How I work
Everything practical in one place, so you are not piecing it together from three different pages. If there is something here I have not answered, please just ask me.
Monthly retainers, with a three month minimum
I work on monthly retainers rather than by the hour. You hold an agreed block of my time each month, and within that I take care of prioritising unless you would rather steer it yourself.
Retainers run for a minimum of three months. The first month is mostly spent learning your business, getting access, and writing down things that have only ever lived in your head, so it is the month you get the least from and the one you pay for first. Three months is the shortest run where that trade works in your favour rather than mine, and it means I can build things rather than only keep up.
After that it continues month to month, with thirty days notice either way and no lock in beyond the initial term.
Hours are tracked and you can see them. If a month runs light I will use the room to build something useful rather than invoice you for time I did not spend. If it is running heavy you will hear from me before it becomes a problem rather than afterwards.
The first thirty days
Week one
Access, tools, and a proper look at how things run at the moment. I ask a lot of questions this week and fewer in every week after it. I take over the mechanical parts of the inbox and calendar straight away, because that is where the relief comes fastest.
Week two
I start writing things down. The recurring work, the decisions you make without thinking about them, the steps nobody has ever documented. That becomes your first set of SOPs, and it is also how I learn your voice.
Weeks three and four
The first structural change. Usually that is the CRM, the workflow costing you the most time, or the workspace everything else will hang off. By the end of the month you should be able to point at something that did not exist before.
At thirty days I will send you a short written review of what I found, what I have changed, and what I would suggest next. You are welcome to act on it or park it, but you will have it in writing either way.
Where the work lives
I work in your tools rather than asking you to move into mine. If you run on Notion, Asana, Slack, or a combination nobody would design on purpose, I will use what you have and improve it rather than migrating you in week one.
Day to day we work in writing, because writing leaves a record and the record turns out to be most of the value. Once a week you get a short summary of what moved, what is waiting on you, and what I am doing next. It is meant to be read in two minutes, not to add to your reading.
Coverage
I work across Australian and Asia Pacific time zones. For most clients that means work moves overnight and is waiting for them in the morning.
I am not going to tell you I am available around the clock, because nobody really is and it tends to be the first promise to break. What I will say is that urgent things get treated as urgent, and that you will know well in advance when I am away.
What it costs
Retainers are priced monthly, and the price depends on the volume of work and how much of it sits in the systems and project layers rather than the day to day.
Why I am not the cheapest
I am not the cheapest option, and I would rather be straightforward about why. There is a large and genuinely useful market in assistance priced near the bottom, and it exists because plenty of businesses need capable hands to carry out clearly defined instructions. That is a real service and sometimes it is exactly the right one.
What you are paying for here is a bit different. It is someone you can hand an outcome to rather than a task, who has run delivery at a scale well beyond your business, and who will tell you when the thing you have asked for is not quite the thing you need.
How I quote
I quote once I understand the work rather than before it. Tell me what you are dealing with and the number will come with the reasoning attached.
Questions people ask
Why is there a three month minimum?
Because the first month is the one where you get the least and I do the most. I am learning the business, getting access, and documenting things that have never been written down, and that work pays off in months two and three. A single month would mean you pay for the setup and somebody else gets the benefit of it. It also means the people who start with me tend to be the ones who genuinely want something to change, which is better for both of us.
What if I do not have enough work to fill the retainer?
Then I will use the room to build something. There is always something in the systems layer worth doing, and I would far rather spend a quiet month writing your SOPs than invoice you for hours I did not use. If it is consistently light across a few months I will say so, and we will resize it.
What if I have more work than the retainer covers?
You will hear about it from me before it becomes a problem, rather than discovering it on an invoice. We either reprioritise inside the hours or resize the retainer, and which of those we do is entirely your call.
How is this different from a virtual assistant?
Mostly scope and seniority. Virtual assistant usually describes carrying out clear instructions well, priced accordingly, and there are people who do that brilliantly and who are the right answer for a lot of businesses. What I do starts at the point where the instructions do not exist yet. You give me an outcome, I work out what it needs, and I come back either when it is done or when there is a decision only you can make.
Do I work with you or with your team?
With me. I stay across every account and do the thinking and the client facing work. Two assistants support delivery behind the scenes, covering scheduling, content and admin execution, research, and data entry, always to my instructions and my documentation. You will not be handed over to them, and I stay accountable for all of it.
How do you handle confidential information?
Carefully, and formally. Access comes through your own systems rather than shared passwords, a confidentiality agreement is part of the engagement, and anything sensitive stays where it belongs. I see inboxes, contracts and numbers across several businesses, and the only reason that works is that none of it travels.
Can you take over from someone who is leaving?
Yes, and honestly it is one of the better moments to start. If there is an outgoing assistant or team member I will run the handover myself and document what they know before they go, which is usually the part that gets skipped in the rush.
What happens if it is not working?
You tell me, and we fix it. Or after the initial three months you give thirty days notice and I hand everything back properly, documented and organised so whoever comes next can pick it up. I would rather leave you better organised than I found you, even if it does not work out between us.
Tell me what you are working on
If that all sounds like the way you would like to work, I would love to hear what is on your plate at the moment.