Home-based companies offer time-saving services

People are becoming increasingly busy in today's fast-paced world and two local women have turned the need to be in two places at one time into home-based businesses. Kay Wylie calls her business Save You Time and Patti Seemuth named her company Errands Plus.

Wylie started her company in June of 1999 with a handful of clients and some big ideas for the future. As a former dental hygienist, she said, she has always played a helping role, making the transition a natural one.

Providing assistance with personal tasks requires a certain level of trust. "You're often working with people's personal business and you have to have their confidence," she said.

Wylie said the time-saving concept has not caught on yet, but she is working with some local companies in hopes that they will see a need for the services she provides, particularly for their employees.

"My goal is to get some companies to offer the service as a benefit to employees," she said.

Seemuth, who started her business in January of this year, also is focusing on business clients for whom she can work on a regular basis. She currently has eight regular customers.

In Seemuth's view employees are more productive if they don't have personal chores to worry about during work hours. They also do not have to take off work to take care of personal business because they have her to do it for them. She said she has done everything from taking vehicles in for maintenance to waiting for a repairman at a client's home while the client is at work.

Both Wylie and Seemuth meet clients on their home turf to assess their need for outside help on particular projects. Though they provide services that range from shopping to bill paying, these errands are not the main focus of their businesses.

According to Wylie, her forte is to use her organizational skills to help with major tasks that take more time than individuals or businesses can devote to them. She has helped clients organize cluttered areas into usable space. She advertises that she is ready and willing to help with detailed wedding plans, and she offers assistance to real estate agents in preparing houses for listing or getting a house ready for new owners to move in.

"I'm the answer to I wish I had someone to do this for me,'" Seemuth said.

Though both Wylie and Seemuth run their businesses on their own, they do have people on standby in case job is too big for one person to tackle.

Most of the clients of the two businesses have come through referrals. Wylie has done some advertising through the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and through direct mail, but she said she is waiting for more cash flow before developing a regular advertising program.

Seemuth is working to develop specific advertisements, but she is determining her market demographic before she puts the money into advertising. "I expected (the market) to be senior, but that has not been the case," she said.

At Save You Time, Wylie will bid work by the project if the client wishes or charge at an hourly rate depending on the task. She works days or evenings and is available seven days a week.

Seemuth's Errands Plus also operates on a flexible schedule according the client's needs, and she charges by the hour, often breaking it down to 15-minute increments. Customers who use her services on a regular basis can receive discounts.