‘I make £20k as a virtual assistant’

Managing an office without setting foot in it can be the perfect way to have a flexible career – or make money on the side. Lauren Almeida reports

‘It’s great because I work from home and choose my own hours’ ‘It was a leap of faith but ultimately it paid off ’ Georgia Austin ‘I earn £500 a month working in evenings and on weekends’ Max Boisvert

The personal assistant is at the heart of any office – leading admin, coordinating team activities and making sure everyone knows what is going on. But what happens when they are no longer there?

Step up the “virtual assistant” – a new profession quickly popping up in the workforce. And the best thing about it? VAs can work from home and do it as a second job to boost their income.

The newfangled career has become popular among younger workers. Georgia Austin, a 25-year- old from Kent, said she now earned around £1,620 a month, or about £20,000 a year, through her VA work before tax. She discovered her new calling on Tik

Tok, a video-based social media app. The “virtual assistant” topic has had more than 200 million views.

Ms Austin said: “I set up my business in February last year. The woman talking about it on TikTok was around my age and lived in the UK. I just thought that this could be a career for me.”

Ms Austin, who used to work as a teaching assistant, paid £ 150 for an online masterclass on how to become a VA. “It was a leap of faith but ultimately it paid off,” she said.

Most of her clients are based in the US, where she found businesses were more comfortable working closely with someone they had never met.

“My degree in film taught me nothing. I wish I hadn’t been pushed into going to university and had started this business years earlier,” she added. “Now I have more control and developed my own niche in social media management. My original goal was to work in marketing, so I applied for lots of internships. But it felt like to get experience you already had to have experience.”

Barnaby Lashbrooke of Time Etc, an assistant agency, said the pandemic was a game changer for both businesses accepting VAs and people wanting to work from home. “I started the business in 2007, when the idea of a virtual assistant was very new,” he said. “But it has really taken off.”

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of businesses looking for virtual assistants, he said, with online searches soaring since the start of the pandemic.

“Working remotely has become the norm so there are even more potential clients for virtual assistants,” he said.

Mr Lashbrooke said being a VA was particularly compelling for mothers who were either making a gradual return to work or wanted flexible hours around childcare.

Kelly Jones, a 37- year- old from Gloucestershire, counted herself among them. “I set up as a VA after being made redundant last year and now work roughly three days a week around my two young children, when they are in nursery,” she said.

“When everyone was forced to work from home throughout the pandemic, it made people realise that not all of their work needed to be face to face. It also gave me the confidence that I could work from home effectively, too.”

Ms Jones, who already had experience in administration at a wealth manager, now charges £30 an hour. “I work with people in financial services, marketing and construction. It means that my work is different all the time, which wouldn’t be the case if I were working in one office.”

Max Boisvert, a 28-year- old from West Sussex, was also away from work during the pandemic when he was put on furlough by his employer in the travel industry.

“I was furloughed for 18 months,” he said. “I wanted to use my skills to the best of my ability, so my friend and I set up a VA business. We focused on local businesses first and then started picking up individual clients too. They’re usually contractors, who often don’t have an office and need extra help with their admin and personal affairs.”

Mr Boisvert has now returned to full-time work, but continues to earn from his VA work during the evenings and weekends.

“It’s really busy but we are determined to persevere and find the right balance,” he said. “I’m earning around £ 500 a month from my VA work, although it does vary. Eventually, when we build up even more clients, we can start considering whether to go full time.”

Caroline Perks, a 46-year- old from Kent, has also taken up VA work on top of her part-time job in administration at a school for osteopathy.

“It’s great because I get to work from home and choose my own hours. I actually wanted to work full- time as a VA after I took a business course designed for mums looking for career changes,” she said. “But the pandemic hit and made it really difficult to start a business. While remote working is a big pull for the job, I have found that people still want to know and meet their colleagues, so they have that personal connection.

“I managed to get it off the ground eventually by using my network in business administration and then through an agency.”

Ms Perks said she earned around £500 a month with her one regular client. She charges £28 an hour. “Once I have three or four I can start thinking about going full time,” she added.

Caroline Perks