Lifestyle service only by invitation
- August 21, 2010
Jael Torrez is looking for clients for her new "lifestyle management" service, but she won't take any applicant — it's by invitation.
"I need to be very picky," said Torrez, who is sending invitations to join Casa Bella Life, which offers to manage the business and personal schedules of executives and VIPs.
"I want to keep it very small, customized," with a goal of 50 clients by year's end, Torrez said.
She is sending invitations to about 100 professional athletes, local celebrities, doctors, Silicon Valley executives, politicians, attorneys and prominent families, about half of them in Monterey County. Her fees are $7,200 a year; setting up a conference is extra.
If a client wants to have a vacation or conference in Napa, Torrez will set it up. But if she is asked where to go, "the first place I would recommend is Monterey," said Torrez, who spent five years as business development coordinator for Sequoia Insurance in Monterey.
She recently left the Peninsula when her husband was transferred to the Sacramento area, but she is still a frequent visitor and can tick off a list of her favorite hotels and restaurants.
At Sequoia and her previous job at Miramar, a hospitality industry management firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, Torrez worked at "incorporating a balance of business and personal life" for executives.
She will be available for clients 24 hours a day.
Torrez said she will provide "customized reminders for the dates in your life so that you never forget an important day again."
With modern technology, Torrez doesn't necessarily have to be where the client is, and she doesn't do day-to-day tasks.
"I don't do dry cleaning," she said.
Torrez said she will get to know what her clients want and need. If the client wants her to go to a city to plan a conference location, hotels and restaurants, she will do that.
"Let me handle every important detail, let me take care of all the research," said Torrez, who has planned million-dollar corporate events in Pebble Beach, Las Vegas and Napa Valley.
If a client doesn't know what kind of gift to get someone, Torrez said, she can do research to suggest an appropriate present.
Torrez grew up in Redwood City and earned a sociology degree 10 years ago from CSU Hayward and said she is familiar with the Bay Area as well as Monterey.
Although Casa Bella membership is by invitation, there is a membership inquiry tab on the company's website, which people can submit.
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