It’s been 3 years and just how much I had to learn! Running a small virtual assistant business is nothing like being employed in the City. When you are employed you:

1. Typically work for 1-5 people, same people, day after day (unless someone changes job or is made redundant).
2. Deal with the same workload:email, diary, paperwork, meetings, projects, travel, a few conferences thrown in here and there, a few purchasing orders to do… OK it does vary a little based on the department you work in, but the core of PA tasks will be the same wherever you are.
3. Start and finish at a set time, have (at least in theory) a lunch break, water cooler moments.
4. Endure the daily commute in any weather, hot or cold.
5. Rely on other corporate departments to sort things out for you: your computer, insurance, pension, payroll, accounts, HR, legal issues, contracts with new clients, etc.
6. Have a holiday when you can forget about your job (as long as there is someone covering for you), have weekends and evenings to yourself.
7. May occasionally work over-time or start earlier than usual.
8. Have to get permission for any time off, be it 1h or 1 week, work it later, take it unpaid and stay within your holiday allowance.
9. Get a regular salary every month, including sick pay and holiday pay.
10. Get paid for every single minute you are at work: whether you are checking your Facebook profile, researching the next holiday or actually doing work!

When you are self-employed it doesn’t work like that. Why am I still here, you may ask?

• I love being in charge of my own life, deciding who I’m working with, what I’m doing and when.
• I don’t like commuting to work every day, but I do like getting into London a few times a month for business meetings and events.
• I am constantly learning new skills, new applications, new tools.
• I get to meet a lot of business owners, just like me, who are very determined to succeed and therefore are very inspiring.
• I love what I do and I love seeing my clients happy with the results!

It took a while to learn to balance work and family, business time and clients’ time. But I think we are getting there now. It took some determination, perseverance and a couple of important business decisions to get where we are now:

• Joining a VA Network in Australia which has proven the single best source of online referrals for us (thanks, Kathie!).
• Getting a 1-2-1 VA coaching with VA Coaching and Training Company which helped me to organise my thoughts about marketing, niching, client attraction and why I am here. Since the course has been completed things have spiralled out and it has become self-perpetuating with new referrals and enquiries (thanks, Carmen!).
• Joining the Athena Network, a very successful networking organisation in the UK for women in business. We’ve already got a lot of business through it, and it’s not even a year since we  became a member (thanks, Marilena!).
• Learning about Twitter and other online marketing tools, which not only brought us new clients but also helped launch new services (thanks, Mark Shaw and Mashable!).

So if you are someone thinking of becoming a virtual assistant in 2011, then think about the above 10 features of being employed – will you be happy without all of those? What’s driving you to become self-employed? What “big dream” will you be able to hang on to, when times get tough and cashflow takes a dip? Finally, check out VACT or other similar training on offer for VAs and don’t assume that because you are a great PA/Administrator/EA/Secretary you will automatically be equally good at being a virtual assistant!

Good luck, and maybe I’ll see you at one of the VA conferences in the UK!

The benefits for users are very important: Talking News allows people to stay in touch with what’s going on in their local area. There are talking books and national news to listen to, however it’s nearly impossible for someone blind or partially-sighted to be involved in their local activities and participate in their community without being able to get the information in the format they can access it. That’s the gap that TNI was set to fill.

We provided audio recording and editing services for monthly TNI editions, secretarial and book-keeping services for running the charity, developed a simple website to get a web presence and be found by interested parties and other charitable organisations like RNIB. And yes, that’s one of the partners, James on the picture!

On behalf of myself and all the Volunteers at Talking News Islington, I write to thank you for very much for all the advice and support you gave us in setting up ‘Talking News Islington’, for without your Computer Skills and knowledge we could not have got it off the ground so quickly.
Elizabeth Jones, Chair of TNI

(click to view large size)

What you see isn`t always what you get.  There are heaps going on beneath the surface in London`s ancient markets; but if you don`t look, you won`t see.

Deptford market is a shabby old dame of a market, until you realise there`s a fishmongers who sells snails the size of baseballs and a collectibles stall where a £100 vintage bike was sold to another dealer who got £600 for it.

Even at Billingsgate I haven`t seen `snails1 this weight and/or size, and the only explanation is, inasmuch as Deptford (Lewisham) has become multi-cultural, there is a demand from Nigerians for this variety of snail.

And  vintage bikes at £100 – probably only in Boston or one of the other East Midlands markets will I have seen vintage bikes for 100 quid.

Established in 1883 as a daily market selling perishables and non-perishables, its principal trading day on Saturday, Deptford market catered for the increased working-class which had settled in Deptford to cater for the Foreign Cattle market that opened in 1871 following the Contagious Disease Act 1869.  (The cattle market closed in 1914 and never re-opened again after the war)

It is worth noting originally that stalls and barrows were excluded from the High Street which was the exclusive domain of the shops.

Deptford was a thriving market until the demise of the old cattle market inasmuch as the market, 28 acres, employed 15,000 people in 63 sheds.  Employees included `shochetim` who were the only people trained to check the meats fitness for consumption.

A wander around market precincts suggests a Fifties time warp.  Most of the pubs still host billiards and darts (unusual to find) and the cafes are working class (plenty of pie and mash shops)  There`s one old dear which was used by Tony Richardson in that wonderful tea room scene with Richard Burton and Claire Blooms from `Look Back in Anger` and every time I pass by I pause and sigh.

So what do the traders make of the Deptford Regeneration Project?

`A lot of old twaddle`, says one.  `A total waste of money`, adds another.  `What we need is a car park`  `What regeneration`, asks a third.  `Oh, that letter….I tore it up and tossed it in the bin`.

Fact is there`s only one trader left on Giffin Square, whilst the builders knock down everything on the side of and around him.  He has a fabrics stall; he`s been there for 16 years and can`t see what difference a dandified garden square is going to make to the market.  `What we need is a parking lot`, he says, querying, `You going to write this up?…Good on you`.

Terry is one of 92 stalls in a market which used to boast hundreds.  And on a rainy day there are probably half that number.  Why? `Alot of the traders are Asians`, says the market inspector.  `When the weather is bleak, they make for Thailand for a few months`.

Still, the Deptford fishmongers are  the best I`ve seen; as I say including the great buys and choice at Billingsgate.  At Deptford you can haggle.  You`re in cockney land.  These guys understand what it means to `pinch pennies`.  A whole carp was selling for £7 and I was told I could have a 12 lb bag of mussels for a tenner.  Merry Christmas to you too.

Who can beat that?  So let`s celebrate what we`ve got; let`s defeat regeneration plans; let`s get behind the traders and help them to get what they need.  If the council is using the traders to make a bit, let`s see they give something back to the traders.  Let`s demand a revised planning application for regeneration of Deptford market?.

From  Deptford market, I make for the old Greenwich Hospital market as I wanted to see if the traders have been relocated on the Cutty Sark in consequence of a trustee proposal to redevelop the market as a hotel.

Joy!  Jubliliation!  Success!  The trustee proposal has been defeated by town planners who argue that Greenwich has enough hotels and wine bars.

Well said too.  I know that I couldn`t find one local cafe and had my tea in a Yuppie place where the scone was so crusty it was barely edible.  And it was pricey too.  I can remember the days when the English owned the cafes and where they couldn`t feed you enough.  I used to exit shouting, `Enough.  Enough.  I`m stuffed`.

Of course the trustees have been doing the dirt and fudging the covenant since they abolished the traditional fruit and veg market in the Seventies.  The market now runs four days a week Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday)  dealing primarily in antiques and collectibles and with a  smaller market on Wednesday.  Still, we should be reassured that it`s surviving and hasn`t been supplanted by chain shops or top of the range designer boutiques which is a current development at the old Covent Garden market.

But Greenwich markets are dying like markets all over London.  The Middle Market off Stockwell Street was closed in 2009 to make way for an extension to the university (a school of architecture) and  the Clock Tower flea market, having eclipsed the Hospital arts and crafts by just a few years, has been diminished on account of redevelopment of  hotel, cinema, offices and flats.

So, the next time you have a wander, look and look hard.  See what is going on beneath the surface.  You won`t see it if you don`t look.

Looking with Sandra Shevey. Sandra Shevey leads regular walking tours around London`s ancient markets.  She has also produced a documentary about 4 ancient London markets.  And she`s increased her remit to include  a countryside markets walk.