Jane Cattermole
Baytree VA

Jane worked as EA/PA for 20 years to senior management before becoming Founder/Director of Bay Tree VA

I set up Bay Tree 18 years ago after reading an article about VAs in the States. I loved being an assistant - working in the background, helping things run smoothly - but was also looking for a new challenge. I had worked in advertising agencies and enjoyed the variety of clients. Setting up my own VA company provided the opportunity to have the best of both worlds, whilst taking the plunge and learning all that goes with running your own business. Now with a team of 18 very capable colleagues, I feel very grateful to have built a business which can run without me.

As to why I was keen to be part of this conference, it's because it's so great to have an event in the East of England which is firmly targeted at assistants rather than being for generic businesses. The business world is changing really quickly and our roles are too. We are at the forefront of helping businesses adopt some of these new technologies and feeling comfortable using AI so it's important we learn from each other.

With regard to the topics I will be covering, albeit briefly, it can be really difficult for business owners and managers to let go - to trust someone else to do something for them and stop doing everything themself. Even assistants who find themselves moving into a position of needing to delegate to other team members can struggle to hand things over, even though they are used to being delegated to. How to approach that? What does it take to delegate and how can you help someone to let go? We'll go through some key points with some practical tips.