Nadine Hill

Virtual Assistance means assisting clients on a ‘remote’ basis, often working from home. Nadine’s particular branch of support is Virtual Reception, where clients pay to divert their phones to a full time Receptionist. Women are particularly attracted to virtual assistance because it uses a business model that allows flexibility, and can fit comfortably around childcare responsibilities.

Nadine says:

My industry is a very new one. Virtual Assistants are more commonplace in the USA, Australia and Canada but the UK is an emerging market which means that people who want to set up in business as a Virtual Assistant (or VA) struggle to find advice and information on how to do it and the potential pitfalls.

Despite this, it is a career option that is attracting huge numbers of people – particularly women with families, as it provides a way to successfully combine working from home in a well paid professional role, with the flexibility required when bringing up young children.

I went into this business myself after becoming a mother. I had previously been very career driven, working long hours doing public relations for the motor industry. After my daughter was born, my priorities changed and I needed to find a way to continue to work and contribute to the family income whilst having more freedom to plan my schedule so that I could also do the school run and attend the sports days and doctors appointments. So I set up The Dream PA…

Initially I worked on an administrative basis with individual clients but was constantly asked for a telephone answering service. I did some research and found a business called “Virtual Receptionist”, just as they were starting out. I purchased a franchise of this business to ‘bolt on’ to The Dream PA, and was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, because after a handful of franchises were sold, the company decided to take another direction and closed the offer to new franchisees. This means that I am now the only virtual assistant in the North of England who can offer a true Virtual Receptionist service to small businesses, with the low costs for clients and access to technical support that being part of a larger organisation allows.

I am still assisting my longstanding clients with PA support but due to my unique position with the telephone answering service, I am concentrating my focus on attracting more Virtual Receptionist clients rather than administrative ones in the future.

My PR background meant that I was successful in gaining lots of media coverage for my new business, which helped me to attract clients at the start. In addition, the media coverage also meant that I received lots of enquiries for help from other people who wanted to set up on their own like I did, but had nowhere to go for advice.

I firmly believe that ‘givers gain’, and wanted to help but with my own business to run and the demands of a young family, I had little time to spare in offering advice to each person who asked. This is when I decided to write my book.

Through an account of my own learning curves, and the practicalities and pitfalls in setting up and running my own business, I have been able to create a book that provides a real insight and can help other people. The book received excellent reviews in the PA and secretarial trade press.

As for the business, the Dream PA is going from strength to strength and I am as excited about the industry as when I first started out. I have just returned to work following the birth of my second child and I am about to launch a 24/7 telephone answering service so it’s all ‘go’ but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Going global!

Nadine Hill has clients in the USA and a partnership with an overseas office in Australia. So that her Virtual PA service, the Dream PA, could offer a 24 hour reception service to small and medium businesses, she teamed up with an Australian call centre. Her Australian partners take over from her Devon office at the end of the British working day. Not just a global business, but a 24 hour global business at that!

Nadine is one of our super guest bloggers! Read her latest posts