When blueumbrella launched on 1st March 2001, remote working was a radical concept.
As far as we know, blueumbrella was the first Virtual Assistant business in the UK, which makes our founder, Jill Hughes, a trailblazing female entrepreneur.
Technology was very different back in 2001. The internet in the home was dial-up which meant it was extremely slow, not very reliable, and if you were online, you couldn’t use the landline to make calls.
Google was only two years old and was purely a search engine. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were yet to be launched. Mobile phones were around, but all you could do with them was make calls or send texts, both of which were expensive. And the idea of being able to make video calls was still the stuff of science fiction.
So setting up a business that was 100% reliant on the emerging IT technology was a big
VAs and clients grew in tandem with technology
In the early days, VA work was limited to diary management and the creation of PowerPoint presentations. However, as the internet improved, VAs were able to take on more email management which increased their productivity.
blueumbrella quickly earned a great reputation, and it wasn’t long before new clients came on board, not just in the UK but also across Europe and the US.
Indeed, technological progress is the VA’s best friend. The more innovations there are in IT, the greater the scope of work the VA can offer. We have blueumbrella VAs who specialise in different areas, such as managing social media accounts or updating websites.
In fact, all blueumbrella VAs are more than happy to learn new skills in order to provide an even better service. In this way, they can add value to their clients, and their clients can provide them with more work.
2020 Lockdown
Of course remote working took off during the pandemic lockdowns. While more and more people were already adopting remote and hybrid working, the lockdowns ensured it became common practice across the entire business community. Possibly as a result of this, demand for VAs rose in 2020 and 2021, at the same time as more highly skilled VAs entered the profession and were looking for great clients to work with.
That’s why, in May 2021, blueumbrella was in a position to take on a Business Manager in order to deal with the increased demand.
Our clients
We work 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, and entrepreneurs, as well as managers and directors who work for multinational corporations.
Again, technology has had a profound effect on the way people work, and managers and directors don’t necessarily need a full time PA any more. VAs provide an excellent alternative to a part-time in-house PA as they are available at any time during the working week, but only charge for the work they do.
Why blueumbrella?
When Jill was thinking about brand names for her new company, she didn’t want to pick anything obvious. She drew inspiration from the unusual names of some companies that were around at the time, such as Orange and Egg. At one point she opened her desk drawer and the first thing she saw was a blue umbrella. When she asked a friend who worked in marketing what he thought, he loved it because 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.
Stay connected
If you have any questions, please contact us using the details below:
info@blueumbrella.co.uk
020 3021 0503
Connect with us on social media:
Andrew Main
CEO and Founder, SerTech Exchange
We’ve been thrilled to have one of blueumbrella’s amazing “virtual assistants”. We have all the benefits of having a highly experienced Assistant whilst only paying for the actual time that she’s undertaking work on our behalf.
Lizzie Ostrom
Founder, Odette Toilette
blueumbrella is absolutely dependable and I trust them to deliver ever more tasks in the day-to-day running of my business. Every time I think of another job they could take on regularly, I feel such a sense of relief and the chance to get on with building the company.
Gojko Adzic
Partner, Neuri Consulting LLP
blueumbrella takes the hassle out of running a small consultancy for me. From chasing clients to finding the perfect venue for our events, my virtual PA deals with things I don't want to so that I can focus on core work.