Tag: The Passionate PA

Getting to know Claire

By on October 2021 in Our Team

Claire Bartlett is a font of corporate know-how and experience, known best for her ability to work with directors of large teams looking to improve efficiency and profitability. Here she shares a typical day in her world.

Claire joined The Passionate PA in January 2018 after a high-flying career with an investment bank. She has proven herself to be an exceptional strategic partner with commercial focus; Business Development and Strategy are her forte. Meticulously organised and detail-orientated in everything (yes, everything!), Claire is known for her infectious laugh and can-do attitude.

Getting to know Claire

Alarm goes off at:
6.30am

Start the day with:
Coffee and checking Rightmove to give me a daily fix for one of my life’s passions – property! Then it’s reviewing the calendar for the day ahead. I always document the top three things that I need to achieve that day and try to get the most challenging one completed first. This gives me a sense of achievement and motivates me for the day ahead.

Where do you do most of your work?
Pre-Covid, it was an 80/20 split with the majority of my time spent face to face with my clients. Currently, its about 50/50 but I’m working up to getting out there more as this is when I can really get under the skin of my clients’ businesses and identify opportunities for improvement.

What sectors do your clients operate within?
Currently my clients are in management training and I also work with a fast-growing CEO and Managing Director level peer networking group.

Best part of your work:
Seeing the relief on my clients’ faces when I start taking the pressure off and organising projects and tasks for them. I love taking the lead when clients just don’t have the time. I also thoroughly enjoy bringing lessons from my prior corporate experience to the table and offering solutions they may not have considered before. Also, not forgetting the amazing feeling of being my own boss, deciding on the clients I work with and when and, also having that flexibility when I need it the most.

Worst part of your work: 
Finding a happy balance between being the greatest businesswoman I can be and the greatest mum too. I find it so hard to down tools at times, but it is so important to look after yourself to ensure you are the very best you can be. Champagne Friday’s help a lot!

Clients you add most value to:
Two of my current clients are looking to grow their business rapidly over the next few years and I am helping them identify and implement strategic initiatives to move them towards achieving their goals. This is the work that I really love and being part of their Senior Management Teams allows me to challenge ideas together with suggesting different approaches at times. Taking the lead with some of these initiatives greatly reduces the strain on my clients, enabling them to focus on what they are brilliant at knowing that there is a trusted pair of hands helping them along the way.

After work you’ll be:
Since Covid, I’ve taken a hard look at how I spend my personal time. I love nothing more than a walk on the beach with my family – you’ll often find us at Hengistbury Head enjoying pizza on the beach. I love to read, cook and have dinner with friends. Life is so precious, and I love spending time with people that inspire me and lift me up.

Why a franchise with The Passionate PA and not go it alone?
I didn’t want to go out and do this on my own as I love the support of Kate and her guidance and understanding of the role. The other Passionate PAs are invaluable not only in terms of support but in our shared knowledge and experience! I did not appreciate just how well-known our brand was until recently, this has opened so many doors which, had I gone it alone, would not have presented themselves.

What did you do before:
18 years in various management roles at JPMorgan including a four-year stint in Luxembourg. Working on major clients, I was a key player in retaining and turning client relationships around. Management experience, risk and compliance management… big job, fun at the time. But this is rewarding on a very different level.

Favourite drink:
Champagne!

Favourite location for a business meeting:
I really enjoy going to clients’ houses or offices as I believe this enables me to really get to know them and provides valuable insight into their lives. We can tell so much by what’s on someone’s desk or dining table! Otherwise, it has to be The Olive Branch in Wimborne or anywhere with a good, comfy sofa and a delicious lunch.

What are you reading?
“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers.

Your guilty pleasure:
A monthly massage with the amazing Fran. Check her out on Instagram!

Favourite hobby/past time:
My new passion is on the water, on a gorgeous boat with a glass of bubbles. Failing that, a good walk at the beach or in the New Forest with my husband and boys.

Most inspirational/influential person in your career:
My Dad. One of the strongest, most intelligent, hardworking and honest businessmen I know. He built a successful company and survived a recession when most local building firms did not. He taught me integrity and respect, and to always go to bed with a clear conscience.

Favourite animal and why:
My cats. Love their independence and calming presence.

Greatest contact/supplier that deserves a plug:
Heidi Roper, View HR. Heidi is not only incredibly knowledgeable and amazing at what she does, but she is so much fun to work with and gets amazing results with the clients that she works with. She has true passion, and it shows.

Your business plan (in one sentence!) for the coming year:
To build strong, trusting, local relationships to ensure that I am the Executive PA of choice for Ringwood and the surrounding area.

You can find out more about Claire by clicking here! Or, pop her an email and make a date to get together for coffee (or champagne?).

Further blogs from The Passionate PA: 

EPAA Member Interview with Kate

By on August 2021 in Kate Chastey

Last week, our director and franchisor, Kate Chastey was delighted to join EPAA’s CEO Victoria Wratten, as she continued to interview members and find out how they came into the PA profession.

In this engaging hour-long interview, Victoria asked Kate about her career journey and for her top tips for anyone looking to have a career in executive and business support – particularly freelance.

Kate found her love for being a PA at just 16. She did a work experience shadowing Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s PA and found the variety and scope so interesting. After doing her degree and an early career in the advertising industry, Kate met a lady that changed the course of her life forever. Sarah Howells run a small business called The Passionate PA and Kate, excited by what the freelance word might have to offer, joined Sarah in February 2010.

Very soon after however, Kate found herself at the helm of the business – alone and way out of her comfort zone. She spent four years learning how to be a successful freelance PA and building the business into a successful brand in its own right. In the last decade she has worked alongside all sorts of business owners from tech start-ups to global business and the thrill of business growth, even today, is what gets her up in the morning.

In 2015 Kate decided she wanted to help other talented, determined and positive individuals build their own successful careers as freelance PAs and so franchised the business.

Her role now is to lead The Passionate PA, helping her small but incredible team of franchisees in their work with entrepreneurs. It’s a varied role, one where Kate gets to fulfil her passion for business, people, creativity and entrepreneurship in equal measure.

Kate’s dedicated to helping others understand the freelance PA role in today’s business world and loves nothing more than assisting others on their journey to a fulfilled and happy career.

About EPAA

Founded in 2016 to bring together a range of business support professionals and support them through a period of industry upheaval and transition, EPAA has now become the go-to organisation for EA/PA professionals in a diverse range of roles, all of whom provide invaluable support essential to the day-to-day running of any and every successful business.

The work of EPAA isn’t just for our members, but for the EA/PA professional community as a whole. EPAA strive to establish and maintain the sustainability and longevity of the profession in UK and international business and continue to help build a diverse and technologically proficient workforce that has the capacity to endure these turbulent times for the EA/PA profession.

Kate has been a Fellow Member since April 2020.

Learn more about the Association and their work here.

 

Further blogs from The Passionate PA: 

Freelancers can help you weather this storm!

By on January 2021 in Blogs

As the reality of coronavirus continues to imprint itself into our lives and into our businesses, working remotely has become intrinsic to working practices in all manner of sectors.

The business landscape has changed. New habits are becoming engrained in our society, and the pandemic has forced many business owners to embrace remote working and flexible working hours. It’s become the new normal for so many SMEs, corporates and ambitious businesses; even with the vaccine in sight, this way of working is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

But freelancers have been embracing this way of working for years. Freelancers can provide solutions to nearly every hurdle business owners face, whether providing an entire service on a long-term basis, filling in a skills-gap for an interim period or completing one-off projects. Freelancers are professionals, offering on-demand skills and experience that can add a serious edge to most businesses.

While government loans may prevent businesses from going bust during these strange times, those loans will need to be paid back. As a result, now more than ever, businesses need to look at long-term stability and accelerating growth in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Hiring a freelancer can help overcome challenges without the need to employ. They offer the flexibility businesses need in uncertain times, and, by the very nature of the partnership, the long-term loyalty often lacking in employees.

The Passionate PA offers exactly that; a relationship-led partnership that helps ambitious business leaders and entrepreneurs drive change, build momentum and generate results. Often a commercial sounding board forour clients, The Passionate PA finds solutions, challenges clients to think differently and ensures the highest quality service in all aspects of business delivery.

As business owners ourselves, we know what it takes to run and operate a business meaning we do not fit the archetypal view of a personal or virtual assistant. Rather than managing diaries, accounts or filtering calls, a Passionate PA can assist with anything from streamlining business processes, copywriting and project management right through to driving growth through effective marketing strategies. We are masters of implementation and if it’s on your business to do list, we will help you tackle it.

While effective communication and business management is vital when working with any freelancer, The Passionate PA brings a second business brain to key decision makers and directors who might not always have the senior support they need, or solopreneurs who have no one else in their business to help them think strategically about their vision, their goals and more importantly, how to make them a reality.

Finding the right freelancer can take time so be sure to ask trusted business networks for recommendations or read reviews and testimonials. It might be necessary to work with a freelancer on a trial basis at first, or at the very least have an introductory meeting, just to ensure you will work well together based on personalities. However, once you know and trust a freelancer who delivers a service in line with your brand and ethos, it’s a relationship that can last for years!

Freelance services will be intrinsic to business growth as we tentatively emerge from our lockdown bubbles. It’s a really viable option for those business owners who want to develop at pace with flexible, loyal, commercially minded support but no employment contracts.

Founded by Dorset businesswoman Sarah Howells in 2007, and franchised in 2016 by Director, Kate Chastey, The Passionate PA has worked with leading brands such as Virgin Media and the Institute of Directors. It now supports a wide range of entrepreneurial professional services companies as well as agencies in the recruitment, digital marketing, financial services, IT and creative industries to name but a few.

To find out more about how a freelance PA can help you emerge from this storm stronger than ever before, contact us today.

You can find out more about our skilled team here!

Further blogs from The Passionate PA: 

Is now a good time to become a freelancer?

By on June 2020 in Kate Chastey

This is a question I’m being asked a lot right now by people interested in becoming a Passionate PA, but also by skilled individuals who have toyed with the idea of “going freelance” for many years and are just looking for some advice. I’ve also had a few calls recently with people who have already embarked on their freelance journey but are finding it tough.

I have a few friends who are facing redundancy at this time too, and having shared my personal journey to some extent, they are wondering whether the freelance lifestyle is for them. They’ve seen me enjoying all the advantages of being my own boss, of working with great clients and of building the business of my dreams – something I never thought possible ten years ago!

So, when is the perfect time?

When I embarked on my freelance journey, I was 26, newly married with a wealth of skills and bucketloads of hope.

However, the UK was in recession, I had a massive mortgage and very fragile self-confidence due to countless bosses who had no idea what great people management really was. I was also dealing with the grief of losing the woman who set up The Passionate PA; my anchor, mentor and friend. (Read that story here).

My timing was NOT perfect.

But when would it have been? When my husband and I had six months’ money in the bank? When the economy had recovered? When I’d got over my grief? When I’d found my professional confidence?

Ha… the irony here is that my journey to becoming a successful freelancer ‘fixed’ all of this (except of course the economy – I cannot take credit for that!). Becoming a Passionate PA gave me choices like never before, developed my self-confidence, helped me recover from losing Sarah and paid really well. The recession was actually a good thing too because as my client-base recovered from the recession, they preferred to outsource rather than employ.

So, Top Tip Number 1 is to understand there is no such thing as perfect timing – it’s more about YOU and the commitment you have to yourself. When that is ‘perfect’, then the timing is right.

Top Tips for Freelancers

The rest of my Top Tips for freelance success go a little something like this:

🌟 Top Tip Number 2: Identify your personal goals and be crystal clear with what success REALLY looks like to you.

🌟 Top Tip Number 3: Be prepared to work hard – really hard. You may have great skills, but it takes real dedication to find the people who want to buy those skills. I urge all new freelancers to plan for the long haul and understand it takes time, effort and energy to build a successful business.

🌟 Top Tip Number 4: Define what your ideal client looks like and try to connect with them, and only them. Now, I know this is a bit radical, but no one else actually matters. You can have 500 followers on your business Facebook page, but it means absolutely nothing if they are just your family and friends… sure they might refer business to you, but your efforts are far better spent on targeted marketing approaches.

🌟 Top Tip Number 5: Know your value proposition (that’s what you offer, why and who to), and talk about it with total confidence! Know your personal USP too. 

🌟 Top Tip Number 6: Do not work for free, ever. Don’t barter, pimp yourself out or sell your soul to the devil no matter how hard it gets. The minute you start doing this, you undervalue yourself, your skill set and everyone else trying to make a decent living from freelancing. If there’s a problem getting clients, I’d wager it’s not price holding them back…

🌟 Top Tip Number 7: Distinguish yourself from your competition; keep an eye on them but don’t emulate them. While imitation can be flattering, in business, it is just plain rude to copy. 

🌟 Top Tip Number 8: Get to grips with the legals, finances and marketing on day one, particularly cashflow forecasting, insurances and GDPR.

🌟 Top Tip Number 9: Find a mentor that has been there and done it successfully for years (and years, and years, and years!). Momentary success is easy, sustaining a profitable, fulfilling business in the long-term is the real artform. Plus, try not to take business advice from your mum, partner, best friend etc unless they really are an accomplished business owner themselves.

🌟 Top Tip Number 10: Don’t have a plan B. Go all in like your life depends on it. If you have a plan B, you’ll waste valuable time thinking and planning for that and inevitably, your plan B will become Your Plan.

You know what, I could keep writing… There’s so much to say about how to manage your own mental health and keep a positive mindset as a freelancer. There are whole blogs I could write about how a successful freelancer must transition from an employee mindset to a business owner’s one.

Anybody who knows me well will know that one of my favourite words in the whole world is CONSISTENCY. I genuinely believe that my ability to remain consistent with clients, my business and the external world has been pivotal to my success.

There are so many more lessons I could share. I’m truly passionate about helping skilled individuals create rewarding and sustainable businesses as freelance PAs. That’s my role at The Passionate PA; franchisor, mentor, marketeer, rainmaker, a shoulder to cry on… a problem shared and all that! With my franchisees, I go through it all with them, right by their side and make sure they don’t fall over at any of the hurdles. If you are thinking about becoming a freelance PA and would love the support on offer here, book a call today.

If what you’ve read here has spurred you on to go it alone as a freelancer with your unique skills, then awesome! I wish you all the luck in the world for the next chapter of your career. Keep positive and remain consistent.

Kate x

Kate Chastey is ‘chief’ Passionate PA; a truly experienced and successful freelancer. Having run The Passionate PA since 2010 and been through all the highs and lows, it’s fair to say there’s not much she doesn’t know about building a small business in the UK. She is also franchisor of The Passionate PA brand. More information about Kate can be found here, or joining our franchise, here. 

Further blogs from The Passionate PA: 

Compartmentalise and Conquer!

By on March 2020 in Top Tips

Being organised and productive is a choice. That choice is the difference between being a busy fool and a successful business person.

The one trait really productive people share is the ability to compartmentalise their activities. So, in this blog, we share our top tips from over a decade of working with inspiring business leaders:

  1. Write down your personal definition of success i.e. are you wanting to be the world’s greatest parent, a caring employer or a successful business owner. OR, are you trying to create balance – if so, what does balance actually look like in reality with the values and responsibilities you have?
  2. Write a daily To Do List of the things that must get done in order to achieve your overall success goal. One sheet of A4 – no more.
  3. Be ruthless, if the task in your head doesn’t “make your boat go faster” or serve your personal values, do not write it down – scrap it.
  4. Create barriers to all distractions – physically and emotionally. Set times to turn off your phone, get off social media, step away from the news. Create space in your day for the important, critical To Dos.
  5. Allocate time to each ‘compartment’ on your To Do List, and a set time target to achieve each individual task. Remember ‘done’ is better than ‘perfect’.
  6. Multitask with cautions. Only do this on the things that don’t really have an impact on your success.
  7. Share your planned way of working with others and set clear boundaries for them i.e. between 8am and 10am every day is your Business Development time so you cannot be disturbed or between 5pm-7pm is exercise and healthy food prep. Explain to others why this protected time is so important so they become advocates, rather than distractions.

Here is a tool we use to help clients get started with this new ‘compartmentalise and conquer’ approach.

DOWNLOAD YOUR PDF NOW

Further blogs from The Passionate PA: