Magnum PA on a special mission

Feb 25 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A FREELANCE personal assistant may have named her firm after a 1980s TV detective but she has her sights set on the future.

Susan Edwards, 28, started Magnum PA a year ago to provide personal assistant support to companies across the North East. Morpeth-based Mrs Edwards, who used to work for the town’s oil and gas engineering firm Hydratight, says her one-woman enterprise provides a spare pair of hands – without the hassle of taking on an extra employee or agency worker.

One of her clients is a hairdresser who was being sidetracked from his main business by the demands of marketing and administration. Mrs Edwards now looks after his bookkeeping, allowing him to concentrate on cutting hair.

She says her business saves money for firms looking for temporary or part-time help. In addition to the costs of buying office equipment and a computer for a member of staff, she says it reduces other hidden costs. “When a business hires me, they don’t have overheads such as sick pay, tax, National Insurance or holiday entitlement to worry about. They don’t have the hassle of dealing with a temp agency and numerous different people,” said Mrs Edwards. “It’s just me and that’s how I want to keep it. That’s what I sell myself on – I am a no hassles, no quibbles employee.”

Mrs Edwards decided to go it alone after watching other people start their own businesses. She said: “I temped for six months for Business Link and I looked at other people who were starting up. I thought that this was the right time to start up, while I was young and I had the energy and enthusiasm.”

She says providing freelance PA services, which she does from home or from the client’s office, has massive potential.

“It’s the future. It’s the biggest business start in America. Although I’m not a mum, it’s a very easy start-up for working mums,” she said. “It’s a growing industry. Certainly, if this recession hits, people aren’t going to want the extra costs of an employee.”

And the name? “My husband Patrick is a big Magnum PI fan and we went for our honeymoon last year to Hawaii – though we didn’t see Tom Selleck.”