Virtual office services / Graphic design / French translator / events management / PR & Marketing

My partner and I run a business consultancy and offer Virtual Office facilities, including database management, event organisation, typing, graphic design, PR, advertising and marketing, etc. I have 35 years' experience in offices, have been secretary to numerous committees, am fast and fastidious and am currently organising, in my spare time, a school reunion and my daughter's wedding, over and above my day to day work and being a Board Director and secretary to the Board of our local Chamber of Commerce and working on various voluntary committees locally. Jill of all Trades and very conscientious. Peter is a journalist to trade and has worked in both newspapers and marketing agencies for the past 28 years. We also have an online retail business.

Portfolio:

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Experience:
In 2000, I started working with the local newspaper as a freelance news correspondent and photographer and also acted as relief typist before moving into their Accounts department in a part-time Jill-of-all-trades role. When a vacancy arose in the Advertising Department, I seized the opportunity and thus learned a great deal about advertising sales which I was able to combine with my previous knowledge of customer services.

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
My partner and I run a business consultancy together after being made redundant from the local newspaper following a take-over. We have pooled our talents and offer services such as graphic design, corporate imaging, property management and events organisation. We have also returned to our journalistic roots by offering a news and photography service for our area to another local newspaper.

We also have an online retail business through which we have gained a great deal of knowledge about e-commerce such as search engine optimisation and we have just completed a rebuild of our website and undertake all the updating and maintenance ourselves. We have also launched a fancy dress costumes retail business and are again in the process of building a website to maximise sales.

Education and Training:
I was a secondary school pupil at Whitburn Academy in West Lothian from 1966 to 1972 where I gained seven O-levels (English, French, German, Latin, Maths, Arithmetic and History) and five Highers (English, French, German, Latin and Maths). I also achieved the Certificate of Sixth-year Studies in English, French and German.

At Napier University in Edinburgh, I took Trilingual Business Studies and Admin (the three languages being English, French and German) and learned to type (current speed: 82wpm) and take shorthand (100wpm). I then spent 17 years working in France, the first ten years in Paris as a technical translator and statistician with the United Nations Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography and the following seven years in Evreux, Normandy as a Technical Translator and Export Sales Executive for Carrier Air Conditioning.

Following my return to Scotland in 1991, I became a Market Assistant with The Drambuie Liqueur Company near Edinburgh and progressed to become an export business adviser and office co-ordinator with Scottish Enterprise’s newly formed Lothian Exports in 1996. Here, I studied for the Institute of Export’s Advanced Certificate in International Trade and completed Part I with honours.

During the first 25 years of my career, I developed many skills including event management and export sales as well as learning to use computers, the internet and all the new technology which didn’t exist when I started work in 1974 – fax machines, scanners, etc. I also undertook numerous courses over the years including Writing Newsletters; Working in Customer Services; Institute of Advanced Motoring’s Public Driving Skills; etc. I am currently working my way through the various modules of the European Computer Driving Licence to update my computer and Microsoft Office skills.

References available on request:
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