Where am I from and Why did I set up as a VA?

As I have been ‘going’ for over a year now I thought I should share with you the story behind ‘me’ and why I set up as a VA. 

First, and most importantly I suppose, I found myself without a job and I had to do something!

However before I go into that, let me tell you a bit about me …

Where do I come from:

Well, I have moved around a bit. I was born in Northumberland but my family moved to Scotland (just outside Edinburgh) when I was teeny, so I was brought up mainly in Scotland. As many young people I headed to the bright lights of London for my first job, where I worked and lived for about 10 years. When my first child arrived those bright lights dimmed a little and I decided that I really didn’t want to bring up a family in London so we moved to Edinburgh. Then, for a number of reasons, I returned to Northumberland about 14 years ago and have never felt more at home … though I do miss the beautiful Edinburgh city life at times.

My working life:

Well many years ago I started life in the Information Department at The Department of Health’s Medicines Division providing an information service to all the doctors and pharmacists assessing new drug applications. After a few years I moved into publishing, working for a small publishing house and learning the ins and outs of book and journal publishing, including the very new field of ‘desktop publishing’!! Showing my age here I think.

After a few years I decided to start work as a freelance publisher, working as Managing Editor or various publications, writing Pharmaceutical company profiles, editing medical books etc. It was great fun, gave me the taste of being my own boss and allowed me to work around my small children. However circumstances changed and I became a full-time Mother for a few years … quite a different challenge I met say. 

Coinciding with my move back to Northumberland I decided to return to the workplace … but to what? Having bought, renovated and sold a number of houses over the years I wondered if I could get involved in something to do with property. Bingo! I got a job working for a firm of surveyors and that was me in the estate agency field! I loved it … who wouldn’t want to go around seeing peoples houses, sometimes advising on how they could make them look better ready to market them, writing about property and generally having a great time? I worked for a couple of agencies over the last few years and managed to combine my publishing skills together with my property knowledge … so that work out very well!

Then at the end of 2017, for various reasons, I handed in my notice and left a job that I loved and was left thinking … ‘what next?’. I wanted to be my own boss again … but what should I do? So I thought long and hard about what I liked to do and the skills that I had … my first business idea didn’t happen but I do hope that it may be in my future so I won’t mention that one here.

Why I set up as a VA

My second idea came when I thought about what I could easily set up in my study at home … well all my jobs over the years have involved ‘admin’ so I thought well surely I can do that for small businesses that don’t want to actually ‘employ’ someone yet. 

After a bit of research I realised that there was actually a thing called a ‘Virtual Assistant’ … I was thinking I would be a ‘freelance PA’ and that is often how I refer to myself as people understand that I think. So that was it … I set up Cornerstone pa services from my little study at home!

Yes I would love to have a gorgeous, contemporary home office at the end of the garden … you know the ones I mean, that you see on Grand Designs! Or even a traditional, cute Shepherd’s Hut with all mod cons. But this is me, in my home, having a fabulous time helping such a wide range of small businesses with their admin.

So this is me … I’m Lucinda and my business is Cornerstone pa services and I am here to help YOU!

Do get in touch if you have admin tasks that never get done, or perhaps ones that you just don’t like doing, and give yourself more time to focus on other aspects of your business. No task is ever too small.

[email protected]

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