More About Me

Who is the driving force behind A-Z Admin Solutions?

I’m glad you asked, because I would love for you to get to know me better.

I have over 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and Administrative Professional.

How did I get here?

I never knew how to say “no,” especially when presented with a challenge.

I would say it all started when I found myself to be a “computer widow.” You see, 44 years ago I married a “geek” (we are still happily married). Before “PC” was a household word, he brought home a new toy – an Apple II+ (this was even before the Mac was invented!). Many women may have had to share their attention with their husbands’ work, tv, sports, possibly even another woman! But me? I had to share my attention with this dumb looking machine! Being the person I am, I decided to figure out if there was anything it could do for me. While he was playing games and writing programs, I discovered word processing. Surrounded by 3 colleges and a law school, I had my perfect client base.

I started out just typing papers for students, but within the next 3 years, the business grew to include many different types of small business, including doctors, lawyers, an event planner, a government agency, and the Jacques Cousteau Society! My service offerings expanded to include database management and transcription.

What Came Next?

I had been dabbling with a computerized calligraphy system and decided to offer an addressing service for wedding and party invitations.

Well, again, not being one to say “no,” when asked if can also sell the invitations, of course I hooked up with some vendors. One request led to another and before I knew it, I was running a full-fledged event planning service which also included custom favors and balloon decorating. My client base expanded from private parties to corporate events.

Move to Corporate America

As often happens in life, times and circumstances led me down a different path, and I pursued a career as an Executive Assistant. I supported senior Executives and their teams at AT&T, Dun & Bradstreet, and then at a medium-sized pharmaceutical market research firm. I was able to grow my skills to include travel planning, email management and became an Expert user in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint – creating elaborate spreadsheets and presentations.

Unfortunately, at the end of 2013, the company I was working for downsized and I was made redundant. This was a blessing in disguise: the stars and the universe lined up, giving me the opportunity to return to my first passion – the secretarial service. Although nowadays it’s called being a Virtual Assistant, and although technology has changed quite a bit, business needs have not changed. If anything, in this day and age of instant gratification, it has become far more challenging to manage one’s time.

And Now, One More Road Traveled

My husband and I always had a dream, which started 30 years ago, that when we retired, we would buy an RV and live, play and travel in it full time.  Well, after doing quite a lot of research, I realized that being a Virtual Assistant lent itself very well to this lifestyle, as long as I had an internet connection available.  So in June, 2014, we sold our “sticks & bricks” home in NJ and traded it in for our Castle-on-Wheels.  We lived, worked, played and traveled full-time in it, enjoying different views from my office window (or by the lake, river or beach in my “back yard”).  However, after 7 years, we discovered that unless you go off the beaten path (which is almost impossible in an RV that resembles a semi tractor trailer), wherever we went was more of “anywhere USA,” with strip malls, big box stores and apartments.  We decided to once again put down roots and are now settled in Cary, NC (outside of Raleigh).