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Tackle To-Dos In One Call

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By LAURA FRAZIER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

VALRICO - While driving home from work one August evening, Terry Hunt frantically recounted the many pending errands, chores and projects on her plate.

First and foremost, Hunt's daughter and her college roommate, home for the summer, needed help packing up their personal belongings and two horses to ship back to school in Missouri. Hunt also had important health issues to address and work deadlines to beat. Company was coming, too, and there was no food in the house.

'I just felt so overwhelmed. Then I remembered this business card a friend had given me for an errand service,' Hunt said.

She found the card, put a grocery list together and phoned Melinda Bernt, a Valrico resident who recently launched a home-based business, Four Seasons Concierge.

Hunt returned home from work the next day to find her kitchen fully stocked and a vase of fresh flowers on the counter.

'At first I felt kind of foolish calling her because grocery shopping seems like something so small. But it was a really big help,' Hunt said.
Bernt performs or delegates 'any of the mundane day-to-day household or business chores that everyone is struggling to carve out time to accomplish.'

'We live in a very time-stressed society,' she said.

In addition to shopping, making travel arrangements, picking up dry-cleaning and addressing holiday cards, Bernt offers a waiting service for people who can't spend the day waiting around for service calls or appliance deliveries.

Gift certificates are available for new mothers, senior citizens and housebound people who need help with anything from cleaning out closets to doing laundry. Snowbirds can contract with Bernt to supervise lawn and home maintenance in their absence and to open up their homes and get their boats ready before they return to Florida.

The concierge industry is rife with tales of bizarre requests, Bernt said. In her first two months of business, one job stands out.

Cynthia Henry, a technical writer from Atlanta in Tampa on business, phoned Bernt in a panic one afternoon.

'I was woefully unprepared for a last-minute dinner invitation,' Henry said. 'I needed a cocktail dress, but I was tied up in important meetings all day.'

She called Four Seasons Concierge and, that evening, Bernt delivered a choice of three dresses and a pair of panty hose to Henry's hotel.

'The dresses were great, and I still wear the one I chose that night,' Henry said. 'Melinda is super-professional, and I got a good contract at that cocktail party.'

FOUR SEASONS CONCIERGE

WHAT: Personal assistant and errand service
INFO: (813) 727-1718 or go to www.fourseasonsconcierge .net

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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