As the property market crashed, a lot of staff were made redundant. This was a very hard time in my life, as I had been the right hand man to the MD. It was a huge knock to my confidence, but I knew I had a lot to offer and had learnt amazing
skills, so I picked myself up and started working again within the week – determined not to let it get me down.
The school motto, “Actions Not Words” has played a big part in my life.
After 10 years in London I decided to move to Kent and became Executive PA to the Regional MD of a large national insurance brokers. After having our daughter, I realised they only wanted full time support and after 4 years there, I wanted to work part-time and spend valuable time with our baby. During maternity leave, I pondered how to go about this conundrum and wondered how I could freelance as a PA – I Googled it and found out about Virtual Assistants! Your Loyal VA started in November 2015.
Before I opened for business, I ordered Helen Stothard’s amazing books, ‘30 Day Setting up as a Virtual Assistant Challenge without breaking the Bank’ and ‘The A to Z of Virtual Assistant Tools’ – and rose to the challenge! It took me five months to set up as I had a baby to look after but I trained myself in everything I thought I would need to know about. I listened to every webinar I could get my hands on, learnt WordPress over the summer and created my own website, started creating my social media sites, learned Social Media Scheduling, and went out networking ‐ which was terrifying ‐ but it all paid off.
My first client came soon after my first networking meeting, and a wonderful lady in that networking group had seen a Facebook post earlier that day from a friend of hers needing admin support. She knew I would be perfect for the role. The client was just right for me and needed help with distributing her amazing hypnotherapy apps for women – which I so love doing. Helping other women feel better is a big part of who I am so it was the perfect fit. I have not developed a niche area as yet, I am waiting for it to find me! I love being open to all jobs that come my way - it expands my horizons and experiences too which I love. I can’t get enough of learning new things.
I have two retainer clients and a few ad‐hoc clients. As my daughter goes to school this September I hope to start working a five day week so that will hopefully allow me to expand my client base even further. I have surrounded myself with other quality VAs I know I can rely on if I need support. I know their niches and what they are good at, and I have associates on standby for whenever I need them. I am always mindful to keep costs down ‐ everyone tries to sell you things you either don’t need, or you can get for free with a bit of digging. Jo Malone recently said in an interview that this is how she became so successful ‐ keep costs to an absolute minimum and you will fly. I find if you spread yourself too thinly trying to do a bit of everything then you don’t get anything done – focus on clients first and the rest will follow when you have more time.
16
The most difficult thing I have found when growing the business has been confidence through the hard times – all freelancers have an excess of clients and then a dry patch and it’s managing those peaks and troughs. You also come across some unpleasant people to work with and people who don’t pay you for the work you have done – you have to have a really tough outer shell to be a freelancer. I am struggling to learn that aspect. Apparently you get used to it though!
A typical day sees me at my desk for 8.45, prioritising my actions for the day – which clients need what doing first, focusing on each client at a time and setting the Freshbooks timer and I’m off. It could be completing metadata sheets for app developers to be distributed globally, or creating agendas/doing minutes for people; general administration duties for retainer clients, or assisting people with their memoirs. I love the variety of it – I never wake up on Monday morning dreading the monotony of the office any more.
One very rewarding job was helping a client to get all her life memories into order ready to bet printed and published. It was something she had always wanted to do but didn’t know how to go about achieving it. It was a lovely surprise for her family. There are many things that I enjoy about being a VA - the variety, meeting new and exciting people, not knowing where the next job is going to come from, owning your own business and not being answerable to anyone but yourself. I want to be able to go to my daughter’s sports day and school plays without asking anyone’s permission.
However, the erratic income is hard to predict sometimes. It’s wonderful when everything is running smoothly but clients come and go depending on their paths, so you have to be really flexible with your life and expectations, which for a PA who likes to be in control can be hard at times!
If I was giving any advice to others building a business it would be, don't say yes to every client - you are the boss - trust your instincts - only work with clients who you know you can work with and have a good rapport with, and will treat you with respect. I want to work for a group of really lovely clients who I am with long-term to help their businesses grow and to grow my associates working with me from there. That’s my dream goal. The most important qualities in a VA, in my opinion are loyalty (hence the company name!), Integrity, efficiency and intelligence to look ahead and see what might be around the corner, and the consequences of everything you do for a client – and having the guts to advise them about it. You have to be self-motivated and a self-starter and the world is your oyster!
"I am now focusing on my favourite niche area building websites as I really enjoy it and it makes the most of my arty/creative side. I am hoping to build up that side of the business
to become a freelance web designer after the extensive
training I am currently doing. I need some portfolio sites under my belt so feel free to get in touch
if you want a discounted rate as I build up my business!"
OC
If anyone would like to get in touch my email is:
lucytipler@yourloyalva.co.uk and
www.yourloyalva.com
Lucy Tipler (née Wolseley) Class of 1995
The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017
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