Sam Wilson: Co-Founder & CMO
Ellie Wilson: Co-Founder

The journey so far

We run a business called Virtalent (virtalent.com), a UK-based Virtual Assistant service provider specialising in PA and marketing support. Ellie and I founded Virtalent just as we graduated from Aston, back in the summer of 2014. We had spent the final year seeing many of our friends apply for graduate schemes and corporate careers we had no interest in doing ourselves.

We always knew we wanted to do something “different” and would love to run our own business but didn’t quite know what that looked like. We stumbled across the Virtual Assistant industry and realised that it was a young industry, but with an increasing number of people working remotely and more business being done online, it seemed like an interesting concept. Now, 9 years later, we have a team of 200 who all work remotely across the UK supporting a wide range of business owners.

How did BSEEN help?

After graduation, we joined the BSEEN programme, and they helped us define the concept and learn some of the skills needed to run a business. It was incredibly difficult to run the business to begin with. You have a lot of assumptions to test, theories to prove and you really need to hone your offering until you are left with a business that can really take off. We’ve certainly had a lot of sleepless nights to get to this stage! Year after year, we have grown the company, and this is entirely “bootstrapped” as we made the conscious decision early on not to accept external investment (and the pressure/agenda that comes with this).

What has been your proudest achieved?

Looking back at the last 9 years, there are so many things we can pick out, but I think growing the team to over 200 people has been an incredible achievement. Not only that, but all our team work remotely, including ourselves and our head office staff. It takes good communication and fantastic processes to scale a team this way and this is something we are also proud of.  

Finally, hearing the stories of our team of Virtual Assistants. A lot of our team are working mums, so to hear that they’ve been able to achieve that work-life balance at Virtalent is great. They love the clients they work with and the impact it’s had on their lives has been very rewarding. 

Why did you decide to study at Aston Business School?

We studied IBML Spanish. The programme seemed unique to us in that there were modules on business subjects in Spanish and entirely separate modules on Business (in English). We both wanted to develop our Spanish skills and also work in business, so IBML Spanish offered the perfect combination! The opportunity to spend an Erasmus year abroad as part of the course also stood out. Birmingham is also an amazing, young city. We both visited other universities and Aston’s small campus and friendly atmosphere stood out. I remember looking a little lost on an Open Day and a student coming straight over to me to ask if I needed any help! It was a great first impression.

What was the highlight of your Aston experience?

The people.

Making so many lasting friendships, all of which live very “international” lives. One of our friends is in Singapore, another in Munich and we live in Spain. It feels like we have really taken the principles taught in our course to heart! Ellie and I met each other on our IBML course at Aston - now we’re married and run a business together.

Putting our Spanish and business knowledge to the test during our Erasmus year in Malaga and Madrid really laid the foundations for the life we live now. Our course tutors were true experts and a real pleasure to be taught by.

How has your time at Aston helped your business?

The course was very challenging (and varied), so I think it taught us to adapt well to overcoming challenges. I (Sam) was President of Aston Entrepreneurs in my second year and we did quite a lot of group work, so I think it helped develop leadership skills ready for running a business.
Having access to “extra-curricular” programmes such as BSEEN gave us the tools, expertise and finance we needed to launch our business.

What are your aspirations and plans for the next steps in your career?

We continue to have high hopes for Virtalent. We plan on growing our presence in the UK alongside and potentially expanding our service offering or even launching in the US. 

We are entrepreneurs at heart and are also itching to get a second business off the ground. Having worked in B2B, exploring a business in B2C is something very interesting for us.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start or run their own business?

Growing a business has been the single most challenging thing each of us has ever done, but it is a life-changing experience and the single most rewarding experience. It’s impossible for someone who hasn’t run a business to relate this in any way... so just do it! But starting a business is the easy part. It’s fun to design a logo, brainstorm business ideas and pick out colours for your fancy new website.

Eventually, the novelty wears off though and the hard work of marketing the business and constantly refining (or overhauling) absolutely everything begins. This is what we call “the grind”. The successful business owners we know are those who push through this, sacrificing absolutely everything possible (sanity included) to do the work required. One day you’ll wake up and your hard work has paid off. Then you must do it all again to reach the next level. It never stops.

We’d say it’s 1% about the business idea and 99% about the strength of your execution - bringing the idea to life and growing a sustainable, profitable company.