Duo offer concierge services

      Aah, it's 5 p.m. Work's over.
      Not.
      Your second job - all-pro errand runner - has just begun.
      After clocking out, you fight rush-hour traffic to get to the dry cleaners, lull in a line at a crowded grocery store to pick up some milk then zip to the in-law's house to prep for this weekend's party.
      It's 9 p.m. now. Everything's done. But before you hit the sack, tomorrow's after-hours agenda smacks you awake: must contact the travel agent, get tickets for an upcoming play, drop the children off at karate class, send flowers to your sick boss and call prospective baby sitters.
      After asking Calgon to take you away, Denise De Vito and Maureen Tobin suggest you call them.
      In October, the duo opened Concierge Services Unlimited, a service devoted to giving busybodies a vacation from taxing errands.
      "We want to take the `to do' list from busy professionals," said De Vito, co-owner of the home-based business and a Chaparral High English teacher. "If they need to pick up milk, drop off the dry cleaning, contact travel agents, set up caterers, get shoes repaired, we can do it."
      About the only things they cannot due - citing insurance and licensing issues - are check references, conduct interviews, baby-sit, house-sit or transport children or pets. "But we can make arrangements for all these things to get done," De Vito said.
      De Vito said she and Tobin do most of the personal errands, like dropping off dry cleaning or snagging some sodas from the store. They rely on a growing list of service providers to handle large-scale duties.
      De Vito started the business, at 2224 Bowstring Drive in the Sunrise area, after reading about a Washington D.C. woman who developed a multi-million dollar concierge business.
      "I thought, `What a great idea,' " she said, adding that she thinks theirs is the city's first concierge service unattached to a hotel or a company's benefits package.
      Tobin, who met De Vito 15 years ago as rookies at a Lil' Scholar preschool, jumped on the idea when told about it two years ago.
      "I had done everything I could (at the school)," said Tobin, a 36-year-old Northwest-area resident who left an administrative position at the school for this job. "And I felt that getting into this business was the right opportunity at the right time."
      And Las Vegas was the right place.
      Las Vegas needed such a service, Tobin said. The city's hustle-bustle lifestyle and its status as a top convention destination makes the marriage ideal, she said.
      De Vito said concierges appeal to narcissistic Las Vegans.
      "Vegans like to look monied," the 32-year-old Sunrise-area resident said. "They like to say `I own my own maid or cook,' all of which we could provide for them."
      Tobin said patronage is predictably slow for the four-month-old business. She expects quick growth once word gets out.
      "We still have to explain to people what it is we do or what service we provide," she said. "People relate the word `concierge' to tourists. But we're taking a proactive approach (to redefining the meaning)," she said.
      "We don't want our clients to think about us occasionally," De Vito said. "We want them to think about us for everything on their `to do' list."