ABOUT OUR FOUNDER... Alicja Teagle

Shift-MVA was founded in 2018 to offer freelance and flexible administrative, operational and project support to busy entrepreneurs and small business owners. By shifting tasks off your to-do list we aim to relieve your stress and create time for you to focus more on what’s important to you, be it in life or business. 

Desperately needing to get away from the toxic corporate environment she was in at the time and having run a business before, Alicja knew she had what it took to take on the challenge. Thanks to her inspirational sister-in-law who had set herself up as VA 3 years earlier and was now living the life she had dreamed of, Alicja was confident in the services and support she could offer to prospective clients and her ability to add value to their businesses. Deciding on a business name was trickier! She quickly came up with MVA as an abbreviation of Multilingual Virtual Assistance but In the end it was her husband who came up with the idea of adding ‘Shift’ to the business name. At the time, Alicja was reading a self-help book which was all about shifting your perspective to help you move on from situations that otherwise would have stalled your mental ability to progress and move on for a while! The book was resonating with her more than she had anticipated and helped spur her on to leave her corporate role and take back control of her life. Becoming self-employed therefore represented a shift in her own life!  

As she ran the idea past a friend who has a knack for these things, it really took shape as she played with the word and applied it to the VA industry effectively. Shifting tasks to a trusted partner and reducing your burden as a business owner to give yourself more time to focus on what you do best is what being a VA is all about after all! Combining this concoction with the existence of the ‘Shift’ key on a keyboard representing the virtual element of this line of work and Shift-MVA was born. 

With over 15 years’ experience of coordinating projects, managing operations, providing professional administrative, project and multilingual customer support as well as streamlining processes to increase efficiency, Alicja setup Shift-MVA so she could help fellow business owners do the same within their life and business!  

In a previous life, Alicja and her husband, Simon, setup and ran a specialist ski shop in the beautiful French Alp town of Morzine which was no easy task! With a limited budget, big fires to fight (including a real fire & supplier bankruptcy amongst others) and long lists of red tape, our problem solving and negotiation skills were tested to the max! The learning curve was a vertical one but the skills gained and lessons learned were eye-opening and fostered all kinds of wisdom. 

Having this first-hand experience of running a business, and wearing all the hats that that entailed as well as understanding that feeling of overwhelm that comes with entrepreneurship, means Alicja understands only too well how difficult it can be to find trustworthy, competent and reliable people to whom you can delegate tasks.

As a result, the decision to setup as a Virtual Assistant was an easy one because she knew she wanted to be able to support and empower business owners in a flexible and affordable way – an option she wishes they’d had and been open to with their first business.

Over the years, Shift-MVA has grown from strength to strength, now with a small team of carefully selected associates supporting a building client list. The team love nothing more than a happy customer for a job well done!