When you partner with Advance Virtual Assistants you partner with a full back office team.
As the founder of Advance, Paula leads with clarity, purpose, and a relentless commitment to excellence. Her focus is on delivering outstanding service to every client while building a capable, trusted team of professionals who bring calm confidence and strategic support to every engagement.
Paula is a Certified Director of Operations, using strategic insight and proven planning frameworks to design bespoke roadmaps that help business owners turn their vision into reality. With over 25 years of experience in business management and administration, Paula has the knowledge, capability, and leadership to support businesses through every stage of growth.
She began her journey as a virtual assistant and quickly evolved to working at a strategic level with CEOs and founders, offering operational leadership and high-level consultancy. Today, as a business owner and a fractional COO, Paula is the steady hand behind the scenes, your business’s strategic partner, trusted advisor, and biggest champion.
Sophia has 15 years of experience in the interior design and property industry, with 6 of these as company director of her own business. She joins the team with a good knowledge of managerial tasks, project management, traditional admin, and new bookkeeping qualifications. She has a practical can-do approach and a natural flair for numbers and attention to detail.
Virginie is a dedicated advocate for purpose-led work with a background spanning corporate biotech, wellness entrepreneurship, and digital delivery. With over a decade in biotech project management, she brings clarity, precision, and strategic planning to every mission-driven venture.
Her hands-on experience includes developing and launching training programmes, events, and online courses, as well as self-publishing. Originally from France and based in Guernsey and Scotland since 2002, she is fully bilingual. A trained coach and mentor, Virginie not only manages projects but also creates calm within operational complexity and empowers leaders to lead with confidence.
Ilaria is a tech expert, Thrivecart specialist and automations Queen.
Ilaria is professional and personable helping clients sell more with evergreen sales funnels and improving their client experience with seamless workflows. In 2020 she set up her own business to be able to fly to Italy to see her family whenever she wants.
Vicky is an experienced social media manager with a passion for all things social and a keen eye for what audiences want. With experience running pages on multiple platforms, analytics, growing organic and engaged audiences, paid ads, creating digital content, and developing strong brand identity, Vicky truly understands the importance of good social media presence and how to use it to help you grow.
Over the years Vicky has worked with a wide variety of industries, from entrepreneurs to well-known brands, each time helping them to find their rightful place on the social media stage.
Suzie is an experienced Online Business Manager (OBM), Executive Assistant (EA) and Virtual Assistant (VA) with a background spanning both the public and private sectors. She supports business owners and leadership teams by bringing structure, organisation and efficiency to the day-to-day running of their businesses.
With extensive experience, Suzie specialises in streamlining processes, implementing practical systems, managing projects and introducing automation that saves time and reduces overwhelm. Known for her calm, proactive approach and attention to detail, she works as a trusted partner, helping clients stay organised, focused and free to concentrate on growing their business.
Kate spent 22 years in the Royal Navy, most recently specialising in crisis intervention and coaching. She brings a calm, structured approach to every situation, helping clients gain clarity, explore options, and implement thoughtful, well-judged solutions.
Person-centred, analytical, and highly detail-oriented, Kate is diligent and fully committed to every task she undertakes. While relatively new to the VA industry, she is well accustomed to steep learning curves and fast-paced environments, consistently delivering with professionalism and composure. Curious by nature, Kate enjoys mastering new skills and systems, ensuring she can provide reliable, high-quality support wherever it’s needed.
Louise has over 35 years’ experience in banking and accounting, and has run her own successful bookkeeping business since 2017. She supports small businesses, sole traders, and partnerships with a wide range of bookkeeping services, including VAT returns, self-assessments, and monthly reporting.
Friendly, approachable, and highly knowledgeable, Louise helps clients simplify their financial admin with systems tailored to their individual needs. She works mostly remotely using secure, cloud-based tools, but can also work onsite where required.
Katie is resourceful and dedicated when it comes to her work. She is always forward-thinking, and her attention to detail allows her to solve problems efficiently and effectively. Her strong communication skills and international background allow her to easily work at the executive level.
Katie has a BSc in both public health and nursing and has over a decade of experience in general administration and event management across a variety of sectors ranging from healthcare, education, and military organisations. Her experience in marketing, recruitment, and team management gives her a well-rounded approach to help clients with all aspects of their business.
Nicky is proactive, adaptable and highly organised, with a strong eye for detail and a calm, solutions-focused approach. She thrives in fast-paced environments and enjoys building strong working relationships while providing seamless support.
Nicky has 16 years of experience across executive support, operations and events, working with internationally recognised companies, agencies, fast-growing start-ups, scale-ups and entrepreneurial businesses. Her experience spans the media, events, tech and ecommerce sectors, supporting senior leadership teams and business operations.
Having worked remotely for the past 5 years, Nicky is experienced in collaborating with global teams and managing virtual communication effectively. Whilst relatively new to the Virtual Assistant role, she has already secured 3 clients across the Property, Events, IT Consultancy, Coaching and Charity sectors.
Cat is an Operations Business Manager (OBM) who is deeply dedicated to her work and committed to helping businesses run smoothly and efficiently. Adaptable, reliable, and genuinely supportive, she has a natural talent for building strong relationships and communicating with clarity and professionalism.
After nearly 20 years in healthcare, Cat transitioned into the world of Virtual Assistance, bringing her compassion, resilience, and exceptional attention to detail into a new professional chapter. Over the past few years, she has fully embraced remote working, combining her passion for supporting others with her strengths in organisation, systems, and operational efficiency.
Proactive and solutions-focused, Cat takes pride in delivering dependable, high-quality support that allows her clients to focus on growth and strategic priorities. Her career shift has also enabled her to pursue her love of travel, while remaining a consistent and trusted partner to the businesses she supports.
Hazel is conscientious and diligent, with an eye for detail, and has excellent client relation skills.
Hazel has over 22 years of office experience in various roles and sectors, including law, finance, pensions, local authority, education, and construction. She started out in her career as an office junior, and her journey saw her progress into roles such as senior administrator, distribution coordinator, loss assessor, office manager, PA and operations manager.
Hazel has been a VA for 18 months and in that time has further extended her experience, developing skills in using a variety of online platforms, assisting small teams and individuals with back office support, and broadening her industry experience to include the charity sector, wellbeing practitioners, and events teams, to name a few.
Jules has 15 years of experience in PA and Admin roles across a variety of sectors, including Contract Management, Customer Service and Primary Education. As a virtual assistant, she successfully helps each business focus on their core priorities, promoting their growth and efficiency, while absorbing their time-consuming admin tasks.
Jules is dedicated and consistent, and her warm and calm approach provides reassurance, even under pressure.
Kristine is a conscientious virtual assistant with a strong dedication to optimising tasks and enhancing overall efficiency, particularly within the realms of HR and wellbeing.
With 12 years of experience working for a leading professional services consultancy and an award winning law firm, she is driven by a commitment to excellence, a strong work ethic, and thrives in dynamic environments where adaptability is key.
Darren has nearly 20 years experience in accounting & finance. Starting his career in a small family practice, studying the AAT and later the ACCA, Darren Qualified as a chartered certified accountant in 2017. Since 2015, Darren has worked in multiple industries within in-house finance departments, as a Management Accountant, Finance Manager, Head of Finance and recently Head of Accounting for a global Aesthetic Manufacturer & Distributor, but most notably his recent change was to go back into practice, building his own business and client base, serving small and medium businesses with all their accounting requirements.
Darren has developed skills in all areas of accounting, from statutory accounts, to corporate & personal taxation, VAT, international transactions including complex tax structures, cashflow forecasting, budgeting and management reporting, with lots of exposure liaising directly with the boards of directors & shareholders.
From time to time we are on the lookout for new Advance recruits. If you have more than 5 years of experience working as a PA, administrator, or office manager, have great initiative, organisational skills, and attention to detail, and have a can-do attitude (crucial), we’d love to hear from you.
All of our team are required to be insured and registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and are GDPR compliant.
If this is you, then please complete your details opposite, and we will send you the Potential Associate Questionnaire.
We only review submissions when we are looking to build the team, so we may not acknowledge your application until we are looking for your skill set.
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You may have heard us say…. Mindset Is EVERYTHING. Working on having a positive, growth mindset is essential to your business success.
Doing this work is very important. We start our own business to create a life of FREEDOM. So ensuring we work with people who inspire us and we love the work we do with them is essential.
“This e-book is invaluable” – so we have been told. In here we walk you through the process that we used to build our business.
That’s right – 150 services (and there are possibly more!) This amazing list will help you to identify skills that you have that you could sell and may pique your interest in new skills that you’d like to offer.
A comprehensive sheet that helps you to define the services that you would like to offer to your clients.
A simple checklist to help you work through the steps to set up your Virtual Assistant business, avoiding endless Googling and overwhelm.
