Testimonials

For many years we have worked hard for our PASSION. Now let me introduce myself so you can get to know me a little better.

I’m Marcela Frugoni, mother of 4 big kids, and grandmother of Facundo.

I started working as a VA in 1996, all by myself, in Argentina. This then meant that I was the First VA in the Spanish-speaking World.

Some time ago, in a nice VA’s talk, we all agreed that all potential VAs that come to Bureau Red shares a common goal when deciding to change their lives: we all wanted a change.

We are always a little afraid of change, but we should always keep in our mind that’s always very positive to go for more!

At that moment, I had four little kids and every time I got home after a long and exhausting day at work, it was like a new sunrise for me. I felt I had done nothing until THAT moment, because my day was starting all over again. Exhausted, after I put the kids to sleep I asked myself: what can I do to be more time with them? What can I do to stop feeling that my day has 2 sunrises?

My decisive moment came when I stopped being an employee, and I had to start from scratch and redefine my future again.

Thanks God, at that moment a cousin from Michigan (USA) told me about the existence of the Virtual Assistance.

I started my search and I met Stacy Brice from AssistU. In the Spanish-speaking world today, we are very happy to be part of the Group VABureauRed, where all certified VA’s from Bureau Red share a common space.

It wasn’t all romantic. In the Spanish-speaking world the Virtual Assistance wasn’t known, and to make things worse, I didn’t count on my family’s support: they thought it was crazy to leave a stable employment, having 4 kids, for something completely unknown in our world. They had no idea what this business is about! Today, I feel happy for all that we have accomplished, and we “VAMOS POR MÁS” (Let’s GO FOR MORE!)

I was very “isolated” at that time since the only ones I could share my Project with were my cousin and reading Stacy. So, I decided to put together my Business presentation, brochures and Business cards to “jump” into the market and send them by courier… it was the only way to promote my services at the time since the use of Internet was very restricted on those days…

Thanks to the Chambers of Commerce, I discovered that they organize annual Roundtables around the World.

I didn’t have much money, so the only roundtables I could join were the ones in Argentina or its neighbor countries. So, I registered in the first one I found.

So, one day I left my kids with my mother and got on a bus to Santiago de Chile. Thanks to a huge effort in business presentations preparation I met a lot of prospects. My crazy Project was no longer so crazy; it was starting to shape itself as a serious Business Project. I made around 200 contacts from all stands and roundtables.

That was how Secretary Bureau was founded! It was and still is the strongest bond I’ve felt for my work. Pure passion. What’s more, I still update the domain in NIC, even when I’m not using it. It was and still is my dream. It was the kickoff of a new lifestyle, the one I had chosen for me.

Here I’m sitting at the desk where I met the selected prospects at the roundtable

As I was telling you, Internet at those times was very limited, so ideas had to be carried out much more physically!

Today life is much easier, we are all connected through the Internet, everybody has an e-mail account and most have an Internet site, a client’s database, a forum or a social network.

After some time, I was blessed to meet a client from the French Embassy, who asked me to help him launch his Business in Argentina.

The ironic twists and turns of fate dictated that after recruiting the staff for his office, he, whom I remember with my greatest respects, also asked me to train the middle Management positions I had recruited for the office. The idea was just dawning on me…

Without much room for thinking, Bureau Red was born. Training and development had not been part of my dream, since my educational background forcefully came from the Arts and Language, which I had to study in order to do what I had chosen: be a Secretary!!

But I have flowed with life and today I can say I’ve been happily working from home, running a company that has grown little by little every year!

Why hasn't it stopped growing?

I believe the inflection point of this success was to focus on a niche market that would allow me to centralize all I had to offer. If I had not learnt this beforehand from Stacy Brice, perhaps I wouldn’t be telling you this story now.

It is often said “Jack of all trades master of none”, and it is a definite truth. The success of my project lied on the fact that I decided to focus the training I offered only on Secretaries and Personal Assistants. If I had offered my services widely, without tailoring my proposal, I would still be just one more among many.

Another key factor to my success is that I haven’t stopped working on my Project, not even for a moment!

In times of crisis, I used to invite my followers to Workshops free of charge, in order to build their loyalty (Argentina 2001).During that same critic year; I took a huge step, thinking it could be the last: taking innovation to a new limit, I designed the Virtual Assistant’s course. I took this leap of faith trusting in all that I had learnt along the way.

And in prosperous times I always worked on what I could offer that others didn’t! Innovation has always been my ally! Always a step forward! You should never stop; you should always go for more!

I have never been afraid of technology, I started in the 40’s with the DOS, I studied the Secretarial career with the Remington and today I can’t believe all the things I can do. Marvelous! The result of hours and hours sitting on a chair!

Many of my followers who read my Newsletter were reluctant to take a virtual course, but after insisting a lot I convinced them of the advantages of taking a training course without moving from their desks. We started with the MSN. Today we have our own Virtual Campus and our own virtual conference room!

Today Bureau Red is still my dream come true! I grew along with it thanks to the great instructors that work with me. I also decided to study Public Relations and Human Resources to increase my professional background. Today I can say I’m surrounded by people who truly understand what innovation means. People with values who offer my students all their knowledge, keeping nothing to themselves.

How do I feel today? I think the most important point is that I feel I can be an example to my children. There’s no age to start a project. There’s no age to study and there’s no age to achieve a well projected goal.

I feel proud of every single group that starts the training we offer, because they are all looking for the same thing I used to look for in the past: personal growth!

I feel even more proud when someone comes to me and remembers those first Business brochures in paper I used to distribute… You can’t imagine how many envelopes I sent! It’s even more emotional when someone remembers my “Lecturas ambulantes” (Newsletter), the first material I sent by e-mail.

I made a great change, but I still sketch my future in my little notebooks, knowing that I am the only one responsible to materialize them.

I have a lot of little paper notebooks, they prove extremely useful when I look for new ideas! Please DO have your little notebook! I wish you a lot of them!

OK, enough. I’ve said too much. YOU CAN MAKE IT! I encourage you to dream about your project!

ACTION; ACTION and more ACTION!

A big hug and thank you for being with me on this road!

Marcela Frugoni
Training Manager

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