Inner Southeast “lifestyle assistant” lightens burden of life’s minutia

By Merry Mackinnon

The Bee, Nov 27, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

“Lifestyle Assistant” – and Sellwood resident – Zoe Johnson here takes Oscar out for his exercise regimen at Sellwood Park. Oscar is a Chocolate Lab owned by a local ad executive, who hired her to help out with his dog. Her business involves offering to do the tasks that clients don’t have time to do.

Merry MacKinnon / THE BEE

When Zoe Johnson and her husband first moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Sellwood, she was delighted with the parks, the community and even the weather. But, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t find work here.

“I was desperate,” says the 51-year-old former chef and administrative assistant.

The couple had sold their house in Detroit for much less than they paid for it, after he was “downsized” from his work at Goodyear. Her husband got a job in Portland, but financial security was an issue, she recalls, and when they arrived in 2007 they rented a house on Southeast Tacoma Street.

Fortunately, says Johnson, she’s rarely at a loss for ideas.

With no employment in sight, one day she posted a note at New Seasons Market offering to rake leaves. A property owner saw the posting and hired her. For four weeks part time, Johnson raked and bagged leaves.

“I was just looking for something to put food on the table,” she recalls.

Meanwhile, her visionary side had kicked in with an idea for starting a business: She would design her own job, and become a "lifestyle assistant and personal concierge”. The name she selected was “U, Squared”.

Today, Johnson offers to do the things other people don’t have the time or the inclination to do — like exercising pets, running errands, planning parties, and writing

thank-you notes. Sometimes even gourmet cooking.

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