Mom''s Best Friend | Kathy Dupuy | household-help agency | owner

Rate: $15 an hour, including agency fee
Found: Mom's Best Friend (a household-help agency)

Before dispatching Linsay to my employ, the owner of MBF Agency tells me I'm a typical client: new to the Austin area, in need of temporary help, so busy I'd have to sacrifice time with my family to have a clean, well-run household (needless to say, my house is neither clean nor well run, except for the hour after my housekeeper leaves each week). "I just saw a poll of women CEOs, and they said the secret to their success is outsourcing household functions," says the owner, Kathy Dupuy. "We're seeing the same thing." As CEO of my self-employment, I'm expecting productivity that Alan Greenspan would be proud of.

Waiting for Linsay the next morning, I burn four pieces of toast before I get one out on time. Smoke fills my kitchen and floats into the living room. I turn the vent on high and go over Linsay's list of things to do. I think I'm ready. She'll start with the laundry and move on to wrapping some overdue gifts.

Once she's at work, though, I see I'll need to buy some supplies for her other tasks. So I go to the hardware store, the best one-stop-shopping spot in my small town. An hour later, I'm back at the house, and Linsay, finished with the laundry, is now sorting through my daughter's art stuff. I sit at my desk. I'm going to work now.

But, checking my Master Outsourcing List, I see I need filing supplies for tomorrow's organizational binge. I drive off toward the nearest Office Depot, about 45 minutes away.