blueumbrella comes of age!
By Jill Hughes, Founder of blueumbrella Virtual Assistants
It’s a very special birthday for blueumbrella - it’s 21 years old! I launched the business on 1st March 2001 when the internet was still in its infancy.
To put this into historical context, it was only two years after the launch of Google (most people were still using a search engine called AskJeeves), three years before Facebook, four years before YouTube, and five years before Twitter. To celebrate blueumbrella’s 21st birthday, I thought it would be a lovely idea to look back over my first 21 years as a female entrepreneur.
Small beginnings
At the turn of the century, I was working at IPC Media as a project manager when I got the opportunity to work from home for one of the directors. Remote working office jobs were virtually unheard of at the time, so I was taking a big risk in becoming a virtual assistant rather than an office-based personal assistant, but I knew it would be worth it. I had a young child at the time, and not commuting into London for work meant I could create a much better work/life balance.
I set up my ‘office’ in the corner of my living room. I had a computer, a landline and a dial-up modem (anyone who’s ever used dial-up will remember the distinctive sound it made as you logged on). The work I did was mainly diary management and PowerPoint presentations, though as the internet improved I was also asked to do more email management.
Word spread about what I did, and I was soon working for more directors. Within a year I was getting enquiries from more clients than I could deal with alone. That’s when I realised I needed to have other VAs to help me. This is where my experiences as a mother helped. Now that I was able to do the school run every day, I’d got to know the other mums, many of whom had worked as PAs before having children. Under the blueumbrella brand, I was able to introduce them to their own clients, and they could start working as VAs like me, earning money at the same time as fitting their hours around family life.
blueumbrella quickly earned a great reputation, and it wasn’t long before we were getting new clients, not just in the UK but also across Europe and the US. That’s why Harriet joined blueumbrella as my new Business Manager in May last year. Bringing in someone to help me was a big step, but it means we can concentrate on expanding the brand further.
Our clients
We’ve enjoyed working with a variety of clients from different walks of life. Our clients’ companies are a variety of sizes, from one-man bands and small businesses to large companies. Clients can be high net worth individuals, executive coaches, TV personalities, or managers and directors who work for multinational corporations.
Why blueumbrella?
When I was still in the office at the beginning of 2001, I was thinking of names for my new company. I didn’t want to pick anything obvious and drew inspiration from the unusual names of some companies that were around at the time, such as Orange and Egg. While I was searching for inspiration, I opened my desk drawer and the first thing I saw was a blue umbrella! I asked a marketing manager friend what he thought and he loved it. Blue is a calming colour and an umbrella is something that protects you - a perfect association with VAs. An added bonus is that people remember the unusual name, which has been a huge business advantage.
Love what you do
I love what I do, so most of the time, I don’t feel like I’m working. blueumbrella provides a personal service, and I love talking to clients and VAs, as well as the matching process. Our growth has been steady and organic over the years, but it doesn’t matter how large we become, we’ll still get to know all our clients and VAs in order to provide the same high quality of service.
Working from anywhere
When blueumbrella was launched in 2001, I didn’t tell people that we worked from home. This was because, at the time, there was a stigma - people didn’t regard home workers as serious business people. But over the years, more and more people discovered the convenience of working from home, and attitudes began to change. And, of course, in the wake of the pandemic, remote working has become the new normal.
In fact, the joy of remote working goes further than merely staying at home. Many blueumbrella VAs enjoy being on the move and simply take their work with them. Instead of taking short breaks they can afford to extend the time they’re away from home because they can continue to work. Some VAs have arranged events while sitting on a beach!
So rather than calling it working from home, we now call it working from anywhere. Working effectively in unfamiliar places - sometimes at the same time as applying sun cream - is a revolutionary change in working practices that has occurred over the past 21 years. Who knows what things will be like in another 21 years’ time?!