An Interview With a Real Life Entrepreneur #2- Patricia Beckman

Q:  Could you share your background prior to starting your business?
A:  Prior to starting Cybertary, I spent more than 20 years in finance management, working in senior level positions for companies such as Nolte Associates and Hewlett-Packard (HP). I decided to leave my position when I realized that my high-demand job had made me out of touch with my family.

Q:  When did you establish Cybertary?
A:  I launched Cybertary on November 1, 2005 with a business plan that was based on a client base of 5-7 active, recurring clients that I would manage myself. Surprisingly, I gained five clients my first week in business and then continued to gain 5-7 new client leads each following week.
I found that I needed to add at least one team member per month to keep up with the client demand. I discovered that due to the branding, website and marketing materials I had created, people presumed Cybertary was a franchise and that we were a large national company. They started to ask me where I heard about the company and how they could launch their own Cybertary business. We began receiving huge volumes of resumes every week from moms who wanted to join the team, and from clients who wanted our services…but I was at maximum capacity and could not manage the workload for that many clients and team members independently.
After a while, I took the hint and decided to turn the Cybertary business model into a franchise opportunity. This way, we could continue to meet the growing client demand and provide more opportunities for moms, disabled, and caregivers to work from home at a professional wage. We set-up the franchise model so that franchisees can also outsource work to each other, based on the client’s needs and skill levels of team members, so that we are each individually doing what we do best. Now, people can own their Cybertary business, add their own teams and service their own client base using the Cybertary branding and infrastructure.  
We launched the franchise opportunity in April 2007, and now have more than 20 active franchisees throughout the United States, including two Regional Developers. Cybertary has grown into a network of professional Virtual Assistants, primarily served by stay-at-home moms, who assist small businesses and entrepreneurs who have realized they can’t “do it all” and have balance. Cybertary also gives enterprising stay-at-home moms, or dads, the opportunity to utilize their professional skills and find work/life balance.

Q:  How did you come up with the idea to start this business?
A:  After looking at a variety of home-based business ideas, I stumbled upon virtual assisting. I knew that many small businesses needed help but couldn’t afford to hire on-site or temporary workers and that many skilled professionals were losing their jobs. I decided to help both small businesses and professionals by creating Cybertary, which is a coined term…like a secretary in cyberspace.

Q: What were your main lifestyle and business goals when you established Cybertary?
A:  I wanted to start a business that I could grow, one that would allow me to travel less and spend more time with my family. Cybertary has allowed me to achieve this. I’m now more involved in my daughters’ lives and not watching it from the sidelines. 
Truthfully, some days feel a bit more “balanced” than others. To a certain extent, work/life balance is more about strategic integration and conscious choices. The key is to integrate work into your life, as opposed to the other way around, by aligning your behaviors with your priorities. This is a lesson that my girls taught me.
What also helps me is to keep a fairly rigid schedule, including calendaring things like laundry, breaks and exercise time. I calendar when I will respond to emails and when I will return voice messages. I schedule time to work on projects so that I am continuously evolving and building on our business model for the franchisees’ benefit. Keeping such a regimented schedule allows me to ensure that I make progress every day to improve the business, and don’t get stuck in auto-pilot or neglect my first priority – my family.  

Q:  How has the business evolved since you started it?
A:  Because the Cybertary business has seen success fairly quickly, I get a lot of questions from new entrepreneurs like, "How did you do it?" or "What's your secret to success?" At first, I found myself stammering a little for an answer that felt authentic. It's not that I had any doubt about the hard work I had put into the business, it's just that there was this critical bit of "magic" that happened along the way as well - and both have been instrumental in Cybertary's success.
There have been three different phases in Cybertary’s growth. Initially the vision was pretty small. I just wanted to be at home with my family and work independently. Then as the demand for Cybertary exceeded my personal capacity and clients continued to ask me to do things that were outside of my personal fortes, the vision and mission were realigned to include a team of Cybertaries with a varied array of expertise. After we had been in business for a few months and news was getting around about Cybertary, people started to look at my marketing materials and website and presume Cybertary was a franchise. When I told them that I founded it myself, their eyes got big and then they would ask if I had ever considered franchising.  After hearing that multiple times, the potential for Cybertary truly revealed itself. I started interviewing franchising consultants to take my small business national. 
Our current vision is to grow to be the industry leader for Virtual Assistance, setting the highest quality and customer service standards for our Cybertary teams as well as the industry as a whole. We are building a national presence and highly regarded name recognition in the business community by establishing multiple collaborative and cohesive teams of Virtual Assistants. Together, with their complimentary skill sets, Cybertaries can commit to excellence while meeting the broad range of administrative needs of the small business owner.

Q:  What skills do people need to become franchisees?
A:  * Five years experience in a professional or corporate environment. Experience in business development, project management or team management a plus. 
* The availability and interest to develop their business full time.
* Ability to manage, develop and self-start projects. 
* An outgoing personality and extraordinary people skills. 
* Proficiency in Microsoft Office with overall technological savvy. 
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills 
* The ability and desire to follow an established and proven business system

Q:  What were the most difficult challenges you faced as your business began to grow?
A:  The best part about making a mistake is that it means you've learned something you can apply the next time around. Mistakes make you smarter, as long as you learn from them, and they're critical in the art of running a successful business. I made a mistake, well, actually two mistakes with the Cybertary.com website. The first "low bid" version of our site required an external consultant for website maintenance who, in turn, had an excruciatingly slow response time. The second version would not integrate with our internal database. We are now on our third complete overhaul of the Cybertary.com website after realizing that we needed a structure that was easier to maintain ourselves and that seamlessly integrates with our Intranet to expand as our business grows. This was a very expensive and time-consuming lesson. However, we have learned quite a bit about website options and structures beyond the HTML basics, which have opened doors for other billable Cybertary services. Even if a mistake seems devastating when it happens, odds are it can serve as a wonderful and maybe even prosperous opportunity down the line. Live and learn. It's the only way to get wiser.

Q:  What advice would you give a person interested in starting a business and creating their own franchise?
A:  Many people overly romanticize the concept of becoming franchisors and don’t truly understand what it takes. It takes a lot of time to get a plan in place, to create documentation and plow through legal requirements. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, and won’t make you a millionaire overnight.
Find a franchise consultant who will help cost your business out, create appropriate pro forma, and evaluate the marketplace to make sure the concept is a good one to franchise.
Many people never sell even one franchise. It takes patience and persistence. Make sure you’re ready to market your brand, make connections within the franchise industry, and fully understand what it takes to be successful.

Q:  What are your plans for the future?
A:  We plan on expanding Cybertary throughout the United States into several key markets, including California’s Bay Area, Seattle, Chicago and throughout Texas.
When I started working toward the Cybertary dream a couple years ago, I had no idea all the places it would take me. To some it might seem a bit "chaotic," but I like to think of it as being open to the bigger dream and to the magic that we get to experience sometimes when we follow our hearts. I planned well and worked really hard. I took all the necessary steps to build a substantial business opportunity for others and myself. I took chances. I made mistakes. But I stayed on course, and I stayed true to my vision. I got really well prepared and then...then I got a little lucky too. So what's my secret? Work hard. Prepare hard. Let go. Let grow. And then, be ready when the magic happens!

To learn more about Cybertary, you can visit their website at http://www.cybertaryfranchise.com/the-cybertary-company.