Industry experience leads to successful home-based business

Having worked in several industries in various roles, the exposure and knowledge gained during these years has allowed Sarah Liddle to set up her own virtual assistant (VA) business, The Lady in the Shed, from her smallholding on the Staffordshire-Derbyshire border.

Having worked all her life, Sarah came to the realisation that she had nothing to lose by going self-employed. “My career has been extremely varied. Graduating from the University of Reading with a degree in agriculture, I started my career with an animal feed business,” explains Sarah.

“I then qualified as a vet nurse working in practice for a number of years before moving into a marketing role at the University of Derby. Latterly I acted as an office manager for a tree surgery company in my quest to work closer to home.

“Having gained so much experience I decided to go self-employed and offer my services as a VA mainly to small business in the rural and wellbeing sector, and I haven’t looked back since.

“I have always given 110% in any job but starting my own business has been hard work. You eat, sleep and breath your work to make a success of it, but it’s worth the effort to see the results,” adds Sarah.

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The VA industry

A VA can be defined as a person who provides support services to other businesses from a remote location, most commonly a home office.

The term originated in the 1990s as technological improvements made the ability to work virtually a reality. Now VAs are in demand primarily by small businesses or sole traders who don’t necessarily want to employ additional staff but need help with certain areas of the business.

See also: How virtual administrators can successfully support businesses

“Going forward the demand for VAs is only set to grow. Compared to the cost of employing a full or part-time person, for which employees are responsible for paying sick pay, holidays, PAYE and pensions, with VAs or a freelancer you pay for the work they do and that’s it.

“The majority of the work I do supports very small businesses and is the first step to helping them grow. It also provides the opportunity for businesses to outsource the jobs that are disliked or that are not an area of expertise, allowing businesses to focus on their core activities.”

Building a client base

For anyone who goes self-employed after working within a company, there is always the realisation that it is now your role to go out and find the ‘warm leads’ that will help make a success of what you have set out to do.

“I’ve found LinkedIn a very useful tool in helping build my client base. It allows you to see what people have posted, gives you the chance to target interesting people and businesses you may like to work with, and identify areas in which you may be able to offer help or support, so for me, this has been great.

“Networking has also been a great way to meet people and build relationships locally. I am the network leader for our local WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) group which has been an invaluable resource from both a learning and business point of view.

“Working remotely and with my business being mainly online it can be easy to become isolated and so it has been important to build a local network I can engage with and ensure people know me and what I do at a local level,” says Sarah

Having worked hard to establish herself, Sarah now provides VA services for a range of clients from a vet, a firm of occupational therapists to an arboricultural consultant just to name a few.

See also: Top ten things you must do when going self employed

“The majority of my clients are either in the rural or wellness sector which is important as we speak the same language. Rural life is very different from city life and city businesses and the fact I have an affinity with these sectors instils a level of confidence and trust within clients.

“Having gained so much experience during my career I tailor my services to what is needed by the client. A lot of my time is spent on marketing and admin related tasks, but I also manage social media for clients as well as build and update websites and organise events.

“For many of my long-term clients I am very much an embedded part of the team and an extra pair of hands which their clients never need to know exists. In most cases, this allows businesses to be more effective than if they were on their own,” she explains.

Perks and drawbacks of being a self-employed VA

Sarah explains that being self-employed has given her more flexibility in her working day and also means she can make her own mistakes and decisions. “Working for a company you can easily become quite institutionalised and bound by those above you.

“But going self-employed has meant I have been able to take the time to think of solutions to problems and look at more efficient ways of doing things which I’ve found very rewarding. It not only helps me but means I can pass my knowledge onto my clients,” says Sarah.

“You could say that one of the drawbacks is the fact that it is really hard work when you start out, but I see this as a challenge more than a drawback.

“I can find it difficult to balance my work and personal life as my work is also at my home, but I try as best I can to keep set office hours. I also have a Border Terrier, Henry, who is with me all the time, which means I have to get away from the computer to take him out for a walk.

“When it’s your own business you have to do what is necessary to get things done and sometimes that means working weekends or in the evenings. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it works for me and fulfils my wish to work on my own terms,” says Sarah.

Three main methods by which Sarah works with her clients:

1. Ad hoc

Clients pay per hour for the work done and are billed accordingly. It’s the most common way I work with clients as the nature of their businesses means their requirements can change weekly or monthly

2. Retainer

Clients buy a certain number of hours per month or week and the time runs down

3. Project

This is generally a one-off task for which a quote is agreed before the work is undertaken, for example building a website

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