RRVA and Mums the Boss -New Leicestershire meeting

I am very excited to announce that I am now officially part of the Mums the Boss team as they are expanding into Leicestershire (which I'll be running) and Warwickshire (which Amanda Farren of Ella Announcements is running). This is a fantastic opportunity for me to play to my strengths in running the events but most importantly in celebrating our shared ethos concerning motherhood and business.

All events will be child-friendly, low cost, informal, supportive and informative. I know quite a few amazing business mums in Leicestershire via the wonderful medium of Twitter and hope to encourage them and others like them to come along to our monthly meetings. I have already managed to secure a speaker on Marketing and am in discussions with people to come and talk about tax, business branding and hopefully SEO. Business Mums (and Dads!) please tell me if there is an area of running your business that you are desperate to learn more about and I will exploit my network and try to bring someone in!

I expect being part of Mums the Boss to be an immensely rewarding experience too. Being a mother who has set up her own business I find it important to be taken seriously as a businesswoman by potential clients and peers so having the support available from others who have done a similar thing has been both inspirational and, on a very practical level, very useful! I am very keen to bring this support to others and create an environment within Mums the Boss Leicestershire that is memorable for all the right reasons and pay back the support that I have received in some small way.

I am aiming for the first event to be in February and when it is confirmed I will announce the date by all means possible. I look forward to seeing some of you there.

The VA industry on Radio 4 Women's hour today

Today I have both listened to the Radio 4 Woman's Hour podcast which discusses the Virtual Assistant industry and interviews 2 VA's who influenced my decision to become a VA, Emma Walker and Justine Curtis, and read Maggie Berney's (of Maggie Berney Office Services) thoughts about it here. I want to support what Maggie has said in response to Dr Brendan Burchall's comments in particular and extend them somewhat as it felt he was being very patronising to VAs as business owners.


Firstly we are not shut up in our home offices all the time, as Maggie says, we meet clients, each other and regularly attend networking events otherwise we wouldn't have any clients in the first place. Also we communicate rapidly, instantly and often (well in my case massively, you'll already know that if you follow me on Twitter!!!) using social media. It may not be face to face most of the time but it is conversation of both business and chit chat as well as being members of varying support forums and groups for our industry. Like Maggie I am also a member of VASG which offers support, business opportunities, collaboration and chat.


My second issue is that his comments regarding the marginalisation of 'people like this' and that we will find it hard to re-enter the work place seem misplaced and based on the really aggravating assumption that we are all dabbling in business around our other (often family and children) commitments. Speaking for myself I am a mother with young children and yes the flexibility of being a VA based at home is very desirable BUT it does NOT mean I take my business any less seriously. In fact I take it more so than my old day job. I am more driven, more willing to work into the small hours to make my clients businesses successful and exceed their expectations than I was when I was employed. I have a passion for what I do and the sector I cater for that drives me and means I have exacting standards for the quality of my work. Flexibility is desirable but does not equal a less committed business owner.


I have no desire to reenter the workplace but should I choose to I hope that a prospective employer would view someone with the ambition and organisational ability to start and run their own business is a damn good prospect! It demonstrates vision and self belief which will benefit their company.

I think Maggie has sufficiently covered his remarks about needing to employ somebody to entrust them with confidential information and work! Suffice it to say that his statements are misplaced and he is more than welcome to connect with UK VAs further if he would like to conduct some more up to date research!!!

Its another New Year...so what are you planning to achieve????

Photo by Danilo Rizzuti from Freedigitalphotos.net

So here we are again, the start of another year and we inevitably set ourselves and our businesses some resolutions or goals and then forget them in about 3 weeks time. Well not this year! Start off by  reviewing last year, did you achieve the goals you set yourself? Did anything change and make you shift your focus or expectations? Make a note of any big sucesses to inspire you this year. Write them down!!!!

Then think about what are you intending to achieve this year, is there something specific you want to finally get done this year (mine is make my website work properly for both me and my visitors!), is there something from last year that you want to build on? Work out the little steps that make it possible to achieve them and don't give yourself so many you don't stand a chance of actually achieving them all. Then pin them up somewhere visible, make them your desktop wallpaper if you like, but have them somewhere you will glance at them every day so you maintain your drive.

Mine are done, all 5 of them. I've made them look pretty and they are now on my noticeboard directly in my eye line every time I sit at my desk. Here's to a BIG 2010!

Happy New Year