2010, so far, has been a very mixed year for us…

It started out quite badly with our Christmas/New Year’s period spent in hospital looking after sick relatives and while I was at the hospital I ironically managed to slip on some grapes that someone had very kindly left on the floor and ended up being taken all the way downstairs to A&E (in a wheelchair)

This pretty much rendered me useless for the first two weeks of 2010, but thank goodness for the ‘helpers’ I had and the people that took care of the office for me. This came at the same time as me being introduced to the Virtual Assistant Support Group (find us on Twitter under #VASG) and It occurred to me that had I have known about the group sooner, I could have given my helpers the night off and called on these ladies to help me out instead.

The group is based on the ethos of “collaboration not competition” and with over 65 Virtual Assistant’s from all over the UK in the group, there is a huge range of skills, help and knowledge available. All of us have experience and qualifications to ensure that if we are too busy to complete a piece of work, there will always be someone in the group we can ask for help.

My family and friends often ask me if I get bored working ‘virtually’ or if I feel like I am going mad stuck in the office all day but the answer has and always will be no.

I love being my own boss, I love having my own client set, I love to be in control of the work I do and I love the fact that the only wicked old boss that grumbles every time you head for the kettle is now me I also love to be able to work flexible hours and not the 9 – 5 that used to drive me insane!

The flexibility and easiness or being your own boss can be passed on to the clients too so everyone benefits in the end. Of course, now I have the ladies of the VASG group to talk to my day is certainly a lot easier and more fun.

Another thing that makes me happy is being in charge of the service suppliers we use and using the ‘We buy local’ group to which I belong in Norfolk, makes this easier for me to meet local business owners and work with people who have the same business values as me.

Of course, there are always going to be unscrupulous people in the world of business and as I have found out this week, some more so than others, but luckily I can dispose of the services of these people and move on to work with people that want to play nicely. For the ones that don’t – good luck to you.

With a new client on board this week and another one in the pipeline it seems the credit crunch is disappearing, but as we are actually here to save business owners money it would make sense that people are switching to working with VA’s and away from the costly recruitment agencies and full time employees.

We are still also working on our Events Management website and as soon as this is up and running we will let you all know so you can see exactly what YourEventsManagement will be able to offer you, over and above what we already do.

Let’s hope March and April continue to get better and better too.