My journey into becoming a Virtual Assistant

Learn about my previous work experience and how that led me to becoming a virtual assistant specialising in legal and property business owner support.

My business is now nearly eight months old (time flies when you’re having fun!), so I thought it would be fitting to do a blog centred around my journey into becoming a virtual assistant.

Along with being asked “what is a virtual assistant” A LOT when I tell family and friends about what I do, I also commonly get asked what led me to becoming one. So here goes…

1. Turning down a Training Contract

Towards the end of my law degree in 2019 I was slowly realising that I might not want to practice as a solicitor or barrister, which I’ll hold my hands up, was a bit scary! Throughout my studies, I was doing everything right – putting my all into my studies, spending weekends in the library, taking every and any legal related work experience I could get my hands on, such as mini-pupillages, magistrate schemes, volunteering with Citizens Advice, and then I hit the jack-pot and secured a paralegal role along side my degree.

I really loved my first paralegal role, my bosses were the best and taught me so much, and I learned how to support solicitors, experts and barristers through many challenging cases, along with providing great client care. I learned how to use case management systems, how to best liaise with the police, with counsel, with clients, how to manage files, how to bundle documents, how to liaise with the court – it was great.

Picture of me in 2018 in my first paralegal role, surrounded by the multiple process documents I'd created to manage multiple cases effectively and make sure no deadline was missed!

When my third-year came to an end, I was honored enough to be offered a training contract with the same firm, but I knew deep down that a training contract wasn’t right for me at that time.  

As hard as it was to go against the grain and turn that down, I did, and decided to move abroad after my degree.

2. Moving Abroad

I had told myself when I moved abroad that I would go back into law, whatever shape or form that may look like, and I did try to keep in with the legal theme when I moved. I moved to Italy and became an au-pair for a family in Rome, where both parents were practicing lawyers. They even let me attend court with them in Rome a few times, which was such a cool experience!

Living abroad, and in Italy, was always something I’d wanted to do, and I’m so glad I did it. I got to meet so many amazing people, learn an amazing language, and make friends for life from all over the world. I met one of my best friends there, and we’d always talked about our dream of starting an online business that enabled us to work for ourself, and to have the flexibility we wanted.

Moving abroad also isn’t for the faint hearted though – so it taught me a lot of transferrable skills!

3. My first self-employed gig as an online teacher

During my time in Italy, I decided to study to get a TEFL qualification – Teaching English as a Foreign Language, with the plan to work in schools in Italy to enable me to stay there longer whilst I learnt the language. Not long after securing my qualification, and a job in a private school in the centre of Rome, the pandemic began, meaning I was couped up in my Italian apartment with the school also shut.

I had to think on my feet. So, I became an online, self-employed English teacher. And I loved it.

I decided not to return to England, because I naively believed the lockdown would just be for two weeks, and I really didn’t want to give up. So, during the pandemic I taught online from my little apartment in Rome, and weathered the storm.

I loved managing my own schedule, planning different ways to teach lessons, and meeting loads of different people from all over the world. I taught students in Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to name a few. 

4. Return to England

In the end, I did decide to return back to the U.K. because the pandemic was hard, and I really missed my family. It also just didn’t feel the same in Italy at that time – a lot of my friends had left, and the fun had kind of just stopped.

I still didn’t feel the urge to obtain a training contract, so I felt slightly confused on what was next for me, and I don’t think the pandemic helped with that. Although I loved the teaching, I didn’t see a long-term future with it, but it definitely gave me the self-employed bug!

I was offered a job with Vodafone remotely as a Customer Service Advisor, and I learned so so much from this role. Vodafone are excellent to work for. I received training on how to manage others, how to objection handle and have difficult conversations, how to manage my time, how to work under pressure, how to manage case management software’s, how to set professional goals and reach those, and how to train others. In the end, I was mostly off the phones and supporting new starters, which I really enjoyed. I obtained so many transferrable skills from this role that I use to this day. Fun fact - I also met my partner there!

I had a great manager who supported my professional development, so I was often allowed to shadow the Regulatory department where I reviewed lengthy legal documents, learned our compliance requirements under Ofcom’s regulations, read and amended the Compliance Manual and ensured the requirements we set for the business matched up to what agents were able to do on the phone with customers.  

This experience reminded me of my love for law and organisation, and gave me a bit of a kick to go back to where my skills were aligned best.

5. Return to Law - Paralegal and Police Experience

I was offered a paralegal role within the family department, where we specialised in non-molestation orders, occupation orders and child arrangement orders. I dealt with new enquiries, assisted clients with drafting their witness statements, issued applications to the court and served documents to the Respondent electronically, all the whilst opening new matters via Leap and managing multiple client cases at once (in a brief nutshell!).

I took this role with the plan to qualify as a solicitor via the SQE route, but realised during the role that I preferred the admin side and pre-court work, so that the assistant route was best suited for me.

I was then offered a role in the police as an Investigative Officer assisting detectives to obtain evidence and to prepare this for the CPS. It was obviously different to the roles I had been used to, but had the legal and organisational aspect that I loved the sound of.

I underwent extensive training on how to obtain detailed witness statements, how to work with vulnerable individuals, how to appropriately collect evidence and document this, and how to open a file on the case management system and manage this effectively in preparation for handover to the CPS. I was also trained to conduct suspect and witness interviews. Organisation, working with others and excellent customer care were an absolute must.

I did struggle (more than I had anticipated I would) with the challenging content that naturally came with working in the police, and I’ll hold my hands up and say that my mental health was affected by it. I also struggled with the long commutes, and not having a lot of time to be at home with my family. And for the time I was at home with my family I wasn’t myself, because my mental health had taken a hit.

The police were great to work for, so everyone thought I was mad when I decided to leave my role and start my own virtual assistant business, but here we are.

6. Watching the Family Property Business Grow

Since I was little, I was always watching and assisting my Dad grow his property business. Believe it or not, I vividly remember painting a white garden wall that seemed to take forever and a day when I was eight to get a renovation over the line with him! The more fun side however was multiple trips to Ikea to get furnishings, and the meatballs of course...

My Dad went fully self-employed in 2020 which enabled him to grow his property portfolio to one of over 20+ residential and commercial properties in and around Edinburgh. You can learn more about him on his website here.

Picture of me and my Dad in 2005 - probably just before another house move to start another renovation!

Growing up, I learned not only how to build a successful business, but all about the property purchase and renovation process, the use of a SSAS, what admin comes with this, and how to manage it.

Seeing my Dad grow his own business was so exciting, but it also gave me a mini-kick and reminder that I'd like a business of my own. My Dad was kind enough to be my first client when I started (spoiler, he's still a client), so I must be doing something right!

6. Becoming a Virtual Assistant

Throughout my career one thing was clear: I had great skills in organisation, and a great understanding of the legal word, legal documents, and how to support legal professionals, and other business owners such as property investors with their admin.

I wanted to put these skills to good use, and start something of my own, and ELH Assistance was born. I’ve never looked back since! I get to work with amazing clients every day, and I wake up so excited about the future of my business and what I can do next to improve and keep growing.

If you’d like virtual assistant support in your business, please feel free to reach out here for your free 30-minute consultation. Or if you prefer, drop me an email at elliehogarty@elh-assistance.co.uk