I brought Personally Virtual into Clarasys to provide some much-needed support to 13 of our extremely busy Principal Consultants. When deciding how best to help this population, I landed on a virtual assistance service to give us high-level support.   We found Personally Virtual to be professional, easy to work with, and were able to offer our consultants excellent administration support without the overheads of additional employees.  Personally Virtual is made up of real-life Ninjas;  Kathy, Sam, Claire, and Sarah seamlessly and effortlessly juggled diary management and a wide range of tasks which in turn had a huge positive impact on our business. I can not recommend them enough – you are absolutely safe in their hands.  Charlotte O’Driscoll, Clarasys – Management Consultancy on working with the Personally Virtual Team

Q5 has prided itself over the years in trying new things out. Having grown from being a 5 person business in 2009 to a business today with hundreds of people across the UK, US, Europe and Asia, we needed to put in place a responsive, cost-effective support set up.   The reason we chose to engage Personally Virtual is because of the calibre of their EAs, who are only ever one phone call, text or WhatsApp message away. The Personally Virtual team are thoroughly professional and hard-working. They have become a genuine extension of the Q5 team.   Olly Purnell, Managing Partner of Q5 Partners on working with the Personally Virtual Team

Working with the Personally Virtual team during a particularly difficult time due to the Coronavirus crises has been incredible and the support is second to none. Samantha and Suzanne were able to allocate tasks between them depending on their specialist skillset and the support they give feels like I have an assistant with me full time, you’d never know they were virtual! Samantha quickly took control of my diary and took the stress away from having to manage the day-to-day administrative tasks. Sam also gained a quick understanding of my essential meetings and others we could juggle which, left me a considerable amount of time to focus on my own goals. Suzanne was able to assist with our board meetings. Suzanne saved me time loading it into our systems and suggested some changes to the process to make it more efficient. Both Samantha and Suzanne are friendly, always professional, and slotted in easily with the rest of my team and happily worked alongside our assistants in others areas of the business. I’d definitely recommend Personally Virtual to anyone! Linda Ryan, CEO, Everest Insurance on working with the Personally Virtual Team

Why I didn’t call Personally Virtual years ago, I don’t know! Lisa has taken over my diary effortlessly, getting up to speed in just a couple of weeks. She’s brilliant at juggling appointments and I’m now able to book far more meetings than before, resulting in more business opportunities. The best thing? Once I ask her to do something, I can forget about it, knowing it’s been done quickly and efficiently without me having to follow up. Result!

Kim Arnold, Business and Marketing Consultant, on her VA Lisa

Working with Personally Virtual has been transformative. Before Jen started I was bogged down in administrative tasks that didn’t fall into anyone else’s remit. However, as soon as Jen started, she automatically knew what to do and where to help, taking a huge load off my plate. What I really appreciate is the professionalism of Kathy’s team of VA’s. They’re all very experienced in the game. Jen has an invaluable combination – speed, attention to detail and, best of all, proactivity. I don’t have to ask and it’s already done. She’s more than an VA, she’s a trouble shooter and that’s gold dust!

Bryony Simpson, Founder and CEO, ​​WePioneer Limited​,on her VA Jen

Lucy has picked up a tough gig, replacing my PA of 10 years; She has managed the transition seamlessly without anything slipping down the cracks. She is VERY responsive, thorough, and makes me feel like nothing is too small or difficult for her; I have had excellent feedback from all my contacts that she is a joy to deal with. I look forward to the next 10 years!

Sharon Rice-Oxley, Founding Partner, Q5 Partners on her VA, Lucy

Sam is an excellent virtual assistant – proactive, personable, organised, flexible. Within the first week she quickly recognised how to support me and brought immediate control to my diary. As well as saving me time, Sam has made a huge difference in making sure that I am able to stay focused on business priorities.  Working virtually has been so seamless it’s not really been noticeable. Sam’s proactivity and professionalism means I’ve got complete trust in everything she does and am always fully informed of where things are.    This is the first time I’ve had support from a virtual assistant – and based on my experience of both the setup and Sam, in particular, I’d highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get some control and focus back to their working week.  

Tim Hawke, HR Director, Clarasys, on his VA, Sam

Rose has worked with us for two years.  When first bringing in a VA we wondered how we as a team could ever utilise her – we needn’t have worried!  Rose got stuck in from the start, identified ways we could do things more effectively and took a lot of admin weight from our shoulders.  As well as a whole host of tasks, Rose attended some of our events, which she is particularly excellent at organising and executing.  She strikes a great balance of both listening and sharing her opinion and diligently gets on with the job in hand. Rose has a wonderful sense of humour and a supreme calmness about her that was a valuable counterbalance to the stresses myself and my team sometimes experience.  I would highly recommend Rose to any organisation that requires an experienced VA who is proactive, effective and a pleasure to work with.

Helen Cowan, Founder, The Tall Wall, on her VA, Rose

In 2018, after 9 years of continuous service of having one (v hardworking, rock-star) EA, I was keen for my former EA to expand her skills, so we moved her into the Q5 Finance team so that she could have a broader career track. A handful of the Q5 Partners had already been working with the Personally Virtual team for several months, so I was already aware of how well it could potentially work, so when it came to replacing my right-hand air-traffic controller, I decided to try out a ‘virtual EA.’ Vicki has been the most amazing EA. She’s based in Bordeaux; I am based in London … but this has never caused any problems. Vicki looks after all my client-meeting scheduling (with diligence), deals with phone calls (with aplomb), and manages my global travel (with efficiency and attention to costs). All in all, I think Vicki is awesome.

Olly Purnell, Managing Partner, Q5 Partners on his VA, Vicki

Sam has been a very welcome addition to our team, given her exemplary enthusiasm and can-do attitude. In particular, she has provided very reliable and competent support during several virtual workshops, managing virtual break-out sessions, and overseeing chat and interpreting functions seamlessly. I honestly don’t know how we would have managed this without Sam!

Anna Chilzuk, Rogers MacJohn on her VA, Samantha

Angela has done an excellent job in understanding our business in a very short period of time and is a pleasure to work with. She has good attention to detail and is very conscientious.  

Steve Ball, Oszo Innovation on his VA, Angela

Victoria has been amazing to work with – she is always proactive, diligent and has very effective communication skills . She has made my life a lot easier by seamlessly managing my diary & expenses. This has meant I am using my time in the best way possible – I’m not sure how I managed beforehand!

Sarah Rigby, Clarasys, on her VA, Victoria 

Kathy did a great job matching me with my PV VA – she really understood what I needed and the kind of personality that would be a good fit for me.

Tanya is absolutely superb. She just gets it and gets on with it! She’s a pleasure to work with, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

Sean Randell, Red Door Training on his VA, Tanya

Victoria always brought a hugely positive energy to our meetings and was extremely proactive in addressing any potential calendar conflicts (so much so that she often preempted my concerns before I even considered raising them!). Moreover, she was highly attuned to my preferred style of working/calendar management, and consistently attentive and responsive to ad hoc inquiries (as I was less familiar with the Google calendar/email system). It was such a pleasure to work with Victoria, and her support was truly invaluable.

Stephanie Shaffer, Clarasys, on her VA Victoria

Kathy has literally changed my life. She has relieved me of many of the worrying practical details of running my business which were stopping me focusing on the bigger picture and really putting my attention where it ought to be. She is consistently bright, calm, supportive and efficient and genuinely enjoys what she does. I would recommend her services without hesitation.  

Chris Bramwell, Business Coach on his VA, Kathy

To say that Fran is a delight to work with is an understatement of  some magnitude. Over the past year, she has worked calmly,  efficiently and precisely to ensure that our business runs smoothly.  She does all this with maturity, insight and good humour. She has  been, and continues to be a massive asset to our business.  

Jim Dobel, Partner, Q5 Partners on his VA, Fran

I’ve been working with Heather for a little over a year and she’s been an asset to the team from day 1. She simply knows how to get things done, even when it involves the challenge of working with multiple departments, stakeholders, and internal systems! Quick to adapt to change, incredibly organised and fast to action everything on her plate. Heather’s also been brilliant at building relationships and rapport with colleagues from various backgrounds. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with her, thank you!

Blanka Csanicz, Expert Relationships Lead, Holland & Barrett

Sam was my first experience of having an assistant. I had concerns initially about the time it might take to handover my diary and the concept of a virtual assistant. These were quickly discarded. Sam is unbelievably proactive, rapidly understood the parameters in my calendar, how to prioritise, how best to communicate with me and my clients. From day 1 Sam was helping me to stay on top of my diary, enabling me to prioritise and see the wood for the trees. Sam clearly has a passion for this type of work and enjoys the challenge. She has selflessly helped me and her personality is well suited to providing cheerful, considerate help however she can. I’d recommend Sam to anyone who has struggled to keep up with demand on their diaries or is overwhelmed with high volumes of messages.

Jeff Isaacs, Principle Consultant, Clarasys, on his VA, Sam

Angie is an excellent assistant – an absolute godsend. My productivity has increased significantly since we started working together – both because she orchestrates my sessions much more efficiently than I could, but also she is great at helping me challenge myself and understand where I should be focussing my time. Would recommend her in a heartbeat.

Richard Hibbert, Principal Consultant, Clarasys, on his VA, Angela

I’m a little nervous giving this recommendation because I don’t want too many to understand just how good a Virtual PA Fran is. Fran is an outstanding PA – she has made my very hectic work schedule over the last 3 years a joy. She is caring, genuinely interested in what I do and extremely good at establishing and maintaining relationships with key clients. We work as a team and I am absolutely certain that I would not have had the business successes I’ve had in recent times had I not had Fran in my corner. Simply the best.

Nick Mathew, Partner, Q5 Partners on his VA, Fran

Kathy is extremely organised, highly professional and very personable. Always at the end of the phone when you need her and is very understanding of our business needs.

Lydia Donaldson, COO, Live Better With, on her VA, Kathy

Since coming on board Holly has been a true lifesaver.   She is organised, supportive, helpful, accurate and just the right side of pushy to make sure that my work life is managed effectively.   I have very much appreciated the support and the nudges and the professional way she gets on with the task in hand.   She has been brilliant at getting meetings in the diary to the extent that I’ve never been busier, and that’s the whole point of the support she has provided.  

Chris Parsons, Founding Partner, Q5 Partners on his VA, Holly

It has been a real pleasure working with Kathy. She has been a fun and supportive cheerleader for me and I have truly valued her accompanying me on my business journey. She runs with new projects quickly and has offered tried and tested solutions along the way. She has been a sounding board for my questions and now knows my own business as well as I do. She is a perfect confidential, virtual support for small businesses or sole traders and I cannot recommend her more highly.

Suzanne Bourner – Career Transition Coach, on her VA, Kathy

Kathy has been my ‘virtual assistant’ for the past 6 months and I couldn’t recommend her enough. She so quickly got up to speed with what I get up to and how I like to work, and could see where I needed help even before I could work it out. Having Kathy on board meant I didn’t need to stress about things like meeting clashes (I have two diaries that can’t be automatically synced).   She also cleaned up 5 years of inbox mess and set me up with a new way of inbox management. Coming back from holidays has also been such an improvement – usually I would have to spend a day sorting out my emails but Kathy looked after all that for me, meaning I just needed to read a tiny number on my return.  

Oli Rodi, Principal Consultant, Clarasys, on his VA, Kathy

I couldn’t ask for any better support than what Vicki provides.  She is always one (or several) steps ahead, knowing what and who I need to be thinking about before I do.  Once Vicki is on a task I know that I don’t need to think about it again – a huge weight off my “mental load”.  Nothing is too big or too small – from the most senior interactions to the smallest practical tasks.  Leaving me the time & head space required to concentrate solely on my clients,  projects, and teams.  To top it all, she is absolute delight to work with!  No matter what is going on, or how challenging, or stressful things are, she always remains totally positive, and a quick check-in always lifts my spirits.  I don’t know what I’d do without her!   We’ve worked together since August 2018 when she stepped in to provide support to myself and a couple of other Q5 partners, quickly showing that she was super efficient and knew exactly what she was doing – but also settling into a cemented business culture at distance with absolute ease.    It was a no-brainer to increase her support and bring in an extended VA team to support the majority of the partner group.  

John Okten, Partner Q5 Partners, on his VA Vicki

Claire’s been quick to respond to priority requests, proactive about trying to fix my diary weeks ahead, and genuinely has made a huge difference in a relatively short space of time.  

Mark Dunwell, Principal Consultant at Clarasys, on his VA, Claire

 Jules is a top-notch virtual assistant and achieves the impossible in terms of scheduling. A pleasure to work with.  

Tom Gash, MD, Leapwise Advisory on his VA, Jules

Personally Virtual provides professional, adaptable and high level support to our business This has given me back time that I can use to focus on my clients – serving existing and developing new ones. Hence, I am using my time to much better effect. I also appreciate the flexibility and broad range of the service. I am able to call on it as much or little as I need. Their services range from managing client appointments, updating and looking after our CRM, and sending out our regular mailshots. Kathy has also recently supported me directly in delivering services to clients.

Ian Paterson – Executive Coach, on his VA, Kathy

Kathy has just finished helping with some prep work and I am THRILLED with the outcome. She kept me updated throughout on progress, finished well within the timeframe agreed, and the quality of the work was first-rate. I’m so glad I invested in getting support from Kathy on this – she has saved me heaps of time and it was well worth the investment.  

Helen Charles-Edwards, Business Consultant, on working with Kathy

Working with Holly has completely changed my professional life for the better. I am so much more productive with my time, and she is more than just a pass-through/order-taker, she thinks through the logic of the day and week, understands priorities, and proactively works to them. I also don’t stress when Holly is away/on leave, because the holiday cover with the VA team has been pretty seamless.  Before working with Holly I spent significant time in the back-and-forth of diarising, carrying unnecessary cognitive load keeping track of things I no longer need to worry about, and there are definitely things I’m able to do now with time that just wasn’t available before.  

Jen Ladwig, Q5 Partner, on her Personally Virtual VA, Holly

Vicki brings intelligence, energy and proactivity to her VA role. She has great attention to detail and ‘thinks around the corner’ to ensure that schedules and stakeholders are efficiently managed. Her magic is combining this core VA skill set with a great sense of humour and a real care for the wellbeing of the clients she looks after.  

Jen Gramolt, Partner, Q5 Partners on her VA, Vicki

 Fran has been a huge support to me over the last few months.   As my role requires that I travel and am away from my computer for large parts of my working week, she has been invaluable in helping to organise and re-organise future meetings, events and in chasing potential business leads.   She’s also supported in the capture of key contact data for the overall organisation and worked internally to ensure we are properly represented on CMAP.   She is a real pleasure to work with, always looking logically and systematically ahead to manage diaries and events smoothly, working collaboratively across all the team members to get the right results for them and the business.   She’s a great support, who brings order and structure to what we do and a positive ray of sunshine in my working life!  

Annabel Tonge, Q5 Partners, on her VA, Fran

Sam has transformed my working life! My diary used to be a daily struggle for me to manage. Unable to keep on top of meetings it became a common place to frustrate and disappoint people with last minute cancellations and meeting changes. I always felt I was going at 100mph and never had enough time to work and take stock. Sam was able to get on top of my diary fast and with minimal intervention. Sam is really proactive and sorts out conflicts, recurring meetings and any other issues with my diary without me needing to ask. Any queries we usually  sort immediately  over chat.    When hiring a virtual assistant I was a little concerned if this would be as good as the real thing, but if anything it was better! I wake up to a cleaned up diary and a few questions of clarifications which starts my day off right knowing I have a day with a good split of work and meetings and no overlaps in my diary. We talk back and forward on chat most of the day as Sam is always available and if for any reason she isn’t she gives plenty of notice.    Sam in particular is a fantastic VA. She has a very professional and caring manner which means she is able to deal directly with my clients to the point that they often bring up in conversation how great it must be to have such a polite and conscientious  assistant  

Tom Carpenter, Principle Consultant, Clarasys on his VA, Sam

Sam supported me as a virtual PA for about 9 months. In that time my productivity increased significantly as she partnered with me to improve my diary management and streamline many administrative tasks. My calendar is now significantly more organised, prioritised and structured which means my meetings are more effective and I lose less time traveling, preparing etc. I had doubts about whether it was possible for a PA to work effectively whilst being placed remotely, however, Sam’s responsiveness, drive and energy meant it was like being in the same room. No issues with at all with the virtual setup – would undertake this again without hesitation. Finally, Sam is the easiest person in the world to work with. Professional but friendly… driven but calm. She gets the business context of what I was trying to achieve  and this really helps.

Richard Hibbert, Principle Consultant, Clarasys, on his VA Sam

The VA service provided by Sarah was excellent. We set up ways of working in our first meeting and focused on the areas that would make my life  easier from day one. Sarah was always a pleasure to work with, with any communication both timely and seamless. I couldn’t recommend this service enough!

Edward Kemp Sloan, Principal Consultant, Clarasys on his VA, Sarah

Claire has been a great support to me over the last few months. She has been able to adjust and juggle my demands but also accommodate any changes accordingly. We found a really good working rhythm and she was such a pleasure to work with- a very warm bubbly personality.  

Bisha Chakravorty, Principal Consultant, Clarasys, on her VA, Claire

 Having Kathy’s help as a virtual assistant has been tremendous – setting up ways of working and collaboration was very easy and smooth, she was very organised in managing the support I required from her, and proactive in finding solutions to challenges. Her energy, enthusiasm and flexibility have made working with her a real pleasure.  

Lucille Knight, Principle Consultant, Clarasys, on her VA, Kathy

Claire has performed exceptionally well as a fractional Executive Assistant at our Insurtech startup. In particular, her expert orchestration of our company offsite brought together our global team. Meticulous organization, attention to detail, and the seamless execution of this event demonstrated an exceptional ability to manage and streamline large projects with multiple moving parts.

Her contributions go beyond administrative tasks, yet she does excel at the basics of calendar and time management. Her effective communication and interpersonal skills have helped establish our culture and foster an environment of inclusivity and collaboration. We are fortunate to have her on board and hope she can continue to support both our US based CEO and UK based COO into the future.

Dinyar Mistry, COO, Elysian, on his VA, Claire