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