I have spent today putting together my submission as to why I deserve this award and in reading over the testimonials from my clients and reflecting on my business, I’m feeling a huge kick to my self-esteem and am very happy indeed!

The award winner will be announced on Saturday 21 May (Eastern Australian time) at the International Virtual Assistant Day Celebrations at this years Online International Virtual Assistant Conference (OIVAC).  If you are a VA or even a business owner and haven’t checked out OIVAC yet, then head over there and have a look at the schedule, it’s always awesome and has something for everyone.

See you at OIVAC!

Sue Gross
Butterflies Secretarial Solutions

This year the office will be closed from 23 December 2010 to 17 January 2011.

Any urgent needs for existing clients will be attended to but all other matters will be held over until leave ends.

I hope you all enjoy a peaceful and relaxed festive season and come back revived and renewed for the year to come. It’s already shaping up to be a busy one!

Happy Birthday/Anniversary to us!

The Oscar Speech

I love this business, this industry and all the opportunities and avenues that have been opened up to me since I began in 2006. I never imagined what a world lay beyond my beige employee walls and I’m so glad I went out into the sunshine to find the ‘something better’ that I knew must be out there somewhere.

I don’t regret my 20 years as an employee, after all I learned valuable skills and gained an enormous amount of experience which I now bring to my clients with confidence that I know what I’m doing and that I’m very good at what I choose to do. The key word there is ‘choose’. Being in business for oneself is liberating and envigorating. The power to make my own choices moves me to be better educated, better aware of my industry’s movements and better able to service my clients.

Thank you to my wonderful clients and to the fantastic VAs that I have or do currently do sub-contracting for. Without you all, I could not operate and I’m grateful that you continue to come back to use my service time and again.

What does the next year hold?

I’m hoping to launch a fabulous new service in the first half of 2011 which is very exciting for me as it’s something I’ve not done before and which, to my knowledge, not a lot of VAs in Australia currently do.

I’ve been busy training and learning over the past months – a bit here and there as time allows but I’m starting to champ at the bit to get it out as a service.

In the grand scheme of things four years might not seem like much but when you work so hard at it day in, day out, it’s a pleasure to be here and still looking to the future for bigger and better things.

Sue Gross
Butterflies Secretarial Solutions
http://www.butterfliessecretarial.com.au