In this episode, we welcome Rachel from Pink Spaghetti PA Services, Nantwich, and Crewe. The extra pair of hands are business needs and the 25th hour in the day. Hi, Rachel, thank you for joining me.
Hi, thank you very much for having me.
So, tell me, what are virtual assistants and how does it work?
So, like you've just said, we aim to be the 25th hour in your day and the extra pair of hands for your business. So essentially, we're remote partners, business support, so we can handle a wide range of tasks and offer greater flexibility to small business owners. So, for me it starts with getting to know the client, their business, what drives them and what their real struggle is. I care about their business and their lives, and I want to make a positive impact on them to give them more time and more flexibility to either grow their business or be with their family. So, we like say we can do a wide range of tasks. So, anything from managing emails, organising schedules, handling social media, research tasks, travel, a wide range of different things.
Is there anything that you can't do when it comes to the virtual assistant side of things?
There might be something that me personally can't do, but we have a franchise network of over 50 franchisees and in the network, there will always be someone that can either help me complete the task or we do off of cross franchise where someone else in the business we would refer it onto them. So, if it's sort of something like bit more tech based, that's not necessarily my area of expertise but we have got people in the business, and they would in the franchise and they would be able to take it on and help.
So, if they were working with you, it's not just you that they get.
Yes, definitely. So, we are a local business. I am based in Alsager, and we work with a range of businesses across Nantwich, Crewe and other surrounding areas. But yes, we have that huge network available. So, it's not just my expertise, it's the expertise of the whole network that's really good.
So, what made you start this work that you do now? What's your background?
So, I always have quite a diverse background. I've done quite a lot of different roles. I started my career in travel, so I worked in retail travel at first and then made the move into business travel. So that was booking hotels, flights, etc. For other busy business owners and then moved into event management. So that's given me quite a good back background in the ins and outs of planning, coordination, schedules, logistics, that kind of thing which I really enjoyed the event plan. Inside of it was a big passion of mine and I really enjoyed it. I then decided to make the move and settle my own business into personal training. So, I had a fitness business, I lost quite a lot of weight myself, so it was kind of a passion of mine to help others do what I'd done, and to have my own business as well through that. Again, it's a lot of organisation and discipline and supporting others which again I really enjoyed. and then I had my two little girls, so I've got two girls, and I made the decision to stay at home with them. So, I spent five years at home. But whilst I was doing that, I set up a parenting blog and did all the social media. So that gave me so content creation, building an online presence, engagement which again became a real passion. I really enjoyed it, and I managed to work with some really good brands to create content for them. So then when my youngest went to school or was due to start school, I had a kind of moment where I sort of thought, right, what can I do? And that's when I found pink spaghetti. And it just felt like a really natural fit for me where I could use all the skills that I'd learned from the different areas that I've been in previously. I could use those skills to support other business owners and help people like me that are juggling family and other commitments but still want to grow as a successful business. So, it's a passion to be able to give them time back to spend it with their families if that's what they want to do or if it is going out there and growing their business.
This really resonates with me. I do see a lot of what you're saying in myself having those really varied skills that wouldn't necessarily on paper fit together, but it's just things you've naturally learned along the way. The phrase always comes to mind when I try and describe myself and it comes across quite negative with Jack of all trades. But then everyone always says master of none. But having a multi-talented person who maybe isn't the absolute top person in that one particular thing can be really valuable because you can turn your hand to everything, you're really knowledgeable about lots of different things. Is this the sort of work that somebody like a jack of all trades in a positive sense would be really good at?
Yes, definitely. And I think some of the tasks anybody probably could do them. But again, it is that time that people haven't got and There are areas of specific expertise, things like social media. actually, getting the engagement and getting the leads from social media is a skill in itself, but anybody can post and does post and social media. So, yeah, I think it probably is a little bit like that.
What sort of businesses have you worked with so far?
So, across the network we have worked with a massive variety of businesses, across all different sectors. For me, recently, I've worked with some local shops and restaurants, business and lifestyle coaches, physiotherapists. So, it's quite a diverse selection from all different sectors and it means that we can tailor our services to match their needs. And the work that I'm doing is really varied them because you're learning more about a multitude of different services and businesses and people.
So, it's applicable for literally any type of business?
Pretty much, yes. Yeah, I'd say it is. Small businesses are my passion. Supporting those smaller businesses that can't afford to go out and hire an admin person, a social media person or even one of the bigger social media management companies, it's giving them that experience and expertise without necessarily the huge cost and overheads.
So, the more businesses that you work with would benefit other businesses that you work with because you're learning things from all of them.
Definitely, yeah. I think when you're working with a client, you're learning as much as you can about their business, but also their sort of struggles in their pain points and what they do struggle with. And then that helps us work with other business owners to help them if they're suffering with the same issues. And whether it's just putting some processes in place or whether it's completely taking that off their plate. Could be something as simple as they just need someone to come in and detox their emails, or it could be that they need someone to look after their emails for them completely. So, our services are completely tailored to the client, and we learn from all of our different clients in terms of what the big struggles are. For me, at the moment, most people come to me and its social media, the time it takes to create content, engage, etc. So that's where I'm sort of looking to work with businesses is with social media because it is a big struggle for. For small business owners, things move really.
Quickly with social media as well. There's a lot to keep on top of and once you learn one thing.
The next week it's changed 100%. Yeah, they are always throwing you things out across social media platforms, and it is really difficult to keep up. And that's where we come in. You know we have our wonderful head office team will send things out or the franchisees will say, is anyone seeing this? This looks like this is changing. So, we're always on top of that in the franchise.
How would you best describe you in a business? Would you say that you were an add on? What would you say your terminology would be? Well, you’re a service.
Yeah, yeah, a business support service. So, the 25th hour in your day is our ah, big strap line. That's what we want to put ourselves out there as it gives small business owners that extra bit of time in their day, whether it is to go out, network in, build their business or whether it is to sit and be able to have an hour of me time. Yeah, so yeah, that's our sort of small business support. Try and be your 25th hour in the day.
And whereas some companies may want to bring that in house, they will get a great person, I'm sure. But they would also have to deal with all the payroll for that person, the training, providing them with a space in their office, if that was applicable, dealing with holidays and sickness and everything that goes around it, we can't get away from that completely and everyone needs that flexibility. However, with your service they don't have to worry about that.
Definitely. Exactly. That's exactly it. We are completely flexible, and everything is completely tailored, and we charge the time, a task tape. So, you don't have that need to have somebody in house. You're not paying out a salary all of the time, which like you say you're never going to get away from that completely because certain businesses will need it. But if you are a small business owner and you just want an hour a week for someone to go on and cheque your social media or as I say before, just detox your emails, that's something that we can do. And then it might be another task, another task or we can do however many hours in a month that you need on your complete social media content, creating engagement or consistently checking your emails, booking and appointments and that kind of things. So, it gives them the flexibility and completely tailored service.
Do you think that businesses are becoming a bit more open minded to approaching the tasks that you look after in this way?
Absolutely, yeah. I think with the rise of remote work and all the different technologies, it's becoming much easier to have that virtual assistant rather than necessarily having somebody in house, which it isn't always practical, especially for the sort of small businesses that we work with it gives them the support without the overheads, they've got the flexibility, cost savings. And also like I say, it gives them the freedom to sort of scale up or scale down when they need to. So, if they're particularly busy and they need some help just for a month, that's fine, we can do that. And then if it tailors down, we can tailor down our services, so it gives them complete flexibility that's really useful.
Especially during different times of the year. If somebody's really busying the summer or they, the Christmas period, they can just like a tap, really turn it on and off or drip feed it depending on what they've got going on in their business.
Definitely. And even things like holiday cover. I am client the other day and they're going away next year for three weeks, they're like, well what can I do about my emails? So even that, you know, they don't need someone all the time, they potentially just need someone for that month. So that's the flexibility. They don't have to hire someone, they can just have us, us do it for them.
Mmm and I think there's a lot of value there that people won't necessarily immediately think of the fact that somebody's going on holiday. They need their emails covering. Not only does that mean that their business is looked after while they're on holiday, but they're getting quality time with their family and they're not going be sat on a sun lounger checking the phone, doing emails, doing calls because that's not a holiday.
Definitely, like I say, that is our big passion is giving them that time. And whether that is, you know, like you say when you're on holiday you don't want to be checking your emails and having to respond. And if there's something urgent then you. We understand that somebody's business is their baby. So, if there is something urgent, we can then get to them and say we really need your help to deal with this. But the mundane emails that come in every day, there can be a response that goes back and there's somebody there to deal with it for them.
If anyone's listen to this thinking this sounds like something that I could do with or I could try. Where would they start?
So, you can look at the Pink Spaghetti website and that has got all of our contact details on. So, you can search for Pink Spaghetti Nantwich and Crewe and that would bring me up. Or you can find me on social media. So, I'm on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or drop me an email, which is rachel.calter@pink-spaghetti.co.uk
Do you do, like, a free consultation?
We can book in a discovery call. We can either do that in person locally or over, video call. And that's a free consultation. We would discuss where we could help them out in their business.
Thank you so much for your time today, Rachel, and best of luck with your new clients. A really good business model and I can see why they've been so successful and they're very lucky to have you on board.
Thank you very much for having me on. I've really enjoyed it.
Thank you.
