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How I went from stay at home mum to Microsoft Certified Trainer to training helping thousands of VAs, EAs & PAs do the same

As featured in…

Building a virtual business takes hard work and perseverance.

But building a business you love and that doesn’t feel like work means taking your skills to a whole new level! 

Shelley’s Story

I’ve been training Microsoft Office products for a long time, 20 years in fact. Delivering face to face training sessions, training people remotely with various online tools and presenting at events. Over the last few years I have spoken or presented at a variety of events specifically aimed at Virtual Assistants Personal Assistants and Executive Assistants helping them to improve the way they work.

This led me to realise that most VAs, PAs and EAs have never had any IT Training around the use of Microsoft Office!

As a PA in a corporate organisation, you may have had access to IT Training but not always and it may have been several years ago, and systems change all the time. 

In this modern day and age, you are almost expected to be born with a keyboard instead of fingers! 

Microsoft Office is used every single day, and hours are lost  all because VAs, PAs and EAs don’t know how the software works.

I remember what it was like to spend all day being busy, and getting nothing done.  I decided to make it my mission to help VAs in particular become more proficient in the use of Microsoft Office and give them the ability to use all its features.

  • Complete Microsoft Office Training Courses

  • Get back 4-5 hours a week
  • Earn more! 

  • Have more time to grow your VA business

 

VAs have particular challenges:

They work mainly on their own, have one or many clients and will often work around childcare or holiday season. So, their hours may not be your regular 9-5. This means that any personal development they do is usually put on the back burner due to time constraints.

If you take into account the cost of a face to face course plus the travel time, plus the time out of the office when she could be getting stuff done, it is easy to see why VAs don’t engage in traditional training.

tomorrow’s VA is different.  You can pick just one course or subscribe to tomorrow’s VA Hub which includes access to ALL the courses and any new ones that are added.  

The courses are available on demand and you can access them whenever it is convenient. When you take my courses you also have bonus membership of the tomorrow’s VA Facebook Support Group.

How I Leapt Into A Bigger Pond

Launching the Hub

Spending 5 weeks in New York with my daughter and newest granddaughter whilst launching the great value Hub! 

Focusing my Niche

Successfully sold my corporate training company so that I could focus on tomorrow’s VA and help more VAs, EAs and PAs leap into a bigger pond!

VAs, PAs and EAs Approach me

Tomorrow’s VA leapt into being – I had realised through working with all these PAs VAs EAs and Office Managers that this role was under trained. Through no fault of their own VAs did not have access to really great professional Microsoft Office training. I decided that it was high time to address this and I have created tomorrow’s VA which offers online courses for Microsoft Office packages that enable you to get more done in less time and earn more money as you now have better skills!

A Bigger Stage

In 2014 I delivered my first session at what was then the Office Show at Olympia followed by sessions at EUMA’s 40th anniversary conference, Hemsley Fraser’s PA Conference and one of PA life’s training days.

Growing Bigger!

In 2011 I decided that it was time to take my training online. This was the beginning of the real internet era and I had done some work for an American company who had a Learning Management System. I bought into their system and developed a series of courses for Office 2010 which were available online

A BiggerPond!

In 2007 a couple of the freelance trainers I knew approached me and suggested that I set up a training company and that they would deliver training for me.  And so The Training Surgery Limited was born.

We worked with slightly larger clients and helped our learners with their software rollouts, making sure that everything went smoothly.

Start My Own Training Company

In 2002 Shellfish Training leapt into being.  I worked with different clients, small and medium sized businesses and when there was a need, I would bring in a few of the trainers who I had got to know whilst working for the training company.

Get Dream Job!

I left the charity in 1998 and got a dream job working for an IT Training Company. I was so excited! I worked there for four and a half years before jumping into freelance life.

Life-Long Passion for computers

I became interested in computers when my husband who is an accountant bought computers for his new office and we got one for home too.

When my youngest was 6 I started working for a charity, school hours three days a week so that I could fit in the school run.

My job at the charity was to take a group of people on a charity walk. We only had one or possibly two computers in the office at that time – this was