I started as a solo Virtual Assistant in 2021, age 39, and balanced full-time employment and getting set up for a while. After 3 months, I’d secured enough associate VA work to leave employment and go full-time as a VA. There just weren't enough hours in the day to do everything by that point!
About 6 months in, I rebranded to Edge EA as I’d started to work with my own associates and wanted the business to better represent a team effort.
In 2024, I continue to run my Virtual Assistant business and have launched a second business, ExecQua, which is a service offering for VAs.
Who or what inspired you to become a Virtual Assistant?
I’d never even thought about starting a business, let alone heard the phrase “virtual assistant”! Within a few weeks of first finding out about the Virtual Assistant industry I’d launched my business. I was obsessed with finding out everything I could and building out my offering.
My background is in customer services, special needs transport and school business management, so not typical EA / PA environments, but I knew I wanted to offer services to clients "my way" and it definitely lit a spark in me!
Have you had any support starting up as a VA (mentor/family/network/financial)?
When I started up, I didn’t go down the path of formal Virtual Assistant training, mentor or coach, but I consumed a heck of a lot of free online content!
When I left employment there was no way that my VA income was going to match my salary for a good while, so the decision involved a long conversation with my husband. Ultimately, starting a Virtual Assistant business had to work or it was back to employment. I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to rely on my husband’s income for a while to keep our household finances in order.
What has been your highlight since starting your business?
I can remember getting my biggest client at the time, a 30 hour monthly retainer, and that being a moment to treasure!
Forming the team of associates has been a lovely highlight and I’m so proud to be working with such wonderful professionals.
Another highlight was a few weeks after launching, ExecQua was shortlisted for two regional StartUp awards, which was fantastic and a great testament to what I hope it will achieve in the VA industry.
What was your biggest challenge?
Some weeks, in any business, are tough. So staying positive and pushing through means reminding myself what motivated me to start in the first place.
For me, the other thing that has been tricky has been juggling childcare. When I was in employment I worked term-time only and so had every half term off with the children. Now, it’s a planning mission to make sure we’re covered for childcare!
What advice would you offer other new or aspiring Virtual Assistants?
Recognise (and celebrate!) the mirco-improvements. It can be easy to sing and dance when a big win happens, but along the journey there are so many micro-wins that deserve recognition too. It might be a slight improvement to your onboarding process, or a small increase in your number of online connections, but these are the very things that, with consistency, turn into important stepping stones.
What tools/apps/software can’t you live without?
I love Google workspace, Calendly, ChatGPT, Canva, Slack, Bigin, MailerLite, 1Password, Clockify, Eventbrite, Streamyard, Fathom, Miro, Reclaim, LinkedIn, Zapier, Asana… I could go on and on! I’d be hard-pushed to let go of any of these!
What is next for you and your business?
In 2024 I launched ExecQua, a platform to help industry-leading VAs get found more easily by clients. This was brought to life after, in 2023, I took a deep dive to find out more about what AI might mean for our industry.
I’m committed to making ExecQua and my VA business, Edge EA, the best that they can be, and it’s important to me to keep finding new ways of making sure my clients always feel important and taken care of.
What is the ultimate goal for your business?
I’m still a relatively new VA, under 3 years in the industry, and yet so much has changed during that time! Going from solo VA, to a small team of associates, and now the explosion of AI tools and new tech. I think it’s such an exciting time in the VA industry with so much opportunity to do new things and make services even better for clients.
I think an ultimate goal, with so much happening across my two businesses right now, feels quite far away, but one thing I’m striving towards is building more flexibility and spare time into my own routine so that I can enjoy a little more family time.
Edge EA: https://edgeea.com/
ExecQua: https://execqua.com/
This blog was prepared or accomplished by Danielle Armstrong in their personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kayleigh Johnstone or COZ PR.
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