Meet Kathie M. Thomas Of A Clayton’s Secretary

My guest today is Kathie M. Thomas. She runs a successful business called ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’, a virtual assistance company. Kathie started her business in 1994. She started running a virtual assistance business from home, even before the term ‘virtual assistant’ was coined. Today, her business has grown leaps and bounds – She has a whole team working with her – And apart from providing virtual assistance, her company also runs a support network for other virtual assistants. Read and be Inspired by her business success story !!!

Tell us about your business – ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’?

Basically it began as a sole operator home based secretarial business that has grown into a network of mainly women doing the same. These days we’re called Virtual Assistants rather than home based secretaries.

You started your business way back in 1994. How did you get the idea for this business – Back then, was it hard to find clients – I am assuming that you probably had to educate the clients of what you do – Tell us a bit about your early days ?

Long story I’ll try to make short. Picture this: 1993, life is crazy. My husband and I had shifted from Adelaide to Melbourne and had no family or friends here. We found a babysitting club but of course that didn’t work too well if the kids were sick. I was in a corporate job, as was my husband. We had 5 young daughters all in jnr & primary school.

I hated hearing a little voice saying ‘mummy, I don’t feel well’ because I didn’t know who to turn to for help. That same year, by some miracle, I won ‘Secretary of the Year’ for Victoria and was the National runner-up. Microsoft was one of the prize sponsors and I received the full MS Office 2.0 suite amongst other things. I couldn’t use it at work and I said to my husband, ‘if only I had a computer at home…’ It as as though speaking it out loud seeded a thought and less than 6 months later I had left my corporate job and was working at home!

We bought our first PC and I just told anybody and everybody I was going to work from home. My first client came through my church and he told someone else and then someone else who knew me told others and it grew from there. Networking and word-of-mouth – amazing but those things still work today. In those days I had to fight the stigma of ‘home based businesses being backyarders so they had to be shonky’ to today teaching people that Virtual Assistants are not $4 an hour employees from another country.

We actually live here in Australia and work for Australian rates providing a very wide range of services. The networking and word-of-mouth is now done both online and offline and of course we have other mediums to promote our businesses now.

You run a very successful business – have received numerous awards – and wide media coverage. If you had to pick one thing that made you so successful in your business, what would that be?

Not an easy question to answer in some ways and yet in others… I think my desire and need to be home for my family kept me motivated. Just today I was have a ‘dance card’ with a fellow member from BNI and he said twice to me that what he liked about me was my enthusiasm and that I bubbled up. I still love today what I loved back then over 16 years ago – being home for my family using skills I have honed and doing work I love.

In your experience what are a couple of most common mistakes new virtual assistants make?

One would be thinking that all their clients will come from online and mainly via a website or networking site. The reality is they have to do what all business owners do – network, network and network some more. It’s no use registering with VA networks and other business type networks and then sit back waiting for the work to come – it won’t happen that way.

What I mean is that won’t be their only source of business and while the networks do work they shouldn’t depend on them for bringing in work overnight – it takes time. So they need to be prepared to seek several sources for finding clients.

Another mistake is seeing themselves as an employee. They’re not, they’re a business owner and they need to shift that mindset quickly. You know I’ve written a number of blog posts on mistakes VAs make – so far there are 21 entries in that category. http://vadirectory.net/blog/category/mistakes-vas-make/

What are your predictions for the virtual assistant industry – Do you see a lot of growth ahead – Is this just the beginning?

Predictions – could be anyone’s guess really. Growth? Yes, that’s happening and yes we’re still in the early stages of the industry. I’d say we have passed the infant years and are probably more in the teen years. Co-incidentally the industry is around 14-15 years of age. Not yet reached maturity but on its way. Business people are still finding out about us and it’s funny, but I still get phonecalls or emails from people (mainly women) who tell me they had this idea and then discovered that many were already doing it, or that they had been doing VA work for a few years but didn’t know they were called Virtual Assistants.

What is the best piece of business advice you have ever received?

When things are really tough going and seem to be at its darkest, the light is just around the next corner. Many people give up just when they’re actually making progress. I’ve nearly done it – twice.

Finally, your five keys to success?

1. Well, I’ve already said networking – I cannot emphasise that enough. I don’t care how busy anyone is right now, that does not stay that way forever so you should never stop networking and promoting your business.
2. Care about people – be genuinely interested in them. Whether or not they want your services or products, they will tell others about you if you make the right impression.
3. Set goals and have them written out and visible in front of you on a daily basis.
4. Be prepared to give back to community. I make it a habit of having at least one volunteer project a year – it might be hosting and maintaining a website, being on a committee for something or maybe something else, but it’s always important to give back.
5. If you don’t have time – for anything, then it’s time to assess where your time is going. We all have the same 24 hours a day, it’s what we do with them that counts. This kind of ties in with number two – I like to make sure I have time for people and most of all my family which is why I work from home.

Sites Of Interest

http://www.vadirectory.net

This interview was published on 21st July 2010


Visit Kathie”s website to get more information about her business


To read more stories about women in the virtual assistance industry click Virtual Assistants