Executive Assistant to the Founder

Good work should win the work.

Rootl helps tradespeople and local service businesses get found, picked and booked online. We exist because good businesses lose to worse ones every day. Not because they are worse at the job, but because the worse ones got found first.

It started with advice from an upstairs window to a window cleaner halfway up a ladder. By 2036 we want Rootl to be the UK's most trusted local search company for trades and local service businesses, with our first US hub open.

We are building the team that gets us there. Want a seat on the bus?

## WHAT WE DO

We help tradespeople and local service businesses get found on Google, and inside the AI tools their next customer is already searching with: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini. That is the job. We do it for plumbers, electricians, roofers, joiners, waste firms, architects, developers, and the trades around them. Three core services, one job done properly: getting our clients found when their next customer is looking.

We are a small, growing team. The founder runs sales and strategy. A web developer builds the client sites. A content operations manager runs the content. This new seat is the founder's right hand, the person who holds everything together so the rest of us can do our jobs.

## THE ROLE, IN ONE LINE

You protect the founder's time and turn what is in his head into a system the business can run on.

## ABOUT THIS SEAT

This is the founder's right hand. The person who holds the structure, protects the time, and takes the mental load so the founder can focus on growing the business.

## READ THIS TWICE

The next part is the honest version. Read it carefully, because it tells you exactly what you would be walking into.

## A STRAIGHT WORD, FOUNDER TO YOU

I have never hired someone into this seat before. For two years I have run this business out of my own head. The inbox, the calendar, the onboarding, the follow-ups, the systems, all of it lives in my memory and on my plate. It has got me this far. It will not get me where we are going.

I know that to scale this business I have to get the mentalness out of my head and into a system someone else can run. That is the job. You are not walking into a finished machine. You are helping me build it, then helping me let go of it.

So be clear on what you are walking into. I move fast. I set twelve things going in a week and I need someone to catch the three that fell. Some weeks will feel like organised chaos. This role exists to bring order to it. If that excites you rather than worries you, this is your seat. It is a rocket ship, and I want you on it.

## WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Here is the real test, and it comes from my corporate days before Rootl. I had an emergency appendectomy three days before a major event in San Diego that I was running. I could not fly. So I wrote up a full handover plan and passed it to my boss from the back of the car while my replacement was on their way to the airport. The event ran without me, because everything they needed was written down.

That is what winning looks like in this seat. If I take an afternoon off, or a week off, the system runs itself. You are the person who makes that true, by turning what is in my head into something written down that anyone can pick up.

There is a second, quieter version of success, and it happens every single day. You become the gateway. I have taken email off my phone and handed the inbox to you. You manage my calendar, not me. I do not always know what is coming up next week, because I do not need to. You do. I trust the surface you show me to be right, and that trust is the whole point of the seat.

## TRUST AND CONFIDENTIALITY

This is the part that matters most, so read it carefully. This seat sees things almost no one else does. My inbox, my calendar, the numbers, the decisions, the conversations I would not have anywhere else. The role only works on a foundation of complete trust.

We need someone with a high degree of integrity, discretion, and confidentiality. What you see in this seat stays in this seat. This is written into the contract as the first clause, and we will talk about it openly at interview, because it is not a detail. It is the ground the whole role stands on.

## WHY YOU'D WANT THIS SEAT

- A real seat at the table. You work closely with the founder, you are the eyes and ears across the team, and you are someone I can bat ideas off. This is not a fetch-and-carry role.
- A clear lane that is yours. I run sales, marketing and strategy. Our web developer builds the sites. Our content manager runs the content engine. You hold the operation together and protect my time. Everyone knows their seat, and this one is yours.
- Responsibility from day one. Not a six-month shadow.
- You help write the process, not just follow it. Using the founder's own recordings (camcorder method), voice notes, and you build the SOPs every future Rootl hire is trained on.
- Variety with depth. You will do a range of things, and you will also do similar things well and make them tighter each time.
- Real long-term upside for the person who stays the course. We will talk that through properly once you are established.
- The local search world is shifting under everyone's feet right now. You will be close to the front of it.
- We hire the right person, not the perfect person. Every candidate is DISC profiled, because the seat has to fit how we work.

## WHAT YOU WILL OWN

- Inbox and calendar. You filter the inbox, surface only what I need, and protect my diary. I do not want email on my phone. That is your world.
- Helping me plan the week. What is scheduled, what can be pushed, what matters most. You are the person I benchmark against so I feel organised.
- Meeting prep and follow-ups. Getting me ready before a call, and making sure nothing drops after it.
- Marketing and offers admin. Organising campaigns, drafting offers from my rough notes, and crafting my weekly Thursday networking pitch with other business owners so I can review and rehearse it.
- Client onboarding, owned end to end. Intake form, welcome email, CRM setup, contract back-end, getting people access to systems. One repeatable process, run the same way every time.
- Sales support. Scheduling the inbound enquiries and DMs that come from our campaigns, running first-pass research on a prospect against our fit benchmark and handing me a profile sheet before the call, and chasing proposals through to a yes or a clean no.
- Team conduit. Keeping Slack current and Notion up to date, documenting decisions as they happen, and holding our weekly team rhythm with the rest of the team.
- System building. Working with me to document one process every week, so the business stops living in my head.
- Tool stand-up. Owning the setup when a new system comes in: project boards, pipelines, trackers, CRM updates.

There will also be ad hoc tasks. This seat suits someone who enjoys variety and likes being the person who keeps an eye on how things are running across the team.

## HOW THIS SEAT THINKS

This is the standard I am building toward, and it is how I want this seat held from day one. These five run underneath everything above.

- Protect my time. You filter what comes in and d ---------- what actually needs me. Most things do not. Guarding my time and attention is the first job, and everything else sits under it.
- Prioritise revenue. When everything feels urgent, you sort by what makes money or saves money first. That is the tie-breaker. The task that protects a client or wins a job comes before the one that just shouts loudest.
- Design the play. You come prepared and you think ahead. You see the thing coming before it lands on me, and you have already worked out the options. You plan the week, the meeting, and the follow-up before I have to ask.
- Answer everyone well. Every message gets a clear, kind reply, even when the answer is no. How we treat people is how we are remembered, and you are often the first voice they hear from Rootl.
- Keep the calendar clean and clear. Every entry has the context I need to walk into it cold. Who, what, why, and what I need to have ready. No naked invites, no guessing, no surprises.

## WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

- You love systems. You see a messy process and you want to make it clean and repeatable.
- You are a strong planner. Detail is your thing. You enjoy mapping out how something will run before it runs.
- You are analytical and you will push back when something does not add up. Not on the person, on the logic. I want someone who tells me when I am wrong.
- You are calm in chaos. A founder still building the rail does not rattle you. You bring order without needing everything to be tidy first.
- You are good with people and relationships. You become the eyes and ears of the team without anyone feeling watched.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity. This seat is being built as it runs, and you are helping to build it.
- You take pride in doing similar work to a high standard, week in, week out, and improving it as you go.
- Excellent written English. We will test this.

Nice to have, not essential:

- A bit of technical appetite. Comfort with tools like Zapier, simple automations, or project planning software.
- Experience supporting a founder or senior leader directly.
- Experience editing AI-written content to a publish-ready standard.
- A handy eye for social content. If you know your way around Canva and can keep a light hand on the quality of social posts going out to local groups, that is a real plus. We have someone producing the content, but having an in-house person who knows the business well enough to sense-check it is genuinely useful.
- A systems-and-time way of thinking. If you have read books like Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber, or you naturally think about how to protect a founder's time and turn chaos into a repeatable system, that is a real plus. It means we already speak the same language.

## HOW THIS SEAT WORKS WITH THE FOUNDER

I run hot and fast. I set a lot in motion and I need someone to hold the structure underneath it. I use the word "comfortable" when I am settling for less than I should, and I say "it's in my head" when I mean I have not written it down yet. I race to the destination before the scaffolding exists, which is sometimes my greatest strength and sometimes my biggest risk.

Your job is the pause valve, not the brake. You do not slow me down. You make sure the path exists for me to run on. Come to me with goals and a plan, never empty-handed. Hit your deadlines. Hold closure on decisions, because leaving things hanging is the thing I find hardest. I am direct, I am honest, and I will tell you what is on my mind. I am looking for someone who can do the same.

## TOOLS YOU WILL USE

Google Workspace, Notion, Slack, HighLevel, Toggl, and AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. I am already teaching AI to write in my voice, so you will be editing and shaping output, not starting from a blank page. Experience with Zapier and automation tools are a bonus. Training and SOPs provided. You do not need every tool on day one, but you do need to learn fast.

## HOURS, PAY AND HOW IT WORKS

- Part-time to start, around 10 hours a week, paid at $10 USD an hour. Hours grow toward 20 a week within the first 90 days as we find our rhythm and as I hand more over.
- We start with a short unpaid test task so we can see how you work. If it goes well, you move onto a paid trial, paid for the hours you actually work.
- Your hours and your rate both grow as you prove yourself and as the business grows. The aim is to build this into a senior, long-term seat for the right person.
- If the work ever drops, we give you at least one week's written notice of any change to your hours.
- Paid weekly for your first month, then monthly after that, by Wise.
- You track your time in Toggl. Your tracked hours are what you invoice, so it stays clear and fair on both sides.
- Every Monday we run a 30-minute tea ---------- eting using the LIONS sheet: last week, issues, opportunities, the next seven days, and successes. You fill yours in and come ready to run your part.
- Most mornings we jump on a quick 15-minute call to set up the day, what matters, what is moving, what I need from you. A slightly longer one at the start of the week to plan it out. This daily contact is how the seat works, so you need to be someone who is happy with that rhythm.
- I try to work UK hours, 7:00 to 4:30. At least half your hours each week need to fall inside that window so we can work together properly. For you in the Philippines that is roughly 2pm to 11:30pm, so an evening pattern fits well.
- This is an independent contractor role on a proper written agreement covering confidentiality, client data, and how we pay you. You look after your own taxes in the Philippines, and you provide your own computer, reliable internet, and a quiet place to work.
- Four weeks' notice on either side if it is ever not working out.

## THE HIRING PROCESS

We want this to be clear and fair, so here is exactly how it runs. Everything up to the offer is unpaid, and the test task is the same for everyone.

1. You apply (opening with the screening phrase below).
2. We shortlist.
3. We send you a short test task with a clear deadline.
4. You complete and return it.
5. We score it and shortlist again.
6. You complete a DISC profile (a short questionnaire, so we understand how you work).
7. You have an interview with the founder.
8. If it is a yes on both sides, we make a provisional offer: a paid trial of one to two weeks, paid for the hours you work.
9. If the trial goes well, we move into a longer arrangement.

## HOW TO APPLY

- Start your application with the phrase "Save me a seat" so we know you have read this far.
- Tell us, in a few lines, about a time you took something chaotic off someone's plate and made it run smoothly.
- Tell us about a system or process you built or improved, and what changed because of it.
- Share any examples of executive support, admin, or operations work you are proud of.
- The test task, when it comes, will be a real early-morning brain dump from the founder, for you to sort, prioritise, and turn into a clear plan. Unpaid, and the same for everyone.

## A LAST WORD

We are not the biggest name out there, and we are not trying to be, (yet!) We are building something properly, and this seat is fundamental to getting it right. If you have read this far and something here lit you up, that is a good sign. Show us why it should be you.

Want a seat on the bus?