THE
FANCY HANDS BLOG
True story: when Fancy Hands founder & CEO Ted Roden needs a status update from an employee and he's in the mood to be funny, he has a Fancy Hands assistant call them and ask them for it.
Our engineer got this call this morning: "Hi Kurt, it's Mandie. When will the new version of the iPhone app will be ready to test drive? Thanks."
Delegation at its finest, and laughs all around the office.
It takes a lot of hard work to get life right.
MaryEllen Tribby, inspired by hearing a speech from Steve Wozniak, made this list that she calls The Success Indicator.
In this new year, it's a great reminder to work with focus and an open, positive attitude.
Successful People
Have a sense of gratitude
Forgive others
Accept responsibility for their failures
Compliment others
Read every day
Keep a journal
Talk about ideas rather that people
Want others to succeed
Share information and data
Keep a "to-be" list
Keep a "to-do/project" list
Exude joy
Set goals and develop life plans
Embrace change
Give other people credit for their victories
Operate from a transformational perspective
Unsuccessful People
Have a sense of entitlement
Hold a grudge
Blame others for their failures
Criticize
Watch TV every day
Talk about people rather than ideas
Secretly hope others fail
Horde information and data
Don't know what they want to be
Exude anger
Fly by their seat of their pants
Never set goals
Think they know it all
Fear change
Take all the credit for their victories
Operate from a transactional perspective
The average person spends two days a year on hold! One of the things that Fancy Hands does best is handle all of those calls to customer service (should be called disservice, really).
Here's a year-end wrap up infographic about how Fancy Hands assistants helped our clients this year. If you're not one of our clients yet, imagine the possibilities...
No more listening to bad hold music while you feel your life slipping away from you. Ever.
The Next Web featured our space in their roundup of Awesome NYC Startup Offices.
Ever felt like you needed an extra set of hands? Fancy Hands, ehm, hands them to you with its service. For a monthly membership fee, users can call in or email their requests, which are then carried out by Fancy Hands’ thousands of assistants who work across the US. Again, an idea born out of personal frustration: Ted Roden founded the company when his life proved too busy to handle on his own.
Fittingly, hands are also the defining office interior theme. You can literally find them everywhere in the office. And this is no outside job: the company’s Art Director David Trawin painted the walls, refinished the furniture, chose the artwork, and adorned the power outlets with wacky characters like Hulk Hogan.
Fridays wind down with a happy hour that includes Nintendo Wii, an assortment of beer (the staff are really into obscure brands), and snacks. Karyn Spencer, Director of Communications: “Sometimes we’ll have chips and salsa, sometimes pancakes. Once we had salsa and pancakes. That was kind of weird.”
Andrew Montalenti, CTO at Parse.ly added Fancy Hands to
The Young Entrepeneurs Council's list of
Andrew says,
"I found myself bogged down on a daily basis with research and administrative tasks, especially as my startup “grew up” into a full-fledged company. We considered hiring a personal assistant, but never felt we could justify a full salary for that role given our company’s small size. FancyHands fit the need for personal assistants perfectly. I was able to delegate not just business-related tasks, but even personal ones that would normally occupy my time. Since starting with the service just last month, they have already made ~60 phone calls on my behalf and spent nearly ~4 hours on the phone with vendors, customers, etc. This especially helped me when I was out of the office on travel and needed to coordinate meetings for the future. I also find it makes me more thoughtful about delegation."
No mention of raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we're sure he likes those things, too.
Are you making New Year's Resolutions?
Only 19% of us will succeed in keeping them!
Click to enlarge.
Thanks for a great year! We hope your holiday is a happy one.
Our developers made you a little treat -
go to our homepage and click on the blue present at the bottom right of your screen.
It's not too late to order a team of assistants for the people on your gift list.
You can place your order right here,
schedule delivery date of your gift,
and include a holiday message.
Stay inside today. The mall is brutal.
Happy Holidays!
You can do better than that.
Give your loved ones a personal assistant for Christmas.
Dice named Fancy Hands one of "New York City’s 10 Coolest Startups"
"Outsourcing the messy details of our busy lives has a become a hot trend, and Fancy Hands helps with a team of personal assistants standing by to handle your chores or your schedule for a flat monthly fee as low as $25 (for five tasks). Use your assistant to order lunch, buy tickets, manage your calendar (a free feature) or research vetted service providers who will fix your plumbing or paint your bedroom at discounted prices." -Don Willmott
Thanks to Don and Dice for being in the know and spreading the word!
It must be fate that Lena’s last name is Service. She’s one of our most beloved assistants, well known for her attention to detail and her desire to go above and beyond for our clients. She consistently receives a “thumbs up” feedback. Here are some tasks she’s recently received high praise for:
“Find a specific pair of jeans for my girlfriend that I’ve not been able to locate.“
Lena tracked down this highly desired denim for a customer by calling multiple stores across the country. When they were located, she worked with the client to get the jeans ordered and shipped in time for them to be wrapped and waiting under the Christmas tree for one lucky lady.
“Set a lunch with Mr. Williams somewhere that works for both of our locations and schedules.”
Did you know that your Fancy Hands assistant can set appointments and put them in your calendar for you? This is one of those requests that sounds simple but can actually take a lot of work and time to complete.
The above request, for example, ended up with Lena sending 27 emails. She found openings in our client’s calendar, worked with Mr. Williams to find a coordinating opening in his calendar, found a restaurant that was well reviewed and convenient for both men, confirmed the appointment with Mr. Williams, and put it in our client’s calendar.
…then our client had a conflict come up and asked her to reschedule the lunch. Lena started the whole process over, happily.
“I want some juices from the organic juice place in my town delivered to me. Here are the flavors I want, can you figure that out for tomorrow?”
Turns out the eco-friendly folks at the organic juice place deliver by bicycle only, and the client lived out of their delivery range. Lena arranged for overnight shipping, so the juices were on the client’s doorstep the next morning, just in time for a blueberry flax-seed, hemp-oil, tofu-infused breakfast treat.
“My credit card keeps getting charged a monthly fee for something that I don’t think I ever signed up for – can you sort this out and have it stopped?”
When our clients need things handled with their private accounts, our assistants can patch them in briefly so that customer service can verify their identity and confirm that the assistant is authorized to speak on their behalf.
Lena was successful in getting this client ‘s recurring charges canceled, and she scored them a $330 refund for 8 months of inaccurate fees. Lena made 5 phone calls for this task, and spent a total of 54 minutes on the phone.
A little background info about Lena:
WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
Yacolt, WA ... Really the middle of nowhere!
WHAT ARE YOUR INTERESTS?
Reading, writing, art, computers, languages, law, accounting and FASHION!
WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT?
Hunting someone down on the internet. My skills are lethal!
WHAT'S THE MOST MEMORABLE REQUEST YOU'VE SEEN FROM A CUSTOMER?
We get fashion related requests from a client, asking for inspiration. I love that!
WHO IS YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL?
A cat...Taco, the wonder cat...
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
My two children - how smart and amazing they both are! Followed by my ability to retain and recite information.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THE 16 YEAR OLD VERSION OF YOURSELF?
Enjoy school - you'll miss the socializing during lunch times. The real world is harder than you think. And take the lapidary course that you were offered!
Take note: don’t pass out around Lena. She will…play poker on you!?!
One of our clients asked his Fancy Hands assistant to make him an e-card filled with Bad Santas to send to his friends.
How did we do?
For as little as $25, you can give someone their own personal assistant.
It’s a genius gift idea. Trust us. You will win Christmas.
Don’t know about Fancy Hands yet? Dude.
Our assistants make your life suck less. Read all about it here.
We all know how to Google...but do you Google like the pros? NOW you do! Click to enlarge.
In honor of 12/12/12, the last repeating date we'll ever see, here are
1. Spinach first. Your mom was right. Always tackle the most difficult task on your plate first thing in the morning when your energy and concentration level is at its highest. Get to the hard stuff as early as you can. The longer you put it off in favor of easier, lower priority matters, the bigger that mound gets (and the worse it tastes). Keep the main thing the main thing.
2. Think sprint, not marathon. We are not designed to "park it" at a desk for eight hours at a stretch and get all of our work done. Short, uninterrupted bursts of concentration are the key to knocking out good work. Get a kitchen timer or stopwatch. Set it for 45 or 60 minutes, and don't stop until you hear the buzzer. You'd be amazed at what you can accomplish in one good uninterrupted hour.
3. Be selfish. Once you have prioritized your to-do list, you must put that ahead of all others' lists. When you are able to get your own work done, you are in a much better position to support others with their projects. But your work comes first. Always.
4. Date stamp your expectation. Whenever you request a deliverable from someone, do not simply ask for it, but also inquire when you can expect to receive it. Things tend to happen much faster when there is an explicit deadline. Similarly, if someone asks something from you, ask them when they need it by. Then write it in a calendar.
5. Touch it once. With the never-ending onslaught of email, it's crucial that you have a good filing system in place. My rule is "read it once" -- then decide what to do with the information, then do it. Same thing with other incoming requests. Touch it once, do something with it, then let it go.
6. Group like items. Organize your week into specific days for similar tasks with allotted timeframes. For example, on Mondays and Wednesdays, focus on face time -- seeing clients, making sales, etc. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, reserve the time for writing, emailing or working on strategy. Friday morning is for overflow and Friday afternoon is free. Knowing what your week looks like in advance makes it easier to be in the right mindset when the time comes.
7. Face time saves time. Don't try to figure out what someone meant in a confusing email; go straight to the source and ask. This saves on time, energy and mistakes. Asking for, and giving, clear communication is key.
8. Delegate. Learn to delegate more of the work. When you actually do this, you'll notice how your role and work output will transition to the next level. Know what parts you do well yourself, and then give to someone else whatever parts you feel do not play to your strengths. Then let go.
9. Track it. If you can't figure out where the week went, it's time to take a closer look at it. Track your time hour-by-hour for one week: everything that you're doing from the time you get up until you go to bed. This is sobering! You'll likely see where the holes in your calendar are. You may find that you need to rearrange your life (and calendar) accordingly.
10. Move it. With so much head work, we can often neglect our bodies (without which our heads do not work). Regular vigorous exercise will help you blow off steam, give you more energy, greater concentration and a better night's sleep. Not a bad return!
11. Slow down to speed up. Sometimes we need to slow it right down in order to get good work done. By minimizing distractions, and focusing carefully on one task at a time, we can actually speed up our overall work rate. Mono-tasking is the way.
12. Lighten up. Nothing is so serious that we cannot laugh about it. One good belly laugh each day is essential for defusing tension, and yes, getting our work done. Work is work, but that doesn't mean we can't have a laugh once in a while. Even at our own expense. Even when the chips are down.
We really hope that you don't waste 36% of your time on annoying co-workers!
Harvard Business School boldly suggests a 3-Day Rule!
Can you imagine only letting your to-do list tasks stay active for 3 days before doing them or getting rid of them altogether? Considering some of our 2012 New Year's resolutions will be carried over to 2013's New Year's resolutions, maybe we should pay attention to this advice!
"A to-do list is only useful if you cross things off as often as you add tasks on. If something’s been on your list for more than 3 days, do one of the following:
-Do it immediately.
It may take you less time than you think.
-Schedule it.
Find a time slot on your calendar when you can get the task done. If it’s important enough to have on your list, then commit to doing it at a specific time and day.
-Let it die.
If you’re not willing to do something immediately or schedule it for later, you won’t ever do it. Accept that it’s not really a priority and take it off your list."
Art director David Trawin presents:
Fancy Hans, taking a break because his Fancy Hands assistants are working hard for him.
You can follow Hans on Twitter here for great use case ideas.
