Rate my start-up story: Louise-Amy, Time Saving Heroes
Meet Louise-Amy, founder of Time Saving Heroes - a startup that provides virtual assistants to help manage the workload for entrepreneurs running small to medium-sized businesses. This is her story of how she became her own boss.
(This blog is part of a series to celebrate our event, Virgin StartUp Ignition: business tricks and insight for amazing women. Louise's blog is one of five published on Virgin StartUp, and the blog with the most views will win the entrepreneurs behind it the opportunity to present their business to our all-star panel at the event. So if you like it, share it!)
"I had planned to be a CSI. However, by the time I left Uni in April 2008 I was engaged and needed money to pay for wedding favours and an Elvis impersonator, so I took the first job that came along.
Our wedding day came and went (Elvis was worth every penny). Two weeks after saying "I do", we discovered that we were expecting our first child. By the time I was 20 weeks pregnant the credit crunch had hit, and I was made redundant. I started 2009 terrified. Terrified at the thought of becoming a parent and how we were going to afford everything on one wage. I set about job-hunting as soon as possible, but with most people feeling the pinch, no one wanted to hire an obviously pregnant candidate. Unable to find work, I was despondent. It was clear no one was going to give me a break. Then it dawned on me; no one had to give me a break. I could do it myself.
So I started working as a virtual PA. I did audio transcription, typed minutes, managed diaries, collated reports–anything anyone needed me to do. When our daughter was born in May 2009 I simply carried on, fitting ad hoc tasks around nap times and the endless pile of laundry. Five years on, things have expanded. I am now Mum to 4 children, and in April 2014 my business Time Saving Heroes was born. Time Saving Heroes started because demand for outsourced services was increasing, and I could no longer keep up on my own. I realised I would need employees, or other freelancers to delegate work to just to stay on top of it all.
Today I work with a couple of trusted people who I know can deliver work to the standards my clients have come to expect. My dream is for Time Saving Heroes to become the go-to resource for small business owners, especially those who are in that limbo state of needing to expand, but not being able to afford the overheads of staff. At the same time I want to encourage parents who are financially unable to work to remove the burden of childcare costs, and instead work from home by becoming a Time Saving Hero."
Virgin StartUp Ignition - business tricks and insight for amazing women - will see the UK's top female entrepreneurs come together to celebrate Women's Entrepreneurship Day. A day of workshops and keynote talks, the aim of this event is to inspire and help more women to start their own businesses. Find out more information and grab a ticket here.