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Meet Ajla Kamber of Optimal Business Services in Acworth

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Ajla Kamber.

Ajla, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My journey as an Entrepreneur started back in 2001. I arrived in the US in 1997 from Croatia due to a war that was happening at that time. Before the war in Bosnia, my father was an entrepreneur his whole life, so was his father and my great-grandfather. I grew up around that, and around the family that always worked for themselves, so you could say that entrepreneurship has been engrained in me since an early age. When I decided to start my own business in 2001, I was looking for a way to bring in extra income and stay home with my then 2-year old daughter.

My very first business adventure was an errand running service for seniors and busy professionals. I ran it for about a year before an opportunity for another business venture came up. As I was serving my clients in the errand running service, they kept asking me where they could get awesome gifts for family and co-workers. So the idea for my gift basket company came up and I started that in 2003 after I gave birth to my second daughter. I ran that business for few years before life took a turn and I had to go back to the corporate world.

After several years working for someone else in the executive administrative and office management field, the itch to work for myself came back again. I really missed my gift basket business so I kicked it up again in 2011. Then, the strange thing happened. As I was working on my gift basket business, the opportunity to start another business presented itself. Now my clients were asking where they could get some administrative and office help, but they didn’t necessarily want to hire someone full time, or on-site. Therefore, Optimal Business Services was born in 2012. I ran both businesses for about a year before I decided to concentrate solely on Optimal Business Services.

For the past 5 years, I have worked with different businesses, both offline and online, to deliver superior office management services, all from the comfort of my home. It’s amazing what can be accomplished virtually at the fraction of the cost for my clients. My clients range from the local banks to health coaches, business coaches and several other companies in different fields that I’ve worked with over the past 5 years. The ability to be there for my family when they need me, and contribute to our finances, feels wonderful.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road of entrepreneurship is never a smooth one! If anyone tells you otherwise, run. It’s hard work. You have to be consistent and diligent in your work. There is no such thing as “sipping on Mai Tais at the beach, doing nothing, while the money rolls in”. When I started Optimal Business Services I didn’t know a whole lot about the virtual world of running a business. My businesses before were all hands on, face to face with clients. Even though I had years of office administrative experience, translating that into the virtual world took time, and it had a steep learning curve. I took every course under the sun, both paid and free, that I could find regarding this field. Learning software like InfusionSoft, LeadPages, and WordPress. Learning marketing and Facebook ads. Things that I never did before in my corporate job. I loved the challenge though. I always have, since I was a little girl. I would stay up for hours sometimes until 3-4 in the morning learning and absorbing things, making notes, and executing that what I learned the very next day. It was such a different world to put myself out there on the internet in that capacity. I am much better at face to face conversation then I am presenting myself online. So, I had to learn that as well.

I am still learning. After 5 years of working in this field, I still have a long way to go. There are Virtual Assistants out there who have been doing this since the late 90’s so you can say I am still a novice compared to them. They are my teachers to this day.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Optimal Business Services – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My company provides virtual business management services to busy professionals and entrepreneurs. Optimal Business Services spawned from seeing a need to help my fellow entrepreneurs get their passion from an idea to successful business.

Some of the services I provide are LeadPages design, Infusionsoft management, Social Media set-up and management, website maintenance, email management, scheduling and calendar management, project management, scheduling events, booking hotel and air travel, and document creation, to name a few.

My goal is to assist busy business owners by managing the responsibilities that sometimes overwhelm and prevent them from reaching the dreams that they had in the beginning, as well as nurturing the reason they started their business to begin with, allowing them to focus on the big picture.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
One of the things that I am focusing on this year is growing my team and clientele, and expanding my services to include possible tech help in the future. I am starting a personal blog this year that will document my journey so far, both personal and professional. It will offer insights on things like balancing work and family time, raising teenagers and toddlers at the same time, and staying sane through it all. Along with that, I am helping my daughters set up their very own YouTube channels this year. They are becoming little entrepreneurs in the making, and they said it was all because they watching me through the years and they want the piece of it.

I am also looking into doing some online training for those that are interested in starting their own business, and how to bring their ideas to fruition.

There is a lot of knowledge in my head, and I would love to share it with those that are willing to learn.

Pricing:

  • $350 for 10 hours per month – Jumpstart Package
  • $600 for 20 hours per month – Supreme Package – Our most popular package
  • $750 for 30 hours per month – Optimal Package
  • $50 per hour – À La Carte Services – Pay As You Go

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Fountaine Lewis Photography (Personal photo)

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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