Why did you decide to be a part of the 2019 London PA Awards?

With a background in the London PA industry (I worked in the city for over 10 years), my mission to elevate the VA industry and a passion for collaborating and celebrating success, it was a no-brainer when I was approached to sponsor the London PA Awards.

Amy's passion and vision for ensuring that the vital cogs of a business, the assistants and supporters, are recognised for the value that they bring is, in my view, essential to the future of the industry.

Which skills do PA’s need, now more than ever?

With a great deal of experience in running my own VA business and also in supporting hundreds of others to set up and grow their VA businesses, my main focus will be around professionalism and business owner mindset.

Virtual Assistants are more than home-working employees, they are small business owners in their own right.

It is important that they recognise that and are running their businesses in accord with this and with our identified industry standards.

As someone that is also passionate about making clients happy, I am also looking for finalists that have demonstrated huge value and wins for their clients and as well as someone who has a solid growth plan and structure in place. Exciting!

If you could change or further support the PA community in any way, what would you do?

For me, I left my last PA role exhausted from the effort I had put into it but also with little confidence from the glass ceiling that existed for people 'at my level'.

If I could impress upon businesses the potential, importance and brilliance of their PAs then I would do so emphatically - EAs, PAs & VAs are the backbones of business!

On the flip side, I'd love to get more involved in working with in-house corporate PAs to coach them around increasing confidence, knowing their worth and asking for opportunities so that they can demonstrate their skills and potential to a greater extent.

What is your personal goal for 2019?

Going forward, I hope that VIP VA can continue to support those looking to gain greater flexibility and freedom to have the confidence, know-how and support to make the leap to running their own VA businesses.

We already have some great training options focussed on identifying skillsets and teaching you how to run a professional business and find clients -building on this we also have some in-person workshops planned.

I also look forward to bringing more great VAs & PAs into our membership community - it is authentic, supportive and a hell of a lot of fun in there!

It has always been our mission to be the ultimate support network for people working virtually and to be that 'team' that doesn't physically exist when you are working from home.

Putting the focus on the PAs & VAs - I just hope that we can inspire them in a way that makes a positive difference to them.

More about VIP VA

VIP VA is the leading organisation supporting existing & aspiring VAs. We keep ourselves busy pioneering industry standards championing VAs as the professional independent business owners.

We proudly support & nurture high performing UK and international VAs through our training programmes, and offer them the support network, community & development arena that they need to make their businesses a success and find more freedom.

Our collaborative community for VAs allows them to network with other high-performing, like-minded virtual assistants for camaraderie, knowledge-sharing and sourcing of equally professional associate VAs.

We also offer business owners looking to outsource access to a FREE vetted directory of members so that they can find the professional VA they need to support them.

All of our members go through our strict application and accreditation process so we can ensure we only have the best of the best in our community, and business owners know that VIP VAs are professional, safe and experienced.

We also offer virtual and in-person networking events, conferences and other unique events aimed at professional VA business owners.