Following on from our recent post in which we shared more about our copywriter, Gemma, this week it's all about Charlie, including how she juggles running The Arts VA with working as a virtual assistant, and the kind of tasks she does for her clients.
What is my job?
As a business owner, my job combines working as a virtual assistant and leading The Arts VA team. When I’m working as a VA, I support small businesses in the arts industry by helping them with their admin. I do the tasks creative people don’t have the time to do so they can focus on the work they actually want to be doing.
When I’m wearing my business owner hat, I run the business day-to-day, managing clients and associate VAs, and also meeting new potential clients and VAs who can bring new skills and experience to the team.
What kind of work do I do?
I allocate time every day/week for each client depending on their retainer. For example, my 20 hour clients are around one hour a day and ten hour clients are around 30 mins a day. I use MinuteDock to track my time and Google calendar to time block my day, and try to stick to this as much as possible. I will contact the client if I feel like we’re going to be under or over on their hours.
I check inboxes of my clients daily, labelling, filing emails and flagging important ones. I have a to-do list for each client so will work through what’s due to be done. Many of my clients like to communicate via Whatsapp so I’ll send them a message to see how their day is and if anything has come up that they’d like me to deal with.
As business owner, I manage our accounts, which involves invoicing clients and paying associate VAs. I also liaise with our copywriter to write our blog and social media posts. Other tasks include drawing up contracts for new clients and associate VAs, keeping track of time and hours for our clients. I check in with our associate VAs regularly, arranging regular review meetings with our clients so we can discuss what’s working and what could be improved on, i.e communication methods or the time-frame in which work is completed.
Each day I schedule slightly differently, one day may be client work heavy and another day may be more business work. I’m still part-time while my daughter is at nursery so my working time is limited.
What do I love about it?
I love working with creative people and enjoy being part of the theatre industry while benefiting from working around family life. I often get invited to shows and Christmas parties, which is nice, and means I feel a part of many businesses and elements of the arts.
I also have some clients that aren’t theatre and arts based and I thrive off working in a different industry and learning from them. I enjoy talking to people so love having a chat with a client or meeting with new potential clients and associate VAs.
I often have administrators and PAs with an arts background contact me to ask about setting up as a VA and it’s great to share my experience. I also enjoy meeting with other VA business owners through our VA mentor - we meet quarterly and I benefit so much from talking and working with people I can relate to.
The Arts News
The National Theatre has revealed its plans for its 2023 season, including a new revival of Dancing at Lughnasa and new plays Dixon and Daughter and The Motive and the Cue.
Dates have been revealed for the new tour of 42nd Street. The show will open at Curve in Leicester on Wednesday 17 May 2023, before heading to Sadler's Wells from Wednesday 7 June 2023.
Get in touch!
Do you have any questions about Charlie and how you can work with The Arts VA? You can contact us here. If you've enjoyed reading about Charlie, you can learn more about her and the team in these blogs: