Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara McKelvey.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
College completely burned me out. I found myself graduated from Texas A&M, entering into the pandemic with a job outside of my major. I worked at an Engineering company as the executive assistant to the CEO and absolutely LOVED working under such a BOSS WOMAN. After about a year, I felt the push to pursue a role in my degree field, environmental geoscience. I have been an environmental project manager for 2 years and felt I found a company and role that allowed me to positively impact the environment.
But I realized that I wasn’t feeling passionate about the role. After meeting a few entrepreneurs in the area, I signed up to go to Boss Vision Conference. I met and mingled with many AMAZING women entrepreneurs and business owners. Here’s where it clicked. I wanted to be able to do what they’re doing. Working for themself, building a business, and creating a financially secure present and future for their family. I decided to dive into taking the In Demand VA course with Sabatini. To be honest, I didn’t necessarily have the money to do this, but I felt that passion and fire in me that I hadn’t felt in years.
This is how It’s Virtually Tara was born! I’m running my Virtual Assistant business where I get to assist, support, and uplift of hard-working women business owners by taking on their social media and administrative tasks! Within four months of starting this business (in my free time outside of my full-time job), I’ve worked with 7 AMAZING clients, decided to leave my full-time job, and commit to a future of entrepreneurship!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My biggest struggles have been time and my mind. I am a huge supporter of work/life balance. I like to be able to get my work done and allow myself time for me to relax, hang out with friends, workout, etc. Juggling both my full-time job and my business really took away a lot of me time. This is something that I accepted before I started my business. I would never want to give lower quality of work to ANYONE, so I decided for at least a few months, I could cut back on me-time and focus on getting my business in a good enough place to be able to pursue that work-life balance.
I’m constantly dealing with imposter syndrome. The day that I put my last day notice to in with my full-time job, I felt like I was going to go into full panic mode. I was like “Did I really do this” “Should I take it back?”, “What if my business isn’t enough?” The thing is my business is built around me. I realized that I’M enough, AND I worked my butt off to be able to achieve what I did. If I could do everything that I did in four months, imagine a full-time commitment to my business! This plus affirmations from my husband, parents, family, friends, and clients really helped!
As you know, we’re big fans of It’s Virtually Tara. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
It’s Virtually Tara is my virtual assistant business! I offer administrative and social media services to women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs! My services include Email Management, Email Communication, Customer Correspondence (email + chat), Client Communications, Data Entry, Creating PDF documents, Calendar Management, Newsletter Template Creation, Post Scheduling (pre-made content), Comment Engagement, DM Management / Responding, and Facebook Group Management!
My brand is all about support! My goal is to lighten the burden of the not-so-fun side of owning a business! A creative business owner shouldn’t be worried about their email management. I want the business owners I work with to be able to focus on what they’re passionate about in their business.
What do you think about luck?
I’ve been lucky to be in the right places at the right time. I feel like I have met some incredibly amazing people after stumbling upon events or activities that I happen to take a chance on. But truthfully, I don’t think I’ve been lucky or unlucky. Any “luck” I might have can also be explained by hard work and continual effort.
Pricing:
- Bronze – $675 (15 hours/month)
- Rose – $900 (20 hours/month)
- Gold – $1,350 (30 hours/month)
- $255 – Mini VIP Package (5-hour VIP day)
Contact Info:
- Website: itsvirtuallytara.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsvirtuallytara/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsvirtuallytara?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
- Other: https://linktr.ee/itsvirtuallytara
Image Credits
Taylor Thomas
