The Australian VA Conference (AVAC) will be held in Melbourne, Friday 12 and Saturday 13 March 2010.  While it’s called The ‘Australian’ VA Conference it doesn’t mean you can’t come if you’re not Australian. It simply means it is being run in Australia and everyone is invited.

We are excited to be putting on a conference for VAs by VAs.  We promise you that the lineup will include names well known to the Virtual Assistant industry.

Co-ordinators for AVAC are Kathie M. Thomas from “A  Clayton’s Secretary” and Anita Kilkenny from AKA Virtual PA.

Early bird tickets are just $140 (inc GST) and include a choice of sessions, morning and afternoon refreshments, a networking lunch and the chance to mingle with sponsors and speakers.

If you would like to make contact with us, please click here.

Re-blogged with permission

As small business owners we wear a lot of hats. We are the bookkeeper, the marketing manager (unless of course you have a VA) and the ‘boss’ among others. We start our business with passion, enthusiasm and energy but as time goes by how do you remain enthusiastic about your business? How do you keep ahead of the competition in your industry?

You do all this by continuing to learn and grow as a business owner and as an individual, ie personal development. It’s important to recognise that we all don’t know everything there is to know about being a business owner and this is where training, research, further education can assist.

Making a commitment to your personal development is not hard. Decide that growing and learning is important to you and then make it a priority. Attend tele-seminars, conferences, training courses, listen to podcasts or read about a particular topic pertinent to your industry and to your business. The idea is to learn something new about integrating technology into your business practices. Undertake coaching. Whatever it is you decide to do, make a decision and then stick to it. You won’t regret it, you may get extra work out of it and your customers/clients may even thank you.

So what’s your plan for your personal development for 2008 and what does it include? Mine includes studying at TAFE for certification in Website design (to reinforce and show what I already know) and attending the Business Mums Conference in July and the OVIAC in May.