I’m still not entirely sure I’ve processed this one.
On Saturday night, the Virtually Anything team attended the Virtual Assistant Awards New Zealand in Hamilton, where we won Best Specialty and Niche.
And then they called our name again.
Virtually Anything was named Virtual Assistant of the Year.
It’s the biggest award of the night, and even a few days later, I’m still slightly blown away by it.
Four years of Virtually Anything
Virtually Anything started four years ago.
Back then, the business looked completely different. It started because I wanted more flexibility for my family, and I definitely didn’t have a four-year master plan for what it would eventually become.
There have been services we’ve added, services we’ve dropped, clients I thought would be with us forever who aren’t, and clients I never expected to work with who are still here years later.
One of the biggest decisions we made was to stop trying to be everything to everyone and get really clear about the work we do best: Executive Assistance and Board Secretary support.
That decision changed the business.
So there was something particularly special about hearing Virtually Anything announced as the winner of Best Specialty and Niche. It felt like recognition not just of what we do, but of the decisions we’ve made about what we don’t do as well.
And then came Virtual Assistant of the Year
Honestly, Best Specialty and Niche would have been more than enough.
When they announced Virtually Anything as Virtual Assistant of the Year, I think my brain took a little while to catch up.
Awards are lovely. I’m certainly not going to pretend they don’t matter to me – this one matters enormously.
But what I’m most proud of is what sits behind it.
We have a team who genuinely care about doing brilliant work. We support CEOs, leadership teams and boards who trust us with an enormous amount of their businesses and organisations. We’ve built systems that mean our clients aren’t dependent on one person, and we’ve created a business where incredibly capable people can do meaningful work with flexibility in their own lives too.
That’s the bit I’m proudest of.
A very big thank you
There are a lot of people behind an award with one business name written on it.
To our team: thank you for the standard you hold yourselves to, the care you give our clients and for helping make Virtually Anything what it is.
To our clients, past and present: thank you for trusting us with your businesses, your boards, your teams and occasionally the chaos behind the scenes that nobody else gets to see.
And to everyone who has referred us, recommended us, supported us, shared our work or said our name in a room we weren’t in: thank you. So much of our growth over the last four years has come through people doing exactly that.
A huge thank you also to On Track Group for sponsoring Best Specialty and Niche, The VA Foundry for sponsoring Virtual Assistant of the Year, Virtual Assistant Network New Zealand, and the team behind the Virtual Assistant Awards New Zealand for continuing to recognise and celebrate the work happening across our industry.
Four years ago, I started Virtually Anything because I wanted to build something that worked better for my family.
I couldn’t have told you then what it would eventually become.
But Virtual Assistant of the Year feels like a pretty bloody lovely way to mark four years.
