When you hear that someone has a personal assistant, you might think of CEOs, movie stars, or VIPs with too much to do and unlimited funds. That’s a myth that needs to be busted. As the hustle gets more intense among entrepreneurs (or those with a viable side hustle!), getting a personal assistant can be a worthy investment for your personal and professional life.
OurErrands helps make your life easier — and the idea of a personal assistant less of an unattainable luxury — by providing an on-demand vetted personal assistant to help you accomplish those tasks piling up on your to-do list, at an affordable price.
From admin tasks to mass mailing to event setup and expense reporting, you can jump on the app, pick an assistant by qualifications listed on their profile, and schedule a same day or future appointment. Right now, each assistant on the app is personally vetted by co-founder Justice Miranda, who handles the application process, interviews, on-boarding, and training. They currently have 17 personal assistants available on the platform with many in line waiting to be vetted, with a goal of 200 assistants hired by October.
“OurErrands is a family-owned business that is geared to providing a temporary family member to an entrepreneur or small business owner’s life to do the things they just don’t have time to,” says Miranda. “We [both co-founders] are first-generation college students geared to creating a platform for people to gain cross-functional skill sets that can propel them either in the workforce or their own entrepreneurial endeavors, while helping someone in need.”
Miranda, along with co-founder Deshawn Stevenson, share more about their business model, why early entrepreneurs need personal assistants too, and what kind of investment partner they’re looking for.
What’s your current funding situation?
Right now we are totally bootstrapped. We are very particular on who we would like to partner with as far as investors, accelerators, incubators, and advisors. We are looking for funding to hire more employees and to expand our app technology. The relationship that we seek includes someone that believes in our mission and vision as one of their core values.
What’s your pitch?
At OurErrands, our mission is to make your everyday life easier — our vision is to serve over 1,000,000 lives by 2025. We are an on-demand platform designed to provide an affordable and accessible marketplace for personal assistants and clients. Personal assistants consist of everyday people that are skilled in a variety of services to meet the need of the client. Clients consist of small business owners and entrepreneurs who can discover new services, book appointments online, and get the assistance they need when they want it.
We have three main focuses in our company: our assistants, our entrepreneurs, and their experiences. The two main goals in this company are to: 1) Provide versatile and cross-functional work opportunities for those in need of either work experience, or just some extra cash, and 2) Provide vigorously vetted personal assistants for small business owners and entrepreneurs to utilize, as they choose.
What problem are you solving?
Everyone needs a personal assistant! Right now, there isn’t a place in the market to find on-demand vetted personal assistants. We are filling in that gap. There is a need for small business owners and entrepreneurs to hire help but there may be a lack of funding to actually employ them. Lastly, small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t have the time to thoroughly vet for a personal assistant. We have just began offering a virtual assistant option as well.
How’d you get the idea for it?
About a year ago Justice was in her senior year at Clark Atlanta University. I called her and expressed that I saw numerous patients come into my pharmacy needing more than just their medication; they needed personal assistance. She was, at the time, on her way to work as a celebrity personal assistant and we came up with this idea to provide a luxury service at an affordable price, for everyday people.
What kind of assistants are available on the platform?
There are numerous versatile assistants ranging from college students who are media managers, blog writers, videographers, and photographers; to people who have their bachelors, masters, and even doctorates in specific fields. Whatever skillset a client needs, we have an assistant that meets those needs.
What’s the process to become an assistant?
An assistant can either apply online or when they see us at a career fair or networking event. We will contact them personally to follow up about a hiring session for them to attend. After an assistant attends a hiring session and they are considered a quality candidate, they attend an on-boarding session where we outline our code of conduct, fill out necessary paperwork, and personally assist them with creating their profile. Then they are ready to be viewed and hired!
What’s your revenue model and current target audience?
OurErrands is focused on servicing small business owners and entrepreneurs. Our key focus markets include both co-working spaces and realty companies.
We are currently in our beta phase but after our launch in early October, we will begin offering on-demand services at $28/hour and packages that will range from $21-28/hour. OurErrands retains 30 percent of the hourly rate with a minimum request of 2 hours. We are currently implementing a subscription model that provides our members with certain amenities they can utilize.
Who are your competitors and how do you stand out?
What differentiates OurErrands from our competitors is the experience of a virtual assistant overseas versus the personal experience that we offer. Many times, people will pay for a virtual assistant to schedule their appointments, meetings, and conferences, but sometimes you also need a physical person to setup and breakdown events or to do your filing and pick up your dry cleaning. Also, we are not focused on home services like some of our competitors Takl and TaskRabbit — our company is focused on creating a work-life balance for small business owners. Lastly, we are the first on-demand hiring tool for personal assistants, so that’s always a plus!
