I recently saw this flyer posted in my neighborhood and found it interesting. The advertiser is very clear about what he is offering, who he is targeting, and how much he charges. After looking at the flyer, you know right away whether or not this is something that you are looking for. For potential clients, this clarity is a great benefit, as for the advertiser he saves time by not having to deal with irrelevant inquiries.

The design of the ad is also very clear and it conveys a clear message. While offering a variety of services, Sean is not offering everything possible in the field of personal assistance – he focused on people who are “busy professionals” looking for a part-time personal assistant, people who need help taking care of a wide variety of tasks. I think there is a great market for this type of services and when narrowing your target population intelligently like Sean does, you can reach a field that is relatively free of competition.

Why not start up a web 2.0 service were busy people can sign up and easily manage a queue of tasks they need done? Task queues should have due dates when applicable, and a simple tagging system to tag tasks as “urgent”, “whenever possible”, etc…

I assume most tasks must be handled locally so the service can start in a specific area, say New York City, and grow as the demand grows. It could be a nice way for people to get help taking care of their “small things” while controlling what gets done and when it gets done.

It probably won’t be easy to find the best monetization strategy for such a business. So let your creativity kick in and let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Here are a few options: you can charge per task, or per month with a cap on the number of tasks. Alternatively, you can have a bidding system were personal assistants can bid on tasks, or task lists, and clients can choose the most attractive bid.