I Didn't Want to Go to an Office, So I Built a Career Helping People Who Can't Leave Theirs

There's a particular kind of dread that hits on a Sunday evening. You know the one. The weekend isn't over, but your brain is already dreading Monday morning: the commute, the fluorescent lights, the inbox that never empties.

That was me. For years.

I stumbled into becoming a Virtual Assistant. I won't pretend it was some grand plan. I just knew, deep down, that five days a week in an office wasn't for me. So in my late twenties, I made the leap. I dropped my last part-time employed role and went all in. Terrifying? Absolutely. But also the best thing I ever did.

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The Accidental Beginning

Before going fully remote, I worked at a serviced office called Clarendon (now Podium Space) in my mid-twenties. It was there I noticed something: the small business owners around me were brilliant at their craft, whether that was financial advice, mortgage broking, or advocacy work. But the admin? It was quietly killing them.

They didn't need a full-time member of staff. They needed someone flexible, reliable, and capable of jumping in without a lengthy onboarding process. They needed a VA, they just didn't always know it yet.

Those early connections became my first loyal clients. Some of them are still with me today.

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The Irony I've Made Peace With

Here's something that still makes me laugh: I built a career around the freedom of remote work, and yet one of my biggest dreams is to open my own coworking space.

Not a WeWork clone. Something warmer, more affordable, more community-driven. A place where local small business owners can drop in, work alongside each other, and actually feel supported. The kind of space that the Santander Work Cafes are gesturing at, but built with independent businesses front of mind.

I love working from home. But I also know the value of being around other people who get it, the ones building something on their own terms, without a corporate safety net.

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What I've Learned From the Other Side

The business owners I work with, especially mortgage brokers, are often disorganised in ways they haven't fully clocked yet. Not because they're careless. Because they're so busy doing the work, they've never had the headspace to build proper systems around it.

That's where I come in. Not to take over. Not to make them lose control. But to quietly handle the chaos so they can focus on the part of the job they actually love.

Because that's the thing nobody tells you about hiring a VA: it doesn't mean giving up control. It means finally getting it back.

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Why I'm Telling You This

Because if you're reading this with that Sunday-night feeling in your chest, not about your job but about your endless to-do list, I want you to know there's a way through it.

You built your business to have freedom. Let's make sure the admin isn't the thing that takes it away.

And as for me? The dream is still growing. A coworking space one day, maybe. An associate who can carry the work forward when the time is right. But for now, I'm focused on what I love: helping brilliant people get out of their own way.

Get in touch with Alexandria.Works and let's figure out what that looks like for you.