Graduate Sustainability Business Program

I’m delighted to let you know that I recently graduated after doing the Sustainability Business Program that the Yarra Ranges Council puts on for businesses in their region. This is a govt subsidised program so it has the backing of the Australian government.

Why would I participate in such a program? Because I saw it as adding value to my business and alerting more people to the VA industry as a whole.

While Virtual Assistants already know and understand the benefits of operating virtually and saving on resources, energy, etc, a lot of people out there probably don’t realise that.  I mean think about it. Because we don’t travel to work by car or transport every day we save on gas, petrol, gases, and finances, not to mention not having to buy work clothing and so on.

Because we get paid for the work we do but not for sitting around time, meals, sick leave, etc, we provide our clients the opportunity to save on $$ so they can spend their money on other things to benefit their businesses or themselves.

During participation of this program (10 months) I had an assessor come here to see if he could improve on what we might already be doing in our home office.  He had a few little tips but nothing major to help us improve on what we already do with respect to resources and energy. However, he did make an observation that is relevant to our industry and not so to the other businesses he’d visited participating in the SBP. And that is, with a mother working at home, children can be at home instead of in the streets and this in itself is of great value to society at large.  This was the very reason why I began working from home in the first place.  I didn’t want my kids out on the streets or home alone without an adult being available to them. I’d forgotten the very reason and basics for starting my business in the first place!

So I’m delighted I did the program, I learnt a lot, met a lot of people and enjoyed the process.  I’m now classed as a Sustainable Business Leader and, as such, want to assure clients that I will continue to work towards sustainable business support.