One thing we always find ourselves saying is that being a successful virtual assistant isn’t simply about helping someone with their admin or supporting their business – it’s about knowing how to manage and communicate with them as well. With that in mind, if you yourself run a business and have considered enlisting the services…
We’re going to be honest with you: even though we’ve interviewed hundreds of candidates, we can now confirm that interviewing is…not easy. Sometimes, it’s more of an art than a skill. But the more you do it, the better you become. If it’s your first time, however, chances are you’ll get it wrong. Unless of…
So, a while ago we did a post on a bunch of apps we couldn’t live without. Since then we’ve moved on a bit and discovered some more gems. Not the kind of people to keep a great tool to ourselves, we thought we’d share with you our new favourite apps for making everything in…
With a wealth of virtual assistant companies now advertising their services on the web, you may be asking yourself, what is it a VA can really help me with? Well, as a dedicated virtual assistant agency ourselves, we are thoroughly versed in why the kind of service we offer is a much better choice than…
The thing about social media is everyone’s doing it. Which means everyone thinks it’s easy. But here’s the problem: running personal social media and running business social media are completely different things – and with your business, because reputation is everything, you need to be really careful about how you go about it. At PABS…
Companies using virtual personal and executive assistant services for 10 hours per week experience increased growth rates. Remember the days when people had a job for life and businesses were run from offices? Back then there was no such thing as ‘work/life balance’. Freelancing was only for the bold and the fearless, and the concept…
2018 has definitely been the year of FinTech. Several crowdfunded, mobile(app)-only alternatives to high-street banking have become a BIG deal, despite having only acquired their banking licenses in the last few years. Slowly they are beginning to cause cracks in the monopoly the big high street banks have maintained for over a century; hence the…
Not enough hours in the day to complete your projects and follow through on your ideas? Here are a few productivity hacks from our resident Executive Coach, Hans Schumann. Hiring a Personal Assistant is a great way of freeing up your time to focus on core activities in your business. Yet, one of the symptoms…
We are excited to announce that PA Business Support is going international! In the coming year, we will be launching a whole new office of executive virtual assistants in Singapore. In the same vein as our UK office, we will be bringing our bespoke and specialized VA services – email and call taking, calendar and…
AllBright co-founders Debbie Wosskow OBE (left) and Anna Jones (Credit: Tim Bishop/AllBright). With gender inequality and #TimesUp grabbing headlines all around the globe, now is the perfect moment for female entrepreneurs to step into the limelight. And as co-working spaces take over capitals in every country, women-only variants are nurturing a rising wave of female…
Whether you’re an employer, a team manager or simply a concerned colleague, the ability to give and receive feedback is a vital part of any business environment. Members of your staff or team will actively expect and even desire feedback from you as a leader, and a colleague whose not performing can be a detriment…
Let’s face it, who you hire can make or break your business. So it should go without saying that choosing the right recruitment agency can do the same. Identifying the perfect candidate for a role takes a very unique set of skills. Of course, no-one knows your company like you, but using an agency can…
May 25th has passed but businesses all over the EU are still scrambling to become ‘GDPR compliant’. If your business depends on email marketing, whether it be in the form of newsletters or larger scale campaigns, then ask yourself this question: should you be scrambling too? GDPR is a reaction to the growth in the…
If you’ve been sitting under a rock for the last few years, you may not have heard about ‘growth hacking’. It’s a phrase coined by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Sean Ellis in 2010, after he used it to rapidly grow LogMeIn, Eventbrite and Dropbox. Each of those companies are now worth billions of dollars.…
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from our clients and their businesses, it’s never to cut corners when it comes to talent. It sounds like a cliché but only because it’s true: if you want to be the best you need to hire the best team. Choosing to use a recruitment agency to find the…
For small and medium business owners, anything that makes our lives easier, saves time, and increases productivity, is worth knowing about. We’ve put together some of the apps we couldn’t live without. Take a look at these for when you need to: Manage finances and cashflow We love using Xero to help us keep on…
When it comes to buying data for your business, I think we can all agree that it sometimes feels a bit naughty. The perception is that you are ‘spamming’ people who have literally no control over whether you contact them or not. By purchasing their details, you haven’t asked permission, but might still get some…
If you ask any business coach or mentor what they feel should be the first step when starting a business, there is a very good chance they will talk about a business plan. Worryingly, the business plan has become noticeably absent from many start-ups’ to-do lists, and appears to be seen as nothing more than…
Growing a small business isn’t easy. The initial costs of setting up, buying stock (if you are a product business), securing a premises and just generally getting your name out there can often add up. For a small start-up company, it is often a case of tightening your belt until work is regularly coming in.…
When you manage a small business, efficiency can often mean the difference between success and failure. You want to grow, but to grow you need more customers. To get more customers, you need to source leads. Once the leads are sourced, you need to make sure you are marketing to them in the right way,…
Forbes Brandvoice: Infographic highlighting small business mergers, featuring Sabina Hinchliffe of PA Business Support Ltd, Find out more here >>
We’re now a month into a new financial year and the dawn of a new April invariably brings a wave of changes to the financial industry – more specifically, the taxing system. The Summer Budget of 2016 announced by George Osborne proved no different at all from its forefathers with a host of changes, specifically…
If it’s dropped through your letterbox hopefully you’ve seen it, but if you haven’t the likelihood is in the last few days you’ve heard about it. The £9million leaflet drop for UK voters triggered by our opportunity this June to stay or go from the EU in the upcoming referendum. In just a few months…
“As anyone in business knows, you do business with people you like. Our weekly meetings are intense, but their regularity allows a more consistent, credible dialogue with other businesses, and only good things can come from that.” This week’s blog is one of self-celebration, and rightly so as we bring some exciting news – one…
If you’re in the market for sourcing a PA, the chances are your wish list is long. You’ll want someone proficient, experienced, flexible, committed, reliable and forward thinking. You’ll also more than likely want someone full time, available when you need them, adaptable and able to cope with the fluctuating demands of your business. All…
Many thanks to the Colchester branch of the Federation of Small Businesses. Flexible working always a hot topic and very much at the top of the PA Business Support agenda.
With an estimated 70 per cent of mothers in the UK working according to the Women’s Business Council, flexible working is a business buzzword which is knocking on the door of employers across all industries up and down the country. Once a marginal part of the UK workforce, today the amount of working mothers is…
In the world of business, small companies (and large) are all competing for clients and sales and we all want a slice of the pie. What makes a business stand out? A good brand, competitive rates? People you like to work with? Every business has something to offer, and we are all trying to carve…
Sophie was pleased to be interviewed by Adele McLay, for her ‘Successful Entrepreneur Stories’ blog about her transition from being self-employed through to joint Managing Director of PA Business Support Ltd with her business partner Sabina. She talks about the trials and tribulations of her business journey, how she and Sabina have worked together over…
Many thanks to our long standing client Lee Warren of Invisible Advantage
To read the article in full please click here.
It’s been said by many that SMEs represent the backbone of the UK economy. We took a look at some of the statistics from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills report and created an infographic to highlight some of the key findings. In 2013, there were around 4.9 million small businesses in the UK which employed…
I get to work with a huge range of clients and build really good relationships with all of them. Being a Mum of two gorgeous girls myself, I was particularly pleased to help Julie Francis, Owner of BenBen… Client After working in graphic design for several years, Julie set up BenBen in 2011. She and…
As a follow up to our post on the UK’s Small Business Statistics, we found this cool infographic from Platform Black, which includes more detail on employment, geography and finance. As an aside, The Guardian recently reported that SMEs face £40bn in unpaid invoices stating “That’s an average of £38,186 per firm. If the figure reaches £50,000,…
Did you know that there are over 4.5 million SMEs in Britain? In the last three years, they’ve created 80% of the new jobs in the private sector – I think that’s amazing. SMEs make up 99.9% of all private businesses in the UK and employ 14.4 million people. With an annual turnover of £1,600…
Do you remember reading about the US software developer who outsourced his entire job to China for a sixth of what he was being paid last year? He was found out when the company he worked for looked into who had been connecting to their system from China. His boss wasn’t amused and he was…
Being a successful virtual assistant requires using the latest technology, it’s that simple. We work with lots of clients, all in different locations and that requires a host of collaboration tools that we can access at any time and from any device. I thought it would be cool to share a list of some of…
One of my favourite quotes is, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together’. I’m pretty sure it’s not meant to refer to work but it rings true for the business world. In business, you realise quite quickly that to grow and realise your potential you have…
When I set up my virtual PA business in 2012 I didn’t have lots of money to spend, I started with about £1500, lots of ideas and masses of enthusiasm. I’ve learnt a lot in the last two years and if I did it all again I’d probably do some things differently! Here are my…
What’s in a day’s work for a virtual assistant? I decided to list all the tasks I might do on a typical working day and put them into an infographic. Hopefully some will find this insight useful, especially if – like me – you have the challenge of managing two children in amongst a busy…
Virtual Assistants are a relatively new phenomenon. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated there are only up to 25,000 VA’s worldwide – it’s a rapidly growing profession as companies realise the benefits and more VA’s setup business, or join existing ones. So why exactly would you hire a VA? Here’s nine simple reasons why you…
