Uniquely Virtual is a growing company that asks the question: “What is your time worth?”
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., they provide virtual executive assistant services to help businesses manage and organize their administrative tasks. We spoke with Uniquely Virtual CEO Kenzie Biggins to learn more about what inspired her to start the company and what the future may bring.
BeyondMVP: What inspired you to start Uniquely Virtual?
Kenzie Biggins: Uniquely Virtual was born from a meeting with a retiring executive at the Coca-Cola Company. I was actually meeting with her to work on a social media project. It was the week she was retiring and she was going from having two executive assistants to having absolutely no support. So she was a little overwhelmed, and she looked at me and said, “Kenzie, I just need somebody to answer my phone!” I had already been playing around with the idea of a virtual assistant, but I just needed a niche. She provided that niche, which was providing executive administrative support…. So she was my first client and is still a client.
BMVP: Can you tell us more about the software that’s been developed for Uniquely Virtual?
KB: Well, I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll tell you most of it. Right now, a lot of it is focused on the project management piece that comes along with providing administrative support. There were all these great project management tools out there, but none of them really catered to what we needed as far as how we communicate and create transparency with our clients. A lot of it too, was around the usability and intuitiveness of the software that was available…. Where we’re headed, though, is centered on automation and improving that functionality and ease of use, being able to help people create the big picture.
BMVP: What are your goals for Uniquely Virtual in the next few years?
KB: I want people to be talking about how, in 2015, this company came along and really changed the way administrative support is provided. We want to help stabilize the workforce and put executive assistants back to work. When the economy tanked, they were the first to go and the absolute last to be rehired. I want them to say that [Uniquely Virtual] helped us create the big picture again and become true innovators again, because they gave us our time back.
When you talk about people disrupting the market – and I know that’s become a term used for everything, like: “Look, they disrupted the chip aisle because they have a new shape for potato chips – but I want us to truly disrupt how it’s been done before. And I don’t want people in five years to just think of someone as a secretary who serves multiple people. I want them to see an admin who’s really become a changing force as far as how [the company] is able to provide service and deliver for their clients and investors.
BMVP: What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs who would like to follow a similar path in starting their own businesses?
KB: I always say that being an entrepreneur takes a certain kind of crazy. I think it’s easy to jump into the game…it takes a little bit more to stand the test of time. It takes a certain level of energy and commitment, and it’ll be unlike anything else you have experienced in life. I tell people wholeheartedly that this is not necessarily the space for everyone…. When I talk to college students, I say this all the time: What I’m going to tell you sounds extremely sexy, but at the end of the day, it’s not. If you’re going to do this, you’re making a true life commitment. It’s not just you – it’s your friends, it’s your family, it’s your relationships. Everything about you becomes about your business. It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. But if you’re going to do it, expect the first five years to be all-out. Expect to live in your office, but embrace those moments.
The other major point I tell people is that the difference between the successful entrepreneur and the person sitting there, saying, “I coulda, woulda, shoulda” is the person that actually jumps. Anybody can plan forever. It’s not until you take that leap forward that things happen.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
Photo Credit: Uniquely Virtual
