Oregon daily emerald., January 23, 2001, Page 36, Image 50

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personal services
WITH WALL STREET FIRMS AND SILICON VALLEY TECH COMPANIES battling to find quali
fied candidates, perks like in-house concierges, chefs, and on-site child care have become
common. But you don’t have to work in high tech or finance to take advantage of such services.
Both online and off, a boom in personalized service has manifested itself in the form of
personal trainers, financial advisors, even people to do
your errands. The common link among these services is
that they save you time. “Technology is enabling people
to buy quality products, get quality services, and save
time,” says Alison
Berglund, vice presi
dent of marketing
and business develop
ment for HomeRuns.com,
a pioneer online grocery service in
Boston. The opportunities in
this field are nearly limitless.
Any activity that a person
would be happy to relin
quish—like dog walking or
standing in line to rent a
movie—is an opportunity for
a personal service company.
“In our case, everybody buys gro
store manager for Hannaford Brothers, HomeRuns’
one-time parent company. “Because it’s a mature
industry, supermarkets don’t change
Mr
much. To come in and work at a
place where no one had any of the
answers was pretty attractive,” says
Wood, a graduate of Cornell
University’s School of
Industrial and Labor
Relations. Berglund adds
that because a majority of
personal service compa
nies deal with inventory
and people—HomeRuns
has over 400 employees,
speaking a total of nine languages,
in its fulfillment center—there is a terrif
ic opportunity to learn management skills.
ceries, so you’ve got a huge market and you’ve got
products that people need on a regular basis. Instead
of going to the store, parking, and waiting in line,
however, we’re offering a service in the convenience of
your home,” explains Berglund. This opportunity to
combine quality and convenience is what drives an
ever-expanding circle of services that people will some
day take for granted.
Amy Wood, 29, director of web experience for
HomeRuns, came to the company after working as a
HomeRuns is a relative giant in this industry, but
most personal service businesses can be run by a small
group of people, depending on the service. Naturally,
personal service requires people with customer service
skills, not simply someone with a good idea that can
save somebody time. Common entry-level jobs are in
sales and customer service or delivery, unless you have
a skill (like computer programming or accounting) that
can help improve day-to-day operations. If you’re start
ing a business yourself, be sure your killer personal
service concept is based on a solid business plan.
_new
directions/
(EPC), most environmental programs
are administered at the local level,
where governments may not know
about other successful programs.
Stevenson’s job is to find successful
programs in her area of expertise (water
conservation), create best-practice
guides, and publish her findings on the
center’s web site as a resource for other
professionals in the field. She has
recently turned her attention to Latin
America, where environmental informa
tion-sharing networks are rare. In
Mexico City, for example, motor vehicle
emissions have polluted the air so badly
that cars are banned on certain days of
each week. Stevenson shares her find
ings with community leaders around the
region via the Internet.
The continuing search for best prac
tices demands excellent research and
writing skills and a passion for the
work, says Stevenson. She draws satis
faction from seeing so many people
work to solve environmental problems,
and she recognizes that such a level of
collaboration wouldn’t be possible with
out the web. “The idea behind my job is
that we can get more done if we share
information instead of reinventing the
www.experience.com