Since establishing Chaos to Calm in 2005, I've worked with a large number of satisfied clients. A selection of the testimonials are provided below to give you a flavour of what I can do and how I do it.

Business management

• The challenge – this ethical fashion entrepreneur required a range of support, from setting up IT systems and databases to assisting with documentation for shows and acting as a sounding board for future projects.
• The testimonial – ‘Chaos to Calm has been my saviour many a time...First setting up my whole client database and spoon feeding me and being patient with humour...Second, I have to say, they are the only people that acknowledge you immediately or within a couple of minutes by phone or text so incredibly reliable. Thirdly, if they have to recommend somebody it is always somebody with their same work ethos. Fourthly, they are really nice...bonus!....Finally, they’re there for the next step of my business. It’s great speaking to them because they’re so business oriented and great to sound things out with’ – Lupe Castro, Entrepreneur (www.lupecastro.com) 
   
• The challenge – this unique investment advisory firm required a complete ongoing business management solution, ranging from diary and email management to presentations, travel organisation, tender writing, creation and maintenance of marketing material (both online and offline) and event management
• The testimonial – ‘Stephanie combines absolute professionalism, reliability, experience and efficiency with a sense of humour. She has extremely good knowledge of investment management and the financial markets and we have yet to ask her to help with any project, whether organisation or business development related, where she has not immediately understood the objective. She invariably offers ideas which are extremely helpful’ – Nick Broadhead, Co-Founder, AllenbridgeEpic Investment Advisers (www.allenbridgeepic.com) 
   
• The challenge – this Mayfair based investment consultancy utilised me for a range of tasks over a number of years, ranging from agenda and minute-taking through to implementing a variety of HR policies and health and safety policies.
• The testimonial – ‘Through outsourcing to Stephanie and her Chaos to Calm team we experienced a great improvement in our efficiency. She quickly became an indispensable part of our operation and we came to value her expertise and efficiency, and the friendly but professional way in which she delivered both’ - Gareth Robertson, Business Development Director, Allenbridge Ltd (www.allenbridge.com) 

Executive secretarial support

• The challenge – all these consultancy clients required either ongoing or ad-hoc VA/administration work, ranging from travel organisation to copy typing, presentation creation, timesheet and expense management and minuting.
• Testimonial 1 – ‘Chaos to Calm has provided excellent support in a range of on-going administrative areas as well as sporadic projects. Short-notice urgent travel requests for a demanding team were handled without hitch while filing and related organisational activities were completed quickly and efficiently. I have no hesitation making a glowing recommendation’ - Mark Giles, Managing Director, BMG Strategy Consulting
• Testimonial 2 – ‘Stephanie is a highly talented individual and delivers excellent service at Chaos to Calm’ – Robin Hindle Fisher, Executive Coach
• Testimonial 3 – ‘I have worked with Stephanie of Chaos to Calm for a number of years. She has provided my own company, KSA, with a part-time virtual assistant with whom I am very pleased’ – Karen Shackleton, Keith Shackleton Associates (www.ksa.uk.net) 
• Testimonial 4 – ‘The minutes Chaos to Calm produced for our project meetings were accurate, quickly turned around and much appreciated’ – Senior Development Manager,  Not for Profit Association

Office streamlining and efficiency

• The challenge - this rapidly expanding consultancy required an interim office manager prior to hiring a full time member of staff.
• The testimonial – ‘For an interim period, prior to hiring a full time office manager, Chaos to Calm were fantastic to us and provided us with many help and support options, from travel organisation to timesheet coordination. We would certainly recommend their services’ – Ian Henderson, i3d Group (www.i3dgroup.com)
   
• The challenge - this fast growing web designers were working all hours to deliver on their client projects and were falling behind with their office management and business planning.
• The testimonial - 'We called Stephanie because of the recent growth in our business. We had no proper filing system or diary management system in place and we were struggling to keep abreast of the admin and planning tasks, let alone the work. Our office was a bombsite and I was getting up at 2am or 3am to try and keep on top of the work. Stephanie not only sorted through, filed, shredded (8 shredders worth!) and referenced all our paperwork, she also explored the root cause of our chaos. When she left, we both felt completely liberated, like a huge weight had been lifted from us. Less than an hour later, our page long action plan was emailed to us, complete with basic ground rules. We are following the guidelines laid out for us, and it really has made a huge difference to the way we work. We are so much more productive, and the best bit is, if we do fall behind again, we can just call Steph to come in and sort us out. There is no such a thing as a magic bullet, but what Steph provides is pretty close! I would have no hesitation in recommending Stephanie and Chaos to Calm; calling her was the best investment we made since we started our business.' - Cecilia and John Holden, ActivWeb Design (www.activwebdesign.com/SG19/
   
• The challenge - all these clients needed their office systems streamlined and kept up to date.
  Testimonial 1– ‘I had had a busy six months and my admin had got out-of-hand. Which meant that my working space (desk & floor) had become overwhelmed with 'stuff' - I didn't know where to start... so had let it get worse and worse. Steph came over for the day and intelligently helped de-clutter my office, and put in place sensible filing systems and processes to help me keep on top of my admin. My office has never looked as tidy or organised, and it is a massive weight off my mind. I am now looking forward to working in my office again & also working with clients in my office, now that Steph has weaved a little magic and de-cluttered and organised my office’ – Heather Townsend, The Efficiency Coach (www.theefficiencycoach.co.uk)
• Testimonial 2 – ‘Stephanie's company lives up to its name; she really does bring about the transformation from chaos to calm. For the first time in years I feel that my paperwork and general office management is under a degree of control. I can recommend her without hesitation’– Dr E, chartered psychologist in private practice
• Testimonial 3 – ‘Chaos to Calm has a practical and straightforward approach and get things done. They have helped us sort out our office and offered solutions which were both effective and easy to implement’ –Kim Hunt, JK Research Limited, accountants (www.jkrl.co.uk)
• Testimonial 4- ‘In three days, Stephanie sorted all my files into order, all my papers into files, except for those archived, recycled or shredded because they were too sensitive for recycling. I can now find my files, there is room to put more in them and I have found some quite nice furniture I had forgotten I possessed. Her remarkable tenacity in tackling a job that would have deterred even the most resourceful, was of the highest order, and I recommend them unreservedly’ – The Lord Renwick

Marketing support

• The challenge – this small specialist consultancy firm undertook a large client research to help a global asset management house better support their clients. We provided the VA support to schedule the client interviews and also acted as one of the interviewers.
• The testimonial – ‘I recently contracted Chaos-to-Calm to participate in a major client research project for a large, global fund manager. One of Stephanie’s team made calls to nearly 200 key clients with whom the fund manager had relationships. The VA effectively and professionally arranged appointments for KSA’s consultants (one of whom was Stephanie herself) to hold a face-to-face or telephone discussion to discuss service standards. Stephanie proved to be an able interviewer for this research project. She had a sufficiently sophisticated knowledge of the fund manager industry to undertake discussions to the extremely high standard that KSA’s clients expect. Her notes were well written and demonstrated her ability to probe for more information from the client where it was expected. She arrived for interviews in a timely fashion and wrote up notes promptly. She respected client confidentiality and dealt with one particularly unhappy client both professionally and courteously. I will certainly consider using Stephanie again in this capacity in the future, and I recommend her to you without reservation’ – Karen Shackleton, Keith Shackleton Associates (www.ksa.uk.net) 

Tender and grant writing

• The challenge – this Midlands based client is an internationally known, former Harvard Fellow who is an expert in the fields of emotional literacy, behavioural management, race, class and gender. He was looking for an entrepreneurial partner to identify suitable grant opportunities and write funding proposals in relation to his work helping professionals - particularly those in social work and teaching - use emotional literacy to improve their own and others’ life experiences.  
• The testimonial – 'There is no question that Stephanie and Chaos to Calm provide a high quality service - quite simply, she offers the best project coordination service that I’ve ever used! She is a delight to work with, while also being very tenacious and committed. Importantly, she is capable of seeing the big picture while identifying and follow up the important minutae other people may not notice. She is very well organised in terms of establishing overall timelines, scheduling and coordinating the steps along the way and anticipating potential problems, thereby saving time and money. She has successfully helped us win two prestigious EC grants worth several hundred thousand Euro and I highly recommend her services without any reservation’ - Dr Richard Majors, Director of the Centre for Applied Emotional Literacy, Research and Leadership (also Director of Innovation for City of Wolverhampton College) (www.acellr.co.uk) 

 Recruitment and development

• The challenge – this boutique asset manager was looking to recruit a new resource to the team and asked us to run the process for them.
• The testimonial – ‘Stephanie has assisted and led a number of projects for SVG Investment Managers over the last seven years.  She is consistently reliable, precise and proactive. Most recently she worked with us to evaluate how best to fill a resource gap on the team, ultimately identifying a new role, detailing the job requirements and managing the process through to final interview.  Her skills, including her interviewing and psychometrics expertise, helped make this a smooth and effective process, saving much in-house time. I would certainly recommend her services’ – Adam Steiner, CEO, SVG Investment Managers (www.svgcapital.com)