Louella Paranal attends to tasks while working in the comfort of her own home in Maginhawa, Quezon City, on May 10, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Louella Paranal crafted her work life around her family’s schedule.

During the pandemic, Paranal founded Digital Savvies Virtual Assistance, a business that helps entrepreneurs find virtual assistants for administrative tasks, graphic design, web design, and other services.

"During that time I also had a baby I was caring for, and I was already doing freelance work for more than a decade. And being a mom again during that time and then it was pandemic I realized that I could no longer just trade my time for money," she said.

Paranal said she founded the agency with the help of her sister, who at that time was struggling, to keep her full-time job while taking care of her son.

"My understanding is that the people who join our organization are also moms," Paranal told ABS-CBN News in a recent interview.

"Most of them are moms. They have to juggle between house chores and also making money. So this is not primarily their main source of income is mostly their side gig to, like, augment what they're already earning and still be, you know, present for their kids," she said.

Paranal said she got into virtual assistance in 2008 while she was raising a toddler.

"I was out of work for four years before I became a VA. So that's because I dedicated my time to raising my firstborn," she said.

"And then it was quite a struggle to go back to the workforce because it would mean—who's going to take care of the child? So I was forced to stay home."

Paranal said it was a friend of her twin sister who got her into the industry.

“It was paying so little during that time. Very little, but I took it on because I said okay, this is going to be like, additional income for our household. Maybe I can afford my son's piano lessons with this, or maybe we can go on trips eventually," she said.

The businesswoman said she only got more and more clients since her first gig.

"It just started with an opportunity that was open to me. I was available to do it and then I just moved it. I just grew it over the years," she said.

TYPICAL DAY

These days, Paranal works with clients from the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. She starts her day with breakfast with the family between 7:30 to 8 a.m., then replies to some emails before getting her 4-year-old daughter ready for school.

Once the little lass is in school, the working mom ducks into a coffee shop or restaurant for three hours.

Paranal also tries to get some work done once her toddler is home from school and watching TV. But once her husband comes home from work, he takes care of her, allowing Mommy to work for as long as she needs to.

Paranal said the “beauty” of a virtual assistant’s job is how it allows her to be flexible with her time.

“The key is really being transparent with the client, like ‘Okay, these are the number of hours I can dedicate. These are the hours of the day that we can sync and talk to each other.’ That way it's--there's no stress,” she said.

Louella Paranal attends to tasks while working in the comfort of her own home in Maginhawa, Quezon City, on May 10, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

FILIPINO VAs

Paranal said she sees more Filipinos going into virtual assistance in the future.

“I think it's because we are very family-oriented. We put our families first, and a lot of us also still live with our parents and we also have our dreams like we want to afford good schools for our kids, and this is a really good way to do that,” she explained.

“You can do it on your spare time. And then learning the skills to be a VA is free online,” she added.

She also said Filipinos can succeed as virtual assistants because of the compassion and care they show their clients.

“I think it's we're very hard working. We know that we have bills to pay,” she said.

“It's like when we do back a client, we take care of the client…I've seen it in the forums that Filipino freelancers, they tend to care about their clients as well. And I can see that in our community — we tend to care for the clients, especially if it's a good match,” she noted.

“If the client understands us, respects us, then we tend to take care of them, like we are proactive in supporting them. We don't just do what they asked us to do. If we have knowledge, if you know a better way of doing something, we suggest that the client because that will help them succeed."

'MOTHERS ARE VERY GOOD PROJECT MANAGERS'

But Paranal said what working mothers—like virtual assistants—bring to the table is a unique ability to multitask and manage projects exceptionally well.

"Only a mother would understand, like I would be here talking to you but I could be in the back of my head, thinking like, I wonder what my daughter's doing right now, or what are we going to have for dinner," she explained.

"It's like, you want to know what you're kid's going to wear for the next 5 days or where you're going to bring your kid, what's the food, meal plan, etc. etc. So at the workplace it's like that. So if you have this idea of a project, we are so good at breaking down the tasks that…will get us from A to B. Yeah so we're very good in anticipating 'cause we are caregivers primarily."

"So that transfers over to the executives or the people that we're supporting. It's like, for example, my client would say I want my online products to go on sale, can you create emails for me? And then…I will just execute that task, but I would also have the insight like, okay, if we're doing this, we have to prepare for that beforehand, like we need to warm up the clients, to tell them that we're going to have a sale in 7 days or whatever so that they're prepared for it," she explained.

"So I think that's the superpower of moms — whether it's a virtual assistant or a corporate setting is, we are very good project managers," she said.