Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Graham.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Megan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started as an Accounting Assistant at a predominant private business/sports club in Houston, TX. Widely known and valued throughout the club, Members & colleagues would often seek me out just to say hello, ask for help, or chat. One evening, one of my favorite Members came to me expressing frustrations of a marketing project he’d been working on – compiling a database of persons to market his newest venture. Nearly four months in, the assignee had less than 1,000 contacts, citing outside issues as the reason for the delay.
He’d narrowed it down to the profession, type of service they provide, and their location. He’d even provided details on where to locate the information and how to list the information in the spreadsheet for mail merge and further research. At the three month mark, he started working on a list of his own, just to see if it was in fact a difficult task. Outside of his day-to-day duties as a busy law professional and growing his business – he squeezed out just under one thousand contacts over the span of two months!
Intrigued, I inquired – ‘what exactly are you asking of them, can you show me?’ and learned what was actually being requested jokingly noting that ‘it shouldn’t take that long’ and said, ‘I bet I could knock out 4000 contacts in one month’. My Member took me up on my bet, asking me to present a service agreement and he’d review. Never having worked as an independent contractor in this fashion before, I researched for a few days and established a services agreement with fees and job instructions included.
I emailed the terms and fees and the reply read: ‘This agreement is more professional and ironclad than mine! Knowing you, I’m not at all surprised. I’m excited to see how you’ll manage this Megan. Please see signed agreement attached. I’ll bring your check to you personally at the club when I come to work out tonight.’
He was TheOnlineAssist’s first client and was one of the catalysts for branching out on my own. I was anxious to aide blossoming small businesses’ and entrepreneurs with essential administrative and clerical tasks, affording them more time to build and manage the vision of each project.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. I have been fortunate to be in a state of allowing for a continued period of time. As a result, a lot of my connections with business owners and entrepreneurs have come organically! Each of my projects thus far has taught me more about myself, exposed me to outlets I’ve never knew existed, and ensured I built a solid foundation from which to expand in the near future.
In terms of struggle – being a Virtual Assistant isn’t a common occupation. It’s still fairly new and there isn’t much data floating around to reference however, contrary to what many believe, there are hundreds of thousands of us across the globe and we all have something unique to offer.
Finding my niche and defining it to position myself as an asset was a long process. After all, I’d had years in the workforce of corporate America with someone telling me what my schedule was, having someone I wouldn’t ever meet maintaining my hours logged and providing me tax documents, and evaluating the work I was doing to learning how to market, work, and pay myself. My biggest transition was taking ownership of every detail from start to finish.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Being an entrepreneur or small-business owner is time-consuming and requires a lot of attention and dedication. For it to become all you want it to be, you have to focus on what keeps you inspired. Small but essential clerical and administrative tasks can easily accumulate while you run day-to-day operations. That’s where our services come in: Business, Personal, Travel Assistance & Web Design.
TheOnlineAssist offers Virtual Business Solutions to people and businesses looking to better manage their time and efforts by outsourcing varied administrative and clerical tasks and or projects. With every client, we’re establishing long-lasting relationships that afford our clients the luxury of additional knowledge and perspective to ensure they are always on track to attain their goals albeit personal or professional. I’m proud to offer services that not only help businesses thrive, but provides options outside of the norm. Our versatility is what makes us shine.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Every person on this earth has the ability to create their reality. Once you decide what it is you want from life, what makes you happy and brings you joy – nothing or no one can deter your belief, only you.
‘Luck’ as they call it, won’t exist. People may call you lucky per se, but in all actuality you fixed your mind to what you wanted and started to allow the universe to bring you what you asked for. It’s simply a matter of attraction. Like attracts Like. Ever notice if you woke up and said, Today is going to be a horrible day… It tends to be a horrible day? That’s because you set the intention. You prepared yourself to see the results of your declaration, so they came to fruition.
I learned the hard way by allowing negative thoughts to fester I was hindering my growth. When I made a choice to only to engage in activities that bring me joy, it was as though the floodgates opened! In short, ‘we become what we think about.’
Quote courtesy of Earl Nightingale. So now that we’ve got that out of the way – What will YOU become?
Contact Info:
- Website: TheOnlineAssist.com
- Email: contactus@theonlineassist.com
- Instagram: @theonlineassist
- Facebook: @theonlineassist
- Twitter: @theonlineassist
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/securemyassist
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