Two weeks into college was enough for me. No way was I enduring two more years of being told what to do. I wasn’t a child!
Adios college, hello first full time job!
Getting a job meant I was going to be a real adult, and would start controlling my own life on my terms.
Jobs were easy to get back then and I was offered the role of Admin Assistant at a local air freight company, in a team of five. All were so lovely and I remember them fondly still now.
Summer was approaching and I decided to use my grown up wages to pay for my first solo holiday.
Getting the bus into town one lunchtime I headed to the local travel agents and booked a two week holiday. I was on cloud nine.
Getting back into the office I excitedly announced to my boss, ‘I’m going to Gran Canaria’!.
My manager looked up from his desk horrified.
My colleagues, to my right, all stopped what they were doing and looked over in my direction.
Did I swear? Am I naked? Do I have wind?
‘What dates?’ Bob asks… ‘First two weeks of August’, I reply, still excited but also curious at the interest from my colleagues. Is Gran Canaria not a great choice, I thought?
Janet in the corner laughed, Bob died inside and Dave announced he was going for a fag.
‘Sorry’, says Bob. ‘That’s the summer holidays’ (yeah, duh?). ‘Janet always has those two weeks off because she has school age children. It’s in your contract not to book a holiday until you’ve got permission’.
Permission?
Permission to do what I want in my spare time, permission to go on holiday? Per-bloody-mission.
It dawned on me, in that moment, that this adult thing all seemed to be going mysteriously unlike how I’d imagined.
And, bloody hell, this was now my life for the next 50 years (throws self on floor and fakes death).
But it always looked like adults were living their best life?
And on reflection I can now see why. We are led to believe that’s just the way our working life has to be. That working 5 days a week in a restricted, stressful, toxic environment is normal.
That spending your Sunday evenings dreading the week ahead, is normal.
Where the stress of trying to juggle life, work, children, and / or your health puts you in an ever downward spiral is just ‘normal’.
I went from job to job for years, never content with any of them after more than a few months.
I’ve no aversion to working, I enjoy having a purpose, I need a purpose.
But in every job throughout my 20+ years of being employed I endured hours, sometimes days, with naff all to do, because (swishes hair) I am incredibly good at simplifying processes and procedures. Office small talk has never been my thing I just get on with the job.
Sitting in poorly ventilated offices, staring out of a window, wishing to be anywhere else but there, almost watching my life ebb away.
There was no way I was doing this for another 40 years. Retirement was not going to be my way out. No way.
In late 2015, I decided enough was enough. I’d endured four years, at that point, of chronic health problems, endless hospital appointments having to be jigged about because someone else was off on the same day, missing school events for my daughter, I was now going to try and live my life in a more gentle way. I had grand plans and it’d either go tits up or be a success.
Nothing to lose really, but a lot to gain.
I had a mortgage, I was a single parent, no savings.
I didn’t have a pension either so I’d have been reliant on £2.86 from the UK government, a gas fire with three legs, and a blanket from Dunelm whatever working life I chose.
I listed all the skills I used every day in my 9-5 (many I’d never even put any value on) to offer them as a work from home Virtual Assistant, supporting small business owners with the services and tasks my skills could deliver.
Within 3 months of marketing myself and building an audience of small business owners, I was earning the same as my 9-5. So I handed in my immediate resignation.
It didn’t take long to see that there was an additional unexpected benefit to this way of working. I now dictated not only what I did with my day, but also my income ceiling.
Within a couple of years of being a VA I had doubled my annual employed wage, and every day felt like I was 9 years old playing with my Petite Post Office set. The stresses of having to juggle life around work were no longer present.
The thought of starting your own business can bring a lot of emotions, excitement being one of them because it’s a path towards financial independence and personal fulfilment
But it can also be scary, right? You’re pretty sure you’ll fail and everyone will laugh. That’s only because we’ve been conditioned to think employment is safer, that running a business is for those with massive capital, that your destiny is employment and nothing else.
It’s untrue!
This life is more than possible.
Let me show you some of the other top benefits of being a Virtual Assistant. Benefits you’re unlikely to ever have as an employee.
Are you ready?
You can work wherever you choose
Literally anywhere. All you need is secure WiFi.
If I listed all the places I’ve worked from, this blog would go on forever, so here are a few:
- Home office
- Hospital
- Car (as a passenger)
- Trains
- Cafes
- Five star hotel (Chewton Glen)
- Downstairs toilet
- Bedquarters
Some people even choose to work and travel. The world is your oyster, or is it lobster?
Go on, tell me where would you work from when you’re set up as a Virtual Assistant?
You can work when you want
Monday to Thursday? Tuesday to Friday? Evenings, weekends, mornings only, 5 hours a day, 10 hours a day? You choose.
Here are a few examples of how few hours you need to work to bring in varying amounts of money every month as a VA, based on charging £30 an hour.
Note I’ve added 30% to cover your tax and NI contributions too.
- £1500 + 30% for tax and NI = £1950 / £30 an hour = 65 hours a MONTH or 16 hours a WEEK or 3 hours a DAY
- £1800 + 30% for tax and NI = £2340 / £30 an hour = 78 hours a MONTH or 19.5 hours a WEEK or 4 hours a DAY
- £2000 + 30% for tax and NI = £2600 / £30 an hour = 87 hours a MONTH or 22 hours a WEEK or 4.5 hours a DAY
- £2500 + 30% for tax and NI = £3250 / £30 an hour = 108 hours a MONTH or 27 hours a WEEK or 5 hours a DAY
- £3000 + 30% for tax and NI = £3900 / £30 an hour = 130 hours a MONTH or 32.5 hours a WEEK or 6.5 hours a DAY
- £3500 + 30% for tax and NI = £4550 / £30 an hour = 152 hours a MONTH or 38 hours a WEEK or 7 hours a DAY
If what you need to earn every month isn’t listed here, use my free calculator here to work out how few hours you’ll be working.
You get to create your perfect work life balance as a Virtual Assistant.
Quite fancy that reformer pilates class on a Monday at 11am? Well, now’s your chance.
You can work with who you want to
We’ve all worked with people who we probably wouldn’t choose if it was up to us, haven’t we? It’s sometimes really difficult to spend so many hours every Monday to Friday with someone who has hugely different opinions, different ways of working, microaggressions and / or down right laziness, but as an employee you’re stuck and that can make going to work and being at work, really quite unpleasant, can’t it?
One of so many things you can look forward to, as your own boss, is you get to choose who you work with.
When we start out as a Virtual Assistant we don’t always immediately know who we may or may not enjoy working with, but it comes in time. I don’t work well with people who like to micromanage or technophobes, but I didn’t find that out until I was about a couple of years into my business.
What kinds of things might be on your list of ‘thanks for the opportunity but I’m not sure I am the best person to support your business’ list?
You get to really learn stuff
How to bend your knees when lifting heavy boxes, how to choose which fire extinguisher to use, how to put a plaster on without touching said plaster.
I did them all as an employee and forgot everything within a few months because the ‘skills’ were never needed.
I push heavy boxes with my feet, I will leggit if there’s a fire and if you don’t want me to touch your plaster PUT IT ON YOURSELF!
However as a Virtual Assistant you get opportunities to learn so many new skills. If you want to! You’re awakened again to using your brain and it’s amazing.
During your VA journey you’ll often get clients who ask ‘do you know how to use ‘insert name of software’’ and you can reply with ‘I don’t, but I’m happy to take the weekend / my own time to have a look at it and let you know if it’s something I can easily learn’.
9 times out of 10 the client is like ‘Brilliant! Go for it’ because it’s a win for them. If you like, and can use, the software they don’t need to find an additional VA. It’s a win for you too, if you find the software easy to use, you can then list it on your website as something you can support clients with!
Everything you learn becomes something you can sell in the future. I’ve learnt so much as a VA and it’s really brought out some skills I never knew I had, skills I’d have never explored.
You get to earn at least £30 an hour
Many VAs are charging, and getting, £35 an hour, some go up as much as £45. I know it seems ridiculous, especially if you’re on £12 an hour as an employee, but remember – you’re now responsible for your tax and NI, you’re responsible for your annual leave, sick pay and expenses.
Yeah, that £30 an hour makes sense now, doesn’t it?
Some new VAs go in lower because they’re new to being a VA and that is a massive faux pas. No one is paying you for the length of time you’ve been in business. If you charge less you’re
- Undermining the hard work so many of us have done over the years to get us to that wonderful hourly rate.
- Undercutting other VAs and those other VAs aren’t out here to compete with you. There are enough clients for us all.
- Making clients question ‘why is she cheaper?’.
- Making it harder for you to leave your 9-5
If you charge less you’re on the road to this VA thing not happening how you planned, or taking a lot longer.
Clients pay us for the change we make by taking things off their to-do list. Your time is money. You are worth the same as someone who’s been in business 2 years.
You earn so much more when you’re working as a full time Virtual Assistant that you can start saving money! I’ve never known savings like I have now. It’s how life should be.
You can really achieve financial independence
I know many of us don’t like to think about ‘what ifs’ but I am sorry to say, things happen. You likely already know my story. Couldn’t grow carrots in lockdown but has a real skill for growing brain tumours.
Just this past year; I’ve had to have endless hospital appointments to discuss having major craniotomy, to having endless video calls with consultants, surgeons, oncologists, MRIs, CT scans, blood tests, talking about chemo, more tests, more video calls. It’s been crazy and stressful, and there’s absolutely no way I could’ve dealt with all that alongside a 9-5, small talk with colleagues and limited leave.
Not once have I needed to re-arrange any appointments, not once did I have to ask permission from another adult to attend the appointments.
Of course, you may never go through anything like that in your working life, but your relatives might.
Mum had a stroke in early 2024 and I was able to move her into my home – temporarily – and be there with her 24/7 to make sure she was okay, to reassure her and to help her recover before sending her back home with a discount code for Gousto.
Meaning no stress for me and a calm environment for her.
Things happen and employment is not the safest, most secure option financially, mentally or anythingally any more. Just Google Carillion, Dyson. Big employers giving no notice to thousands of employees before they lose their jobs!
Being my own boss, setting my own income ceiling and having the ability to work with other VAs means I do not have the stress of worrying about losing my job, having to take unpaid sick leave, or losing my income.
You actually enjoy your work
Hell, I’ll even go as far as to say you’re passionate about it. Imagine that?
As a VA you don’t need to offer any service you don’t enjoy. You ‘think’ every successful VA is offering ‘social media support’ but they’re not. You ‘think’ every VA knows so many different pieces of software. They don’t!
As a VA YOU pick what services you’ll offer, based on what you’re confident and competent at. But also what you enjoy! I’ve put together a list of over 90 services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant. It’s free. Download it here.
It’s never about the ‘thing’ it’s always about how it’s marketed.
You’re in control of every day
My Dad had a cardiac arrest in June 2023. I was estranged from my parents at that time so it was a very strange mix of emotions when it happened. He’d had one previously and everything was okay, but this time things were different. He’d already been showing signs of dementia prior to the cardiac arrest and because he was without oxygen for two minutes, just two minutes, he has been irreversibly brain damaged and taken further into the realms of dementia.
It’s been an incredibly emotional journey for us both as he’s now on such strong medication that the reasons for the estrangement are no longer ‘active’ and so we’ve built a kind of relationship. I visit him in his care home whenever I feel like it. Sometimes, I’ll decide just ten minutes beforehand that I’ll pop down and see him because I’ve done all my work for the day.
You can’t do that when employed, can you? Not without using annual leave, sick leave or faking an allergic reaction to your desk.
Like I said, it’s been an overpowering time of emotion and I’ve cried harder than I have for years but also been able to bury all the hurt I’d carried for 34 years because I’ve been able to spend unlimited time with him. And that’s because I am my own boss, in control of my own life.
You learn to say NO
Your time is money, you don’t get paid if you’re not working for a client. You therefore have to learn to say ‘No’ sometimes.
Some potential clients might ask for a discount. It’s a ‘No’.
Some clients might ask if they can WhatsApp you. You might not want to give out your personal number. So again, it’s a ‘No’.
Obviously we can sweeten it with a ‘No, all clients pay the same as they each receive the same high level of support’
Or, ‘No, email is my preferred communication method so that I can switch off in the evenings and weekends’
But remember, ‘No’ is a complete sentence. It never needs a ‘sorry’, it never needs an explanation.
This is going to be your business so you only have to say Yes when it suits you.
If you’ve already downloaded my free guide: ‘90+ plus services Virtual Assistant can offer’ then you already know you’ve got the skills to be a VA.
And that is why you should become a Virtual Assistant
So the only question that remains is. Why have you not got this: www.catherinegladwyn.co.uk/va