I recently saw an advertisement in one of Northern Ireland’s leading newspapers placed by a busy entrepreneur who was looking for a remote PA who would mostly complete administrative tasks for them away their business premises, i.e. virtually.

It reinforced my concern that few very self-employed small business owners in N. Ireland (who are my main target client) know that 1) administrative support on a remote pay as you need basis exists 2) that the term for the professional providing this service is ‘Virtual Assistant’ (common abbreviation =VA).

My existing clients have all affirmed that they didn’t have the reflection to look for the administrative assistance they needed by searching the term ‘ virtual’ but rather under terms such as ‘PA’, ‘secretarial services’,‘remote administrative support’ etc.

What does it take to make the leap to self-employment?

This is the question on the lips of anyone who’s ever thought about leaving the security of a full time job to go it alone. Making the decision is the first step, but how to turn that into a reality and stick at it is not always as clear cut.

Three years ago, I was working as a Personal Assistant (PA) to a senior Director in the headquarters of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg where I’d gone to work 9yrs previously as a bi-lingual Project Administrator. I’d got to the stage in my career where I could go as far as I wanted in my grade and had already taken a sideways step to get more experience. I knew I wanted to use the skills I already had developed in 14yrs of varied administrative posts: customer –orientated , knowledge sharing, adapting to different personalities , evolving with new technologies and working with a high level of autonomy but I wasn’t quite sure which way to turn as I couldn’t find a role which was demanding and interesting enough.