The Countryside PA

Freelance Personal Assistant
Refining the art of perfect organisation

Bringing calm to chaos
Let The Countryside PA simplify your day-to-day tasks with expert assistance tailored to your unique requirements, freeing you to focus on what truly matters within your professional and personal life. Specialising in assisting professionals, small business owners, entrepreneurs and busy individuals. We can work alongside you in your office if you are based in Somerset, or virtually for you and our clients across the UK.
Your Personal Assistant
The Countryside PA specialises in providing freelance personal assistant services, including office administration, event management, diary control, travel arrangements, social media management and much more. This takes away the hassle of employment and the complications that go with it, including overheads, staff retention, training and HR sourcing.
Our expert solutions are customised to meet your specific needs. With no long-term commitment, we believe in offering flexible support tailored to your lifestyle. Our aim is to empower you by handling tasks efficiently, allowing you to focus on the more important aspects of your personal and professional life.
We offer two pricing options, pay-per-hour (weekly or by project) or a monthly retainer. However as each client is unique with differing requirements and budgets, this information is not easy to publish. Therefore pricing is produced on application. A VA can cost anything from around £18-£37/hour depending on the level of skill and responsibility required. Employment overheads can easily add 20% on top of paid hourly rate (NI, pension etc) without taking into account any actual office running costs. This is important to bear in mind when choosing a VA.
I have been working in all aspects of office administration for over 25 years and I have a passion for helping others to do their job to the best of their ability. During this time I have worked with some truly inspiring professionals across many sectors with each and every one of them allowing me to perfect my craft in helping them to achieve their goals. Sectors include Sports wear manufacture, product sales and marketing, shopping centre events, software development and more latterly in education. Working with a PA is a close relationship, it develops in such a way there becomes little need for your direction.
There are lots of VA's out there, all doing an amazing job, just Google VA and see what turns up......but what makes The Countryside PA different?
Working with a PA is a close relationship, it develops in such a way there becomes little need for your direction. By quickly tuning into your working style I will know exactly what you need way before you do. Unlike a larger VA company, I don't employ others, I am your PA from the start through to the end of your project, offering you guidance, providing consistency and fluency throughout. However I do have extra capacity to support where necessary when larger projects require it (that's 25 plus years of making the right connections).
So what does the Countryside have to do with all this?
Living in the countryside as a freelance PA means I can structure my working hours around the activities I enjoy, including walking our cocker spaniel. However I am also acutely aware that our countryside has many small rural business owners in need of the office support that I can offer. Chances are that if you have found this page and you are reading this, you are a rural business owner or professional in need of some help. Perhaps your office is remote, or you don't have one big enough and you are struggling to employ the right person. The benefits of choosing me are that you don't need to employ anyone and you can use the service as much or as little as required, there is no long term commitment. My portfolio of clients includes; small private households, professionals, a sports commentator, online retailers, bricks and mortar shops and larger corporates. They all have a rural link, appreciating the British Countryside, farming and wider industry.
So why not get in touch to see what I can do for you? I love nothing better than a discovery meeting over a large cuppa in person or online. A discovery meeting is free of charge, so you have nothing to lose.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
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Photo credit: Mirabelle Sterry aged 10 years.

Client Testimonials
" I have always found Marika to be organised, self motivated and extremely reliable. She is a clear communicator and naturally gifted in understanding the needs of a business and the individuals involved. In fact often before I did. Her loyalty, empathy and discretion have been invaluable in the time I have known her and she has effectively helped us exceed our goals."
RC
" I have worked with Marika Sterry both with voluntary charity work and also professionally assisting me with my business administration. Marika is extremely vigilant, a superb communicator and is creative when looking at ways to reduce time spent on projects."
PG
" What makes Marika stand out is her uncanny foresight—she often completes tasks before anyone else has even thought of them. Her proactive approach and deep understanding of both operational and budget processes have saved time, reduced stress, and elevated the performance of everyone around her."
JC
















