The pay-as-you-go PA

How often do you find yourself thinking 'if only someone could just sort out this project/research/mess'? To get an agency temp in can be tricky - it's the luck of the draw that the person who turns up on your doorstep is the right person for you. Plus you've got to sign up with the agency in the first place, and who has time for that? You need the job done now.

Or, perhaps you'd like to try using a freelance admin person, but think you will need to commit to a certain number of hours to retain their services.

I've said it before: we generally love doing what we are good at, and are good at what we love doing. Most SMEs started their businesses to get paid doing what they enjoy. However, in any business there are tasks that are less than fun. Bringing in someone to handle your administrative bits and pieces makes good business sense! Not only that, but it could actually improve the quality of your life. What could you be doing with that spare hour or two a week? Selling more? Networking? Having lunch with your son at his school?

I make it easy. I'm the pay-as-you-go PA. Whenever you need a bit of help, I can be there for you. Even if it's just for an hour. I've got nearly 20 years of experience working in offices of all shapes and sizes, from major corporations to sole traders' spare rooms. I've seen it all and done it all! I'm here to help you focus on the things that are most important and enjoyable to you.

Why don't you let me buy you a coffee, and we can have a chat about what you need? Or just give me a ring, or drop me an email if you need help straight away. I promise I can make it better!



Kate Beardmore runs Your Ad Hoc PA, an as-needed PA service for businesses and individuals. Visit her website at http://youradhocpa.com

Do what you do best

I can't wallpaper. I cannot. I'm not good at measuring or drawing straight lines. Decorating, yes - I'm very good at that! But wallpapering - I'd definitely hire someone to do this job for me.

What are you good at? Are you good at cold calling? On average, if you spend an hour cold calling, what's your potential return? £100? £1000? At any rate, it must be more than £15-20. Which is what you'd pay me to be doing your admin, updating your website and your contacts database, and making follow up calls to your clients.

Are you a trainer? Wouldn't your time be better served designing a white hot new programme than organising your venues and training materials? I've been organising training events for the last five years, so I can definitely help you there.

By taking over your day-to-day administrative tasks, I can help you become a better, more productive person, and free you up to focus on what you enjoy doing most.

We love doing what we are good at, and we are good at what we love doing. In order to achieve your best quality of life, your work should be focused around doing what you love to do!

Leave the rest to me.



Your Ad Hoc PA provides personal outsourcing services in and around Portsmouth. Please visit our website to learn more.

More personal personal assistance

I am a helpful soul. It's just what I'm like and what I do. When someone says, 'I have this problem,' I work to find a way to solve it. It's my default setting.

Over the past few weeks, as I've been networking to get Your Ad Hoc PA up and running, I've made a lot of new contacts. Among them are a great many who are, for one reason or another, on their own. Most are running their own businesses and working all hours to market them. Given that a day is just 24 hours long, and most of that is taken up with working, travelling and sleeping, it's a wonder anyone gets anything else done at all.

To help you out, I now offer a personal cleaning and shopping package. For the basic fee of £100 a month (for a single person living within 20 miles of Fareham), once a week I'll do your grocery shopping and basic cleaning (tidy, dust, hoover). Wouldn't it be nice to come home to a clean house and a well-stocked fridge?

Additional services such as cooking, deeper cleaning, errand running, etc., can be added on. I also offer an 'emergency callout' service whereby if you are really stuck, I'll come and rescue you - this includes callouts of the 'I've-had-a-really-crap-day-can-you-bring-me-some-vodka-please?' variety.

I'm detail orientated and everything will be done to your exact specifications, which we'd discuss in detail in advance. I'm discreet and it's a totally confidential service. I'm also fully insured with public liability cover.

I'm here to help you. Consider Your Ad Hoc PA as 'life support' for your home!


Your Ad Hoc PA provides as needed personal assistant services in and around Portsmouth. Please visit my website to learn more.

Not posh enough for a PA?

Recently, I had to run a friend home during the day so that she could collect something. When we walked in to her typical suburban home, we ran straight into the cleaner, who was on her way out. After the cleaner had gone, my friend told me that she and her husband had taken on a cleaner because neither of them had the time to keep the house to the standard they preferred it to be, and that the £60 they paid out each month was more than worth it. The time it saved them, and the result of a lovely, clean house, added more than £60 worth of quality to their lives.

This episode gave me pause for thought. Not so long ago, it was thought that only rich people had cleaners, that all the rest of us poor sods had to sort everything out ourselves. Now, things have changed dramatically. With most households consisting of two breadwinners, and perhaps a child or three, the world is now full of very busy people.

As people begin to put a value on their own personal time, the idea of having outside help is more and more commonplace. Those that engage as-needed help realise that with the hours the cleaner/dog walker/personal assistant can give them, they could be doing something far more profitable - be that on an emotional or professional level.

The term 'personal assistant' seems to conjure up two very distinct images. On one hand, you have the executive PA, someone who looks after all the needs of his or her boss, from travel to gift buying and all necessary secretarial tasks. On the other hand, you have the image of the PA to Madonna, or Katie Price - long suffering arrangers and re-arrangers of every last travel, personal and professional detail. These two distinct 'PA pictures' have one thing in common - they are both associated with some degree of wealth.

Fortunately, having a lot of money is no longer a prerequisite for having a PA. An ad hoc PA can handle a multitude of tasks for you, thus freeing you up for the finer things of life or work. For £15-£20 an hour, a freelance assistant can run your errands, update your business Twitter and Facebook accounts, book travel or dining reservations, type letters, do research, buy and wrap a special gift - the list is endless, and is simply down to whatever you might need on any given day.

You may only need a PA a few hours a month or week, or for several days in a row. Thus is the beauty of an ad hoc, self-employed PA. With the gift of time given to you by your ad hoc PA, you could be doing something that brings you more money, spending more time with your family, or brainstorming about your business or marketing plan.

Time is precious! An ad hoc PA can put more hours in your day so you can focus on other things. What a small price to pay to improve your own quality of life and personal effectiveness!

Your Ad Hoc PA provides personal outsourcing services in and around Portsmouth. Please visit my website to learn more.