Mother-daughter team provides extra help when needed
By Joyce Owen
joyce_owen@link.freedom.com
PANAMA CITY BEACH – Absentee homeowners don’t want to come to the beach and spend their precious vacation days waiting on the cable guy or the plumber. Or at least, that’s the concept of Forget Me Not Home Services Inc., a business Jennifer Smith and her mother, Erin Bosson, created.
Smith was the training coordinator at a local resort and heard complaints from property owners that were on the resort’s rental program.
There’s got to be somebody out there doing this, they told her as they yearned to spend more time with their families, rather than wait for repairmen or actually do the repairs themselves.
Smith took her years of experience at the resort working with many qualified contractors and created a “home away from home” service.
“When our clients come down, they can enjoy their vacations,” Smith said now that the business is up and running.
“We do all kinds of things, but not day-to-day cleaning. There are other companies that focus on that. We are more like a personal assistant,” she said.
When a client notifies them of their plans to come down, the duo goes into action.
“We make sure everything is ready. We check the linens and make sure the house is tidy. We start the car, put gas in it, have it detailed and can pick them up at the airport,” said Bosson.
They can arrange for meals to be delivered or help stock the fridge.
While many of their clients are out-of-towners, the service also comes in handy for locals.
As part of their caretaker services, they can water indoor and outdoor plants, check and change air filters, bring in the mail and make sure there are no problems while a homeowner is out of town.
The services are also available for local homeowners that want more personal time.
At their Web site, www.forgetmenothomeservices.com, they describe the company as a concierge service – someone employed to make arrangements or run errands – and note that anyone that wants to save time can hire them. It’s not just for rich people, they say.
“We strive to take the burden of the 'little things' off your shoulders so that you have time for the big things. At Forget Me Not Home Services, concierge services give busy people help managing their personal and professional to-do list,” said Smith.
But it’s not just folks on the go with little time to handle the day-to-day things, they also provide services for those who live alone and need help.
“We do things for people that don’t have anyone to do for them,” Bosson said.
Bosson likes working with the elderly. She reflects on a time when her own mother, who lived in Macon, Ga., had Alzheimer’s.
“It would have been nice to have a service like this. If there had been someone to do her grocery shopping, take her to the doctor and just stop by to say hello and check on her, she could have stayed in her own home,” she said.
The business opened in April and they are still working to add new clients, and through her Internet listing, she’s had a few unusual calls.
It seems while most folks surfing the Web understand that she and her mother escort patients to doctors appointments, at least two callers wanted an “escort” for the evening.
Smith said one was for a bachelorette party and she called her father, who had previously offered to help the ladies get their business going. “Anything I can do for you,” he had said.
But, this was one request he declined.
The duo still chuckles over the suggestion.
In fact, the mother daughter team laughs a lot as they work together. The Bosson’s moved here in 1994 from Cleveland, Tenn. After two years of daily phone calls, Smith and her husband headed for the beach as well. When Smith decided to try her hand at opening her own business, it was just natural that her mom would agree to help her.
“We like to spend time together,” Bosson said. “We have the same ideas.”
“We don’t do anything half way,” Bosson said, as Smith added, “We are both perfectionists.”
Originally published in the Walton Sun, reprinted here with author's permission. |
