Admin Assistant for hire - Meet Richard

So…..Here I am, The Contemporary PA’s First Male Licensee, and what an honour it is but how did I get here and why a Virtual Assistant? I hear you ask.

Like Gemma (The OCPA(Original Contemporary PA)) I didn’t have a plan while I was at school, I spent a long time wanting to be a Marine Biologist, turns out my weakest subject at school was…. you guessed it, Biology. Next plan then, I want to be a Solicitor, Ally McBeal was popular at the time (I know). After getting mediocre GCSE results and going to Sixth form, I start to discover that taking exams is not my strongest attribute, ironically I score really well on IQ tests.

I head to college instead, can’t be a solicitor, I’ll still work with the law, I’m going to be a Police Officer. I spent 2 years at college doing a National Diploma in Public Services, the course also involved a lot of fitness training, which is something I enjoyed. As we finish the course, one of our tutors says it may be beneficial to get some life experience before applying to the local force.

My grandparents own a restaurant on the south coast with a position in the kitchen that needs filling for the summer, seems like the ideal place to gain some life experience, Weymouth here I come.

I enjoyed working in a kitchen, it all revolved around timings and quite literally spinning plates. Something I seemed to be naturally good at. I worked in 3 establishments with various owners, up until I co-managed a kitchen with my fiancé.

After our daughter was born, I started to think about the hours I was working and how it would affect my daughter later in life, we had moved away from Weymouth for the management opportunity and it was nearly time for us to return, this provided me with the perfect opportunity to change industries.

I took stock of what I was good at in catering: presentation, timing/working to tight deadlines, organisation, ordering stock, etc. I prepared my CV and having an interest in numbers I enrolled on a distance learning AAT accountancy course.

After applying for various roles and attending countless interviews, I finally caught my big break at a medium sized company in Poole. The Sales Director can see my potential and offers me a position as Sales Administrator. As people come and go I work my way up the ladder to Inbound Sales Supervisor and then my employers provide an opportunity to partake in a leadership course and progress to Manager, the only problem with this was I was self funding the AAT course at home and wouldn’t be able to do both. Unfortunately I had to stop the AAT course and pursue the managerial role. I had acquired so many new skills during this role: great telephone manner, email mastery, word, excel, navigating the bespoke CRM, problem solving, customer service.. the list goes on.

After 3 years in Poole, I was starting to struggle with travelling, 300 miles, 10 hours per week just sat in the car. I find a job closer to home, Service Advisor/ Administrator at a motorcycle main dealer. Using the organisation and admin skills I had acquired over the last few years and adding reception duties.

After nearly two years in this role, I’m starting to think about personal growth and what I can offer to the world, I decided it was time to start my own business, but doing what? It's not like you can be a freelance administrator….. Can you?

I have always had a good memory and have a real penchant for working with numbers, I can remember phone numbers, my bank details, postcodes, Pi to a ridiculous amount of decimal places and most recently 11 digit part numbers for various motorcycle parts, combine this with organisational skills, problem solving ability, the things I’ve learnt in life over the years, an incessant need to get task completed and sprinkle all of this with a dash of OCD and ta da, the perfect recipe for a PA.

I started googling, I came across Virtual Assistants, by accident, I stumbled across the Contemporary PA website, I knew before I had finished reading the main page, this is what I had been looking for and after a few emails and phone calls with Gemma, I had signed up as their newest Licensee.

I’ve now completed my training with Gemma, I’m fully insured, had business cards printed and ready to go so…

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…

No sorry, wait, that’s something else...

If you find that you could do with an extra pair of hands, we can offer professional business support.

Get in touch and arrange your free consultation to see what we can offer to support you.

We do what we are good at so you can concentrate on what you are good at - growing your business.