your spring with a variety of large, well-paying jobs.

Here are just a few spring services that may be relevant to your clients:

Managing trade jobs such as roof cleaning, pool cleaning, replanting flower beds, power washing cement, window washing, pruning, and anything other estate maintenance.
Organizing the garage, pool house, and other spaces that will be more heavily used in the summer months.
Bringing outdoor furniture out of storage, cleaning the boats, and preparing outdoor spaces such as the pool, patio, and a private dock.
Addressing missing items in advance such as pool umbrellas, patio heaters, or simple mosquito repellent options.
Researching and providing recommendations for summer schools or camps for children or managing travel plans for family.
Arranging and overseeing large projects around times that clients will be on extended vacations. These could be interior design work such as redoing a bathroom or ugly work such as fixing a pool or repairing a septic system.

In all likelihood, your clients have already been contacted by their landscapers, architects, and other service providers regarding some necessary services. If you can come in and take on the stress of managing all of those services while doing some relevant jobs on your time, it will be a win-win for you and your clients. They’ll appreciate you even more if you can see the whole picture and recommend skipping or adding particular services to best fit the needs of your client’s estate.

A word of wisdom – This may be obvious, but be sure to arrange all the jobs based upon your client’s schedule and with an eye on how each job will affect other jobs. For example, you wouldn’t want the landscaper to come in and plant beautiful flowers in all the flower beds around the house before the roof is cleaned.

While many of these jobs may not occur for a few more months, they are larger jobs that often require advanced planning. Gauge your clients and see which ones would benefit from you offering to provide support in this arena soon!

Starting Out in the Current Economy

Cameron — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:33:50 +0000

Today’s tough economy is enough to scare just about anyone about their financial future. Following foreclosure or employment rates, listening to our politicians, or experiencing the effects of the economic downturn on our friends, family, and selves can be downright depressing.

All that said, it is actually a great time to start a business. Starting your own business is an excellent way to take control of your future, build the life you want to live, or simply create an additional revenue stream. A personal concierge business in particular can be an fantastic fit as you can adapt it to the services needed in your area, work unique hours (allowing for a 9-5 if you have that as well), connect you with incredible people, increase your sense of self-worth, and put you on a positive track.

I’ve had many individuals who are considering starting a personal concierge business email me with concerns regarding the economy and worries that people are cutting back on luxury goods and services. If you are targetting the middle class, this is certainly true. The middle class is difficult to pursue even in a good economy as you will have to work at lower margins and will still have your costs questioned. However, if you target the upper class you shouldn’t have an issue. Those with true wealth can afford to fully appreciate the value of free time and, if you are successful in providing them more free time and reduced stress, they won’t question paying for your services.

If you are going to start a personal concierge business, be sure to do your research and start your business on a solid foundation. Most businesses fail because the owners failed to look at and manage the big picture (client base, demand, marketing, operations, finances, quality of services, and everything in between). The nice thing about this business is that, if you don’t hire employees in the beginning, you can start with very little upfront costs and very low fixed monthly costs. A profit can be turned quite quickly.

So for those of you still debating what to do next in your life, here’s one of my favorite inspirational quotes to get you moving:

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. — Frank Tibolt

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck!

Image adapted from After Christmas Sale by Kevin Dooley per Creative Commons license.

Keep Sane and Successful with the 80/20 Rule

Cameron — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:25:59 +0000

So you’ve started building your client base and are getting good traction. Perhaps your business is still in the beginning phase and you find yourself saying “yes” to every job that comes your way to stay busy or perhaps you are so overwhelmed with client requests that you’re having a hard time finding work/life balance. Either way, this rule applies to you.

Unless you’ve been paying close attention to your margins on a per job and per client basis (highly recommended), you may not have noticed how some clients take up much more of your time and increase your stress levels when they’re paying the same or less than other clients that are a breeze to work with. It’s not in your head. Even if you charge the same rate for all services and all clients, you’ll find that some of your clients simply pay you more for your time than others.

As some rough examples: low-revenue clients are usually the demanding ones who have you do lots of quick jobs (perhaps just errands), call you with random questions or concerns, and are more apt to question your invoices. The high-revenue clients will usually have you do longer jobs (or many in one visit), may have you on a retainer, are less likely to bother you, and will rarely question your invoices. Could these examples roughly translate to some of your clients?

I bet you’ve heard of the 80/20 rule. Also known as the Pareto Principle, the basic gist for the sake of this article is that 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your clients. To me, the overwhelming thought is the inverse of the principle: that 60% of your clients and all the stress those clients cause you only brings in 20% of your revenue. Is 60% of your effort truly worth that 20% of revenue you are gaining from them? Are they really worth the hassle?

My answer is a definitive NO. Running in circles for clients who don’t pay you the same margins as your top clients will wear you out and limit the income your business could be making. Doesn’t it make more sense to find more high-paying clients than continue spinning your wheels?

It’s time to evaluate your clients and say goodbye to those that don’t pencil out.

Keeping in mind that this is only a principle, you may find that your ratio of good and so-so clients isn’t the same as the rule. And just because a client is not making you a large income doesn’t mean they couldn’t in the future or that there are other benefits to keeping them (personal relationships, networking, the type of work you do for them, etc). You’ll want to weigh your options and adapt accordingly. In my opinion, the best plan of attack is cutting the obvious time wasters (I’m sure you have a few) and figuring out how to increase margins with some of the so-so clients by lumping their job requests into a single day or errand running instead of multiple errands over a month or seeing what larger services that you could provide them.

The main thing to remember is that not all income is created equal. Silly as that sounds, it is quite true. Just because it isn’t too much of a bother to deliver cat food to the old lady up the hill once a week (even though she grumbles about your cost and you don’t even charge for all the travel time), this client is holding you back. That same time could be spent improving relationships (and margins) with clients you enjoy working for who have you do larger jobs, keeping your business in order, and networking to bring in better business. While you may lose that little bit of pay by not helping her with the cat food, it will pay dividends in the long run to go after bigger clients who better appreciate your skills.

As I’ve said before, I had about 65 clients within my first year of business. While I loved working for many of them and it was hard to say goodbye, a lot of those clients were holding me back. Not only in terms of income, but also in the types of services I enjoyed doing, the amount of free time I wanted, and my overall sanity. I cut my business down drastically and, while I know many of those clients would hire me back in a heartbeat, I’ve never looked back. Now I work less, have less stress, am able to pursue other hobbies and passions, and make a lot more money than I did at the so-called “peak” of my business. I also have kept relationships with many of my old clients and appreciate how those relationships have blossomed now that I’m not providing professional services.

So please, look at your financials and assess your clients. Do this on an annual basis and it will help your business flourish in the long run.

Project Management Tools for the Ultimate Project Manager

Cameron — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:44:59 +0000

When it comes down to it, a successful personal concierge is truly a master at managing projects.

Before I reduced my business down to my few favorite (and highest paying) clients so I could pursue other businesses and hobbies (like this site), I had about 65 clients that I personally managed. That means 65 different stories to keep straight in my mind, not to mention the variety of projects I was working on with each client. Some were occasional clients so I just needed to remember specifics like their kids names, what groceries brands they prefer, and any other lessons I needed to remember so my work would be consistent when they called me for new jobs. Then there were the more regular clients who had me so involved in their family lives that I felt like I knew more about their households than I did my own home.

Knowing all this about my clients was, of course, only a portion of my business as it didn’t include basic business management such as tracking hours, employee oversight, marketing, and accounting.

How do we provide excellent service and stay on top of all these details? By having a great arsenal of project management tools.

These are the tools I have used or have had clients (other concierges I’ve consulted for) use successfully. The secret to a successful project management tool is that it manages what you need in the simplest form possible without any extra bells or whistles. Any extra steps you must take to, for example, enter a task make the tool more of a pain than a benefit and those extra steps or the tracking of uneccesary information may lead you to use the tool inconsistently. If you don’t use your management tools consistently, they won’t provide the benefits you need. Benefits can include being able to pull up client information (including history) quickly and easily, tracking time painlessly, and the piece of mind in knowing that everything is being remembered and tracked for you so you don’t have to. With that, here are the tools:

OmniFocus - Mac and Mac mobile devices only – OmniFocus is a truly fantastic GTD (Getting Things Done) project management solution. In a clean format, you can have folders for each of your client projects with tasks within those folders. The folders and tasks have a variety of options including keeping notes and related documents, start and due dates, review dates (if it is something tabled to approach again later), contexts, estimated time, and assignments to employees. It also has a very nice iPhone/iPad app that will cross sync with the desktop version. While it frustrates me that it is not online and is designed more for personal use, I’ve always come back to it and been the most productive when I use it solely.

Pros: simple interface with excellent archive feature. Cons: Mac only without a purely online solution, which limits who can access it.

Highrise - While I love 37Signals’ Basecamp for large projects, it isn’t an ideal fit for a personal concierge. Highrise, however, can be quite useful. As a CRM solution, Highrise will not only track all information on your clients but also gives you the opportunity to manage projects (aka opportunies) within it. While not exactly designed for this, you can add tasks to projects and track projects within Highrise. However, the best use of Highrise is going to be for tracking and managing your network (clients, vendors, and other networking partners). Not only can you keep records of your interactions with all individuals (will automatically pull emails if you would like it to), but Highrise also integrates with eNewsletters such as MailChimp so you can keep your online marketing endeavors up-to-date.

Pros: excellent online tracking of individuals and businesses with nice integration with various other tools. Cons: Is more a CRM solution than a project management solution. If you wanted to stay super simple, you could link it with the free Ta-da List also by 37Signals.

Remember The Milk - In the end, much of it comes down to finding a to-do list that tracks just what you need. Some may just use their email program to-do list, but I find that the best to-do lists are the ones that your employees can access too. Remember the Milk is also based off the GTD concept and is a very simple, but very useful online task list. Not only does it let you organize tasks however you want, have due dates, track locations, and assign employees to tasks, but it’s only $25 a year. Not bad! It may be too simplistic for many, but is a great way to track things simply.

Pros: tracks just what you need and is accessible wherever you are. Cons: may be too simplistic for many businesses.

Freshbooks - I’ve brought up Fresbooks before for being an excellent system to track time and invoice clients. It creates great invoices, accepts credit card payments, and has a nice client portal if you want to give your clients access to their billing history. I really love this well-priced solution. The part I may not have mentioned is that you can also give your employees limited access so that they can enter their hours and purchases directly into Freshbooks. Why is this such a big deal? It will save you a great deal of time at the end of the month as Freshbooks will automatically pull hours and expenses into the invoices for the clients without you having to re-enter anything. LOVE IT!

Pros: clean interface with great tracking features and lovely invoices. Cons: Is not a full accounting solution, but could work for small businesses. Disclaimer: While I’d recommend Freshbooks no matter what, they do have an affiliate deal for me if you sign up. Since I give away my advice for free, I hope you don’t mind if I get a few bucks from Freshbooks if you end up loving this service as much as I do!

TeamLab - So TeamLab is relatively new to the scene and I’m not as experienced with it, but I already love it. It’s opensource and, as long as you don’t store massive files online, totally free. Not only is it free, but it is a comprehensive solution. It will manage your CRM (tracking not only individuals, but particular leads), manage all of your projects (with to-do lists, discussion boards, time tracking, and anything else you might need), has an online document repository for docs your employees may need access to, and has a full online community section for you to keep up with your employees through. Did I mention that all this is free? I’m not sure how long it will remain free, but it is a great service nonetheless as it will give you everything you need to manage your business (just create projects for marketing and other business tasks), your clients, and your staff. The only thing it doesn’t do is manage your accounting!

Pros: All-in-one solution at an unbeatable price. Cons: none unless I compare it to Basecamp…which has more features than a personal concierge would probably need anyway.

Overall, whether the solutions are separate or combined, you’ll likely want a CRM solution, project management solution, and accounting system. Taking the time to find the right fits for you and your business model will save you a great deal of time, stress, and loss productivity.

One thing to keep in mind with any solution you decide upon is how you handle personal client information such as credit cards and social security numbers. If you’re client gives you this kind of information, be absolutely sure it is secure. Not much would be worse for your business if someone used your client files to get private information on all of your clients and it was tracked back to you. Not only would it be an enormous blow to your reputation and probably would lose you a great deal of business, but there could be some legal and financial repercussions as well.

I hope some of these solutions are new and exciting to you. If anyone else has found a great solution that works well for them, please share!