Tipping Etiquette for the Holidays.

It’s the holidays again and it is time to think of all the people we love and care for and it is also the time to remember those people that have made our lives easier by providing us with routine services.

I prefer to thank my service providers that have served me well all year by giving them a tip. If the person providing the service is the owner of the business then the best thank you is providing them with a referral or giving them a glowing review in writing.

Here is a guide that I use for holiday tipping from www.findalink.net/tippingetiquette.php . Remember tipping is optional and is a reward for great service.

Maid -

One week's pay. This is for maids you employ directly. If you use a service and never know who is coming out, don't tip at all.

Gardener/ Landscaper -

$20-$50

USPS Mail carrier -

Non-cash gifts with value up to $20. Read more at http://www.findalink.net/tippingetiquette.php

UPS - Regular driver -

$15

FedEx -

Not allowed to accept cash gifts but a gift up to $25 invalue is permissible.

Shampoo -

$10

Manicurist/pedicurist -

$15 or more

Hairdresser/stylist -

$15 or more

Massage therapist -

$15 or more. Read more about tipping massage therapists at www.frappydoo.com.

Newspaper carrier -

Daily -$25-$50 and Weekend - $10

Teacher -

$25- $100

Coaches, tutors, ballet instructors, music teachers -

A small gift from your child.

Baby sitter -

One night's pay plus a small gift from your child.

Full-time nanny -

One week's to one month's pay based on tenure plus a small gift from your child.

Au pair -

One week's pay plus a small gift from your child.

Day care service -

$25-$70 plus a small gift from your child.

Parking attendants -

$10-$20 each

Personal trainer -

$60-$100 upon reaching goal.

Country Club Employess -

I believe in tipping at Christmas regardless of the club's tipping policy. I recommend a minimum of $50 for your waiters, locker-room personnel, front-desk employees, and golf professionals. For head waiters or special service, make it $100.

Dog groomer -

1/4 - 1/2 cost of a session.

Dog walker or sitter -

1-2 week's pay

In addition to the tip it is a great idea to include a handwritten note in the envelope.

Why a Personal Assistant may be right for you

If you are busy professional that never seems to have enough hours in a day, hiring a Personal Assistant (PA) can be a step in the right direction. With a PA you can be more productive, reduce your stress level, and most of all spend your time on what matters.

Celebrities and famous people have learned to leverage their assistants to get more done in a day. If your disposable income does not allow for a full time employee you could hire an assistant by the hour from a concierge and errand service company. In the last few years these companies are flourishing in every major metropolitan area. Check the International Concierge and Errand association at http://www.iceaweb.org/ for a provider in your area.

When it comes to the tasks that you need to delegate, the important questions to ask yourself are
- Do I have the time to do it myself?
- Do I want to complete the task?
- Am I going to complete the task on time?

If your answer is “no” to any of these questions than you should consider delegating the task. Before hiring the assistant decide what tasks you would like to delegate and your budget.

Take the following sample list of tasks that a PA can perform and think how much time you can save by having a PA complete them.
Travel arrangements
Buying gifts for special occasion
Car maintenance
Caring for pets
Dry cleaning pick up
Grocery shopping
Maintaining household, business, and social calendar
Scheduling all appointments
Organizing special events
Handling all email and written correspondence
Managing bill-paying
Maintaining all personal and business files
Maintaining address book
Writing personal thank-you notes, invitations and greeting cards
Completing all personal errands

A good PA makes an enormous contribution to the employer's effectiveness and posses numerous professional skills. Once you hire a Personal Assistant you will realize that it is well worth the investment

All things Food

Need help with the Thanksgiving turkey?

Yahoo has launched a new site that caters to all things food from recipes, restaurants, and wine to entertainment.

Why a To-Do List?

Why people use a To-Do list?

Start by creating a simple To-Do list. This can be done on paper, on your computer, on-line... check out http://www.tadalist.com/ it's free and best of all easy,,, Check out the video.

Break down the list into manageable chunks, a daily, weekly, monthly and finally a yearly list. You can break it down to whatever works for you. Keep it short, try not to have more than 10 things on a your daily To-Do list as a long list may overwhelm you and thus reduce your success rate in completing your tasks.

There are tons of tools out there to help you get organized and most of all remember to delegate tasks that can be done by others.

The 5 major reasons for using a To-Do list.

1. Peace of mind

2. Achieving your goals

3. Improving your productivity

4. Saving you money

5. Reducing your stress

Another day as a Personal Assistant

Another day as a personal assistant

As a Professional Personal Assistant for a local Atlanta company; I have 4 – 5 clients at a time and that is because most of my clients do not need a full time personal assistant but need someone that can help them on a part time basis.

My clients are not celebrities but successful people in their respective industries. The one thing they have in common is that they value their time and have no problem delegating tasks or chores that take away from their valuable time.

The main purpose of my job is to make my client’s life easier. My clients requests can vary from simple tasks such as dusting the furniture to more complex requests like “I am having a dinner party for 20 Friday evening, make it happen”. No matter how strange or ridiculous the requests are I am always up for the challenge.

This week my more routine requests were ironing clothes, taking the pet to the vet, placing an ad for rent. My more interesting requests were making travel arrangements to Paris and buying a gift for a 21 year old college kid.

One of the most common questions I get is how do you make so many things happen in such a limited time frame. My answer is that I rely heavily on my extensive list of contacts with various local and international service providers.

Comcast…not so Comcastic

Comcast…not so Comcastic

Sometimes the more routine requests from my clients are not so routine. When my client requested that I wait for the Comcast technician to install an additional outlet in his home I was certain that this was going to be an easy job. I was going to complete the light housekeeping tasks and make some appointments for him while waiting for the Comcast guy between the hours of 8 – 11am.

By 10:30, I had completed all the tasks that had been delegated; I called Comcast to make sure that the technician was still on the way. After been on hold for a couple minutes I was connected to a customer service representative that informed me the job order was still open and the technician would show up any minute. She said that I should call back at 11:01 if the technician was not there yet. At 10:45 I got a call from a Comcast dispatcher and he informed me that the technician was going to be a little late because his first job ran late and he gave me a new time frame from 11:00 am to 1:00 o’clock. I asked if he could narrow down the time frame when the technician would come and he rudely explained that he had more than 200 customers that day and he did not have the time of day to call the technician to get a better time frame, he also rudely remarked that I could always reschedule the appointment for another day the following week between 8 -11am….yeah right.

I called my client and explained the situation and he asked me if I could stay and I could work on his laundry. At 1pm the first load was done but the Comcast technician had not arrived I called customer service again and they informed me that the technician was still at the first job and he would be there shortly. At 1:45 pm the Comcast guys arrived…wait a minute they were not Comcast employees but sub-contactors dressed in low hanging jeans and semi-clean t-shirts. They also arrived in an SUV not the Comcast van. They walked into the house and made no apologies for being late.

The taller one immediately asked if I would like cable under the table for $150 for the year. I politely declined and he continued to persuade me that this was a great deal and if I experienced any problems I could always reach him on his cell….ah huh. I firmly declined and he got noticeably angry that the deal was not closed he hurried installed the outlet and then he called the dispatcher to say that he is running late because I requested 4 additional outlets to be installed. I am still stunned when he gives me the paperwork to sign acknowledging that he installed 5 outlets instead of 1. How can this be? I signed the paperwork and on his way out he asked where his tip was and I had a few things I wanted to say to him but I said that I was not going to tip them because they were late. Once they got to their SUV they decided to clean it leaving trash on the driveway…. called Customer service and explained my experience….I got the trained answer of “I am sorry about the service”...but I was able to get the 4 fake installations off the bill.

Why a personal Assistant?

Do you ever start out the day with a nice written to-do list and an hour into the day something comes up that throws things out of whack?

You are a small business owner, doing it all.
You are a business executive working long hours.
You are road warrior?
Generally a very busy individual.

This blog promises to bring you the behind the scenes situations that happen on a day to day basis for a Personal Assistant/Concierge. The good, the bad and the ugly.


We guarantee our clients absolute privacy and therefore you will not find any personal or revealing information on this blog. As a matter of fact we have clients that do not want anyone knowing that they use a personal assistant. We protect and guarantee our clients' privacy totally.

Later
YPA

Why a Personal Assistant?

Hiring a professional Personal Assistant can be instrumental in obtaining that elusive work life balance. Your success depends on your ability to delegate tasks to your assistant while you focus on the critical matters only you can handle. You can not be everywhere, you can not be everything to everyone.