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How I became a Virtual Assistant

16th November 2020

As a Virtual Assistant Alison Matthews supports business owners with their administrative tasks.

Read how she became a Virtual Assistant and owner of VirtuAli Administrative Solutions below.

Give a brief outline of your career to date.

I have been a freelance Virtual Assistant (VA) since 2015 after gaining more than two decades of administrative experience across facilities management, export, manufacturing, education, tourism and construction industries. I worked for 10 years in Northern Ireland and 10 years in Luxembourg.

What was your favourite subject at school?

I loved languages and also chemistry and wanted to study both at A-level. There wasn’t much encouragement for females to do STEM subjects and I remember being told there was a ‘timetable clash’ so I couldn’t do both which seemed pretty unfair.

Did you go on to further/ higher education, if so what did you study and where?

I did a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Queen’s University Belfast in Modern Languages (French/German) and then did a postgraduate diploma at Belfast Institute of Further Education in Business Administration with European languages.

How did you get into your area of work?

I worked everywhere I could use my languages in Northern Ireland in administrative type roles including as an export sales administrator for Ulster Carpets and as a tourist advisor for Belfast Welcome Tourist Information. I then went to work in mainland Europe as a ski resort administrator in the French Alps for First Choice and later as bilingual executive assistant for the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg for 10 years. In 2005 I got homesick and decided to come back to Northern Ireland and set up my own business as a self-employed Virtual Assistant supporting business owners with their administrative tasks.

Is this what you always wanted to do?

I’ve always enjoyed helping people and have worked in very customer centric roles. I’m a natural organiser so enjoy helping others get organised. It was a natural progression to want to help business owners feel less overwhelmed and more in control of their business.

Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?

When I was leaving school the term virtual assistance didn’t even exist as a career. Most virtual assistants have at least 15 years administrative experience as employees before they become self-employed and l had the same. My postgraduate diploma in Business Administration definitely was a bonus as well as the fact that I had such varied experience in administrative and support roles in businesses all over the world ranging from five employees to 2000, and in very diverse industries.

Are there alternative routes into the job?

Most of the virtual assistants I know set up their businesses because they wanted to be their own boss, to have a work schedule that is flexible and to help business owners with a particular pain point.

What are the main personal skills your job requires?

Being a VA requires flexibility, understanding what it takes to run a business as well as being creative and solution focused.

What does a typical day entail?

The beauty of being a VA is that there is no typical day. I help different owners in all types of industries and with all kinds of tasks that are related to online parts of their business, for example running courses and events online or streamlining processes.

What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?

The most challenging part is that as a business owner the strength of my business depends on how well I’m running so I have to know when to switch off and rest. That means making a clear break between my working day and leisure time and being very clear on my vision of how I want to grow my business so I’m not being pulled in lots of different directions.

The best parts are that I meet innovative and creative business owners from all over the world, get to learn a bit about their business empire and help them to get rid of administrative pain points so that they have more mental energy and extra time to work on growing their business and that is very rewarding.

Why is what you do important?

As of May 2020, there are an estimated five million self-employed business owners in the UK. That’s a lot of people juggling lots of hats and facing all the challenges being a business owner brings. As a virtual assistant and a business owner myself I want all of us to run businesses which are as efficient as possible so we succeed and for us to strike a happy work balance which is of benefit to the health of the whole nation. This year has taught us how precious life is.

How has Covid-19 impacted your business/role?

Before the lockdown restrictions came into effect March 2020, I was helping many of my clients deliver face-to-face events, courses, fairs and training. Very quickly we both had to adapt to planning, creating and promoting online content instead. I always worked remotely from home so was very disciplined but the lack of face-to-face interaction with others was very challenging.

What adjustments have you had to make?

I have revised my own business model and the services I offer to reflect the ever-changing world we are in. As a true virtual assistant, I do all my networking and client meetings online now. Thankfully, I was part of several online business networking groups already.

What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?

Reach out to the other Virtual Assistants in Northern Ireland. I collaborate with other VAs and we have a support group called the VA heroes. There are also some great start up initiatives including the Yes You Can programme, a collaboration between the 11 Local Councils, Invest NI and Women in Business.

If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?

I’m very interested in Chinese medicine and am currently doing a Chinese nutritional therapy course. So, I’d love one day to be in a healing career, offering herbal remedies. That might be my next career move!

What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?

Don’t listen to the naysayers.

Describe your ideal day off.

I love being in nature and when not at my desk you will always find me doing something outside. My ideal day would be walking somewhere off the beaten track surrounding the mountains, with a swim to cool down afterwards and then spending the evening in a cosy pub with a fire with my partner and the dogs.

And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?

Knowing what career, you do and don’t want to do and being specific in terms of your goals.

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