The person behind CollabWork
I’m Debra Peltz, founder of CollabWork and a Business Support & Operations Partner.
I work alongside founders, consultants and people-focused organisations, helping them bring greater clarity and structure to the work behind their business.
Sometimes that means taking ownership of practical day-to-day support. Sometimes it means improving a process, coordinating a complicated project or helping someone turn a head full of ideas into a clear plan.
Usually, it is a combination of all of those things.
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I’ve always been someone who notices what needs doing
I don’t naturally sit and wait for a list of instructions.
I notice when information is missing, when a process relies too heavily on memory or when something important is in danger of slipping through the gaps. I ask questions, make connections and look for a practical way forward.
It is one of the reasons clients often describe me as more than a Virtual Assistant. They value having someone who understands the wider picture, thinks ahead and can be trusted to follow things through — without creating additional noise or unnecessary complication.
For me, good support should make it easier to lead your business, not give you another person to manage.
Experience that goes beyond a job title
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I bring more than 30 years of experience supporting founders, senior leaders and teams across corporate, public, charitable and people-focused organisations.
That experience has taught me how to:
• manage complex and sensitive work with discretion;
• understand competing priorities;
• communicate with different people and organisations;
• introduce structure without becoming rigid;
• spot risks, gaps and opportunities;
• and keep work moving when there are several things happening at once.
I am comfortable working with the detail, but I don’t lose sight of why the work matters or what it needs to achieve.
My professional development includes the EleVAte Online Business Manager Certification through Advanced Virtual Assistants, a Mini MBA for Executive Assistants and AgilePM Foundation certification.
The qualifications provide useful frameworks. The real value comes from knowing how to apply them sensibly in a living, changing business.
What matters to me in the way I work
There are a few things that matter to me in the way I work with people. They aren’t really rules — they are principles that shape the decisions I make, the questions I ask and the kind of support I want CollabWork to provide.
Thoughtful
I look beyond the task in front of me. I want to understand what is happening around it, who is involved and whether there might be a better way of doing things.
Simple
Good systems should make work easier, not create more work. If something has become unnecessarily complicated, my instinct is to ask how we can make it clearer, shorter or easier to use.
Partnership
I work alongside my clients rather than simply waiting for instructions. That means understanding the business, contributing ideas, asking questions and being willing to take ownership of what we have agreed.
Reliable
If I say I’m going to do something, I follow it through. You shouldn’t have to keep checking, chasing or wondering whether it has been dealt with.
Calm
Businesses can be messy. Priorities change, things get forgotten and sometimes there are simply too many things competing for attention. I bring a calm, practical approach to working out what matters, creating clarity and helping things move forward.
Good support should ultimately give you more confidence behind the scenes — and a little more breathing room.
People matter as much as processes
My background in workplace wellbeing, mental health and neurodiversity has shaped the way I approach business support.
I’m interested in how work is experienced by the people doing it — not only whether a process looks efficient from the outside. A system can be perfectly logical on paper and still be completely impractical for the people expected to use it.
I am a trained Neurodiversity in the Workplace Instructor and have additional training and experience in workplace wellbeing and mental health. I also facilitate a peer-support community for neurodivergent Virtual Assistants and am part of the Leadership Team at Let’s Improve Workplace Wellbeing, a cross-sector network focused on creating healthier and more sustainable workplaces.
This experience is particularly relevant to my work with wellbeing organisations, HR and people professionals, charities, social enterprises and neurodivergent founders.
It does not mean wrapping everything in wellbeing language. It means recognising that systems work best when they also work for the people expected to use them.
CollabWork is personal — but I don’t work entirely alone
I lead CollabWork and remain the main point of contact for every client.
Over time, I have also built relationships with trusted associates who can provide additional capacity or specialist expertise when a piece of work requires it.
This allows CollabWork to offer broader support while preserving the consistency, communication and personal involvement clients value.
You will always know who is involved, why their support is useful and what they are responsible for.
Away from the desk
Outside work, quite a lot of life revolves around animals. We share our home with Romanian rescue dogs and cats, and I’ve been involved in fostering, fundraising and adoption work with UK-based not-for-profit rescues.
Rescue has a habit of being emotional, unpredictable and occasionally resulting in considerably more animals in the house than originally planned.
I’ve learned not to confidently say, “We’re definitely not keeping this one.”
Could we work well together?
If you’re looking for somebody who will understand the detail, see the bigger picture, ask questions and help turn conversations into action, let’s have a chat.
You don’t need to prepare a formal brief. We can begin with where your business is now, what is taking up too much of your time and what you would like to work better.