By BETH CHAPMAN / Community Columnist

Amanda Graves was having a difficult pregnancy in 2006 and looking for a job she could do from home.

She needed flexibility, more personal empowerment and wanted to help others. She had formerly worked in banking and tried direct sales opportunities, but none were the right fit.

She then found “Thirty-One,” a faith-based direct sales company whose theme is based on the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. They offer “exclusive, on-trend handbags, accessories and organizational solutions . . . that can be personalized.”

Today Amanda has everything she was looking for and more. She has earned free products and won luxury vacations. She was the second senior executive director in the nation and one of the first 12 in the nation to become a national executive director. She has 15,000 associates working for her.

She and husband, Daniel, have three children who are in Shelby County Schools. Her success has allowed her husband to quit his job and stay at home to help with the children and the business.

Amanda is a member of the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, the Church of Brookhills and the Women’s Empowerment Conference.

Charities she has helped through her business are the Komen Race for the Cure, Juvenile Diabetes, local sports teams and missionaries in Namibia and Cape Town, teachers and students in Africa, Guatemala and Uganda.

Truly “Thirty-One” is the perfect number for Amanda Graves.

 

Beth Chapman, Alabama’s secretary of state, is a Shelby County resident. You can reach her at bethchapman@bellsouth.net.