Discretion is the product
London work is disproportionately sensitive: client lists, fee notes, deal correspondence, personal diaries. Every engagement therefore starts with a written confidentiality agreement, and a separate NDA is available on request before any system access is granted at all.
Access is granted at the narrowest level that lets the work happen — delegated inbox access rather than shared passwords, named accounts rather than generic logins — and it is revoked cleanly whenever an engagement ends.
What a virtual PA covers for a London director
The recurring pattern is not a long task list. It is diary control, inbox triage, travel and meeting logistics, document and proposal formatting to a standard you would put your own name on, and the follow-ups that quietly decide whether opportunities progress.
The measure of it working is simple: nothing needing your decision sits unread for a day, and nothing that does not need your decision reaches you at all.
What London virtual assistant services actually cost
Rates in London are quoted every which way, so here is the plain version: £35 per hour ad-hoc with a two-hour minimum, £280 a month for 8 hours, £560 for 16 and £1,100 for 32. There is no employer National Insurance, workplace pension, holiday pay, sick pay, payroll administration, recruitment fee, desk or equipment cost stacked on top.
Compared against a salaried London EA or office administrator, the hourly figure looks higher and the total cost is usually far lower, because you are buying worked time rather than contracted presence. The comparison is set out in full on the virtual assistant versus employee page, and the ROI calculator runs it against your own hours.
How a London engagement starts
A free twenty-minute call establishes where the hours are going and which single task should move first — in London that is almost always inbox triage or diary control. A short handover documents how you want it done, access is granted at the narrowest useful level, and the work begins within about a week.
Nothing is committed in advance. Most City and West End clients run a two-hour ad-hoc task first, then move to a 16-hour retainer once it is obvious what it frees up. Retainers are month to month, so a quiet quarter is not an expensive problem.
Sectors we support across the capital
Professional services firms — law, accountancy and consultancy — make up the largest share, followed by founders and directors of small London companies who need a virtual PA rather than a full operations hire, then e-commerce and D2C brands with a customer inbox that never empties.
Each has a dedicated page setting out the specific workload: estate agents, accountants, law firms, coaches and consultants, e-commerce and trades. Support is remote and delivered on UK business hours from Enfield in North London.
