Without strong assistant support, many business leaders find themselves drowning in inefficiencies and losing valuable time just trying to stay afloat. To get back on track, Malka Borrego, Founder of Equitas Academy, turned to Base to help her find a part-time assistant that would tackle the day-to-day tasks and protect her time effectively.
Equitas Academy Charter Schools is a structured, achievement-based community that prepares students to graduate from four-year colleges and universities. The school model offers credentialed, passionate, and dedicated teachers and staff who are experts in their field. As the Founder and Advisor to the CEO, Malka manages all areas of school system leadership, oversees fundraising efforts, and acts as the primary spokesperson to investors, community partners, etc.
The challenge
Over an eight year period, Malka Borrego, Founder of Equitas Academy, worked with three full-time, in-house Executive Assistants. She had to spend a lot of time onboarding and conducting hands-on training with these assistants, which equated to lost time on her own goals and priorities. Between the time spent training and hiring someone with the right level of experience and skills, when it came time to find a new EA, Malka struggled to find the time or fit. Ultimately, she ended up being without an EA for almost an entire year.
This time without an EA led Malka to feel scattered and overwhelmed. She accrued thousands of unfiled emails in her inbox, was dealing with scattered documents, and became very out-of-date with expense reporting. She knew she was in dire need of an EA who could be a true gatekeeper, keep her on track with top priorities, and manage up when needed.
“My EA gets more done in 15 hours a week than many full-time, career EAs can in 40 to 50 hours.”
– Malka Borrego, Founder of Equitas Academy
The solution
To help find a great EA that met her needs, Malka turned to Base subscription support. This service offering enables business leaders like Malka to maximize their time, capacity, and impact with the support of an Executive Assistant that is vetted and selected by Base standards.
After understanding Malka’s needs and priorities, the Base team sorted through our extensive talent pool of EAs to find the perfect match: Nadine Peters. Nadine was vetted through an in-depth process that included a skill assessment, sample project, and interview.
Nadine would support Malka on a part-time basis with the goal of making significant progress toward organizing Malka’s inbox, following up with communications in a timely manner, and managing Malka’s calendar to prioritize and protect her time effectively.
Throughout the relationship, Nadine has access to the Base community, where she can access top resources, professional development opportunities, backup support, and more — so Nadine feels constantly supported, and little to no training falls to Malka.
The outcome
After 30 days in the role, Nadine was already catching dropped items and helping Malka prioritize her time more effectively. Nadine made significant progress toward consolidating documents, streamlining communications, and handling emails that had fallen through the cracks while Malka was managing things alone.
After 90 days, Nadine had cleaned up Malka’s entire inbox and implemented a new filing system. She also planned a board retreat that attendees called “the best one they’ve ever had.” And by the 6-month mark, Malka had achieved more flexibility in her schedule — enabling her to leave work at 4pm daily, gain more family time, and still schedule more donor meetings that directly added to her bottom line.
All in all, Malka considered Nadine the strongest EA she’s ever worked with and would recommend Base as a solution to any business leader who needs part- or full-time EA support.
“The level of service, email management, and proactivity that Nadine achieved in a three-month timeframe was astounding.”
– Malka Borrego, Founder of Equitas Academy
