Now We Are One!

This week, on 1st April, my business The Proficient PA celebrated its first birthday.

Beautiful celebratory cupcakes from Rebecca Louise Cake Design

This feels like a massive achievement and I want to celebrate it because self-employment isn’t easy – it’s one thing to have an idea but to actually make it happen, with all the legal and technical implications can be very challenging; not to mention the worry that it might not work and you may never make any money..... but this is a celebratory post!!

Virtual Assistants are becoming increasingly popular and the standards vary massively, there are large companies across the world including The Philippines where VAs are very poorly paid and effectively just churning out work to benefit their employers – who will be making a lot more money than the people (largely women) they employ.  I can see why this appeals to small businesses who don’t have a lot of money to spare and for the VAs themselves it can be a lifeline, but it is not something I am comfortable with.

There are those, especially in the UK and USA who say “the VA market is saturated and there’s no need for any more, so you won’t get any clients and you’ll never make any money!”  I have not seen any evidence of this saturation and I firmly believe that doing good work gets good results and if you are good at what you do there is a need for you.

I have also heard people say “oh Arts Admin isn’t a thing, that’s not a niche and you’re wasting your time”.  Well, I disagree 100% with that – I did my research before I launched The Proficient PA and my years of being part of the arts community showed me there was a very clear need for what I could offer and a year later – here I am. 

Those who know me, know I am not one to blow my own trumpet but on this occasion I will because I feel a huge sense of pride and achievement.  A little over a year ago when I left the NHS, I was utterly broken, burnt-out and exhausted, trying to recover from a horrendous experience with a toxic boss and realizing the words “you can’t heal in the same place you got sick” are absolutely true.  Today I sit at my laptop, in my home, working with my clients and developing my business and I feel … safe, secure and content.  I am able to set boundaries around the work I do, when I do it and the people I work with.  I can manage my health conditions better (although this is still very changeable due to the nature of fibromyalgia) and I have space for my own creative work again. 

MHFAider badge

I have just renewed my Mental Health First Aider training and will be incorporating this into the services I offer.

Usually, I would now apologise for “showing off” or “bragging” but I’m not going to do that because I am proud of what I have done and I look forward to where I can go and what I can do with The Proficient PA over the next 12 months. 

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has supported me in getting this far – if you are a previous or current client, I look forward to developing our working relationship.  If you’re a potential client, drop me an email and see how I can help you.