FranchisesForSale.com
Franchise For Sale
Types of Franchises:
Press Release- Cybertary Spartenburg SC 2009
Cybertary®, Inc. Gears Up for National Business Women's Week on Oct. 19-23 by Opening First Franchise Office in South Carolina, Spartanburg
South Carolina Seeing Tremendous Growth in Women-Owned Businesses
(Roseville, CA –October 13, 2009) - Cybertary, Inc., a network of professional Virtual Assistants (VAs)supporting independent and small-business owners, announced its first South Carolina franchise office in Spartanburg, owned by Sheri Huesman. As we approach National Business Women’s Week on Oct. 19-23, it illustrates the tremendous growth of privately-held majority (51% or more) women-owned firms throughout South Carolina.
In a report by the Center for Business Women’s Research, the nation's South Atlantic region – which includes Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia -- showed the most growth for women-owned firms. Between 1997 and 2006, that region's women-owned businesses increased 72 percent to 1.3 million, while sales grew 15 percent and total employees increased 15 percent. The number of women-owned firms with employees jumped 24 percent.
After 15 years in the mostly male dominated field of mechanical engineering, Cybertary Sheri Huesman was ready to be a woman entrepreneur. During her engineering career, Huesman specialized in product testing, customer support, and project management. She also greatly enjoyed working with customers to develop new testing methods to assure product safety and compliance. Huesman’s time in the automotive industry also included experience in Sales and Marketing. She most recently served as Senior Sales Coordinator where she worked with customers to facilitate sales orders from pre-order technical consultation through delivery.
Due to a company restructuring layoff in early 2009, Huesman decided it was the perfect time to gain control of her own career and pursue self-employment. “After my layoff I was ready to make a transition into my own business, allowing me to be more in control yet be able to utilize the customer service and project management skills I’d developed over my 15 year career in the automotive industry”, explained Heusman.
Sheri chose Cybertary due to the company's high standards and team concept. It offers her the satisfaction of utilizing her skills to help clients succeed in their business and achieve more free time. “South Carolina has struggled with a high level of unemployment which has had a negative impact on small local businesses. I’d love to be able to use my skills to help small businesses grow and succeed as the economy begins to turn around,” added Heusman.
Cybertaries work within a diversely talented team who seamlessly collaborate to meet the changing demands of small businesses. Cybertaries provide reliable support tailored to increase productivity and decrease non-revenue producing tasks. Cybertary clients save time and money, paying only for time spent on task without the burdens of payroll and overhead. According to the Small Business Administration, small firms total approximately 23 million in the United States, and roughly 75 percent have no employees. Therefore, many small business owners are out there trying to “do it all”. Cybertary and other professional Virtual Assistants are increasingly popular since they relieve business owners of the bookkeeping, data entry and other marketing tasks so they can focus on their clients or take time off.
Flexibility has been the key for Tracy Phipps, Cybertary-South Charlotte, NC franchisee. “I am thrilled to be able to set my hours and rates, choose my own clients and determine which services I want to offer small businesses. Being available for my family during my husband’s deployment to Iraq has been invaluable. Cybertary lets me have it all!”
"Cybertary franchisees are able to match the business support need with the talent. The Cybertary franchise network creates the support infrastructure that gives the business owner the resources they need to meet any administrative challenge, while simultaneously providing an opportunity for business professionals to leave the corporate world and build their own home-based business,” explained Cybertary Founder and CEO, Patricia Beckman. “We’re thrilled to bring Sheri Heusman on board and are excited to see the expansion of the Cybertary network across the U.S."
The Cybertary Trend and the Virtual Assistant Industry
Cybertary’s further expansion into Spartanburg illustrates a growth trend in majority woman-owned business throughout South Carolina. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy’s 2005 published report on South Carolina, women-owned firms in 2002 totaled 76,879, an increase of 20 percent from 1997, and generated $10.9 billion in revenues. Women represented 35.6 percent of the self-employed persons in the state. (Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.) Therefore South Carolina is a great environment for a business like Cybertary that caters to solopreneurs and entrepreneurs.
