Ten questions with ex-teacher turned VA, Martha Kilner

Martha Kilner lives in NE London with her husband and three children. She started her Virtual Assistant business, Any Other Business, in January 2024 after facing redundancy twice in the education sector. A primary school teacher for 20 years, Martha now supports education-focused clients and has even appeared in Business Insider and on the BBC!

This interview is part of my ‘Ten Questions With’ video series, where I talk to working Virtual Assistants to find out more about their business.

You’ll find the full (and hugely inspirational) video recording below, along with some written key highlights.

As the interview contained so much inspiration and valuable advice, for the sake of brevity, some of Martha’s answers have been edited down and a few filler words removed.

Q1 – Who are you? Tell me about yourself and your business

I’m Martha, and my business is called Any Other Business, which is the last agenda item on a meeting, and it’s also my children’s initials – AOB.

I’m based in North East London. I started my business in January 2024 and mainly work in the education arena with consultants, coaches, charities, and a marketing agency.

Q2 – What did you do before becoming a Virtual Assistant?

I was a primary school teacher on and off for 20 years. I was an it consultant in schools and in Hackney. I left there in 2021 and did some marketing for schools.

After that, I worked for an ed-tech company and then for another tech company. But sadly, I was made redundant from both of those. On New Year’s Eve, I was wearing a blindfold and playing a game, and it kind of summed up how I felt about the start of the year – completely blindfolded.

I didn’t know what was ahead of me, but somebody had said, “You know you’ve got so many skills, why not be a VA”? So I decided to give it a go.

Q3 – What was your biggest fear around setting up your Virtual Assistant business?

Unless you have clients, you don’t have a business, so my main fear was about getting clients and worrying about how I was going to find people.

I was confident in my skills but knew that I had to be able to get somebody to buy my time in order for me to be able to use those skills.

So I read everything I could on the VA Handbook website and joined the VA Handbookers group and read absolutely everything I could.

Q4 – How has your life changed since you became a Virtual Assistant?

I was very unhappy and stressed as a teacher and very busy, exhausted, and burnt out. I had sort of lost my joy in life and was too overwhelmed really to live properly.

I was having heart palpitations, and my hair was falling out. So lots of physical signs of stress that were really taking their toll on me. And now the opposite is true. I’m in really good health. I have a walk every single day.

As a teacher, I worked 50 to 60 hours a week, and now I do 30 hours a week. I also earn more money than when I was a teacher.

This week, I also had the opportunity to be on the BBC to discuss what remote working is like and the benefits of remote working on family life. Plus, other opportunities like being in Business Inside Magazine. Talking to journalists is something that I wasn’t doing when I was a teacher!

Q5 – What is the best thing about being a Virtual Assistant?

I genuinely love doing the job. I love doing client work and I love working with my clients. They’re so grateful, so thankful all of the time. They really make me feel like an important part of their business.

So I think the most rewarding part is just feeling that what I do is important and valuable, and helps people.

Q6 – What is the most challenging part of working for yourself?

I think because I’m at home, I might just go and grab my laptop and start doing work on something. If I’ve got a bit of time, I think, “Oh, I’ll just get on camera and make some socials,” and I think if I didn’t work for myself, I probably wouldn’t pick up the laptop as often as I do.

So, I think I’m guilty of thinking about my business a lot. But actually, because I like it, I’m not that good at sitting still and switching off.

Q7 – How do you get your clients?

The first one was an ex-colleague, and then most of my clients have been through LinkedIn referrals. So people who know me and have referred me. One was through Instagram, but it’s primarily just through LinkedIn and through talking about it.

When I’ve recruited associates, it’s through the Growth Hub.

You get to find out who’s doing accounting, who loves doing social media, who doesn’t love doing social media. So I’ve definitely got people on my radar who I’m going to call upon when I want to be able to outsource, and it’s just nice and sociable and chatty. It’s nice. It’s fun.

Q8 – What do you wish you had known before starting out?

There were a couple of times early on when I just did things because I thought I should be doing them, but it didn’t quite feel right, and then, a few months later, I realised I should have just trusted my gut.

Q9 – How do you maintain a work-life balance?

Compared to being a teacher, I definitely have a work-life balance. Obviously my life is still very busy – I still have children. But I’ve capped my hours and haven’t gone above 30 hours to make sure that I’m not doing too much.

I have quite a few social times during the week.

I might meet up with a friend, and I do the Growth Hub coworking sessions, which are really sociable. My husband works from home on Fridays, and I have a friend who comes to my house on Thursdays and works.

I feel like I see a lot of people now, whereas before, when I was a teacher, I would work constantly. I didn’t really feel like I was able to connect with people properly, whereas now I feel like I see the people who I want to see, and I definitely have more balance.

Q10 – What advice would you give to anyone considering becoming a Virtual Assistant?

Definitely read everything on your website, read everything in the VA Handbookers Facebook group and chat to other VAs.

I met with another VA before I started anything, and she’d said that she was fully booked and had associates within 18 months. And I was like, “Wow, if I could just get one or two clients, that would be amazing”.

But she really gave me the confidence. She just said, “Just do it, you know, just try”.

Additional resources

• • As you heard in the interview, Martha is in my VA Growth Hub membership group and uses the coworking sessions to find out what other members specialise in so she can hire them as associates.
  • Read and watch more VA interviews by selecting the interview category in the sidebar.
  • I have a post on FAQs about becoming a Virtual Assistant if you are interested in setting up your own VA business and want more information.

Ready to set up your VA business? If you were inspired by Martha’s story, stop reading and start doing by enrolling in my DIY VA course. With lifetime access and an incredible trainee-only support group, I guide you through the entire process and do everything to help you succeed. You can even pay in instalments. FIND OUT MORE

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