Mastering Executive Support with Amanda Reeves

Welcome, Amanda, to the Wisepreneurs podcast. Could you tell us something about yourself and what you do?

Amanda Reeves: Thanks Nigel. It's great to chat with you. I have been working for over 40 years in office based roles Starting as a junior typist clerk at Gas and Fuel, which of course no longer exists Had 11 years there. Then I had eight years at what was then called Yellow Pages in the marketing department, I learned a lot of skills while I was there and then I moved to a small national company working directly as the PA to the owners and I learned a lot of skills in that time.

So I've carried those skills forward. After 15 years with them, I decided it was time for a change of lifestyle. I haven't actually worked full time for about well over 20, 25 years. And I do like the flexibility. Decided to go out on my own and do freelance admin work. My sister was my first client and I of course still work with her.

We learnt along the way of setting up small businesses. Neither of us had done that before and honestly, the most beneficial, opportunities, were working with women my own age and a bit older. They have the experience, the flexibility, they know where they're heading, and I'm happy that I can provide services that will help them along the way.

Nigel Rawlins: What we call an admin assistant or a virtual assistant. So is it on location?

Amanda Reeves: I don't call myself a virtual assistant really. One of my clients calls me an executive assistant. Another one calls me her assistant, another her admin assistant. So I wear many hats. It basically, it's the same thing. And, more often than not, I work in their home. I've found that the most needing of my services are sole operators.

And, I will work directly in their home with them. And when there's a work overload or things that they need in a hurry, I can do that from my own home. During COVID, my business itself wasn't hugely impacted with the workload because I could work from home and that part is working virtually, but I do the face to face interaction as well.

Nigel Rawlins: We should actually tell everybody where you're based.

Amanda Reeves: Okay, so I'm based in Melbourne and most of my clients are in the southeastern suburbs, but I do have someone in the west and that's easy to travel to hers. Through her though, I ended up, gaining international work. One of her colleagues in Europe is needing assistance. And I started doing some work, virtually for her, she decided though, that because fortunately, my client had talked about me so much and she said, I want an Amanda, and she flew me over to her residence and I set up her home office for her.

So we rejigged everything from furniture to IT setup, and reconfigured filing systems and all sorts of things. So that was a wonderful trip. It was only two weeks. And on the weekends, I got to do a bit of sightseeing as well. So there was an added bonus.

And then I returned to her place during the week and worked throughout the day. So that was very enjoyable. That has been a rarity, but there is talk of hopefully I can head back there sometime next year.

Nigel Rawlins: So you have a client who is in Melbourne as well, and you were doing some work for her. So let's talk about the typical type of work you were doing for her that then led to an international person she knew. Which is like a network. Somebody recommended you to somebody else.

Let's talk about, say, the sort of work you do for that client. We don't need to name the client or anything, but tell us something about the work you do with that client who then recommended you to her friend overseas.

Amanda Reeves: Okay. So knowing Excel and PowerPoint and Word, and other applications very well, we were working together, she would work on her annual report, so I would do the statistical side of things, preparing the data and the graphs, which are then imported into her document.

Other occasions I actually help with her personal expenses and assist preparing her accounts in readiness for her to take them to her own tax accountant. And in fact, I do that with two other clients. I'm not an accounts person, but I can set up systems and do the entries that will prepare things ready for the taxation experts.

Nigel Rawlins: Okay, so for that particular client, about how many hours a week are you providing services for that one?

Amanda Reeves: The international one, you mean?

Nigel Rawlins: No, the one in Australia who recommended you.

Amanda Reeves: That's probably about two days a month, and I do some hours at home as well. It can very much depend on the time of year, which is another part of why I enjoy the variety. Sometimes it can be full on and we booked in several days in a fortnight, and then I may not see her for a few months.

We keep in contact of course because another client might ramp up, she's got conferences and needs assistance in preparing for that. I find that I, need to watch my time and balance everything because I need to meet their needs and also I need to meet my own. For a person to employ you like that, they must be at a fairly senior executive level. Are they working for organizations or are they working for themselves?

The woman who is the international client, she works for an organisation She did have her own business, but she's on contract at the moment with her company. The other clients, they're all actually sole operators they've found that they need the support. The work is still there, but it's beneficial for them to hand across the admin side of things.

Work has certainly changed over the years. And when I first started work, it was manual typewriter and the man would write out the memo, and we would type it up in triplicate with carbon paper. Everything has changed so much. It was a good learning curve. And as technology has advanced, I'm not called on so much to do certain aspects like typing up.

I love speed typing. I can just talk and watch something else as I'm typing, but I don't get the opportunity that much. My main role now is format editing, not editing of the text per se and creating the graphics that go into the documents and also in, into websites.

So each of the clients I've got, I assist them with their website, social media and do postings, that type of thing. All little things. They may seem like little things and they are in their own way. But the time adds up, and if I can take that extra little bit of workload off them, that's where I feel I earn my keep, because they can then concentrate.

Two of my clients are consultants with their own firms, and they deal with people at a high level. Others have had their own psychology practices, and I help them with their websites and eBooks, general admin type of things. So it does depend on what the client's needs are. The company who I worked with for 15 years, I didn't sever the ties with them.

When I first left, I was looking after the direct marketing side of their business. We did that for about five years, but their business needs have changed over that time as well. Everyone evolves as the technology evolves and you need to work with it. You need to move with it and be aware of the best way to get things done for the client.

Nigel Rawlins: So it sounds like what you're doing is you're relieving your clients of the admin stuff that they don't want to do, but needs to be done. And some of that is marketing as well. So how do you keep yourself up to date with, say, social media and what to do and websites?

Amanda Reeves: It's a bit of learn as I go. I have someone like yourself who I call my IT guru and I pick up different things. Some software things I have tried and I don't like using it, or it can take quite a lot of time. With the accounts side of things, I've tried two different ones, and actually find that for the age of my clients as well, the easiest is to remain using an Excel spreadsheet, because I can enter things. Then they can take over what they want to, they'll check everything that I've put in. And that, in fact, is how their own accountants prefer.

One of my clients might be trialling something. Other times I will be with the client and I'll just automatically go to, say Evernote for instance, which I think you put me on to, Nigel. I love using it. I've tried to instill the benefits with my clients, but they have their own systems, and that's fine too.

So we're still using manual systems as well as online systems, and that's where it comes in where I go to their homes in an attempt to get things sorted there.

Nigel Rawlins: Okay, so let's go into that sorting out. If you start with a client and they're obviously nearby for you to be able to travel to, do they ask you to sort out their systems to start with or just get stuck straight into something? And if you do have to sort out their systems, what does that actually mean?

Amanda Reeves: Generally they've got some sort of system in place already, but the paperwork side of it has got a bit out of hand. So it can be, pretty much getting stuck straight in to sort things both, on their computer and the physical paperwork. I do find whilst people are printing less and less, there is still the inevitable paper trail.

I'll have a look at their systems and suggest different ways, not necessarily better. They may not think it's better initially. But different systems that I feel comfortable with. Which to me is logical. I'm more of a logical person. And I don't try to pretend to understand all of their business and vice versa.

So often they will just leave me to it, take it on board, if they don't like how things are being set up, that's fine to let me know and we'll work another way. And interestingly, Nigel, almost all, not all, but almost all of my clients are mature aged women.

Mostly sole operators or have a small staff. And as we talked about earlier, there is the need for admin still to be done.

And I enjoy it. I like starting something. I like organizing systems, getting stuck in and I love to finish. As I mentioned, my sister was my first client and we still continue to work together.

We have different working styles and we have a bit of a laugh from time to time. Because she knows that I like to dot every I. And make sure everything's finished and she'll say no, for this moment, that's fine, so we do have a bit of a laugh with our working styles, but that's why we're both there and we work together.

Nigel Rawlins: It sounds like you're complementary to the people you work with. So do you prefer working with women

Amanda Reeves: Actually, I'm happy to work with both. It just happens that, they're my clientele now. I've worked with both men and women, all different levels through to Senior Executives. What I have found though, Nigel, and I find this quite interesting.

I did try some marketing and created my own flyer when I was first starting out, how am I going to find clients? All of them have been through referrals, which I'm happy about because one, there's the connection, and they might be friends of each other and therefore I've come into their confidants.

Nigel Rawlins: So in other words, most of your work comes from referrals, because the people you work with are very confident with your work and then their friends want to hire you. How much more work can you actually take on?

Amanda Reeves: I have had clients in the past who have been a one off, which is fine if they need something done urgently, but then of course they have to depend on my availability. And my first loyalty is to my existing clients. I'm comfortable in the amount of work that I'm doing at the moment. Always happy though to talk to new people. For instance, my international client, I won't hear from her for weeks at a time, maybe a couple of months. And I'll get an email, Oh, Amanda, I've got XYZ to get done. And it might be working on a PowerPoint presentation for her.

It might be looking after her family's accounts. And that just slots in. So there's always availability. One of my clients, I've done many hours with her recently because she was the guest moderator of a international conference.

So there were a lot of hours required for that. Now that conference has been and gone, the hours will change. So yes, I do have the capacity to take on new people. I do probably prefer, where I can build the relationship and be ongoing. And the way that I work my rates is that regular clients get a more complimentary rate than if it was a one off person.

Nigel Rawlins: Which is quite sensible, I think. Okay, so tell me about a typical week.

Amanda Reeves: Typical week is mostly pre booked. My three most regular clients will book me in advance. One of them, I'm usually with her in her home on a Monday. Occasionally that changes. Another client prefers say Thursdays or Fridays or Tuesdays. Having worked with my sister who, I live around the corner from her, which has been very beneficial. She's about to move into a suburb closer to the city. That will require a little bit of travel time but that's okay too. So flexibility is probably the key. I might not have, days booked, but there's always my sister's business and personal tax lurking in the background to get out of the way.

There's always something to do. I did try to make it that it was I was working four days a week and leading up to my recent holiday, that wasn't the case. I was working more hours. I also choose to, when there's a federal or state election or referendum, I block my couple of weeks out from that because I like to work in pre polling.

And, post counting just as a variety. Mostly I'm working one on one with people. So when I do the election work, which of course is only every few years. I'm dealing with a lot of people. So that's a good balance. After I finish the election, I'm thinking, oh boy, I'm glad I'm mostly a one on one type of business.

It does take a bit out of you. But having always been in that support type of role, most recently, one of my clients was part of a Melbourne committee to have a Asia Pacific International Conference. And she asked me along to be the support for her, and I'm thinking, I don't know if I'll be able to help that much. They did say that the things that I was doing, let them focus on the actual conference. And she noticed that conference delegates were coming directly to me to follow up on different things, which I was pleased about.

Here's a little example, an American lady who's based in Beijing. She had a, an important, presentation, but wasn't familiar with setting up for Australian internet services. So I sorted that for her. Another accidentally left her wireless headphones on the plane, and she was concerned when she rang the airline that because of her accent, they wouldn't be able to understand her.

So I took over that, unfortunately, we never heard back from the airline. So someone's wearing some very nice wireless headphones, courtesy of her. But it wasn't a lot. I didn't feel that I contributed a huge amount and of course took photos and that sort of thing.

But at the end of the conference, all the delegates stood up and applauded me, which blew me away. And that was very nice.

Nigel Rawlins: I think you underestimated your presence. Often, by being there, they know that if they've got a problem, there's someone there to help them. And you helped some, the others were aware that you were there, but they didn't need your help. But had they needed your help, you were there.

So I think you find that they appreciated you.

It's funny how those invisible things occur. So how do your clients book your time?

Amanda Reeves: I have got a website, mandarey. com. au that's M A N D E R E Y and my business name, Mandarey is obviously part of Amanda and the Ray part is a part of my mother's maiden name I joined the two, and originally I just had Mandarey. But added the admin services, Manderey admin services, so that it was clearer, what I do.

Which was in large part, to your suggestion, Nigel, because I was wearing several hats. But, where I found I could be the most beneficial to clients is the admin side of things. So mandarey. com. au it's a simple website that doesn't have a huge number of pages.

It's got some examples of the types of work that I've done, but most importantly, there's a contact form where people can fill in their details and state what they're looking for, and the inquiry will come to me and I'll get back straight back to them.

Nigel Rawlins: I'm thinking we might need to add a calendar there so for your clients, they can book in and if they want some extra time, they can see when you're free. So you've got client work during the week. Where do you get time to run your own business? Because there's doing work for clients. See, this is the freelancer's dilemma.

And your clients, obviously, so want to do their client work, and they don't want to do the admin work and the business side of it. But you're running a business. As well as doing client work. So tell me about how you run your actual business.

Amanda Reeves: Yes, that tends to take second place I find. I'm quite happy to work of an evening. Try not to on weekends. My husband retired last year, fortunately taken up most of the cooking in our household, which is fantastic. So I can work into the evening if I need to.

Most recently, recently, the second bedroom is now my office. Reorganizing my own , office, there are still some things to do, but it's generally set up now.

And, probably the most important aspect is a reliable internet connection.

With my business it is important that I set up my own quiet time as I call it, so that I can, focus on getting my own admin work done. I have found over the years that I haven't needed to focus on the marketing side of things. Because clients have come to me, whereas in, in the beginning having, earned a salary and now I was generating my own business.

I did look at and tried various marketing things, but once word got out in inverted commas or quotes, people started contacting me. I have had clients that were short term and in fact I did some work with the financial advisor for about a year And he's just come back to me recently.

I haven't worked with him for a couple of years because I set up his website and he just needs some editing and I'm happy to do that sort of thing. Keep in contact. It's only minor adjustments. So I slot them in, but for my own work, yes, that's probably the most challenging part.

I'm so eager to meet people's own needs and keep my clients happy that my own work tends to fall through the cracks a little bit.

Nigel Rawlins: It's interesting, in terms of word of mouth clients. I look after about 18 websites for clients and most of them do get work through word of mouth or reputation and stuff like that. So the website's mainly there just to give yourself a presence.

And as I said, with most of my websites I look after, there's only so much capacity that you've got that you can actually provide. So for example, one of my bigger clients, is a builder, I don't always work with professional women, but the client's wife is the one I work with.

She's the professional. They do such big jobs that they only need several clients a year as a builder.. And we're talking several hundred thousand dollars a job up to over a million. So even though they're a fairly big company, there's only so much capacity they've got. So the website helps branding them as a particular type of business. So yeah, in terms of your website, it's just there for people to check, yep, here's the presence, here's what they do, this person's real, and then I might contact them.

Amanda Reeves: I've also found, Nigel, that because of the conferences that my clients have been co running, I did have a lot more hits on my website and through LinkedIn. So they're hearing my name, and just want to check who is this person. It's interesting. Each of my clients work in different fields. So I've been learning a bit about their own field, along the way, so it makes my work more interesting.

The company who I was with for the longest, most recently, they're wanting me to head back into their office just to sort some, archiving of records and get some files and that sorted. So I still have the contact with them.

Nigel Rawlins: That's good. You've got a good mix of clients. Your previous employer still comes back to you occasionally to get work done and people you've worked with in the past come back to you. That's excellent. One of the people I interviewed recently was Alison Grade, who wrote the book, The Freelance Bible, and she's a freelancer.

And she was saying that she cannot spend all her time doing client work. Otherwise, she can't get her business running properly and that, that's a dilemma that most freelancers have. They forget, they can't just all do client work. They have to make sure the accounts are done, the bills are paid, that the computer's up to date all of that sort of stuff.

All right, have you got anything else you'd like to add?

Amanda Reeves: There is one other. What I did find, because of the age group that I'm in, when I first started working from home, some older friends thought, Oh, she's home, I'll drop in for a cup of tea, and think that my availability is pretty open. But it is a discipline when you work from home.

I probably work out of my home more than in my home, and that's fine. But now friends have realized over the last few years that I am still in the workforce, I need to be available to get my work done. So that's just been an interesting point.

Nigel Rawlins: The freelance economy apparently is going gangbusters now. There's millions of people doing that. So I think it's now been accepted to be a freelancer, whereas in the past, people were a bit confused about it. But it's definitely a growing thing. As you can see with all your clients, you could say that they are freelance consultants or self employed consultants.

I think the word freelancer and freelance is being used a lot more and it's the accepted term. Thank you, Amanda. This has been great listening to how you support freelancers out there, being a freelancer yourself and complimenting them. That's fabulous. Thank you for joining me.

Amanda Reeves: Thanks, Nigel. It's been a pleasure.