How to find the perfect VA

Blue background with Clair who is a white female who has grey hair and wearing a black jumper is standing to the side and smiling holding her chin in a thinking position.

As a solopreneur, you’ve functioned for a long time as just you. Bringing someone new into your business is probably a really nerve-racking thought. I wholeheartedly believe it’s important to find someone that will treat your business with as much love and care as you do yourself.

So where might I find my perfect VA?

Maybe a networking group. A group where you feel you can give yourself a voice and feel included. If you feel comfortable and supported, you are more likely to relax and be yourself. Most networking groups also have publications, directories, or a member’s website enabling you to use those facilities to look for a VA that you can go on to research or talk to in person and get to know. (One of my wonderful clients found me this way).

Albeit a little daunting sometimes, social media is a great place to find a VA. But it does open up a virtual world like no other. Connections grow and you find people online you didn’t even know you were looking for! But you’re looking for help to support your small business and that one post, or that one line on someone else’s post captures your eye and bam…you’re connected, and you start learning more and more about your new connection.

Social Media is a fantastic place to get to know people. Personally, I have made many connections on social media over the last few months and as I’ve posted a mix of personal and work-related content, people have followed, watched and listened. I have stepped out of my comfort zone on many occasions to show who I am. I’ve shown my face, shown what I believe in, shown that I have children and a family, shown that I am a real person with values and heart. Why not do the same and make your VA come to you?

But how do I know who will fit well with me and my business?

Be you. I’ve made clients in ways I never expected. The printing whizz who made my business cards, the powerhouse who photographed me during a freebie headshots session, chatting to people at networking. We didn’t start out looking for each other. But innocent conversations meant we got to know each other. We realised we had a lot in common and we connected.

Finding the right person virtually means it could be scary getting to know someone who you’ve never met in person before. But if that person you are following is genuinely showing their true self online and you get that gut feeling that you like what they are saying and what they represent, you are more likely to buy from the person you connect with. But let’s not forget, there’s still Zoom, Teams and the good old phone to follow up that gut feeling that you want this person working with you. Depending on location, you may even get to meet in person too over a coffee and chat – not forgetting the cake!

Listen to them. Do they speak in a similar way you do? Would they convey the same care and attention about your business the way you would? Do you like what they have to say? Does it resonate with you?

And lastly, look for people who make you feel all the right emotions – happy, protected, reassured, inspired, excited.

But do make sure…

You take your time. Don’t rush into making a decision. Finding the right online business support for your unique business will take a bit of research, some sitting back and listening to what people have to say and recognising that gut feeling of trust that this person can come into your business and help you in the way you want help, support your business in the way you want it to.

Remember…

That it’s OK that not everyone is going to be the perfect fit. As a VA, I’d be more than happy to have a chat and recommend someone else. It’s really important you are a great fit for each other, otherwise it will spell disaster from the very beginning.

And finally…

Finding that someone will be amazing and will support you in a way you never realised possible. Using a snippet of a testimonial I received at the end of 2022, “Clair has made a massive difference to my work load this year. I would not have been able to do it all without her”

That’s what you want to be saying. And you can. Why do it alone when they are incredible VAs out there who have the time, skills, knowledge and the passion for supporting small businesses just like yours, who want to champion you and your business-baby and be your leading cheerleader.

Mentor or no mentor?

Mentor or no mentor

As I rapidly approach my 1 year anniversary of launching my flipping awesome VA business, I wanted to reach out to a couple of VA related people, without whom, I would have never have got this far.

Firstly, Gwen Backhouse FInstAM of Curlew Secretarial Solutions . I’ve known Gwen since we were in high school. Gwen set up a VA business 9 years ago and I’ve watched her success grow with admiration and happiness. When lockdown #1 hit, my pivotal moment came and wanting to stay self employed and knowing my love of admin, it was a natural sidestep. I had no hesitation in reaching out to Gwen to find out more about the world of being a VA. We had a lovely chat and it was great to actually talk to each other after 20 odd years! Gwen had no hesitation in recommending the next lady I owe credit to. Since I launched, Gwen has supported me as an associate VA in more ways than she will ever realise ???? From providing me with my first full time client to, and more importantly, her wealth of knowledge and advice that has been absolutely priceless over the last few months. It’s not only lovely that a friendship has been rekindled but without Gwen and our endless catch ups and emails back and forth, she’s enabled me to grow, learn and have confidence in myself resulting in my own business changing and growing. Thank you Gwen ❤

So the lady who Gwen recommended was Amanda Johnson of VA Training Academy® – VACT Limited. In my opinion, the best VA Mentor out there. I had a chat with Amanda in the very beginning and I had no hesitation in sealing the deal. I joined her VA Mastery Course and although it was a big outlay and extremely hard going in places, I am SO glad I undertook Amanda’s course. Having run my own business for 8 year previously, I already understood a lot of the highs and lows of being self employed but this course gave me the absolute bare bones of running a Virtual Assistant business. If you are serious about becoming a VA, I would recommend it to anyone. The foundations that Amanda’s course and subsequent support and advice that she provides to this day, has been phenomenal and it was worth every penny, every frustrated tear and every nugget of information that I absorbed. Thank you Amanda ❤

Amanda will probably agree I’m a bit of a lurker but believe me, the information is being taken on board. I’m doing me in my business and I don’t always follow all the rules, but it’s all there. Maybe for next week, maybe for next year, but I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for these 2 amazing mentors.

It’s an interesting statistic isn’t it? But I AM becoming a success in my own right, my business WILL have longevity and I WILL be one of those 70% because of the support and advice from 2 very special ladies.

Can’t recommend having a great mentor (or 2) in your life and business.

About Me

About Me Clair Abrey

My name is Clair Abrey and welcome to my first ever blog!

Well…! This is truly something I thought I would NEVER be doing!! Writing a blog?? That’s for the young and trendy right? How wrong could I be! So, at 44 years young, with an almost 16 year old daughter and an almost 11 year old son (who I am sure I will be turning to for some tips!) and a husband who has even less of a clue than I do…here I am saying Hi and telling the world a bit about myself. So here goes… 

I launched my business as a Virtual Assistant 10 months ago. It’s very scary, but very exciting. Ever since I can remember I love having things organised. I love stationary and making my notebooks look all neat and tidy. I love lists for lists and boxes for boxes. And helping people. Sooo cliché, but I do love to help!! I originally wanted to go into the Navy as an officer (that seems crazy now!) but a very dodgy left hip put an end to that. So, at 18, I went to America instead to be an Au-Pair while I tried to work out what I wanted to do with my life. While I was there, I found out my mum of only 44 years of age who had been in remission for breast cancer for the last 2 years, was diagnosed as terminal. I jumped on the first plane home to be with her. She passed away 2 weeks later. Long story short at this point – I had no idea what life had in store anymore but losing my mum had a profound effect on the person I am today. 

So, with mum nudging my ribs, I pulled my big girl pants up and I started applying for jobs. Writing to companies (not sure email was so big back in 1998) and Ford Bussey’s gave me my chance; I started to sell cars. Motability cars to be precise. I quickly found out I didn’t like selling…but I did love those who I came into contact with. Being the person who loved to help, it was so rewarding and became the theme for future jobs. The next couple of decades were mainly spent working as the admin assistant for the Physical Disability and Occupational Therapy Dept of Social Services, and for 11 years, I worked at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital as a PA to the Medical Director and Finance Director, Lead Administrator for Agenda for Change and Directorate PA for the Head and Neck Directorate. All of which gave me a love for PA work. However, circumstances changed, and I had to roll with the punches. I now had 2 children, a husband who worked away and no family to help with childcare. I needed to find something else that worked for my family. I very much wanted to be the mum who was there for all their events.

So, I became self-employed as a Childminder. It suited all our needs, but it was THE hardest job I have ever done! Learning how to run my own business, learning how to work with little people all while juggling my own 2 children, look after a house and still have some sanity left at the end of the day! (I know you hear me!!)  I understand outsourcing…I outsourced my 2 year old son to a childminding friend. He was as good as gold for her!! ???? The job involved creating my own policies and procedures, record keeping, progress reports and to comply with all the Ofsted and EYFS requirements. That is no mean feat! For 8 years I made my business a great success. Word of mouth and a bit of help from Facebook posts meant I was always full and had a well-respected name locally. What more could you ask for?

Again, changes in circumstances mean sometimes you must make difficult decisions. That dodgy hip had been rearing its ugly head again over the years and brought with it an even dodger back. Being a childminder is the worst possible job under those circumstances.  I’d been thinking for a while I needed a change, but lockdown #1 brought that to a head. Along with half the population, I was forced to stop work and that was a big wake-up call to how my body could feel. I took the breathing space to think about the future. I wanted to stay self-employed and thought about how much I had missed that love for admin and PA work. So being a VA seemed like the most natural step ever.

A chat with Gwen Backhouse, an old school friend who was running her very successful VA business in Cumbria sealed the deal. I took it upon myself to put all my savings towards the VACT VA Mastery course run by Amanda Johnson. It wasn’t easy but over the course of 9 months I worked my job and studied at the same time. I then said goodbye to my childminding families to start on my new career path.

So here we are! Sterling Virtual Assistant Services was born and has evolved massively in the last 9 months. I am learning constantly and love what I am doing. I am being me and people like that. I am attracting the clients who have the same values as me and that means working together is such a pleasure.

Weirdly, my new business has one key theme to my old business – I am still looking after peoples’ babies! Your business is your baby, right?! Your passion! I absolutely love the fact that once again, I can take all my past experiences and combine it with new technology to help make your baby the very best it can be.  I am helping.

Time is precious. Sometimes you have to make those changes that allow you to stop, breathe and enjoy life again. 

If you feel I could help you with your beautiful business, why not check out my website www.sterling-virtualassistant.co.uk for more info or email me to arrange a no obligation chat. 

Until next time, Clair x

Should you work with someone who was a childminder before becoming a VA? Yes, absolutely! And here’s why…

Should you work with someone who was a childminder before becoming a VA

This is another one of those blogs I didn’t think I’d be writing. But for a different reason. I have spent the last few months, as I start to launch and run my business, wanting to almost hide the fact that I was a childminder prior to becoming a VA. Why? I was worried it would put off potential clients! Why would someone hire me when I’d spent the last 8 years being a childminder?! Totally different right?

After some great advice from my mentor, my mindset changed.

I fell into childminding almost naturally having made a decision that I needed to change my career to fit around my family. You see family is everything to me, my kids are EVERYTHING to me and I will always do whatever it takes to do the right thing by my kids and family.

I have spent the majority of my working life in admin and PA roles. From 2000 I worked as a team assistant for 2 fantastic Social Services teams within Norfolk County Council. From 2002 I moved upwards into a PA role within Trust Management for the Medical Director and Director of Finance at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital. My boss was a woman not to be reckoned with and this role taught me SO much. 2004 saw me change to Lead Administrator for the revolutionary new pay and grading system for all NHS staff. With around 9000 members of staff, that was no mean feat I can tell you. 2006 brought the birth of our amazing daughter so I moved to a job share post as Directorate PA for Head and Neck Services. Around 300 members of staff looked to me for their baseline HR and I was a PA for 3 senior colleagues. 

2011 brought the arrival of my beautiful son and my family was then complete. But now with 2 children, limited childcare options and husband whose job sometimes took him away from home, a change needed to be made. So, almost tumbling straight into it when my childminder said “you’d be good at this” my childcare business was born. I have absolutely no regrets. It was the BEST decision. I was determined to be there for my kids no matter what, I wanted to be THAT mum and I know how lucky I was that childminding enabled me to do just that, all while providing an income for my family and a loving, home from home childcare setting.

But what people rarely see, is all the admin and constant work that goes on behind the scenes. Going back 8 years ago, setting up my business, I had to produce a mountain of policies ranging from applying sun cream and dealing with lice, to the scarier stuff of safeguarding, managing behaviour, health and safety to name but a few. I had to produce risk assessments for every inch of my home, garden, driveway, walk to school and park that we went to. That’s not to mention the production and completion of so many forms like medical records, injuries, complaints. Like every small business owner I had to learn how to deal with my own accounts and get to grips with how to run a business (ICO, HMRC etc ). There was also the small matter of on-going CPD, the ENDLESS changes that were always being made around children that I needed to be fully aware of and up-to-date on. 

But it’s not just the admin, being childminder has given me so many transferable skills to bring into my new VA business. Firstly, I have patience. More patience that I ever knew existed in the world! Secondly, time management and being organised. I’ve always had these skills, I can’t be late for anything but the skill it takes to make sure you have everything needed for dealing with 4 under 5s a day, ensuring I get kids into school on time or we were where we needed to be for something I’d booked us to do. Sometimes I had up to 10 children in the school holidays. Can you even imagine what that entails!! I’m not bigging myself up…that’s definitely a skill in itself! But it means I know how to manage my time effectively, in a calm efficient manner. 

Negotiation skills, the juggling act of time, multi-tasking, social skills, being open minded, not just being ‘the childminder’ but being a sounding board for problems and advice, being calm and efficient, prioritising, being adaptable and flexible, liaising with parents, being ready for a challenge, being caring and compassionate, speaking and dealing with larger organisations like my local authority and Ofsted (will always send shivers!!) researching resources and problems. These are all skills that will help make my new business a success even if it’s not in the same field of expertise.

And actually, writing all this down and seeing it in black and white…I am not embarrassed for my childminding days at all. I am VERY proud. A career choice doesn’t define who you are, especially for woman. I ran a successful small business myself for 8 years. That’s nothing to be scoffed at. I rarely had to advertise because much of my work came from word of mouth. Word of mouth means you are bloody good at your job…and I was bloody good at my job! That in turn made my business a success because I am me, and the families who I worked in partnership with, liked me and believed in the same ethics and values as me. That’s no different to the VA world and I still hold that very dear.

So here we are, 8 years down the line and once again, the needs of myself, my children and my family have changed. I’m not getting any younger and my children are definitely growing up. I’ve seen them through from Reception to starting high school. I’ve achieved exactly what I wanted to…to be there for every reading cafe, every family week activity, every welcome Wednesday. Now? Now I feel I have a little more time for me. Having made the decision to stop childminding, being a VA seemed, again, to be the most natural side-step to achieving something I again felt passionate about whilst staying self-employed and still being there for my kids. 

So, should you work with someone who’s caring and passionate? Someone who loves to be organised and gets a buzz from helping people? Someone who’s patient, calm and efficient? A woman who although spent the last 8 years in a different field, still knows her stuff, is willing to learn more, evolve and is ready and waiting to make your business the best it can possibly be? Hell yeh you should!!

Click here to find out more www.sterling-virtualassistant.co.uk

What is a Virtual Assistant?

What is a Virtual Assistant

When I first started on my journey to becoming a Virtual Assistant (VA), lots of people said to me ‘What’s a VA?’

Google describes a VA as ‘an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office. A VA typically operates from a home office but can access the necessary planning documents, such as shared calendar, remotely’.

This DOES describe a VA… but it sounds so clinical, doesn’t it? I see a VA being so much more.

First and foremost, can you resonate with any of the following?

  • Are there parts of your business you hate doing? (That’s ok you know! Just because it’s YOUR business, it doesn’t mean you have to love every single part of it)
  • Do you feel like you are drowning with the volume of what you have to do EVERY day, week after week?
  • Do you struggle to rest, relax or even sleep?  
  • Are you missing out on family time or time with friends because you have work stuff to catch up on?
  • Do you wish you could just have some TIME?

So, which one are you?

Let’s break the VA world down…

Running a small business takes A LOT of hard work, determination, and time. Running a small business is REWARDING and AMAZING but it comes with a heavy workload. It’s repetitive. You are the CEO, the financial director, the social media manager, the content planner, the decider, the do-er, the maker. All the above can be overwhelming and there are only so many hours in the day.

A VA will take those parts of your business that you just can’t stand doing…and do them for you. Basically, they will get sh*t done!! What a relief hey? To know that those things that have been sitting on your to-do list since FOREVER will now get done, but you won’t have to do them. Win win!!

A VA will have passion. A passion for your business. They will be your biggest cheerleader and supporter.  They will champion you, encourage you, show you different ways of doing things – enabling you to see the wood through the trees again. A VA will have the inside knowledge about exciting systems and up to date apps and software to streamline your hefty old excel spreadsheet or know how to schedule your social media posts more efficiently.

A VA will ultimately save you time AND money! How? Because you only pay for what you use. Plus, there are no overheads. As Google rightly pointed out, a VA will ‘operate outside a client’s office’. I work in my own little cushy office so you don’t need to provide one, or buy my stapler or the all-important highlighter.  There’s no payroll or HR expenses, no NI or pension contributions. You don’t pay for my holiday or sick pay and if I go to the loo, it’s on my own time, not yours! All work completed is recorded via a time tracking app. Clever huh!

A life without enjoying an ice-cold G&T at the pub with a mate on a balmy evening, or getting together with family to celebrate a birthday, or seeing your kid rock at their hobby…that’s not a life, not one I’d like to lead anyway. I know first-hand life is short, so my passion is about making it work on ALL levels.  They say the term ‘work-life balance’ is dead in the water…it’s outdated. It may well be, but it’s the term we all know, understand and strive for. Personally, for me, my kids and my family are at the top of my priority list. They are my world, and I am not ashamed to say I am not going to let any part of that slip by because of work. It’s all too precious and disappears way too fast. I have always done what I’ve needed to do so that I can be both a mum and do my job. When I work, I put my all in. 150%. I’m a hard worker and learnt early on in my self-employed career how to manage and juggle all that life throws at you. It’s a crazy juggling act – I know, I get it. I am right there with you learning how survive. But it’s about managing it all and for the most part, I do but not without some help!

Let’s take a couple of examples – Ironing. OMG…I HATE ironing With. A. Passion!! But there are people out there who actually quite enjoy it (I just don’t understand the concept! Ha!) and do it for a living. That’s a sensible outsource right – because well let’s face it, life really IS too short to do ironing. Or what about hiring a cleaner? Weekends are about enjoying your weekend plans, not about spending your precious 2 days dusting and hoovering. Bore! There are people you can hire to take that burden from you. Outsourcing your business is no different. It’s about giving parts of your business to someone who knows what they are doing and offers a service to make life easier for YOU. Giving you back your TIME!

Time. A word that can drive us up the wall right?! There just aren’t enough hours in the day sometimes are there. It too disappears so very quickly, like sand running though your fingers. Time doesn’t just mean using it towards personal things, it can also be about managing your time more wisely and constructively within your business. Do you wish you could spend more time on the one part of your business that you REALLY love doing, that makes you a bit excited?? …But uh oh, unfortunately, there are 23 DMs in your inbox which are all asking the same question…ugh. Or being on the PC creating an invoice is frustrating the hell out of you, you just want to get on with your job. The bit you are REALLY good at! Now, wouldn’t that be nice!

Being a natural people pleaser, the VA business I run is professional yet friendly. Knowledgeable yet not afraid to say, “I don’t know” then work my tooshie off to find out how to do something, I’m excited by new technology, yet I love old school, traditional manners, respect and being a real person behind the business. I feel confident to say I don’t have an ‘ideal client’. There’s no box I can put a small business owner into. Everyone is so uniquely individual. But I LOVE and stand strongly by my core values and believe the best relationships work when those core values are respected and held dear by both parties. I will go the extra mile, and attention to detail was stamped on my head years ago by an old boss (she taught me well).

This has not been taken from the pages of a teaching book. It’s been written BY a small business owner FOR small business owners. And I know all this because I am you! I have run a small business for the last 8 years and I KNOW how it feels. But I also know help is out there, and you don’t have to look far to find out more!

How does the VA world feel now? Do you feel a tingle of ‘I want some of this’?

Click on the link to find out more! https://sterling-virtualassistant.co.uk

Until next time, Clair x