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7 Tips for More Efficient Errand Solutions

Jan 15, 2008 Diane Laney Fitzpatrick

Running errands can be one more way you’re the Queen of Efficiency.

Pick up paper towels at the store . . . drop off shoes to be resoled . . . return movies . . . refill a prescription . . . get the kids’ coats dry cleaned: If you’re a stay-at-home parent, your list of errands can seem endless.

Running errands doesn’t have to be the annoying nuisance that comes back to nag at you every few days. Make your errands something you look forward to – treat your kids to ice cream or yourself to a gourmet coffee at the end, and make errand running one of the more efficient parts of your week.

Here are 7 tips for running errands more efficiently.

Be Organized

Have a regular day of the week to run recurring errands. If you’re driving past the bank on your way to Mommy and Me gymnastics every Tuesday, make that your banking day. Find other convenient times and days to stop off at the dry cleaner, post office or drug store, on your way to and from other things.

Combine Your Errands

Save time and gasoline by combining your errands into one stop. Park the car in a central location and walk from one stop to another with a large tote bag for drop-offs and pick-ups. You’ll be saving yourself time and getting some exercise to boot.

Keep a Notebook or Note Cards

Here are two creative ways to keep track of errands: Keep a small spiral notebook as an errands notebook and jot down the errands you need to run. Take the notebook with you and mark them off as you complete them.

Or jot down each errand on a separate note card. When you need to run that errand, place the note card in your purse as a reminder. For example, when you need to buy stamps, place the note card that says “Post Office” in your purse.

Create an Errand Center in Your Home

Create a place to stash movies and library books to return, claim tickets, clothing to have altered, things to return, banking and grocery store lists. Keep it in a central location, such as the kitchen desk, or near the back door, where you can grab from it as you leave the house.

If you’re keeping errand note cards, put your cards in here if the errand needs to be done.

Use Your Weekdays Wisely

If you’re a stay-at-home parent, take advantage of the fact that you can run errands on weekdays and avoid the weekend crowds and hassles. Most commercial areas are the least busy in the mornings, so plan to run your errands then.

Combine Errands With Grocery Shopping

Combine as many errands as you can with your weekly grocery shopping. Many large grocery stores have banks, small post offices, photo processing, and other services. Take advantage of any one-stop shopping opportunities.

Equip Your Car for Errands

Keep a basket or container on the seat next to you in your car to place movies and library books to return, slips for dry cleaning that needs to be picked up, letters that need to be mailed, and other errands on your list. When your errands are finished, your “to do” basket can become a “done and ready to take in the house” basket.

Green Zebra Concierge Partners with Groupon as it launches in Wichita

Green Zebra showcases what is to come for Wichita as the nationally recognized company who reinvented the coupon joins the community  

Wichita, KS—May 14, 2010—Green Zebra Concierge is partnering with the new service sweeping the nation, Groupon.com, launched in Wichita May 11, 2010. Collective buying power equals huge savings for online bargain hunters with Groupon, offering daily deals on everything from restaurants, services, events, salons, retail shops and more. One of the first companies to partner with Groupon in Wichita, Green Zebra presents an innovative service at a deal that saves the community $90.

Groupons.com is now offering Wichita subscribers free daily emails alerting the deal of the day. These deals are only activated if the specific number of people sign up that day. Subscribers rally together using social media and if the deal goes through, individuals are emailed a coupon to print and use. If the deal does not meet the necessary volume of sales, the deal is off. 

Since launching in November, 2008, Groupons has generated millions in revenue for local businesses in numerous cities across the nation, saving over one million subscribers more than $32 million. 

Green Zebra Concierge has been named one of the “best of the best” in Wichita by Groupons.com and is set to launch their deal of the day by offering 3 hours of concierge time for $30, a savings of $90. Started in Wichita in 2007, by Kyle Gerstner, Green Zebra Concierge is designed to make their clients lives easier, offering 24/7/365 service to busy individuals who need help with  errand running, grocery shopping, pet care, home management and more.  

“Since the concept of concierge services are relatively new to Wichita, we are excited to have partnered with Groupon and have the opportunity to present a great deal to Wichitans,”  says owner of Green Zebra Concierge, Kyle Gerstner. “This is a chance for people to save money and discover everything Wichita has to offer.  For us, the goal is to build awareness about our services and hope that people will give us a try and the opportunity to make their lives just a bit easier.”

About Green Zebra Concierge

Whether it’s personal or professional errands or assistance with the myriad of tasks that surround travel, entertainment and home / office management, their on the job 24/7/365 to put the focus of their clients’ life on living it, not tripping over details.  Featured in the Wichita Eagle and the Business Journal, Green Zebra works with all busy individuals in the Wichita area, assisting with errand running, grocery shopping, pet care, and home management just to name a few.  

About Groupon

Groupon, launched in November 2008 in Chicago, features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see, and buy in major cities across the U.S., with plans to be in 30 cities by the end of 2009. Groupon uses collective buying power to offer unbeatable prices and provide a win-win for businesses and consumers. Groupon is a project of The Point (http://www.thepoint.com ), an online community launched in 2007 for organizing group action. For more information, visit http://www.groupon.com .

Learn what you’re worth and when to outsource.

By: Chelsea  Greenwood from: http://www.successmagazine.com

Ticktock. Ticktock. Ticktock. For some, that’s what the passage of time sounds like. For others, it goes more like this: Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.

The most productive people—from Fortune 500 CEOs to 20-something yuppies— view their time in dollars and cents. Yet many of us persist in thinking, “It’s cheaper to do it myself,” or “Why pay someone else to do something I can do?” The answer, of course, is that your time is precious and could be spent on activities that ultimately reap great rewards—financial, as well as personal.

Even if you aren’t a victim of your own misguided work ethic or thriftiness, it’s easy to get sucked into a time-wasting task—filing, doing laundry, entering data. You think that chore will just take a few minutes, but over time, all the busywork adds up.

So how are you budgeting your time? Just as we scrutinize home and office budgets down to the last penny, it’s important to look at how we’re spending our time and whether or not each activity is a worthy allocation. (See sidebars on the following pages to help you figure out the value of your time and what’s worth doing yourself.) Seriously, why spend an hour on data entry—which you could pay someone maybe $10 an hour to do—when you could spend those 60 minutes preparing a proposal that could result in thousands of dollars in returns?

That’s just what Debra Cohen wondered. This self-described “mompreneur” started a home-improvement contractor referral business in 1997 when the first of her two daughters was born. “In the beginning, I tried to do as much as I could on my own to save money, and, in the end, it cost me in time,” she says. “I quickly realized that I needed help in order to focus on the money-making aspects of my business.”

Resourceful Outsourcing

Cohen was pleased to find outsourcing more economical than she thought. After hours spent unsuccessfully trying to design her own logo, she figured she’d have to hire an expensive agency. But she found a retired artist for much less.

When her business, Home Remedies of NY Inc., started to really take off, Cohen found herself at another critical juncture. “I couldn’t keep up with my job orders, follow-up calls, invoicing, etc. We had just planned our fi rst family vacation in more than five years and couldn’t figure out how I could possibly leave my business.” At that point, Cohen found a local mom who was looking for work. She trained and hired her immediately, and the woman still works with her as her virtual assistant.

Today, Cohen’s workforce also includes a webmaster, an accountant and another stay-at-home mom who used to practice law but who now handles structure and trademark issues. “With the help of my outsourced workforce, I’m able to focus my limited work hours [three to five a day] on client follow-up, networking and contractor recruiting—the three most important aspects of my business,” she says.

Cohen is equally judicious about her personal time. As her business thrived, she hired a housekeeper and gardener. And when work is busier than usual, she doesn’t hesitate to order dinners in or buy prepared meals. “At the same time, I try not to compromise time with my family. I may order in dinner, but we will still sit down at the table together to eat as a family. After all, they are the reason that I decided to work from home in the first place.”

Practicing Interdependence

With so many online resources available, as well as a sizable population of unemployed people eager for freelance or contract work, it’s easier than ever to outsource at work and at home. For many people, though, hiring others to do household or personal chores is a bigger stretch than outsourcing work-related tasks.

“Most people ‘get’ that it doesn’t make sense to try to tinker with your car if you’re not a mechanic,” says Laura Stack, president of The Productivity Pro Inc. “But you know how to do the laundry, so you feel guilty for paying someone else to do it. What are you working so hard for? To earn a bunch of money just to work hard again at home? When do you get to raise your children, volunteer or spend time on yourself? The money we spend on services is far better than any other ‘stuff’ we could have bought with that money. Take a deep breath, and join the millions of people who spend some of their hard-earned money to buy a life.”

Stack suggests outsourcing is a way to practice interdependence. “Service providers rely on you for their paychecks, and you rely on them to free up your time,” she says. Many workaholics have trouble practicing interdependence because it involves trusting others, relinquishing control and, sometimes, funding another paycheck, she says. (See sidebar below for warning signs that you need to delegate more.) But interdependence is crucial to productivity because no one person can or should do it all.

What Money Can’t Buy

Yet, there are some activities you cannot delegate or assign a dollar value. “The danger to putting a money value on one’s time, particularly if it is high, is that things that are important to do end up seeming too expensive,” says George Loewenstein, professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. “If you start calculating the effective monetary cost of doing these things, not only will you be likely to not do them when you should, but even when you decide to go ahead and take the time, you’ll find yourself distracted by thoughts about how much it’s costing you.”

He remembers keeping a mountain-biking date with his son rather than taking on some well-paying consulting work. “The thought of how much the biking was costing did detract from my complete enjoyment of the day, but, afterward, I was very happy and relieved that I had made what I am now certain was the right choice. Years later, the money will be a drop in the bucket, but spending a day mountain biking with one’s son is irreplaceable.”

Loewenstein’s story illustrates an important rule of thumb: “The things you should avoid putting a price on are things that involve people—family, friends, students, colleagues,” he says. “Relationships take time, and if you put a price on the time you spend building them and enjoying them, you will almost always undervalue them.”

It’s also important not to undervalue your relationship with yourself, which you can cultivate through hobbies and alone time. You need that time to recharge, and studies show you’re more effective at work when you participate in activities you really enjoy, which actually help you be more creative and better at problem solving.

“Americans work some of the longest hours among citizens of wealthy nations; we don’t take much vacation and we retire late in life,” Loewenstein says. “And the less time we take off, the less we become capable of enjoying leisure when we take it. Our leisure skills become atrophied, and our leisure time ends up taking on the frantic character of our work lives. We have developed a tremendous engine of prosperity, but now we need to figure out how to use our time better to enjoy that prosperity.”

Do the Deed from Greteman Group on Vimeo.

Join the movement  . . . DO the DEED

There it is, sitting in the middle of the room. With it’s big ears, long trunk and unpleasant smell, eating only the peanuts out the bowl of mixed nuts on the coffee table. The elephant in the room that has been making a lot of noise and has affected all of us; the economy. It has been a trying year, where we all had to re-learn what was most important to us, refocus our priorities, and conserve.  With the Holiday’s is full effect we are all having to look at our priorities and determine what is most important, the family fun holiday trip to the ski slopes or stay nice and cozy here at home. Do I need to buy a gift for my brother-in-law’s, cousin, twice removed? We don’t want to let anyone down or make them feel less important. But we feel we need to do something, something that fits in better with the new times. Something that is universal, but also has the power to spread happiness, like a smile to a stranger or flipping someone the peace sign. Just a little deed that has power! Something we can all afford to do. I encourage all of you to do just one thing and see how it works. If you need some help, Greteman Group and some other key partners started DOtheDEED.org. A website designed to inspire joy. Do the Deed is about attitude and action. Becoming more aware. Internationally doing good for those around you. This site exists to celebrate and inspire a movement fueled by simple acts of kindness. The smallest deed can change a life. Together we can bring joy to the world. One deed at a time.

Happy Holidays

Kyle Gerstner

Thanksgiving – a time for giving thanks. A time to be with family, friends and loved ones- to reflect on the many blessings that life has brought you. It’s also a time to cherish what’s most important in your life, as W.J. Cameron said, “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.”

As a young company we are most thankful for all of you. The ones who have mentored, networked, marketed, and cheered us on, without you we would not be as strong.

To all of our customers and clients as we are slowly coming to an end on this roller coaster of a year, we want to thank you. Thank You for embracing us and utilizing us over this turbulent time. We were happy to lend a helping hand so you could spend your time where it mattered most.

Don’t forget Green Zebra is here to help you have happy and stress free holiday season.

Call on us for:
• Holiday Shopping
• Party Planning
• Home Preparation
• Grocery Shopping
• Valet Parking
• Travel Assistance
• Errands, Errands, Errands

And if you don’t have that gift for the person who has everything, give them the precious gift of time, with a gift certificate from Green Zebra.

Sincerely,
Kyle Gerstner
Green Zebra Concierge

When the gift of time is just not enough, what do you get  the CEO in your life? Click Here for some great holiday gift ideas.

A Green Zebra Gift Certificate can help the CEO in your life run errands, grocery and gift shop so they can spend more time where it matters.

Hello, Everyone! Welcome to My Kitchen where I hope to make dinner-time less stressful. I offer home-made entrees prepared with the freshest local ingredients and seasoned well. Crockpot entrees are placed into your crockpot… frozen…and cooked on LOW for 6-8 hours, soups are just thawed and then heated in a saucepan or slow-cooked, and casseroles are just thawed and baked. The menu changes every week. Entrees can be ordered to feed 2 people (SMALL), 4 people (MEDIUM), or 6 people (LARGE). Also, I offer a Premium Entree and the cost will vary depending on ingredients.

To order CLICK HERE . Be sure to specify size.

Premium Entrees – 2 options this week

- Shrimp Diablo (SMALL $8 MEDIUM $16 LARGE $23): This flavorful shrimp entree has a little kick to it…or just tell me not so spicy. Large peeled, deveined shrimp seasoned with garlic, bacon, a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of white wine, and a little chopped tomato. Serve with pasta or rice pilaf and a Caesar salad. Delicioso!
– Baked 3-Cheese Ravioli (Marinara Sauce: SMALL $7 MEDIUM $14 LARGE $20 or Meat Sauce: SMALL $8 MEDIUM $16 LARGE $23): Delicious and tasty 3-cheese ravioli topped with my homemade marinara sauce or meaty spaghetti sauce and lots of mozzarella cheese…you pick the sauce. Serve with garlic bread and a Caesar salad. Supper-Yummy!

Entrees – Be sure to specify: SMALL $6 MEDIUM $11 LARGE $16

- Cherry-Glazed Pork Chops: Bone-in pork chops that slow-cook all day and this entree makes a fabulous savory gravy…you will be amazed. Perfect with stuffing, mashed potatoes, or rice. Serve with a garden salad and green beans. Comfort food at it’s best…
– Chili Soup: Made with lean ground beef and 3 different kinds of beans, a little onion and tomato, and a savory beef broth. Smells wonderful…just garnish with shredded cheese and serve with cornbread or oyster crackers. Mmmmmmmmm…..
– Coq au Vin: This classic French entree combines chicken and red wine, lots of mushrooms and a fragrant blend of seasonings. Serve over white rice or egg noodles and a chopped green salad. Low-fat and Delicious!!

Breakfast: – Be sure to specify: SMALL $6 LARGE $11

Quiche w/Sausage & Cheese: What could be better than breakfast in a piecrust? Plenty of crumbled sausage and shredded cheddar cheese. Small serves 2 to 4 people and Large serves 6 to 8 people.

Dessert: – Be sure to specify: SMALL $7 LARGE $13

Turtle Cake: This amazing chocolate cake is topped with a chocolate glaze, drizzled with caramel, and sprinkled with chopped pecans. Small serves 2 to 4 people and Large serves 8 to 10 people. Great for company and can be frozen.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list, just e-mail me at greenteam@greenzebraconcierge.com. Thanks so much for your interest. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me or e-mail me…I love to talk!!

Orders are due by Tuesday evening 11/17, and there is no minimun to order. Just order whatever you like. Pick-ups and deliveries are on Friday 11/20. If you would like to receive delivery at your workplace, the delivery charge is just $2 and if 5 employees or more place an order for delivery, there is no delivery charge (I hope this offers everyone a convenience you just can’t find anyplace else). The other option for receiving your items is to come by my home between 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Friday to pick-up your items (I live in NE Wichita, near 13th and 127th). Payment can be check or cash and I will e-mail your total including sales tax (6.3%).

The economy is slowly recovering, yet consumers remain nervous, leading retailers to offer more items for $25 or less, experts say.

“A few years ago there was no price barrier for most retailers and most consumers,” said Kathy Deane, president of the New York-based retail consultancy Tobe. “Now consumers are looking for value. This is the year of $25 and under gifts.”

In the past, stores and malls focused on presents less than $50 or less than $100, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

“This year, the $25 price point really has resonated,” said Cohen. It’s what most people will spend for stocking stuffers or gifts for people outside their immediate family, he said.

“That’s the magic price point line which retailers recognize is their target zone,” he said. “Twenty-five dollars buys someone a gift that says, ‘I thought about you.’”

This year’s holidays will be cautious ones, said Cohen, with stores offering traditional, practical gifts.

“The retailer is going to say, ‘We understand the economy is challenging. Instead of trying to shove a $100 cashmere scarf down your throat, why don’t you give a $19.99 special lambswool scarf that feels like cashmere?’”

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