We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Simone Jenkins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Simone below.

Alright, Simone thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I always worked in the arts and landed a cool job. As I grew in my position, my title and pay stayed the same. I looked around and realized I wasn’t growing at all. I decided to relocate back to Chicago from Nashville! I had no idea what I’d do, but I knew I would take my entrepreneurship journey serious and make it my full time job. I had already been an entrepreneur, just one foot in, one foot out, fearful of what it would look like. So I decided to take a month off after the major transition back in Chicago where my journey had begun. What I mean is I spent most of my adulthood in Chicago from 18 to 35 pursing my career in the fashion and beauty industry. I knew I’d get back! Fast forward to 2024, I took July off to just reset, I told myself “August (2024) I’d go to my drawing board” August comes, I start to think “what can I do from my home, that could impact small businesses/organizations like myself, at affordability. I started to research on what a virtual assistant do and it started to align up with an area of work that I enjoyed. I loved to organize, plan, manage, support, engage, all while create. It was perfect! So I started to create Vault. Virtual, named deprived from my love on my personal Vault, of my ideals, and brand of having a vault of precious things. October 2024! I was ready to launch my services to the world, I’d reach out via email to invite business owners, organizations to what I could assist them with. That month seem like a year, gaining trust, building relationships, networking, to get that first client. It started slow with a couple inquiries and some small clients, I stayed at it. I was in now! I couldn’t back out and I didn’t want to! I’d love the idea that I had a skill that can really help like minds, my community of Go getters, business owners, non profits, whoever needs those key things done behind the scenes to keep thriving. I continue to set up my structure, it was a learn as you go, and it worked!! I begin to add, subtract what I offered depending on client needs. In September 2024 I landed a great contract and that definitely boosted my confidence in this new space. I’ve been connecting and building great relationships in this space, which has allowed me to stay steady and grow beyond when I launched

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a creative, I started in fashion, beauty retail and spent over 20 years in that industry. That expertise around the customer experience, the customer expert, opened up doors for me in a previous position of People Coordinator, which was overall a human resource position that assisted with several administration duties. I love it! actually the people interaction, completing important documents, assisting. It was a skill that laid dormant, and took a backseat to my creative space. When I launched Vault Virtual i knew it would help so many! I manage emails, calendars, projects, I create spreadsheets, forms, inventory management, web maintenance, an array of those tedious, back house, essentials needs that business owners need to grow, scale their business. My motto is “Your Business is my Business, in a good way”. I take pride in being efficient, supportive, for my clients, knowing they can depend on me to get things done! I want every person that comes to me to feel relief, true support, dependable help. My brand is fresh, has credibility, connected to community and growing in a way to enhance my clients. Vault Virtual has taken off and soaring, offering creative, innovation solutions in the world of administration, creative world.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is key in anything that you pursue. It’s gonna be plenty of closed doors on your journey. I built strength in focusing on my goals, making sure I write them down, and making steps towards them no matter small or big. Follow your passion, resilience is like a muscle, to strengthen it you have to lift a weight, run, walk. Those actions are your goals. I was once in a stagnant place, I finally got up and worked my way out. I changed my mind, set my goals and built up the resilience to do it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My biggest pivot was decided to quit my 9-5 and jump fully in my entrepreneurship. It was scary! I didn’t have a plan! I knew I had to do it. I stepped out on faith and overshadowed any fear. Faith over Fear is what I told myself day to day. I took that leap without too much thought to talk myself out of it. It’s been the best decision I’ve could have made.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://forms.gle/W7DgT5X1WhdTmvu18
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/16Z9GWa9M6/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/simone-jenkins-72822b43

Image Credits

Photographer: MaryJoRichie Photography