Gazetteer: Little spots large niche in market

Published on Sunday 21 June 2009 21:42

WE'VE heard of pay-as-you-go mobiles and pay-per-view football on the telly, but now it seems you can even hire events assistants using the same idea.

Edinburgh-based ExecSpace is offering events assistants on a pay-as-you-go basis to carry out fiddly wee events-related jobs such as designing and making badges or writing invitations. Emma Little, pictured, who set up ExecSpace last year to offer a free service booking venues, catering and audio-visual equipment, said companies' staff are often tied up doing "mundane" jobs for events.

She saw a gap in the market and is now offering assistants to source corporate hospitality, gifts, entertainment or decorations, without breaking the bank. Little founded her business after seeing the hassle her own personal assistant had gone through in trying to book sales meetings, team away-days and accommodation.

Her next "pay-as-you-go" step – known as ExecSpace Extra – aims to build on early successes, which include booking more than 325 events and handling about 500,000 of business over the past 16 months. Little says: "Through listening to our customers, it became apparent that key personnel were spending considerable time on non-core, mundane tasks involved in arranging events. That's where ExecSpace Extra came from."

But whatever next? If you can get your events assistants on a pay-as-you-go basis, then will we soon be hiring coffee shop staff on a "pay-per-pour" basis or traffic wardens on a "pay-per-ticket" scheme?

KILLER QUOTE

PEOPLE in business like wasting money because it's easy. People aren't cost-conscious enough because it's hard work"

John Caudwell, founder of the Phones 4U chain of mobile phone shops

FACT OF THE DAY

975m

BRITISH tourists could be losing up to 975 million a year because they are not familiar with local currencies when travelling abroad, according to a survey by American Express.

Nearly one in three holiday-makers feel they are being short-changed when shopping on holiday because they do not know their ringget from their ruble, the survey found.

American Express said it wasn't just exotic currencies with which Britons were becoming confused – despite 619,000 UK travellers venturing to Egypt in the past year, 59 per cent of respondents could not identify the local currency as the Egyptian pound.

Meanwhile, some 3 per cent of respondents didn't know that the dollar was used in the United States.

GOOD DAY

MVA Consultancy

A SYSTEM for assessing the safety of school transport pick-up and drop-off points has been praised by the Scottish Government.

Transport consultancy MVA developed the assessment procedure for West Dunbartonshire Council and has subsequently worked on similar schemes with Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Dumfries and Galloway Council and Aberdeenshire Council.

BAD DAY

Struggling industries

THERE should be no further government stimulus packages, according to the head of the European Central Bank.

Speaking on French radio, Jean-Claude Trichet said the stimulus packages already put in place were "completely extraordinary".

He added: "There is a moment where you cannot spend more and accumulate more debts. We are at that moment."