Plastic is a hot topic – the buzz around it began in earnest thanks to the BBC series Blue Planet II, which raised awareness about the damage plastic is doing to our oceans and sea life. Earlier this month, people and organisations around the world celebrated World Oceans Day (8th June), an annual event which encourages people to protect our oceans against threats like plastic.

So how can you, as a business owner, get involved with this movement? We’ve gathered together a few ideas – big and small – to help you reduce plastic in your workplace.

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Happy Bring Your Dog to Work Day! If you don’t already know about this fantastic event, on the 21st June each year, people up and down the country take their dogs to work in order to raise money for dog-related charities. (Of course, it’s also a great excuse to cuddle other people’s pooches and introduce your own to some new friends.)

Any business can become an official sponsor of the event, and individuals can make donations to the leading charities online. Today, we thought we’d celebrate by introducing you to some of the dogs in the Get Ahead VA team. Bring on the pups!

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The Company Page is a powerful tool on LinkedIn – it gives a business a dedicated space to promote its products/services, post content and connect with its audience. It’s especially useful for B2B interactions and, naturally, the most effective Company Pages are the ones with the widest reach.

So how do you go about growing your Company Page on LinkedIn? Here are 6 quick tips for increasing your following and finding an engaged audience.

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Get Ahead VA is very proud to have branches across the country, and we’re always on the lookout for ambitious, business-minded people who are interested in opening a new branch in their local area. But did you know that you don’t have to do it alone? We’re also happy to consider teams of two!

Karen and Allison are the joint Regional Directors of our Newcastle office, and they know just what it’s like to set up a new business as a partnership. Today they’re here to share their advice with anybody else considering starting a business with another person.

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Opening a franchise is a great way to start a business without having to go it alone. Franchising is an arrangement whereby an existing, established company allows a person (the franchisee) to open a branch of the company for themselves. This benefits both parties – the franchisor company gets a new branch, while the franchisee gets to run their own business with the support of the franchisor.

Lots of companies offer franchise models. In fact, Get Ahead VA offers a franchise package for anybody wishing to open a branch in their local area. But with so many opportunities out there, how can you decide which one is right for you? Here are a few essential things you should consider when choosing a franchise.

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Get Ahead VA offers a wide range of business and marketing services. In our Service Spotlight, we take a closer look at one of these and show you how our virtual assistants can help you and your business. This month, we’re looking at graphic design.

What is graphic design?

Graphic design is the art of creating visual content for a wide range of purposes, such as marketing, communication and branding. Graphic designers apply their skills to all sorts of different media – from websites to magazines, leaflets to logos – in order to catch an audience’s attention and convey a message. In this way, graphic design is hugely important for business owners – no brand, marketing campaign or company website is complete without graphic design.

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