The nature of a city can shape the way that Cybertary performs. Ask Joyce Kane, whose Cybertary Pittsburgh office was launched in September 2009. “Pittsburgh happens to be a little bit slower than the rest of the country in terms of new things and changes, so it’s been a bit more challenging,” she explained. “I’m spending more time on the education process.”
Joyce says there are a number of virtual assistants in her town who have been operating there for several years, and they support mostly coaches, consultants and authors. “Those groups are very familiar with virtual assistance, and have used them, but the rest of the marketplace doesn’t appear to be as aware of what we can do for them,” she said.
So Joyce, who has about 30 years experience in the corporate world in IT infrastructure management, said her current jobs have been in the traditional office-support category, as well as personal and executive assistance projects, with a dearth of work in graphic design and bookkeeping, something she’d like to see change.
No two days are the same for her and her seven-person team, she says, and although educating potential clients can be challenging and the fear of the unknown can be daunting, she doesn’t miss her former work lifestyle. “It was fairly regimented with a lot of meetings, and a lot of late night and weekend work.” Being self-employed and more involved with small businesses has been eye opening and exciting. “I never knew some of these business existed or the sheer number of networking groups that are available.”
“A lot of this past year has been dedicated to talking with different folks of the ‘possibilities’ in terms of the types of services we offer. It always sounds like we can be everything for everyone, so the challenge is to really crystallize the message in order for it to resonate with the audience.”
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