AMY Ballester, better known as The PA York, became self employed in September 2010, primarily to help a friend with her events business.

She said: “After years of working through various agencies in York undertaking various contracts I already knew that I enjoyed contracting for different businesses and always being kept on my toes and not knowing what challenges were to come.”

She said it became clear while she visited venues and suppliers that other businesses within the city required extra help at times, so Amy started offering her services as a PA as an alternative to using a staffing agency.

Although a skiing accident at Christmas 2010 put a spanner in the works, while Amy recovered from a snapped ligament in her left knee leaving her in a leg brace awaiting an operation and unable to drive.

It gave her the chance to put her website together and launched the business in February.

Now she is entering Women In Enterprise and New Business Of The Year at The Press Business Awards.

She said: “With business going from strength to strength and gaining more and more clients every month I am hoping to reach the stage where I will need to employ someone to work with me and take the business further and offer more services such as accounting and more travel planning to private clients.”