Apt Virtual Assistance (AptVA)’s founder and virtual assistant Sarah Szekir-Papasavva has much to celebrate as she wins her seventh award in this year’s highly coveted title of ‘England VA of the Year 2021’ at the UK VA Awards. Her highly contested win comes after she was awarded ‘South East England VA of the Year’, for the second year running, at the end of 2021.
She is a true torch bearer for her VA business with many awards to her name already. She received her first accolade, the ‘UK Best Newcomer VA 2019’ award, two years ago and has now collected seven awards in the almost four years of running AptVA. Sarah has impressed the judges with her consistently professional work and commendable CPD (Continuing Professional Development), and seeing off tough competition from many extremely talented VAs from across the country.
Bringing her creative background in to the life of a VA
Sarah comes from a creative background, having studied a Masters’ Degree in Fine Art at the University of Leeds before starting a career as a PA in Central London and training as an Executive Assistant thereafter. She qualified as a Virtual Assistant through Souters Training, launching her limited company, Apt Virtual Assistance, in 2018. AptVA has been the perfect platform for Sarah in being able to combine her professional experience from her EA background and her passion and expertise in the Arts. The services she has created allow her to offer a variety of creative and administrative offerings, specifically tailored for small business owners. The judges praised the way in which Sarah has ‘embraced her artistic flair into her business’, particularly mentioning AptVA’s ‘imaginative social media and strong training record’.
Striving to improve work-life balance for all
A highly organised and experienced EA, Sarah originally founded AptVA in search for a flexible career and a better work-life balance that would suit her young family. She now enjoys supporting small business owners and individuals in doing the same, “Being a small business owner myself, I greatly identify with the many requirements my clients have, which helps me to streamline my services, providing them with the highest standards of professional administrative and creative support”. Sarah also notes that the successful change to working virtually enabled her to better support clients during the challenging time that small business owners have had to face throughout the pandemic. “AptVA has not only been able to support clients to outsource work, but also to adapt their businesses to better trade and work online. This has been made possible with support in refining their organisational culture, processes, and business strategy, using online systems to automate and facilitate their work, especially while working from home and consequently blurring the already fragile line between work-life balance”.
Sarah’s enthusiasm, proactiveness and keen attention to detail has seen AptVA grow steadily, attaining the prestigious collection of awards, and providing a wide range of administrative and creative services tailored to clients from a rich and varied mix of industries, so that they can spend their time doing what they do best or enjoy the most.
sarah@aptva.com
For more information on AptVA:
Website: www.aptva.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aptva
Instagram: www.instagram.com/aptvirtualassistance
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-szekir-papasavva/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AptVirtual
