Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Pam Thiessen (right) owner of TimeSavers, hands the next assignment to Sue Sherrin, the corporate concierge.

TimeSavers gives busy people their lives back

By Shari Kaplan

Pam Thiessen is one of those lucky people who truly loves her job. And why wouldn't she? She created it by combining two of her passions: people and organization.

Thiessen, a San Jose resident who was born and raised in Los Gatos, took what she was good at and made it her livelihood. In January 1999, she and Carissa Dunn of Los Gatos founded TimeSavers, a corporate and personal time-management service.

According to Thiessen, the women started the business because they believed they could help busy professionals improve their quality of life by increasing their quantity of time.

"People in the Silicon Valley have little to no free time, but who can afford a personal assistant? That's why we created this business. [Even] the busiest of people can call us or get on our website to order services," Thiessen says.

That website, like the TimeSavers' brochure, contains a great deal of information--well organized and quickly readable, of course--broken down into three main divisions: corporate services, personal services and event planning.

The "corporate concierge," as Thiessen refers to it, includes hotel and restaurant reservations, travel arrangements, itineraries for visiting clients, employee incentive programs and the organization of new offices. The personal service provides help for mothers or families, such as pickup and delivery of dry cleaning, camera film, groceries, gifts and even children. Event planning encompasses activities as diverse as weddings, golf tournaments and trade shows.

"If it's feasible, I'll find a way to do it. Whatever it is--I'll check it out and try to find a way!" she says.

Thiessen can identify with the relief TimeSavers brings to clients because she was once in their same shoes. For some 13 years, she worked in sales and marketing and realized how many people like herself, with jobs at busy companies, could use some extra sets of hands--or wheels--at work and at home.

During some time spent between jobs, Thiessen says friends who knew her inborn organizational skills kept asking her more and more to help them plan and organize various aspects of their lives. After several months of this, Thiessen realized it would make a good business.

"I still can't believe people pay me to do what I do, because I love it so much," she says, smiling.

Although Dunn is no longer with TimeSavers due to other obligations, Thiessen has found a new partner in Gretchen Wilmer, who happens to be a former client. Wilmer runs TimeSavers in the Fairfield area, while Thiessen concentrates on the South Bay. The women are also expanding their network of people available to work on temporary projects, performing tasks like greeting people at corporate events, serving food at company parties, staffing information tables or simply running errands and buying groceries for families. Many half-day jobs are ideal for stay-at-home moms while their children are in school, Thiessen says.

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For information about TimeSavers, call 408.225.5067 or visit its website at www.TimeSaversLLC.com.

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