Dog Loving Virtual PA

I am a dog trainer and behaviourist based in Blackheath (SE London) in need of someone who can help answer telephone and email enquiries primarily, although keeping my Facebook page up to date, diary management, perhaps some book keeping, website updates and anything else that frees me up to do what I am best at would be helpful.

I am currently using an answering service, and while they are very good, I need more support than simply message taking. Telephone and email correspondence can be done remotely but I would prefer someone fairly local as it would be extremely helpful for my PA to spend some time actually seeing what I do and how I work.

The hours can vary enormously depending on the time of year and my own workload but my previous assistant (who has now moved on to do what I do full time!) would spend 1-3 hours per day talking to clients, responding to emails and doing the odd errand, although I would now prefer someone that is adaptable and forward thinking enough to offer more.

An excellent (professional, friendly & wellspoken) telephone manner, great people skills, a sense of humour and a love of dogs are key - you must also be able to write an email using correct grammar and syntax (I get several emails per week in \'txt spk\' from people asking for jobs!).

This is an uncommon area of expertise so you will have to want to learn a few new things to be able to talk to clients proficiently (very interesting for the right sort of person) - my clients range from single working parents to millionaires, their dogs range from cute 8 week old puppies to \'death row\' aggressive dogs and my services range from group training classes to bespoke residental training.