As I’ve now reached my half century milestone, the story of how and why I got to this point could turn out to be quite a long one. So, I’ll try to stick to the highlights so this doesn’t turn into a bedtime story.
Ages 15-18: My parents split up!
I was studying for my O Levels at the time (yes, showing my age). I managed to pass 8 of them with decent grades. I then stayed on and drifted into A Levels, not really knowing what I wanted to do. It was over the next couple of years that my parent’s separation hit me. I didn’t go to school every day, didn’t study that much, certainly didn’t bother revising for my exams and as a result FAILED them all!
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success”
-Dale Carnegie
Age 19: Oh bollocks! Now what? That was definitely a wake-up call. I decided that I wouldn’t bother with resits but I would do a BTEC in Business & Finance instead. I also decided to attend a College that was outside my borough for a complete change of scene. So, I waved my school mates off to uni and embarked on a 2-year business course. I absolutely loved it! The BTEC planted the first seed in my head that I could start my own business.
“Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs”
– Farrah Gray
Ages 20-25: Whilst still at College, I got a Saturday job working in my local library. It was (and still is) one of my favourite jobs ever and it gave me my first experience of Admin and Customer Service. After a couple of years, I landed my first full time job as an Administrator working for a credit union association. Working there, I discovered I had the knack of learning new systems and processes quickly, tweaking them to make improvements and make them more efficient. A couple of years on, the company gave me a big pay rise and I decided I would use a chunk of the back pay to visit my cousins in Australia. I loved it so much that I decided I would take a year out (with my good mate in tow) to backpack around Oz on a working holiday. It was a fantastic experience and it honed my research, organisational and people skills.
Ages 26-35: Once home, I was ready to settle back into work. I spent most of this period working in Further Education supporting small businesses on innovative IT projects. The self-employment pull started up again and I even studied Business Planning at the College. I worked my way up from an Administrator to a Project Manager by the time I left there.
The major event that changed my whole perspective (you could say life) was becoming a mum. When my beautiful daughter was born, it was love at first sight! I didn’t want to be away from her for too long and when I went back to work after maternity leave, I only worked a 3 day week. I started to think about how I could achieve a more flexible career and gain a better work/life balance. The nagging voice started up in my head again: “Why don’t you start your own business?”
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway”
– Earl Nightingale
Age 45: I finally listened to the VOICE! I had been studying to become a Certified Home Staging & Styling Professional and I graduated in that year. I have a long-term interest in Interior Design and Property Presentation. The course gave me the confidence to start my own business. However, I didn’t have the confidence to really put myself out there to market and network my business, so it didn’t get anywhere.
In the same year, as I needed to start earning some money, I started temping as an Administrator on a Construction site. I took the job mainly because it was a 10 minute drive from my house and I could wear jeans to work! It was a sector I had never worked in before but I felt very at home there. I loved the informal atmosphere, daily banter, colourful language and characters. It was great! So much so, that I still work for the same company 4 years on.
Whilst working on Project No2 and trekking to Tottenham Court Road every day on the dreaded Central line, I started thinking again about working from home and not having to commute. I kept reading about Virtual Assistants (VAs) and started to do some research into it. I realised with the skills and experience that I have; this was something I could do and I would love it.
Age 50: Fast forward to the start of 2020, I attended the PA Show @ Excel. I went to all the VA seminars to find out as much as I could. I loved the friendly, collaborative and supportive vibe of the people that I met that day and decided there and then I would go for it! I was advised to speak to a no-nonsense VA trainer, Amanda Johnson of VACT. I did just that and in March, just before lockdown, I enrolled on the VA Mastery course with Amanda. I’m so glad that I did! The course has given me the knowledge, confidence, motivation and the kick up the backside to JFDI (Just F*cking Do It). This is Amanda’s mantra and it’s now stuck in my head when I’m feeling a bit wobbly about running my own VA business.
I’m working from home at the moment with my day job and getting a real taste of what being a full-time VA could be like. I launched my VA business Above & Beyond VA just before my 50th birthday! Well, it was one way to mark the milestone and I’ll never forget the launch date.
“It is never too late to be what you might have been”
– George Eliot
Feel free to have a nose around my website and check out my social media. If you like what you see and think we could be a good fit to work together or if you just want to find out more about using a VA, please get in touch.
If you’re an aspiring VA, I can recommend visiting the PA Show @ Excel, London and checking out Jo Munro’s VA Handbook website. Thanks for stopping by.