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UK VA Awards – enter here!

I’m absolutely thrilled to be organising the UK Virtual Assistant Awards this year in association with The 5th National VA Conference and Awards. The format and awards have changed significantly since last year, and I’m hoping that will encourage many more VAs to enter since it’s a brilliant opportunity for your business to get PR (not to mention the excellent prizes!). There’s also the chance to nominate the person you think has really given to the industry as a whole – time to acknowledge some of that hard work.

Three Awards:

Spirit of the VA Industry – Someone who has given their time freely to promote and support the industry and embodied the spirit of the VA industry’s “collaboration not competition” mentality. Nominated by VAs, voted for on conference day at registration via secret ballot. To nominate someone for this award, fill in the section on the entry form. 
Outstanding VA Business – AKA “The Best VA in the UK”. Download the entry form to take part and our panel of judges will ask the shortlist to take part in a quick telephone interview to decide the winner.
5-9ers VA Award – People who are still working 9-5 but bootstrapping their businesses after hours and at weekends to establish themselves as a VA. Download the entry form to take part and our panel of judges will ask the shortlist to take part in a quick telephone interview to decide
the winner.

DOWNLOAD THE FORM

What can I win?

All shortlisted Finalist VAs receive:

  • A press release to send to their local media contacts
  • A photo of the ceremony in jpeg format both in hi-res (publication ready) and lo-res (website ready) formats.
  • A jpeg logo of their award to use on their website.
  • A framed certificate
  • A free place at next year’s conference
  • Plus…
See also  Why working on site is not being a Virtual Assistant
5-9ers Award Winner: Outstanding VA of the Year Winner: Spirit of the VA Industry Award
Press:Feature on www.bitsythis.com from Emma Jones

Winners Press Release written by Fairy Communications

A feature in The VA Times magazine, VACT and Conference website

Announcement via Twitter feeds

Books:

Working 5-9 by Emma Jones

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

How To Sky Rocket Your Business by Simon Jordan

Promotion:

200 free business cards from Moo.com to spread the word about your business

£50 Google adwords to promote your business online

200 day pass for 4Networking

Press:Winners Press Release written by Fairy Communications

An interview in OS Magazine about their business and winning the award

A feature in The VA Times magazine, VACT and Conference website

Announcement via Twitter feeds

Training:

£50 Amazon voucher to spend on business books

Whisper to Boom Training provided by Emma Wimhurst, Business Turnaround Expert

20 minute marketing consultation with Simon Jordan & copy of his book How To Sky Rocket Your Business

Promotion:

£75 Google adwords to promote your business online

200 day pass for 4Networking

3 month membership with Karen Skidmore’s www.WebTechClub.com

Press:Winners Press Release written by Fairy Communications

A feature on Society of Virtual Assistants website linking back to your site.

A feature in The VA Times magazine, VACT and Conference website

Announcement via Twitter feeds

Promotion:

£50 Amazon voucher to say thank you for helping the industry

How To Sky Rocket Your Business (without burning your fingers) by Simon Jordan

200 day pass for 4Networking

Who are the judges?

We looked for judges who would be able to assess the unique range of skills that VAs use to run their businesses and service their clients. These include: remote working, customer service and excellent organisation. We recruited last year’s winner and a VA industry representative to judge the VA systems. We recruited some VA clients to judge customer service and marketing. And we recruited some remote working experts to judge the technology used.

5-9ers Award Winner: Outstanding VA of the Year Winner: Spirit of the VA Industry Award
Emma Jones of Enterprise NationJo Cameron formerly of BBC’s The Apprentice

Caroline Wylie of Society of Virtual Assistants

Sara Gill of Officebird (Last year’s winner)

Darren Glanville of Xero AccountingKaren Skidmore of Can Do Can Be

Caroline Wylie of Society of Virtual Assistants

Sara Gill of Officebird (Last year’s winner)

Nominated and voted for by you!!

What are the judges looking for?

We’re looking for someone who represents the ideal VA – who is someone to aspire to for other virtual assistants, who has great skills (and is keen to develop those skills), a sense of humour, the ability to juggle multiple clients, can demonstrate great back-up support, has a pro-active approach to the success of their client’s business, and who demonstrates remote working at its best.

You’ll notice that this year’s entry form has a shaded section on the first page including all your contact details. This part of the form remains confidential with the competition administrator assigning a code to each entry so that the panel of judges will be compiling the shortlist solely on the information contained on the form. Essentially this means that your entry is anonymous unless you are selected to the shortlist.

We do need to ask some pretty intrusive questions about your business – but we’ve tried as far as possible to explain the reasons behind asking them and to supply “tick box” types of criteria rather than asking you for commercially sensitive information. Rest assured, all material on the forms is confidential and will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act and not used for any other purpose.

Remember, we’re trying to get an overall picture of your business including how you work, what kind of clients you have and the kinds of results you get. There are no right or wrong answers – we are taking an overview of your whole business, so if you don’t satisfy some of the criteria, you may make up for it in other areas.

Submitting your entry

Download the form and send it to VAawards@societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk. You will receive an automated acknowledgement to let you know we have safely received your form. We will be in touch with you on 20th May 2011 to let you know whether or not you have been shortlisted. If you do not get this email, please contact VAawards@societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk as a matter of priority marked URGENT, as it may mean we have not received your application.

Any queries?

As far as possible we’ve tried to explain our reasoning behind the questions on the form itself. But if you have any queries on the entry forms, applications, or any aspect of the competition please email VAawards@societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk and we’ll try to help!

VA Awards 2011 – DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM NOW!!!

NB: Remember to save your entry to your desktop and email it!

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