Tales from The Engine Room

[00:00:00] Caroline Beavon (host): Hello and welcome to Tales from the Engine Room where we meet the people who make up the Skiff, a coworking community in Central Brighton,
[00:00:08] Ruth Preston: So I think that is what is really nice about working freelance is you essentially find out what am I good at?
[00:00:14] Caroline Beavon (host): I'm Caroline Beavon. I turn information into things and I'm a member of the Skiff too. Across this series of interviews, we'll meet freelancers, remote workers, solopreneurs, and small team leaders asking the question, what are you working on today? This week we meet Ruth Preston, a virtual assistant, juggling a job, a freelance career, and student life.
[00:00:39] Ruth Preston: So it can sometimes change. I'm employed two days a week, um, doing bookkeeping and then three days a week I'm doing freelance administration, which I, yeah, which obviously I freelance for 'cause it's freelance. And then, um, I do some study. In that time as well. I'm also in the, the latter stages of closing down my business, which was a virtual administration business.
So that was quite a, 'cause it was about 10 staff.
[00:01:07] Caroline Beavon (host): I know you've, you've been a member of the Skiff for a couple of months now?
[00:01:11] Ruth Preston: Yeah. Two or three. Two or three months, yeah.
[00:01:13] Caroline Beavon (host): Um, ever since I've met you, it seems like you've very much in a transition phase in your life. Yes. Yes. Um, do you want to bring, bring us all up to speed on how you ended up at this point where you are kind of juggling a few different things?
Yes. And you've got. Pots on burners and fires and irons and all that stuff. Tell us a little bit about how you ended up at this spot.
[00:01:30] Ruth Preston: Yes. Um, so I'll give you a little bit of a history. I was a, an event manager. Covid happened. I was made redundant. There was no work. So I, I was just, I dunno what to do and I was just thinking it through and I got a message from someone in my church group on my WhatsApp just saying, is anyone wanting to do some admin, freelance? Five hours a week. And I was like, Hmm, yeah. Okay. And I, I started doing this. It was quite basic stuff, but I really enjoyed it. And I thought, well, I'm still looking for this full-time job. Maybe I will also see if there's more freelance admin available. So I found that there was much more freelance admin available, and very quickly I needed to start subcontracting.
I think it was in the first four months. So, yeah, I mean, So it's quite quick. And so then I decided I'll build a business.
[00:02:22] Caroline Beavon (host): Was that all through word of mouth or through you putting yourself out the advertising? How were you getting that work in?
[00:02:27] Ruth Preston: Um, I think mostly firstly through my church contacts, um, because I had a, there was a.
Guy at church, he was a business consultant. He helped me for free and he actually said actually the best way is to do like face-to-face referrals. Especially, well he, he didn't say it's the best way, but for where I was at, the small, you know, having not had, not very much money, all of that sort of stuff, referrals, getting to know people is the best way to do it at this stage.
So that's what I did. Yes, it was mostly word of mouth.
I started asking my clients, you know, do you know anyone who might benefit from our services? All of that sort of thing. It grew very much from there. I did try and do a few other little bits, so I did a tiny bit of social media marketing, but I was very cautious about that because I didn't have a very big following. So I thought, I don't wanna put loads of time and effort into something that I. uh, I'm not sure he is gonna have a return.
And I did a bit of social networking and I was very fortunate in as much as a networking organization hired me to do admin for them. So I got a pro bono membership, so that helped.
[00:03:36] Caroline Beavon (host): And isn't it funny, it's little things like that that can suddenly make all the difference. And at, at the time on paper, you'd write it off as I'm not doing pro bono work. That's crazy. But also, Actually, it just leads to so much. Yeah. And sometimes you find little treats in little corners of opportunity you don't realize.
[00:03:52] Ruth Preston: Yes. And you don't know I, I mean, you really don't know who might be your next client or who might know your next client, so you end up working with people you never thought you would. Oh, I guess when I was building the business, I was, Very aware that what I did and how I was with everybody would've influence and effect the next client I had.
Anyway, I closed that business. I closed that business because if I'm honest, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it very much. I felt like I was moving into a, so I had 10 staff and I think I was moving into a situation where I was becoming more the sales and marketing person. And I wasn't a hundred percent sure if I liked that role.
[00:04:36] Caroline Beavon (host): So were you in a, a building or were you all remote?
[00:04:39] Ruth Preston: We were all remote. I did want a building and I'm an extrovert, so that was another reason I was going crazy. Bring me people. Yes. It was very much like that. I think I. get energy from people. You know when people say, are you an introvert or an extrovert? And they say, do you find you get energy when you're around people or do you get energy when you're on your own? And I always found that a bit difficult to analyze because I find being in social situations tiring. But then what I realized through Covid was that even though I found it tiring, I found it... this is gonna sound a bit weird, but like exhilarating. Like there was, it makes you tired, but you get that sort of sense of like your blood pump's a little bit faster when you're around other people. And I think also it wasn't just because of that, it was because the sales and marketing role that I was getting pushed into because everyone else was doing everything else.
I wasn't a hundred percent sure it was what I wanted to do full time, but I might have been okay with that if I knew that our that we could have built the business quick enough to move me on. It was a very low margin business, and we were having to charge the top of the sort of standard bracket and even then it was a struggle to pay people more than minimum wage. Right? And myself. So I was thinking, okay. Can we push this business to the next level in the next few years possible?
[00:06:00] Caroline Beavon (host): Do you want to, I suppose if you loved it, if you love going to work every day, then that's a different conversation.
[00:06:05] Ruth Preston: Yes.
[00:06:05] Caroline Beavon (host): But if it's, if it's a struggle and you think actually I'm moving myself into a position, that could be it now for the rest of my life.
[00:06:12] Ruth Preston: Yes.
[00:06:12] Caroline Beavon (host): I dunno if I want that. Yes.
[00:06:13] Ruth Preston: Yeah, exactly. And you know, if I was making loads of money, maybe I would,
[00:06:19] Caroline Beavon (host): that would take the edge off slightly.
[00:06:20] Ruth Preston: It would take the edge off. I mean, I probably still wouldn't enjoyed it massively, but then I might have been able to move myself into a position because I had the finances to allow other people to, and I was just analyzing all this stuff and I thought I might be able to get there in three years, but I don't think I can put three years in.
So I decided to close the business and say goodbye to everybody on my team, which was a bit interesting. Quite a few tears. I had a lovely team. I mean, they were absolutely brilliant. I couldn't recommend them more highly. to anyone who would ever employ anyone. Mm. They were so great. Um, that was sad. I really didn't wanna lose the team, but I, uh, to be honest, I just knew I wasn't very happy.
[00:06:59] Caroline Beavon (host): I think that's often not factored in enough to people's decision making when it comes to work.
[00:07:04] Ruth Preston: Yes.
[00:07:04] Caroline Beavon (host): Are you happy? Because it's your life.
[00:07:06] Ruth Preston: Yes. Yeah. And we have choice. We have so much choice and I think, I think it's really important to never think that you'll beyond the pale, really because I remember thinking to myself, oh, you know, I haven't built my career, I'm starting from scratch, so I'm, I'm learning accountancy now at 37, and so many people did it when they were 27. So loads of my friends are now, or people I know are chartered already, and I sort of feel like I'm so behind. Mm-hmm. But I think we can't think like that because if we do, then. We are all kind of done for in terms of like,
[00:07:43] Caroline Beavon (host): no, nobody would ever try anything in that when they're later in life and it's, well, you're beyond the age when everyone else does it.
[00:07:48] Ruth Preston: Everyone thinks, you know, there's sort of solidification of what you're potentially gonna do.
[00:07:52] Caroline Beavon (host): Right. There's a timeline that we go university now. Yeah. Is your intention to become a, a freelance accountant or...
[00:07:58] Ruth Preston: interesting.
Okay. So when I say I'm closing my business, I think I'm actually just gonna put it on pause because, so my parents at the moment are in their early seventies, they're living in Spain. And I'm aware of the sort of, it's very hard running a business. Freelancing isn't quite, as, you know, you haven't got the responsibility of staff.
You do get freedom, and I really don't want my parents to ever go to like a home. Mm-hmm. So I'm thinking is there a possibility that if. If I become an accountant and I'm able to set up. A instead of an administration business well, potentially both. It could be accountancy and administration. 'cause they'd go very much hand in hand.
We had a load more inquiries for bookkeeping and accountancy than we did for admin, so I'm aware of this.
[00:08:44] Caroline Beavon (host): Was that what prompted you to think about accountancy in the first place?
[00:08:47] Ruth Preston: No, actually, it was more that I realized that of all the tasks that all of my staff did, it was probably the thing that I was best at.
Right. And I enjoyed. Mm-hmm. So I thought actually also it's the type of thing that you can work towards and you're probably gonna end up getting, well, compared to all the jobs I've done previously, you get a vaguely reasonable salary. It depends who you're comparing it to, but in my world, yes. Yeah. So, you know, being able to get, thinking about getting a house and all of that sort of stuff, and being able to look after my parents and the possibility of opening up another business, either freelancing or with staff. Mm-hmm. Um, with accountancy, I could see how much easier that would be because it wouldn't be such a low margin in business and it'd be much easier the second time round. Yeah. With all of the things I've learned.
[00:09:37] Caroline Beavon (host): Of course. So you have experience now, so Yes. Bringing, brings us back to that point of you said that yes, you're 10 years behind your, your accountancy colleagues. Yes. But you've also got 10 years of running your own business and your life experience. Yes. Where. When, which is what prompted me to ask, were you going into freelance? Because you'll be much better placed, much more experienced to work with other businesses. Yes. 'cause you know, I've got this, I'm more mature, I've got the experience. Yes. I know what you're going through.
[00:10:01] Ruth Preston: Yes. And that's why, to be honest, I, I, I am thinking that might be something I want to do because not only would it, I've got the experience of running the business and 'cause I know there's so much need out there. And also it gives me the flexibility to look after my parents. So all of these things, I think it's very likely, I think, I think it's possible that I'll probably go into employment for a while, especially if I wanna get chartered. You have to for three years.
So actually, quite interestingly, I mean, I, I haven't researched this at all, but my mom, and this might be another reason why I've gone into accountancy subconsciously, is my mom's always been very mathematical, but she's always been very particularly interested in tax.
And when she moved to Spain, um, You know, a conversation that kept coming up was the fact that all you having to navigate H M R C in the UK and tax 'cause they're resident out there and they pay tax out there, but then they get their pension from the Uk and also quite a lot of horror stories. Lots of their friends who are using, uh, tax advisors in Spain who apparently do not need to be qualified.
[00:11:06] Caroline Beavon (host): Oh yes. That's terrifying.
[00:11:08] Ruth Preston: Yes. And you know, Some of my mom's friends have been hit with like 20 grand bills and their tax accountant who didn't say that was gonna need to be paid, just said, oh, you better pay it otherwise you're gonna get fines, and they can't do anything. Wow. So I'm thinking if there's a possibility to look into what is the tax laws between Spain, that's what I would love to become a specialism.
And then it would also work with looking after my parents
[00:11:35] Caroline Beavon (host): For all the parents living out in Spain
[00:11:37] Ruth Preston: Exactly. Yeah. I would be someone who they could, they could come to and I could be like, okay, I've got a qualification, but
[00:11:43] Caroline Beavon (host): you know, and they'll trust you and you'll have the, the knowledge of That's fascinating.
[00:11:46] Ruth Preston: That's what I like to do. Yeah. So, and you get to live in Spain at least half a year, so Yeah. Or maybe live in Spain. Yeah, it's amazing out there. It's so good. Although where my parents live, It's pretty much like young children and pensioners. I just am not sure about the living in Spain just because I'd quite like people to see people of my age and things like that.
But to be honest, I absolutely love it, um, out there. And I love spending time with my parents and with, um, With the other people that have retired, but I guess at 37, I probably should stay in the UK at the moment while I've got a few more people my age to hang out with.
[00:12:25] Caroline Beavon (host): Yeah. Again, bring it back to do what makes you happy and Yeah. Yeah. We've got your life. Right. Um, so now you're here at the Skiff. Yes. What brought you here? Like what, what was your life like? So what was working like. Before pre-Skiff and post Skiff.
[00:12:38] Ruth Preston: Well, Skiffs been amazing. I really love the Skiff and it's made me really happy. Um, but yeah, so what happened was I closed my business. I told my staff first and said, would you like to go freelance? And if you want to go freelance, I'll kind of train you. And in that process, when I was starting to tell the clients, the obvious question is, why are you closing? What are you gonna do now? So I was quite honest that I was looking for a bookkeeping role.
One of my clients said, oh, We could take you on. And I said I wanted to be employed because to be perfectly honest, I just want, you know, when you're freelance and you or you are, or you're running your own business and. You kind of just wanna be looked after for a while. You kind of just want, yeah.
[00:13:19] Caroline Beavon (host): Oh, I know that. I've done that where you have, I've been freelancing since 2009 and there's been several blips where I've gone, someone hold my hand. I know. Yeah. You feel so alone that it does help to have people to talk to.
[00:13:30] Ruth Preston: Yeah, and I, I mean, I never had this, but now I can be like, You know, I've got this inbox, it's like 80 invoices, and I've, you know, I've, they've just been really problematic or something, and I get to 40 and I'm like, okay, it's five 30, bye-bye.
Like, you know, like never been able to do that before, but now it's just completely expected. Um, so I, I just said, you know, even though I'm, I'm continuing freelance for some of the time, I wanted to have some security and I also wanted, if I was then looking for a job to potentially become, Chartered. Mm-hmm. Um, it's nice to have an employed job as well as a freelance job. 'cause then yeah, it provides that sort of recognition or whatever. Anyway, this guy said, yeah, well you could, you could come and work for us. And I was like, oh, that's brilliant. Do you, you have an office? And he said, yeah, we have an office but it's in Basingstoke. And I was like, okay. And I just said to him, to be honest, I think it's a bit of a deal breaker for me. I'm not gonna go toBasingstoke, unless you pay for my travel and my travel time. Yeah. Um, which obviously was never gonna happen. Um, but he said, okay, we'll pay for you to go to a workspace.
[00:14:38] Caroline Beavon (host): Ah, perfect.
[00:14:39] Ruth Preston: So I then started looking for workspaces and I was like, it ticks every single box. I came once I was planning to go to like two or three, and I think I came to the skiff first, and then I was like, I'm not visiting any others. I'm coming to the skiff. Yeah. Wow. Sold. Yeah, sold on first visit.
Yeah, it's amazing and it's been great. It's been great. Just little things like leave, I can leave my, my cereal here.
[00:15:01] Caroline Beavon (host): When I do tours with people here, I always describe it as a clubhouse, not a cowork space, because it feels very much, it kind of explains why it's a little bit more relaxed.
[00:15:10] Ruth Preston: It's almost like, you know, if you go around to someone's house and it's like spic and span, you are like, ugh, all the time. You're worried you're gonna knock something. Like, and I don't feel I'm gonna break anything.
[00:15:21] Caroline Beavon (host): So you spoke before about working amongst people and you know mm-hmm. Your desire with your, with your business. Have a, have a building. Does this kind of scratch that itch of having almost a group of people, even though you're not working with them?
[00:15:33] Ruth Preston: Yeah, absolutely. I think, I mean obviously it would be even better if I was working with everyone in the room 'cause it would be more social. But I think it's been really good. You know, people go and sit in the lounge at lunchtime. Mm-hmm. That's really nice. And you can all go and sit there and you chat.
And I've got to know people and everyone's really friendly. Um, yeah, I've, I've really liked it. I think it's really nice when I come in here, I know I can focus, so it's not like I'm gonna go somewhere where everyone, like people are shouting over the desk like, hi, you know, all the time. And you're thinking, I can't.
It's very, very, Nice. Everyone respects everything, but everyone else is quite friendly and says hello. I just, yeah, it, I think it works really well, the dynamic.
[00:16:12] Caroline Beavon (host): So, so you are currently studying how, how much longer will your studies take?
[00:16:17] Ruth Preston: So, I mean, if I'm amazing and I get everything done like very quickly. I, I, well, I think it's quite unlikely to, to get it done within a year, I think it's more likely to be a year and a half to two years. And within that time, I will, the current plan is to stay employed with the person who's helping me do the bookkeeping, which means I hope to remain here. Nice. And then after that, who knows?
Um, I, I mean, I just really like it. So yes, it really depends. I'd like to remain freelance and I mean, if I can. I'd be up for just staying here for a lot longer doing other stuff. Well, it
[00:16:56] Caroline Beavon (host): Sounds like you have a really lovely mix and it's, it's, it's something, it's one of the reasons I like freelancing is the fact that no two days are the same. Yeah. I can, if I'm leaning into one particular kind of mindset at the time, I can do that kind of work or I can flip and flop, do different things. It sounds like you've got, obviously you've got the, the, the paid job, which keeps the wolf from the door, which is nice. Yes. You've got the freelance where you can sort of stretch your legs and have a play and the studying, which is yes building for your future. It sounds like you've got a really perfect setup right now.
[00:17:22] Ruth Preston: Yes, it is. Perfect. But like with like with anyone who splits their time up, they're never quite splits in exactly. You are always like, always working on a Saturday morning, like, ah, I still got stuff to do. But I don't know. I like it because I, I do get very easily bored. Mm-hmm. Um, So having that difference is so helpful.
[00:17:41] Caroline Beavon (host): So how do you divide up your week? Do you have, you have, I guess you have set days for the paid client. Mm-hmm.
[00:17:45] Ruth Preston: Yes.
[00:17:45] Caroline Beavon (host): And then the other days are just free for all, or do you have a studying day as well?
[00:17:49] Ruth Preston: So my calendar, um, has, um, from doing freelance admin, my calendar is kind of like, The place where everything happens in terms of planning time.
So I've got freelance calendar, and then I've got an employed calendar. I've also got a locations calendar, so I've got Skiff, so they all feed into one. Yeah. So I can see when I'm at the Skiff
, I can see when I'm working at my brother's, I can see when I'm working at home. Okay. So usually I work at my brother's one day a week.
I work at Skiff two days a week. I work at home two days a week. And also, Working on, um, a T S L bookkeeping. Essentially I have three hours on three days of the week that I'm not work, working, employed, I study. So it's roughly nine hours a week
[00:18:30] Caroline Beavon (host): yes. I mean, it sounds very complicated, but um, it also, one, it makes sense to you and it's how you've obviously found how you work the best. Yes. And also to, it really shows that you've done administration before because you're very good at setting up calendars. And that time, because I know. There's people I've spoken to in the past who are, who just their calendar's a mess and they don't use it. Whereas you have got systems are very important to you.
[00:18:54] Ruth Preston: Yes. Yeah, they are. Yeah.
[00:18:55] Caroline Beavon (host): And that's what you've done for your, for your job, you know?
[00:18:58] Ruth Preston: Yes. It's interesting 'cause I think people are just very good at doing different things and one thing I think I am good at is organizing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I can organize myself and generally nothing gets lost.
You know, there are certain types of people that are you, you know, if you send 'em an email, if it goes past a week, you're never gonna get a response. And then there's other people that will respond instantly. And there's other people that. Yeah. You know, they will respond. Nothing gets lost. There's no, there's no holes in the bottom of their, they have a system in place. They have a system in place. Yeah.
But then I find that people just are very good at different stuff. So someone who's not so good at admin is just incredible at innovative ideas. Yeah. Just things that I can never do.
You know, so I'm just, their systems, processes, numbers, you know, that's me. So, you know. All of us. So that's why it's really important in team, isn't it? Mm-hmm. To be able to work together because there's loads that want, that some groups of people can do, and other, other groups of people can do other things.
[00:19:56] Caroline Beavon (host): But also the wonderful world of freelancing means that you can, you don't even have to have a permanent team anymore. You could, you, if you, if you knew for your business, you know that you needed some creativity. You could find somebody to do that. Yes. Yeah, exactly. You could easily hire somebody for a day, a week. Yeah. An hour, a week, an hour. You know, you could, that's, the world is a lot more flexible nowadays. Yes. And it's really nice that you wouldn't even have to build a team. Yes. You could just build a team as you needed to.
[00:20:22] Ruth Preston: I think that that is what is really nice about working freelance is you essentially find out what am I good at?
So, yeah, exactly IT, that was never something that I did. I was like outsource. Yeah. There's people who are really good and people who are. Incredible at that and really love it and, you know, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I tended to do quite a lot of my own finance, but I did have accountants 'cause they were, you know, because you need, you need that. But I was like, yeah, I could do the, like, low level figures. And then I realized I really enjoyed it. So that's where I was Nice heading. So, yeah.
[00:20:55] Caroline Beavon (host): Fantastic.
So, um, I'm gonna wrap up with three quickfire questions. Sure. They, they don't have to do quickfire answers.
Right. What is for lunch today?
[00:21:04] Ruth Preston: Um, So I make up meals. Oh, so this one was, so I just like throw things in. So it's like minced beef and like Worcester sauce and Marmite and tomato, and it's just, and, and vegetables with potatoes that I thought were cooked. But they're a bit like al dente.
[00:21:26] Caroline Beavon (host): Hmm. That's a vegetable that you want, al dente.
[00:21:27] Ruth Preston: Oh, I know. Yeah. It's just, it's not quite there, but I'm eating it anyway. And so because it was al dente, I made mashed potato. So it's this really weird, like, it doesn't taste like shepherd's pie, but it looks like shepherd's pie. And there's some like hard potato in there that's not quite cooked, and I'm having that with salad.
[00:21:44] Caroline Beavon (host): Ooh. I mean, I like this. Know you're not creative, but my god, I. Is, is that, was, was that literally open the cupboards? What have you got, put it in a pan together? Um, or do you kind of construct these, you know, ahead of time? You say, well, what, what would go really well with beef and salad?
[00:22:00] Ruth Preston: What happens is I cook for the house once a week and, um, I usually, um, So there's certain types of meat that I don't like to eat because, um, like, you know, cheap chicken animal welfare stuff.
Okay. And also because I wanna budget, because I'm studying, so I'm not actually, I'm not earning full time. Um, it pretty much is like beef or tofu or some sort of fish. That's pretty much my, like protein at the moment, or egg I guess. But then, because I'm cooking for the house, so what I do is I find a recipe that I think, oh, that'll work. But then I. Make it cheaper. I love this, I love this. And that's where the errors sometimes come in. So that's what's happened this time.
[00:22:44] Caroline Beavon (host): If you didn't live in Brighton, in the heart of Brighton Yes. The beating heart of Brighton. Um, where would you live? And we talked about Spain earlier. Would that, I sort of wondered if that, would that be a destination of choice or would you want to live somewhere else?
[00:22:56] Ruth Preston: I think I would probably go to Birmingham. And the reason I say that is actually because my brother lives there, so it depends. If the question is, where would you ideally like to live, then I think. It would be somewhere far away. I think New Zealand's very beautiful. Okay. But practically, it's always very relational for me. So it's like where do I know someone that I love and I know other people, so I know the church up in Birmingham because my brother goes there, so I know the people there. Right. Or Spain, because I know my mom and dad. Simple.
[00:23:31] Caroline Beavon (host): So Birmingham. Spain or New Zealand.
[00:23:33] Ruth Preston: Or New Zealand. If it was like, okay, do you know what, let's just go somewhere that's really
[00:23:37] Caroline Beavon (host): money is, yeah, money is no option yet. Yes. That kind of thing. And final question, if you could earn the same, doing any job, what job would you do?
[00:23:45] Ruth Preston: So I'm, I'm a Christian. I'm really passionate about Christianity and I think especially in this, there's a lot that isn't understood about Christianity, and I think there's, so I, I would really love to be able to be someone who provides answers to people and explains what Christianity is. It is called an apologist. I would really love to be, to be that I. Paid for by the
[00:24:09] Caroline Beavon (host): Like a missionary type thing?. Yeah.
[00:24:10] Ruth Preston: Like, yeah, like that. Very much like, I'd like to do something like that. That would be cool. So yeah.
[00:24:15] Caroline Beavon (host): And you can find out more about Ruth's freelancing at ukvirtualassistance.co.uk. And if you're interested in working alongside people like Ruth and myself, head to the skiff.org.
And don't forget to subscribe to Tales from the Engine Room, and we'll see you next time.