I Left a 15-Year Public Service Career to Work for Myself. Here’s How It's Going

After 15 years working in the NHS, I was used to structure, routine, and teamwork. Now I work from home, for myself. No team around me. No fixed structure. No clear end to the workday. Just me, my laptop, and all the responsibility.

It is not easy; however, the level of stress from being responsible only for myself, not for a team and service users, is worth all the hard work.

After leaving the NHS, I briefly ran an e-commerce business, and while it didn’t become a long-term venture, it taught me a lot. That’s what led me to become a virtual assistant.

What I Do Now

I support small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed professionals with basic admin tasks:

• Email and diary management

• Document preparation

• Client communication

• CRM and systems

• Social media scheduling

• One-off projects like organising files or setting up systems

I work both remotely and in person locally, which gives me and my clients flexibility. My core client base is small businesses, coaches and solo entrepreneurs, whether that’s 10 hours a month or a one-off project they’ve been putting off for ages.

The Digital Marketing Diploma

I’ve recently completed a digital marketing diploma that is free for people looking for work or building a business. It was useful, but not in the way you might think. It didn’t make me want to become a digital marketer. In fact, it confirmed that I don’t want to go in that direction.

What it did do was:

• Help me understand how social media works

• Give me practical skills I can use to support clients

• Make me more confident in the services I offer

For me, social media isn’t about going viral or chasing trends. It’s about showing potential clients that I’m reliable, detail-focused, and professional. Simple. Clear. Consistent.

My Honest Take on Social Media

This might not be a surprise, but I’m cautious about a lot of what I see online. When I was running my e-commerce business, I followed a lot of people in that space. Later, I realised many of them weren’t actually making money from e-commerce. They were making money from teaching others how to do it.

Looking back, a lot of the information was generic, and likely the scripts were created from content found on Amazon or eBay instructions. I rarely saw real transparency, like actual stores or real examples of e-commerce businesses.

That experience stuck with me, and I’m starting to feel the same about parts of the VA and freelance social media space. It tends to advocate joining courses and upskilling yourself to be marketable, or courses on how to use Canva and social media. However, the overly glossy and edited social media posts remind me too much of my e-commerce days.

Why I’m Choosing Networking Instead

Instead of relying heavily on social media, I’m focusing on:

• Local networking

• Meeting people face-to-face

• Building relationships

• Referrals from clients and friends

Social media doesn’t always reflect real life, and the kind of business I want to build is based on trust and connection. My two most recent clients were through referrals from friends.

I want to understand what people actually need from a virtual assistant, not what online content tells me they need, or to pay for a virtual assistant course that costs me an arm and a leg. I am sure some of these are useful; however, at the moment, I do not have enough funds to gamble on courses that may teach what I already know or information freely available online.

Doing Things That Feel Uncomfortable

After my course and a few months of trying platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, I have decided to venture into networking. As a start, I’ve booked a one-on-one with a local business support group and signed up for one of their networking events. I'm honestly not confident about it, it will be awkward, stumble over my words or talk too much from nerves. However, I also know you cannot will yourself to be confident; confidence comes after practice. So I’m diving in alone with fingers crossed.

What I’m Building

I’m not trying to build a flashy, online only business, but building something that is:

Local and community-focused

Flexible and realistic

Based on relationships

Supportive, not transactional

I want to work with people who need consistent, practical support, not just a quick fix.

What’s Next

I’m planning to come back in a month and share how the networking event went. What worked, what didn’t and what I learned. I don’t have everything figured out, but I’m figuring it out as I go. I think there’s value in being honest about that.