Meet Melissa Gauge
Over the last year, something big has changed for me, and my business. After speaking with lots of people, both personally and professionally, I had a real change in mindset that to achieve the ambitions I have for Your AJency, I can’t do it all alone. With that in mind, I decided to invest in my business by working smarter, not harder, and outsourcing some of my work to experts to get some of the tasks done. Outsourcing really can be game changing and certainly has been for me. I have more time to spend doing the things I really in my business and the experts I have helping me are also helping me to grow Your AJency. The ROI is high. So if you have been debating taking on help and want to grow your business in 2023, take a read of this ‘Moments to Motivate’ interview and hear how Melissa, Founder of SpareMyTime, has been helping female founders play to their own strengths and “alleviate the stresses of modern life at home and in business.” It’s time to meet Melissa Gauge.
Tell us a little about your journey with SpareMyTime, including some of the highs and lows. What prompted you to take the plunge?
There was no light bulb moment in starting SpareMyTime, more of a gradual development over time with plenty of mistakes thrown in! However, I’ve always been passionate about alleviating the stresses of modern life with very practical solutions. I left city life in 2016 when it became clear that life with small children and a full-time career wasn’t for me. I wanted to create something that really helped people, like me, who were forging a way forward, balancing work with children.
You said it’s been a gradual development - how has SpareMyTime evolved since 2016?
I view SpareMyTime in its current form as being its 3rd metamorphosis. It started life as a website connecting homeowners with high quality, local sole traders. In 2018, we added a phone number to the site so that clients could call us instead of going online. It soon became clear that I’d completely underestimated how much trust is bred from being contactable. From that point our ‘home concierge’ service blossomed. By 2019, I was moving in small business circles and realised many founders encountered the same issues as me – increased stress and anxiety, often due to a lack of time, funding and skills. Consecutively, my children started school and I met several highly capable parents (mostly mothers) unable to work due to the financial and time constraints of childcare. I was infuriated that these bright individuals had to leave the workplace through no fault of their own. I wanted to create a solution for both camps – business owners looking for high quality support and those looking for fully-flexible careers they could be proud of. I started experimenting, taking on the first support role myself and in January 2020 we launched SpareMyTime virtual assistants providing high-quality, affordable, and approachable admin, bookkeeping and marketing services. 3 years later, we now have 20 virtual assistants, over 50% of whom are mums, working from home whilst developing news skills and aspirations.
That’s amazing. We love how working with small businesses has now informed your own - we found similar ourselves at Your AJency.
We talk about how important in marketing it is to share your ‘why’. Given how your business has changed, what is your main ‘why’? Has this remained the same?
My ‘why’, and the reason I started SpareMyTime Virtual Assistants 3 years ago, are simply the two causes I feel most passionately about:
1. The fact that, unfairly, many brilliant businesses will fail due to the lack of access to reliable time and skills
2. The fact that many women are excluded from the workplace due to childcare restraints
Something we totally agree with too! It’s hard to launch and run a business on your own, impossible in my opinion. Obviously you are providing an amazing service to other businesses to help them in the day-to-day operations but who and where have you sought the necessary support?
On starting SpareMyTime VAs, I joined a women’s networking group (Women in Business Network). Initially it was for networking reasons, however it has become so much more valuable. Being able to chat to others who are experiencing similar issues and learning through each other’s experience is so important. 3 years later, and we continue to be there for one another. Joining a networking group continues to be my number one tip for anyone at the initial stages of start-up. I’ve also been incredibly lucky that my business is built around a team. My first virtual assistant, Leigh-Anne, was by my side on day one and now runs our day- to-day operations. She knows the business inside out and I’m constantly bouncing ideas off her. As the team has grown, I’ve benefitted from an ever-deepening knowledge pool – decision making is so much easier when you have others to talk to.
We’ve worked hard to recreate this support and knowledge sharing for our clients and team. With 20 VAs and 50 clients, we have created our own wonderfully knowledgeable and supportive community.
Did you work in a similar industry before starting SpareMyTime? How has your previous career helped you with running your own business?
I started SMT on the back of a 20-year executive career in the City of London, where I had the immense pleasure of leading 3 teams, meeting several leading CEOs and FDs, creating many new products, learning how investors looked at businesses and the key elements of what made business successful. All in a fast-paced and pressurised environment.
After I had children, I started to re-evaluate the way I spent my time. Like many other parents, I loved my executive career but the demands of childcare required more flexibility and creativity.
From 2016-2019, I experienced the hardships of getting it wrong. Launching businesses and failing. Making mistakes, learning from them.
Making mistakes is how we grow, right. I completely agree. Some of my own mistakes have led to my biggest growth.
From 2020, I’ve had the great benefit of learning from all our team, the many other businesses that I meet and we work for, and the constant education that comes from managing a business. SMT today draws on each of these experiences. My fascination with what works in business, a love of people and team building, the resilience given to me by a career in the City and a desire to equalise the workplace with flexible, virtual working.
You said one of the reasons you moved away from your executive career was to have more flexibility when it comes to childcare etc. How do you balance being a successful business owner and being present for your family?
Starting up a business when you have small children seems a perfect work/life solution. However, new businesses require an enormous amount of time, attention and emotion. It’s like having another very demanding (and badly-behaved) child! I’ve found the key is to ask for help. I’m lucky to have a wonderful support network around me – both at work and at home; and I believe in outsourcing what I can. Realising that you can’t, and shouldn’t, do it all is a revelation.
I have definitely realised that in the past year too! What has been your personal highlight for Spare My Time so far?
There are so many! Every time we get a great piece of feedback from a client, it makes my heart sing. Or any time one of our VAs say how supported they feel working with us, I feel unbelievably proud. In our own way, we are helping others become more productive and able to manage those everyday stresses that can sometimes become unbearable. Being part of a community that delivers solutions is so rewarding.
We’re in a wonderful place now where we know who we are, what our intention is and our clients value that intention. That seems a pretty cool place to be.
What is the best advice anyone has given you in terms of being an entrepreneur?
It takes time. Much longer than you think. Also, put your prices up!
And is there anything that you would have done differently?
My biggest mistake was investing heavily into my first business without truly knowing what I was doing. However, I wouldn’t have done it differently as I’m a firm believer that we shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes, they are the most valuable thing you can do – I’ve certainly benefitted from all of mine.
That sounds like a great motto! Do you have something that you live by or run your business by?
Treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself. I was told it as a child and it has always served me well.
A perfect motto for all aspects of life for sure. At Your AJency, we work with ambitious women. What are your plans for what’s next?
2023 is all about more of the same for SpareMyTime. More exceptional service, more delivering on what we do the best. I’m particularly excited to launch our Learning Library. A collection of ‘how-to’ guides on starting, growing and managing a business. The concept is to offer a helping hand for those who aren’t quite at the stage of outsourcing but would like to dip into the team’s wealth of experience. An affordable, accessible ‘go-to’ when you’re not sure where else to look.
That sounds like a brilliant resource for any business and definitely worth investing in. What has been your best business investment you have made to date?
Investing in good quality support is always worth it. Whether for advice, to provide new skills or to give me more capacity. I never regret it.
When it comes to 2023, do you have a word or something you want to focus on for yourself as a business owner, wife and mum?
Consistency. Finding out what works for me then doing more of it – in both my business and homelife.
Consistency is key to any success at home or in business so we can definitely relate to that! Thanks so much for taking part in our ‘Moments to Motivate’ series - we hope that this is incredibly helpful for any of you running a business and considering outsourcing some of your tasks, either in your business or at home.
Melissa Gauge is the founder of SpareMyTime, an innovative virtual assistance agency based in the UK offering admin, bookkeeping and marketing services. To keep connected with Melissa or to learn more about her business, SpareMyTime, check out the following links: