Springfieldian highlighted on Forbes entrepreneurial list

Springfield business owner Abbey Ashley was named this week to the Forbes Next 1000 list that highlights upstart entrepreneurs.

Ashley is one of three Missouri residents on the list, with the other two living in Kansas City. Ashley owns The Virtual Savvy, a training business for aspiring virtual assistants.

"With the rise of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company doubled in size in April 2020, totaling 50,000 members," her Forbes profile reads.

The Forbes Next 1000 is conducted via nominations, with businesspeople appointed by the publication determining who makes the list. Their companies must have revenue under $10 million. The list initially has 250 people, with a goal of increasing the count to 1,000 by year's end.

Ashley, who could not be reached for comment by deadline, previously told Springfield Business Journal in a 2019 article that the majority of her clients are stay-at-home moms or women who are looking to transition out of their current careers.

"They are skilled, many have degrees even – but they don’t know how to work for themselves," she said in the "Startup Corner" article. "My course teaches them how to start offering virtual assistant services to other small-business owners, so they can work on their own time with the skills they already have."

The other Missourians on the Forbes list are Andy Rieger, co-founder of the J. Rieger & Co. distillery, and Matthew DeCoursey, co-founder of technology services company Full Scale.

The entrepreneurs on the list are not ranked.