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Welcome to VA Institute, a pioneering institution at the forefront of the Virtual Assistant industry's transformation.

We Educate, Support and Advocate for
EAs, PAs, Admins, Creatives and Tech professionals
to launch successful Virtual VA Businesses through
Excellence, Sustainability and Authenticity. Established in 2017, the VA Institute is lead by Founder – Ingrid Bayer - and Director - Angela Revell - who are industry veterans with well over three decades of collective experience in business and technology. VA Institute has evolved into an unparalleled hub for empowerment, training, and collaborative growth for both aspiring and established Virtual Assistants. VA Institute isn't just a business; it's a MOVEMENT dedicated to propelling the Virtual Assistant industry forward

Our history is one of dedication, innovation, and unwavering support for Virtual Assistants. From startup training for EAs, PAs, Admins, Creatives and Tech professionals to ongoing business development, from connecting VAs with clients to fostering in-person connections, our commitment to excellence and inclusivity drives us every day. Our VA Institute journey began with a profound realisation that the Virtual Assistant industry needed dedicated support and comprehensive training. We recognised the absence of a consistent advocate for Virtual Assistants and took the lead in being that guiding force. With a steadfast commitment to launching, building, and sustaining VA businesses through excellence, sustainability, and authenticity, we embarked on a mission that has redefined the VA Industry landscape. From our inception, we've been dedicated to being your guiding support at every step of your VA business journey. Our comprehensive training programs are designed not only to kickstart your venture but also to provide ongoing business development and job leads. One of our most favourite times of year is the VA Summit! This annual 3 day event brings Virtual Assistants from across Australia together to Connect, Learn, and Grow. In a predominantly online industry, the VA Summit provides an invaluable opportunity for in-person connections, networking, and learning from industry professionals. It's a testament to our dedication to creating a supportive community and fostering a culture of collaboration. Our commitment to your growth doesn't stop at VA startup training. We identified the need in the online environment for ongoing business development and connection. Therefore, Virtual Momentum, a membership program tailored to support existing VAs in building and growing their businesses sustainably was established in 2021. Virtual Momentum offers ongoing support, mentoring, business development, skills training and access to potential client leads. Through this comprehensive ecosystem, we provide the tools, resources, and guidance needed for every stage of your journey. We understand the unique challenges faced by Virtual Assistants, and that's why our commitment doesn't end with training. Our initiatives extend to helping you find clients through our innovative platform, Find A VA. This resource has connected well over 1000 business with quality certified and insured Virtual Assistants. When it comes to your Virtual Assistant journey, the VA Institute has got you covered! We invite you to be part of our transformative journey at VA Institute - Launching you to success through excellence.

15/10/2026

Picture this: Hobart in late winter, a historic hotel, and a room full of VAs who finally get why “just build a website and wait” was never the whole story.

That’s the VA Summit 2027.

21 & 22 August 2027
Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart TAS

We’ve kept the venue small and the guest list smaller still – just 50 seats – because the best conversations happen with the room isn’t overflowing.

Two days of honest talk about growing a virtual business: the wins, the hard bits, and ideas you can actually use the following Monday.

Early Bird is still open: $697 AUD (payment plans available) – this covers both days plus morning / afternoon tea and lunch.

We’ll announce presenters and the full program over the coming months. If Hobart is already on your radar, there’s no need to wait for that (and with 80% of the tickets already sold, the remaining seats won’t last).

Secure your Early Bird ticket here: www.vasummit.com.au

15/10/2026

Here’s a question worth sitting with: How safe is “safe” these days?

For generations we were told that the secure path was one job, one employer, one pay packet. Keep your head down and the rest will take care of itself.

But look around.

Interest rates are climbing. Grocery and rent bills make your eyes water. Restructures and redundancies are landing in industries that once felt bulletproof. When every single dollar you earn depends on one employer’s decision, that’s not security – that’s a single point of failure.

Now picture a different model; several clients each paying for the skills you have built up over your working career. If one tightens their belt, you don’t lose everything – you adjust. It’s exactly how smart investors manage risk, and more and more smart professionals are applying the same thinking to their careers.

As Australia’s longest-running training provider dedicated to launching Virtual businesses, we’ve had a front-row seat to this shift since 2017.

Women with deep admin, tech and creative experience are realising their skills are portable, valuable, and very much in demand – and that a home-based Virtual Assistant business gives them more control over their income… not less.

Is it a leap? Of course. But staying put is a decision too, and in this economy it isn’t the risk-free option it’s often dressed up to be.

Pro Tip: Before you do anything else, grab a notepad and list every task from the past five yours that a busy business owner would happily pay someone else to handle. Diary management, bookkeeping, client onboarding, social media, website updates, event coordination. Most people run out of paper before they run out of skills – and that list is the seed of your service offering.

So tell us in the comments: what’s one skill you’d build your business around?

08/10/2026

Let's talk about something that does not get enough airtime in business circles… self-love.

Not the bubble bath kind (although we're certainly not against bubble bath). The kind that shows up in how you run your business.

So many women come to us after years in workplaces where their worth was decided by someone else. Their hours, their pay, their value - all set by a manager or a pay scale. Then they launched their own VA business… and quietly hack those same old rules into the moving boxes.

They under charge. They answer emails at 10:00 PM. They say yes to the client who keeps adding “just one more quick thing”. And they rarely stop to notice how far they've come.

One thing is for sure… you didn't leave employment to build yourself another job with a worse boss.

Self-love in your VA business means valuing your skills and pricing accordingly. It means setting boundaries and actually holding them. And it means celebrating your growth - every new client, every milestone, every brave step you've taken to get there.

You're working on yourself, by yourself, FOR yourself now. That's the whole point.

Tell us in the comments - what's one way you're backing yourself in your business this week?

28/09/2026

Here is an honest question for any VA who has been in business for more than six months.

What have you invested in your own business development this year?

Not a trick question. But it is a revealing one. Because the single most common pattern VA Institute sees in VAs who plateau - who stay stuck at the same income level with the same handful of clients and the same level of confidence - is not a lack of skill. It is a lack of investment in their own growth.

There is an understandable logic to the resistance - and we get it. Overheads are already low, income is often variable in the early stages of your VA journey, and spending money on a membership feels like a luxury rather than a necessity.

But here's what we know after years of working with Virtual Assistants from all stages of their business journey: the VAs who build thriving, sustainable businesses are almost never the ones who spent nothing on their own development. They are the ones who made deliberate, smart investments in the right support at the right time.

Virtual Momentum is that investment.

Here is what it actually includes - because the value stack surprises most people when they see it laid out in black and white.

Every week, members join a live session covering a different topic - from real life case studies, tech deep dives with Angela Revell (who has over 2 decades in the tech industry), guest speakers, and mastermind roundtables where challenges get tackled in real time.

Every quarter, every standard member receives a 1:1 personalised strategy session with Angela Revell - this is a private, focused conversation about their specific business, their specific challenges, and their specific goals. It's not a generic webinar but a true dedicated session.

And through Find a VA, Virtual Momentum members gain access to quality job leads from real businesses seeking verified, insured virtual professionals - leads that are not available anywhere else.

Standard membership is $50.00 per month. That is the price of a decent lunch, a streaming subscription, or two take away coffees a week.

So, the question is not whether a VA business can afford Virtual Momentum - the question is what staying exactly where they are right now is actually costing them.

Virtual Momentum. Built for VAs who are serious about building something that lasts.

https://portal.www.vainstitute.com/virtual-momentum

25/09/2026

VA SUMMIT 2027 IS HEADING TO…. HOBART, TASMANIA!!!

Dates: 21st & 22nd August, 2027
Venue: Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart

After yet another absolutely fantastic Summit this year, we’re already planning what comes next, and VA Summit 2027 is going to be something pretty special.

We’ve deliberately chosen a beautiful, intimate venue for 2027, which means that we’re keeping the Summit to just 50 people.

For two full days, we’ll bring together VAs and Virtual Industry Professionals from across Australia for practical business development, new ideas, honest conversations and, importantly, the chance to connect with people who genuinely understand this industry and what it takes to build a successful and profitable virtual business.

EARLY BIRD TICKETS - $697 AUD (Payment plans available – just ask us)

Your ticket includes TWO full Summit days, with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea included.

Our 2027 presenters and full program will be announced over the coming months, but with only 50 places available (and 65% of those already taken), we would suggest you take action now if Hobart is already calling your name!

Here’s the link to purchase your Early Bird ticket - https://portal.www.vainstitute.com/offers/snQSw7vX/checkout?coupon_code=VASUMMIT27EB

24/09/2026

Picture this… it’s every second Thursday and you’re behind the counter at the school tuck shop, handing out sausage rolls and Zooper Doopers. Your kids spot you and pretend very hard not to be delighted.

Or it’s a Wednesday, and instead of sitting in yet another meeting that could have been an email, you’re having a long, unhurried lunch with your mum. The kind of lunch you know you won’t always get to have.

Now picture asking your manager for both… every fortnight… indefinitely.

Yep – we’ve seen that face before!

In employment, time off is something you’re granted… if it suits the roster, the deadline, and the mood on the day.

In your own VA business, it’s something you plan and prioritise. You choose your clients, you set your hours, and you build your week around the things that actually matter to you.

And, let’s just be crystal clear – this isn’t a fairytale. Running a business still takes work, discipline and the odd late night when a client deadline lands. The difference is who’s holding the diary. And in your own VA business that’s YOU.

That’s the heart of what we do at VA Institute. Since 2017, we have helped more than 2,000 individuals turn the skills they already have into businesses that fit around their lives – not the other way round.

If your week was yours to design, what would go in the diary first? Tell us below.

And if you want to know more about what we do to support people like you to get started, head over to our website here – www.vainstitute.com

14/09/2026

Ask any experienced Virtual Assistant what the single biggest differentiator is between the ones who retain clients long term and the ones who do not, and the answer is almost never a technical skill.

It is communication.

Not just responsiveness - though of course that matters. Not just politeness - though that matters too. The communication that builds lasting client relationships in a Virtual business is proactive, structured, end deliberate.

Here is what that looks like in practice.

The client does not need to ask how their project is progressing because a status update arrives before the question is ever formed. A deadline is flagged as being at risk before it becomes a problem - not after. When something falls outside the agreed scope, it is raised clearly and professionally, not quietly absorbed and resented.

In a physical workplace, a significant amount of communication happens incidentally - in corridors, at desks, in the informal conversations that happen naturally when people share a space. In a Virtual environment, that incidental communication does not exist. Every piece of meaningful information that a client receives about the status of their work must be deliberately communicated.

VAs who understand this operate differently. They send end of week summaries. They set up regular check-in calls. They document decisions and processes in writing. They communicate what has been done, what is next, and what the client needs to know - before the client thinks to ask.

This is not above and beyond. It is the standard of professional communication that a Virtual working relationship requires, and it is what keeps good clients engaged, confident, and unwilling to go anywhere else.

11/09/2026

Picture this… A business owner has just come across a VA’s name and business that’s been mentioned in a Facebook group. Someone recommended them and the business owner is interested.

What happens next?

Nine times out of ten, that business owner will Google them.

Not Facebook. Not Instagram. Google. And if what comes up is a professional website with clearly listed services, client testimonials, a professional email address, and a coherent online presence – the conversation that follows is vastly different from the one that happens when nothing comes up at all, or when whatever comes up is a dormant, infrequently used social media account and Gmail or Hotmail address.

This is social proof in action… and in the Virtual Services sector, it is one of the commercially powerful assets a VA can have.

A website does several things that social media cannot do. It captures contact details. It allows the opportunity to build an email list – a direct line to potential and past clients that no platform can interfere with. It presents services in a structured, professional format. It allows client testimonials to be displayed prominently. And, it is available at 2am on a Tuesday when a business owner is doing their research and the VA is nowhere near their desk.

VA Institute understands this, which is why a fully built professional website is included in our VA Startup Program. Not as an afterthought, or as a suggestion for the VA to build, but as a foundational business asset – in place before the first client is approached.

Because the VA business that cannot be found professionally online is not as visible as the one that can… and visibility, properly established, is what converts warm leads into paying clients.

Address

Sydney, NSW

Telephone

+611300805857

Website

http://www.vainstitute.com/, http://www.linkedin.com/company/va-institute

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