Suzanne Evett

Who I help

I work with growing businesses across Berkshire who need flexible, professional support without the cost of hiring in house. Most of the people I talk to haven’t outsourced before, and the conversation is usually less about a single task and more about letting go of the right piece of work to the right person. What they want to know is whether it’s genuinely flexible: will they pay for what they actually use, what happens if they’re too busy to hand something over one week, how do they get the most from their budget. I help them see that they’re not buying one generalist at one rate, they’re getting the right professional skill for each part of the work.

A good number of my clients are themselves consultants, coaches and agencies who already understand outsourcing from the other side, and use my team to support their own business, or to bring in extra capacity for their own clients when a project needs it. It works well precisely because they already know what good delegation looks like, so we tend to get straight into it rather than needing to explain the model first.

My background

With over a decade at Microsoft and Vodafone, I built my career in operational HR and performance management, supporting employee populations of up to 10,000 and leading global performance cycles across international teams. That gave me a deep understanding of how strong operational foundations drive commercial success. I also spent years delivering complex corporate events across the pharmaceutical sector, from one-day seminars to multi-day conferences and exhibitions, in the UK, the US and Hong Kong.

How I work with clients

Why come to an agency rather than just meeting a VA at a networking event? Because you get a professionally skilled resource for each part of the work, not a hopeful one-size-fits-all rate for everything you need. That’s the real difference in how I put a client’s support together. That’s the real difference in how I put a client’s support together. As one client put it:

“Their proactive approach means you’ll be matched with an expert that perfectly fits your needs. The ability to flex the hours of support is a huge benefit and means you’re only paying for the support that you need.”

One example that sticks with me: a client had two of our team working with her independently, one managing her CRM and database, one running her LinkedIn activity, each doing good work but not really knowing the other existed. When we sat the three of us down together, it turned out she’d bought a set of customer data almost a year earlier and never used it. Between the CRM work already done and the LinkedIn skills already in place, we put together a plan to warm up that list through August so that an email campaign landing in September would hit an audience who already recognised the name. That’s the bit clients don’t always see up front, the value isn’t just in the individual hours, it’s in making sure the team around them is actually working as a team.

I also support three pharmaceutical clients on their annual events, work that mostly comes through referral because these clients all know each other and attend each other’s events. It runs best when I’m involved from the very start, sitting in on planning meetings so logistics, budgets and speakers are handled as they come up, leaving the client’s own marketing and business development teams free to focus on why they’re running the event in the first place.

My Region

Reading and Newbury are where I’m based day to day, and where Get Connected runs. Beyond those two, I regularly cover Slough, Maidenhead, Windsor, Wokingham and Bracknell, with Newbury as roughly the western edge of my patch.

This part of Berkshire sits right on the M4 corridor and Thames Valley tech belt, so there’s a strong concentration of tech start-ups and AI solution providers, alongside long-standing names like Microsoft in Reading and Vodafone in Newbury. The M4 and direct rail line into London also make it a natural overflow for solicitors and accountants who want a regional base without London costs. Away from the bigger towns, the market towns bring a different flavour again, plenty of independent and lifestyle businesses building something of their own.

I’m a regular at the B2B Expo in Reading and the First Friday Club, and the Newbury Racecourse business networking events are always worth attending if you’re near that side of the patch. Alongside our own Get Connected meetings in Reading and Newbury, these are the places I’d point anyone wanting to get properly plugged into the local business community.

Outside of work

Weekends usually mean football. My daughter plays for Heartland Girls Academy, recently promoted to the Junior Premier League, which sounds a lot more glamorous than it feels when it means away matches as far as Exeter. I also volunteer with Girlguiding, running a Rainbows unit for four to seven year olds every week, and sit on the business committee for the Basingstoke Gang Show, one of the biggest scouting and guiding theatre shows in the UK, where my day job skills come in surprisingly handy.

Any time left over goes to Albert, our rescue dog from Romania, and the ongoing mission to find new places to walk him.

If your business could benefit from our help, or to find a regional office where you are, please get in touch on 01483 332220 or suzanne@getaheadva.com.

We pride ourselves on being the staff you don’t see, but the difference you do.