Buried under Lights, Garland, Gifts and Wrapping Paper!

Soon after excitedly launching our blog in October, we found ourselves in the midst of the holidays. You’ll have to forgive our blog absence.

Thanksgiving through New Years is a very busy time for everyone, which also means that the Fini Concierge team is called upon more than usual by our clients. We find ourselves buried in gifts, wrapping paper, Christmas trees, lights and holiday cards!

Although many of us (me included) make a vow to start our shopping and card addressing early, most of us break our promise to not make the season any more stressful than it needs to be and end up waiting longer than we should to start tackling our holiday lists. This is why I totally sympathize with some of our clients who are still making requests for help with holiday preparations just days (and sometimes even hours!) before their holiday celebrations.

But despite the stress and rush of the season, it’s actually fun and rewarding to help people with all of their holiday tasks. This year we put up nearly a dozen Christmas trees and hung our fair share of wreathes and garland. We bought countless gifts, addressed hundreds of holiday cards and wrapped dozens and dozens of packages. There were many hours spent in lines to send off packages at the post office and UPS. We helped coordinate several corporate outings and festive holiday parties.

Then of course there’s the clean up. The returning of gifts, the break down and storage of holiday decorations and the last minute travel plans to get away for New Years.

It’s a tiring time of year but at the end of the season we feel good about being part of what is a happy and magical time. We get the chance to help people to surprise a loved one with that perfect gift they’ve been dying for or take the hassle out of buying and putting up a Christmas tree when their time is more happily spent decorating it with their kids. Throwing a holiday bash is possible because someone had some help pulling together all the small details and a co-worker gets recognized with a thoughtful gift because they didn’t have to find the time to purchase it.

The details that we take care of during the holiday season are often those tasks that people dread but we’re a part of the spirit and thoughtfulness that makes the season special.

What do you enjoy most about the holidays? How could an “additional” hand help you out during the season?
-Chantal

Never Enough Time

It’s Sunday morning at 11:00, we have two choices – join our friends, who we haven’t seen in months, for brunch or tackle that long list of errands and huge pile of laundry that desperately needs to get done.

Its 7:30pm on a Thursday night – go to the gym for the first time this week or make it to the dry cleaner in time to pick up the clothes we need for our weekend away…and oh shoot, we’ve been so busy at work that we forgot to make that hotel reservation.

Never enough time and always an endless list of life’s details weighing on our minds.

These were the dilemmas of our everyday lives. And we knew we weren’t alone.

It was on those busy days that we would dream about how great it would be if there was a personal assistant for the ‘everyday’ person. Wasn’t there someone we could call on when we needed some help? Then we could see our friends for brunch and eat pancakes with ease because everything was being handled. Thinking about it was easy, but who was doing it?

We had a vision. We would create the solution.

Since that “A-Ha” moment, its become our life’s calling: helping others escape the torment we often felt . Our model has always been grounded in the idea that we wanted to create a choice, free from hassle or complications, for people to live with less stress and more time to do the things they wanted to be doing. These were and continue to be our motivation for Fini Concierge – a company providing personal assistance on an as-needed basis.

Today, we have three years of experience behind us and know that we’ve helped to change many people’s lives for the better.

We’re excited to share how we’ve helped our clients lead less stressful lives and gain more enjoyment out of daily living. Although we still often struggle to figure out the balance in our own lives (we thought we were busy then!), we plan to share with you what the concierge industry is all about, plus the successes and lessons we’ve encountered on our own journey of building a business.

Can you identify with the torments of busy daily life – with too much to do and never enough time? We’d love to hear your experiences and what solutions you use to minimize your stress and enjoy life more.

Chantal and Eddie