How circumstance and the word “busy” helped this Adelaide entrepreneur get started
How often do you hear yourself say, “I just need more hours in the day?”. Most of us would search high and low trying to find another set of hands, another person to help organise our lives, or another night’s sleep!
After years working as an executive assistant for banks and major utility companies in Australia and abroad, I know exactly how it feels to dream of a personal assistant (especially when you are the assistant). That’s why, when I returned to my home-town of Adelaide, I knew I could offer busy people an exceptional service in this area, and so Quintillion Concierge was born.
My first job, like many teenage girls, was babysitting . At age 16 I started working Friday and Saturday nights at Anderson’s IceCream on Rundle Street – where summers got crazy serving up cool treats to the passing customers. I was however, lucky enough to escape one of those blistering SA summers and headed over to the United States during a uni break and worked at Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort, in California – as a restaurant hostess (you can see a pattern forming here, right?).
In 2006 I started working for energy producer Santos and a year later I hopped back on a plane and spent the next 12 months in London working for Bank of America, Barclays and Morgan Stanley as team assistant and executive assistant – my life was fast becoming focussed on helping others stay organised. Soon enough I returned to Adelaide and resumed my role with Santos, which would eventually take me to Brisbane. But all good things must come to an end and when I was faced with a redundancy package, I was left on the other side of the country from my friends and family with no job and no plan.
I’ll let you in on the world’s worst kept secret. Organised people like me, do not like unexpected things happening.
So I was left with a decision to make. What next? I wanted to return to my beloved hometown of Adelaide, but I struggled to find a job that set me on fire. Having worked in admin for years and having enjoyed organising everything from events to team meetings, being a personal concierge was a natural fit. I had always wanted to start a business, but never really knew where to start. So with attention to detail, focus, time and a little bit of blind faith I set a vision for Quintillion Concierge and honed in on what I knew I was good at – and have created a service delivery model, that I’m proud to say, is working.
And so here I am, the proud owner of Quintillion Concierge. I’m that person who will solve the busy problems that keep you up at night, and help you find time for a sleep-in so you’re not up at 5.30am to get started on your to-do list. I organise people’s lives; managing my time with the level of logistical manoeuvring you’d expect from an airline, so my clients can use their precious time for more pleasure and less pain. I guess you could think of me as a life assistant – I organise events, arrange gifts, take care of paperwork … whatever you don’t have time to do, I do (within reason and the law).
You might be wondering what I do with MY spare time? Well, as many of you reading this will know, running your own business doesn’t allow too much of this, but when I do get a few spare minutes and hours, I love to spend time with my young nieces. They never fail to make me laugh. You might have noticed I also love to travel, and I’ve been very fortunate to see some amazing places around the world so I hope to see a lot more in the years to come. But we are so incredibly spoilt for things to do in this beautiful State. Adelaide has so many great restaurants and bars and there are new venues opening up all the time so I love to try new places (and recommend the best ones to my clients). Some favourites at the moment are Hispanic Mechanic, The Bibliotheca Bar and Book Exchange, The Howling Owl, and 2KW for a great view of Adelaide. (Although nothing beats a lazy Sunday afternoon in The Ed’s beer garden). For a weekend escape, anywhere on the York Peninsula for a couple of days at is perfect to relax and recharge and I love going to the Barossa and McLaren Vale to taste some of SA’s finest wine – Rockford’s is a must every time!
This is why I’m so passionate about freeing up time for other people. Life is beautiful and so many of us get so ‘busy’ that we forget to live. We’re earning more money than any generation ever before, and yet we’re all so bogged down by work and commitments that we feel poor for life. I, for one, am making a stand against it and I say, less work more life!
If you want to live more, give Carly a call at Quintillion on 0455 300 636 and ask how she can help free up your time.