Who are you and what do you guys do? 

Colleen Amos: My business name is CoachesVA. I’m also the founder and owner of Your Virtual PA. CoachesVA is a team of Virtual Assistants providing secretarial and administrative support along with specialist services such as graphic design and bookkeeping.

Debbie Corlet: I’m co-founder of CoachesVA. I’m also the founder and owner of Deb-e-Secretarial which has been operating for five years.

How long have you been in business?

Colleen: CoachesVA was launched in February 2010. Your Virtual PA has been operating for almost five years and CoachesVA grew out of a desire to meet the specific needs of coaches, speakers and trainers – some of my favourite clients!

What is your background?

Colleen: I was an Executive Assistant at ING Direct Australia, a large and innovative financial institution.

Debbie: I was a Senior PA / Office Administrator for a manufacturing company called Amcor Flexibles, Australasia. I looked after the General Manager and 8 senior executives as well as ran the main office etc.

Why did you decide to start up your own business?

Colleen: I also have a background in IT – I was on the help desk at Onetel for three years – and after leaving full time work to start a family, I decided to combine my skills to provide business solutions for individuals that don’t require full time employees but still need administrative support.

Debbie: I started the business after looking around at options to do things from home around my 12 month old baby. I then stumbled across the virtual assistant industry and within days I had joined forums and started my business. I’ve never looked back as I love the flexibility it gives me.

What are the best things about running your own business?

Colleen: The usual – I get to set my own hours and be my own boss. But I also love learning new skills and challenging myself with a variety of responsibilities. Clients know that if something is currently not in my skill-set they can trust me to find out the best way of doing it and learn quickly. This means they don’t have to shop around for someone else to do a one-off project and that’s the whole idea behind CoachesVA – we are a team of Virtual Assistants with a wide range of experience and skills between us so we really do have everything covered. The advantage for the client is that they are still only dealing with one person – myself or Debbie.

Debbie: As with what Colleen said – I love being my own boss and having that flexibility to be able to do things with the kids etc. I also really love the fact that I’m working with such a diverse range of clients and industries …. You’re not just working with one person and industry doing the same admin things day in and out. The range of clients we have is really quite amazing – they are sole traders and some are larger corporations. My expertise lies with being a PA – so having a team of Associates already known to us makes the whole one-stop-VA-shop appealing to lots of clients as they know they only have to deal with one person and then we go and find the best person in our team.

What is your biggest goal for CoachesVA at present?

Colleen: To ensure we can meet any demand clients request of us whether it’s bookkeeping, phone answering, word processing, copywriting, marketing, graphic design. And not just meet it but have the very best people in our team available so that we excel on every project.

Debbie: Yes, as Colleen said, ensuring we meet client demands. We are also partnering with companies like a virtual phone answering business who will ensure that phones are answered live each and every time. We are also partnering with mobile bookkeepers who are happy to travel all around Sydney to either work onsite or at least meet and greet and take work back to their office.

What is your biggest challenge in business at the moment?

Colleen: Our biggest challenge is encouraging clients to let go of the reins. So many coaches, speakers and presenters know they need help but are reluctant to take that small step and hand over the admin stuff. It’s understandable, we’re all business owners and we can relate to that drive that makes us feel we have to do everything ourselves in order to be successful. But as John Donne insightfully said, “No man is an island.”

What has been your greatest achievement in business to date?

Colleen: I’ve not only successfully ran my own business for five years and expanded into a partnership (CoachesVA with Debbie Corlet), I also regularly sub-contract to a fantastic and reliable team of qualified Virtual Assistants. It’s definitely a great achievement to have grown to the point where I can support others in the industry.

Any developments/big news with your business that you would like to share?

We’re getting set to launch the inaugural issue of our email newsletter (ezine) so be sure to sign up for that.

What advice do you have for those starting a business?

Figure out what it is you enjoy doing and then work out who would most benefit from your skills and adapt your services to suit them. Debbie and myself both have a lot of experience working with coaches, speakers and presenters and over the years we’ve learnt that they have unique needs as professionals so we’ve tailored our services to suit those needs.

What motivational advice can you give to other small business owners like yourself?

Going back to John Donne, people need people – don’t try and do everything yourself. And make regular contact with other business owners, not just for the networking opportunities but for support and knowledge.