Trusted by: Shining a light on VA Faye Chilton
The person quietly giving business owners their time back
There is a phrase uttered frequently by most capable business owners:
“It’s just easier if I do it myself.” and lets face it, sometimes, they're right.
They can update the website themselves or spend a couple of hours working out the newsletter software. They can also answer and file the 101 emails sitting in their inbox.
They can keep checking WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and the website enquiries.
They can create the document, update the CRM, write the handbook and figure out whichever new piece of software has just landed in their business.
But surely the better question is:
Should they?
That's one of the reasons I wanted to sit down with Faye Chilton of Oakley VA for the first of my Trusted by conversations.
Faye is someone I would happily introduce to a client who needed another pair of capable hands in their business.
But the more we talked, the clearer it became that “another pair of hands” doesn't really describe the value of a good VA at all.
“I'm your little sidekick in the background.”
Faye has worked in and around small businesses for more than 20 years. Her career started in administration, including working in a business centre supporting 26 very different companies. She answered phones, welcomed clients, helped solve problems, organised their businesses and gradually became part of the businesses she was technically only supporting.
There was a lot about that that she loved.
“I've always just liked helping people,” she told me.
That hasn't really changed.
When I asked her what a VA actually does, she described herself much more simply:
“I'm the little sidekick working in the background.”
I rather like that description, because a good VA isn't there to create another layer of management. They're there to quietly remove some of the things occupying your head.
A website update or a newsletter, Inbox management or social media, organise those online files build a client handbook. Document processes that everyone knows exists but nobody has ever quite got around to documenting. All this and so much more, all those things that need doing to keep a business functioning, efficient and looking professional but which don't necessarily need the owner to do them.
The four-hour job that should have taken one
This is where I think business owners sometimes get the maths wrong. Faye gave me a very familiar example during our conversation.
Someone spends hours trying to update a website or create a newsletter because they're working out the software, choosing templates, fiddling with fonts and trying to remember where everything lives.
Give the same task to someone who works with those systems regularly and it might take an hour. That's not paying someone £35 for something you could have done yourself it's buying back three hours of your own time. Then ask yourself what could you have done with those three hours? Maybe seen a client, made a sale, developed the next opportunity or taken some time off to recharge!
Sometimes outsourcing isn't really about the cost of the person doing the work, it's about the value to you of what you can do instead.
Perhaps the best time to get help is before you desperately need it
I asked Faye when a business owner should start thinking about bringing in a VA.
Her answer was immediate:
Before they're completely overwhelmed.
One of her clients knew she had a busy period coming and needed some proper time away from the business. Rather than waiting until everything became impossible, she and Faye planned ahead. They mapped out and scheduled almost an entire year's newsletters.
So instead of reaching Monday afternoon and suddenly remembering, “Oh God, I've got to get a newsletter out,” it simply happens.
In the background and one less thing occupying her head.
That, to me, is where outsourcing starts becoming much more interesting.
It isn't simply:
“Here's a task. Please do it.”
It becomes:
“I don't need to think about that anymore. Faye has it.”
And that's when a VA becomes really valuable
The longer Faye works with someone, the more she learns.
How they communicate.
How they like things done.
What they would probably say in an email.
What matters to them.
What doesn't.
What their clients expect.
What their brand should sound and feel like.
She described working with one person for so long that she could almost “mind read” what he would say to a client.
And that's important.
Because the fear I sometimes hear around outsourcing is:
“But I'll have to spend ages explaining everything.”
Initially, yes, you have to communicate.
Faye actually sees communication as one of the most important parts of starting a relationship with a client. She'll have the conversations. She'll listen. She'll understand how you tick, how the business works and where you're struggling.
But then something changes.
Instead of you briefing every individual task, she starts understanding the business well enough to anticipate and that's the difference between buying an isolated hour of someone's time and developing a relationship with a trusted external expert.
You aren't employing someone who happens to know some admin
This was another distinction I thought was important. Faye has been doing this sort of work for more than 20 years. She's worked across different businesses, different industries and different systems.
She's comfortable with Microsoft and Google. Websites, newsletters and social platforms are familiar territory. And if she encounters a system she hasn't used before?
She learns it.
As Faye rather cheerfully admitted:
“I'm quite geeky. I love trying out new software.”
That matters enormously for a small business.
If you're a brilliant electrician, builder, consultant, coach, creative or dog trainer, your expertise is the thing you built your business around.
Nobody said you also had to become an expert in websites, email marketing, CRM systems, document creation, social media platforms and every new piece of technology that arrives next Tuesday.
Faye probably doesn't need four hours to learn the thing you're trying to teach yourself.
She may already know it.
And if she doesn't, she's probably encountered something very similar.
You're not just buying time.
You're buying accumulated experience.
“But my business isn't big enough for a VA.”
I asked Faye about this because I suspect it's another common misconception.
Her response?
"Essentially: that's exactly when you generally need one".
A small business owner often has fewer people around them but exactly the same
functions still need covering. Sales. Marketing. Customer enquiries. Administration. Compliance. Systems. Website and content management. Social media. Email. Documentation.
You may be a business of one but that doesn't mean you suddenly possess the skillset of an entire company.
And bringing in someone like Faye doesn't mean employing another full-time member of staff. There is no desk to provide, no pension contribution, no holiday pay no software package simply because you've employed another person.
Instead, you can buy a block of experienced time.
Faye allocates that time in her calendar and tracks it so both she and the client know what has been worked on and five hours means five hours of focused work on your business.
For the right business, that's an enormous amount of capability to add without adding another employee.
The bit that fascinated me most: all those blooming notifications
Towards the end of our conversation, we started talking about something I see in small businesses.
There are now There is a phrase I hear surprisingly often from very capable business owners:
“It’s just easier if I do it myself.”
And, sometimes, they're right.
They can update the website themselves.
They can spend a couple of hours working out the newsletter software. They can answer the 101 emails sitting in their inbox. They can keep checking WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and the website enquiries. They can create the document, update the CRM, write the handbook and figure out whichever new piece of software has just landed in their business.
But there's a much better question:
Should they?
That's one of the reasons I wanted to sit down with Faye Chilton of Oakley VA for the first of my Trusted by conversations.
Faye is someone I would happily introduce to a client who needed another pair of capable hands in their business.
But the more we talked, the clearer it became that “another pair of hands” doesn't really describe the value of a good VA at all.
“I'm your little sidekick in the background.”
Faye has worked in and around small businesses for more than 20 years.
Her career started in administration, including working in a business centre supporting 26 very different companies.
She answered phones, welcomed clients, helped solve problems, organised their businesses and gradually became part of the businesses she was technically only supporting.
And there was something about that she loved.
“I've always just liked helping people,” she told me.
That hasn't really changed.
When I asked her what a VA actually does, she described herself much more simply:
“I'm your little sidekick working in the background.”
And I rather like that.
Because a good VA isn't there to create another layer of management.
They're there to quietly remove some of the things occupying your head.
A website update.
A newsletter.
Inbox management.
Social media.
Organise those online files
A client handbook.
A process that everyone knows exists but nobody has ever quite got around to documenting.
All those things that need doing to keep a business functioning and looking professional but which don't necessarily need you to do them.
The four-hour job that should have taken one
This is where I think business owners sometimes get the maths wrong.
Faye gave me a very familiar example.
Someone spends hours trying to update a website or create a newsletter because they're working out the software, choosing templates, fiddling with fonts and trying to remember where everything lives.
Give the same task to someone who works with those systems regularly and it might take an hour.
That's not paying someone £35 for something you could have done yourself.
It's buying back three hours of your own time.
And what could you have done with those three hours?
Seen a client?
Made a sale?
Developed the next opportunity?
Taken Friday afternoon off?
Sometimes outsourcing isn't really about the cost of the person doing the work.
It's about the value of what you can do instead.
Perhaps the best time to get help is before you desperately need it
I asked Faye when a business owner should start thinking about bringing in a VA.
Her answer was immediate:
Before they're completely overwhelmed.
One of her clients knew she had a busy period coming and needed some proper time away from the business.
Rather than waiting until everything became impossible, she and Faye planned ahead.
They mapped out and scheduled almost an entire year's newsletters.
So instead of reaching Monday afternoon and suddenly remembering, “Oh God, I've got to get a newsletter out,” it simply happens.
In the background.
One less thing occupying her head.
That, to me, is where outsourcing starts becoming much more interesting.
It isn't simply:
“Here's a task. Please do it.”
It becomes:
“I don't need to think about that anymore. Faye has it.”
And that's when a VA becomes really valuable
The longer Faye works with someone, the more she learns.
How they communicate.
How they like things done.
What they would probably say in an email.
What matters to them.
What doesn't.
What their clients expect.
What their brand should sound and feel like.
She described working with one person for so long that she could almost “mind read” what he would say to a client.
And that's important.
Because the fear I sometimes hear around outsourcing is:
“But I'll have to spend ages explaining everything.”
Initially, yes, you have to communicate.
Faye actually sees communication as one of the most important parts of starting a relationship with a client.
She'll have the conversations. She'll listen. She'll understand how you tick, how the business works and where you're struggling.
But then something changes.
Instead of you briefing every individual task, she starts understanding the business well enough to anticipate.
That's the difference between buying an isolated hour of someone's time and developing a relationship with a trusted external expert.
You aren't employing someone who happens to know some admin
This was another distinction I thought was important.
Faye has been doing this sort of work for more than 20 years.
She's worked across different businesses, different industries and different systems.
She's comfortable with Microsoft and Google. Websites, newsletters and social platforms are familiar territory. And if she encounters a system she hasn't used before?
She learns it.
As Faye rather cheerfully admitted:
“I'm probably quite geeky. I love trying out new software.”
That matters enormously for a small business.
If you're a brilliant electrician, builder, consultant, coach, creative or dog trainer, your expertise is the thing you built your business around.
Nobody said you also had to become an expert in websites, email marketing, CRM systems, document creation, social media platforms and every new piece of technology that arrives next Tuesday.
Faye probably doesn't need four hours to learn the thing you're trying to teach yourself.
She may already know it.
And if she doesn't, she's probably encountered something very similar.
You're not just buying time.
You're buying accumulated experience.
Which brings me to Faye herself
I deliberately call this series Trusted by….
Because when I introduce somebody into a client's business, I'm not really recommending a job title.
I'm recommending a person.
And Faye is calm.
She listens.
She's approachable.
She doesn't seem particularly interested in creating drama around a problem.
Her approach is much more:
Let's work out what needs doing. Break it down. And get on with it.
There is also something about the life Faye has deliberately created that I think tells you quite a lot about her.
She wanted work that fitted around her children and family rather than the other way around.
She and her partner love travelling and have created a home life that allows them to spend time in different places and with family living overseas whilst still working hard and staying connected.
There is a very personal reason behind that decision.
Watching people she loved reach retirement only for illness to change everything made Faye question the idea of postponing life until some distant point when you're finally allowed to enjoy it.
So she built work differently and I think that matters because it's also what she wants for her clients.
Not necessarily travelling..
But the choice.
The ability to take Friday off.
To go away without wondering whether everything has stopped.
To spend time with family or to work on the business rather than permanently firefighting inside it.
As Faye put it:
“Running your own business shouldn't feel so stressful. You set it up because it's what you wanted to do.”
That's why Faye is Trusted by …
If I introduce someone into a client's business, I'm putting a little bit of my own reputation on the line too.
So I want people who know their stuff, I also want people who understand that the purpose of their expertise isn't to make themselves indispensable.
It's to make the business owner's life and business better and Faye brings experience, calm and importantly knowledge and curiosity about technology rather than fear of it.
She understands small businesses because she has spent years working inside them and now runs one herself and most importantly, she seems to understand something I believe very strongly:
You don't have to do everything yourself just because you can.
Sometimes the smartest thing a capable business owner can do is decide what really deserves their time and find someone they trust to take care of the rest.
If I had a client telling me they were spending four hours wrestling with a newsletter, avoiding their inbox, trying to update their own website and wondering why they never had time for the thing that would actually move their business forward?
I'd probably say:
“You need to talk to Faye.”
Faye Chilton is the founder of Oakley VA and part of the wider network of people I trust to introduce to founders and business owners when they need the right expertise to move something forward.
