Small Biz Profile: My Help, Inc.

GRAFTON, MA— MyHelp, Inc. is a Grafton-based company started by husband and wife team Michael Gladstone and Liora Bram. The company provides critical functions to small businesses: bookkeeping; administrative work; and social media/marketing and communications services.

Both are entrepreneurs. Gladstone has owned restaurants and consulting businesses focused on the hospitality industry, and Bram is a partner/co-owner of a PR and marketing firm in Boston that serves high tech companies.

"We know from experience that small business owners often don’t have the time to tackle non-core functions like bookkeeping or marketing their services," said Bram. "So MyHelp, Inc. was born. We work with a range of clients — including acupuncturists and other wellness practitioners, lawyers, caterers, restaurants, dog breeders, and educational consultants — to provide much needed support services, so the business owners can focus on their customers. Our staff also brings real-world experience to their work with clients, having worked as financial analysts, bookkeepers, marketers, and office managers in corporate settings."

When did you open/launch? 2011

What made you decide to open this type of business? And why this location? We have both been entrepreneurs and understand that one of the biggest challenges for small business owners can be taking care of the tasks they aren’t passionate about — a caterer may love cooking and working with clients to develop the menu for an event, but hate keeping the books, or feel uncomfortable marketing themselves. Or they just may be too busy to get to it all. That’s where we come in. Working with our clients gives an opportunity to connect with lots of different businesses and people in our community, which is great, because we live here, and our kids go to school here. Because we are parents, we are also passionate about building a business that allows professionals to practice their craft, while also having some flexibility. Many of our staff are former stay-at-home parents who left the corporate world to care for their kids. Consulting to our clients on a part-time basis allows them to use their skills, while also being there for their families, while our clients get to enjoy hiring seasoned professionals on a part-time basis and at a reasonable cost.

What do you like best about it? Working with all sorts of different businesses is a great way to meet other entrepreneurs and get to know different companies and service providers in the area. And we’ve met lots of interesting people.

Biggest struggle? Doing it all. Sometimes, we have the same problem we are trying to solve for other businesses. We’re so busy working with clients, we have to stop, take a breath, and remember to market ourselves.

What do you see for the future? Like all businesses, we definitely want to grow - and we feel like Grafton is a great place to do that. Right now, our team is virtual. We either work from home, or on-site at our clients’ businesses. As our business grows, and our client demands evolve, we may find that opening a physical office makes sense.

Politics and small business: how does government affect your business? The economic climate affects all businesses - and politics can affect the economy in a big way. For services companies like ours, a robust economy is key. We serve small businesses, so when they are doing well, we do well.

Name another local business you’d send customers to: There are so many great businesses in town. We love Pecorino - we love to entertain and Simone always has tremendous recommendations for both wine and cheese. We also love the Grafton Country Store and Sugarplums for gifts.

Do you have or know of a small business profile that deserves to be in the spotlight? Tell us about it at charlene.arsenault@patch.com.

Photo courtesy Liora Bram