Month: April 2026

You Don’t Need More Pressure – You Need the Right People in Your Corner

If there’s one thing I see consistently in growing businesses, it’s this: the people running them are carrying more than anyone realises.

On the outside, things look steady. Momentum is building, opportunities are increasing, and from a distance the picture looks encouraging.

But behind the scenes, decisions are stacking up, and with growth comes weight.

The Quiet Weight of Scaling

Enhancing your offering, creating a new revenue stream, stepping into a new market, hiring for the first time, delegating something you’ve always kept close – none of those are small moves. And even when they’re exciting, they can feel slightly exposing in a way that’s hard to articulate.

Because growth isn’t just operational. It’s personal. You’re putting something new out into the world, trusting someone else with your reputation, shifting from doing to leading. That transition can feel heavier than most people admit, and it rarely comes with a manual.

Pressure Isn’t the Same as Progress

At busy times, the instinct is almost always to push harder. Work longer, take on more, keep control, just get through it. It’s a deeply familiar response, and for a while it can feel like the right one.

But pressure doesn’t always create progress. What it more often creates is hesitation, indecision, and – perhaps most insidiously – burnout disguised as productivity. In my experience, growth rarely accelerates because someone applies more pressure to themselves. It accelerates when the right support is introduced at the right time.

The Power of Having Someone Beside You

Earlier in this series I explored why buying decisions are still fundamentally human, why community builds the trust that makes those decisions easier, and why bespoke fit matters more than a list of features. This final piece is where all of that comes together.

Because when growth feels heavy, what business owners really need isn’t another system or another process. It’s someone beside them; someone who can ask the right questions, offer an outside perspective, sense-check decisions before they’re made, and translate a feeling of overwhelm into a clear and manageable next step. That’s not soft support. That’s one of the most strategic investments a growing business can make, because confident leaders make stronger decisions, and supported leaders move faster.

What My Role Actually Looks Like

As a Regional Director at Get Ahead, I don’t see my role as simply matching skills to tasks, though that’s part of it. I see it as standing alongside a business owner as they navigate change, being a consistent presence through the moments that feel uncertain.

Sometimes that means helping to identify where the real pressure is coming from, which isn’t always where it appears to be. Sometimes it means suggesting a different approach, or simply reframing a decision that’s been made more complicated than it needs to be. And sometimes it means reminding someone that bringing in support isn’t a sign of weakness but a mark of leadership. Knowing when to ask for help, and being willing to do so, is one of the most mature things a business owner can do.

AI, Automation and the Human Gap

We’re operating in an increasingly automated world, and the pace of that change shows no sign of slowing. Systems are smarter, processes are faster, and information is more instantly accessible than ever before. All of that is genuinely useful, and at Get Ahead we embrace it where it adds real value.

But none of it replaces encouragement. None of it replaces the kind of considered judgement that comes from experience. And none of it can sit across the table from someone and say, with conviction, “you’re on the right track, let’s simplify this.” Technology enhances businesses, but people steady them. And steady businesses, in my observation, grow more sustainably than those running purely on pressure.

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone

There’s a quiet narrative in business that says you should have it all figured out, that you should always know exactly what to do next, and that asking for help means you’re somehow behind. It’s a narrative that does a lot of damage, often silently.

The strongest businesses I see are invariably the ones where leaders are willing to build the right support around them, have honest conversations about capacity before things reach breaking point, and bring in expertise while there’s still space to use it well rather than waiting until everything feels critical. That’s not weakness. That’s maturity, and it makes an enormous practical difference to how a business grows.

In Your Corner

This series has been about the human side of growth, because while the tools, platforms and systems will continue to evolve, the fundamentals don’t change. Trust drives decisions. Fit drives performance. Support drives confidence. And confidence, more than almost anything else, drives sustainable growth.

If you’re building something, evolving something, or simply feeling the weight of doing too much alone, then you don’t need more pressure. You need the right people in your corner. And sometimes, that starts with a single conversation.

I’m always happy to talk through where your business is right now and what the right next step might look like. No hard sell Just clarity, perspective, and support where it counts.

kristy@getaheadva.com or book in a chat –  Calendly – Kristy Roff

About the Author

Kristy Roff is a Get Ahead Regional Director with over 20 years’ experience in commercial, marketing and client relationship roles. Her career has spanned radio broadcasting – including senior positions at Global Radio – and a decade in B2B technology consultancy, giving her a broad understanding of the pressures that growing businesses face. Kristy works closely with SME leadership teams to identify the right support and build flexible solutions that drive sustainable growth. Rather than simply placing Virtual Experts, she takes time to understand each client’s business, challenges and ambitions before carefully matching them with the right specialists from the Get Ahead network. Her areas of expertise include marketing strategy, operational capacity, client relationship management and business support.

Learn more about Kristy here

In Your Corner – The Human Side of Growth

A four-part series exploring why human connection, community, and the right support still define how growing businesses succeed – even in an age of automation.

  1. In a World of Artificial Intelligence, Human Connection Still Wins the Buying Decision
  2. Community Is a Commercial Strategy (Not Just a Nice Idea)
  3. Bespoke Beats Off-the-Shelf: Why Fit Matters More Than Features
  4. You Don’t Need More Pressure – You Need the Right People in Your Corner

Before I became a Regional Director for Get Ahead, I spent years as a Buying Director for major UK retailers — and then ran my own social media agency, with a specialism in Pinterest for business. I’ve used these platforms commercially. I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what’s simply not worth a busy business owner’s time. This series is my honest perspective on each one. No strategy guides. No content calendars. Just a straight answer to the question you’re probably already asking.

Is TikTok Worth It for Your Business? 

TikTok is the platform that creates the most anxiety for the business owners I speak to.

Not frustration, like Facebook. Not confusion, like X. Actual anxiety. A nagging sense that something important is happening there, that businesses are building audiences and finding customers, and that by not being on it they’re falling behind in a race they don’t fully understand.

I want to address that anxiety directly – because some of it is justified, and some of it isn’t, and knowing which is which could save you a significant amount of time and energy.

What TikTok actually is – and why the algorithm is different

TikTok is a short-form video platform, but the thing that makes it genuinely distinct from every other major social channel is its algorithm. On Instagram or Facebook, your content is shown primarily to people who already follow you, with organic reach declining as your audience grows unless you pay to extend it. On TikTok, the algorithm doesn’t work that way.

TikTok’s For You Page surfaces content based on what it thinks each individual user will engage with – regardless of whether they follow the creator. A brand new account with zero followers can post a video today and have it reach tens of thousands of people by tomorrow, if the content resonates. That’s not theoretical – it genuinely happens, and it’s unlike anything else available to small businesses at no cost.

What that means for SMEs is simple: The playing field is flatter than on any other major platform. You don’t need a large existing following to get reach. What you need is content that works – and that’s where the conversation gets more complicated.

What TikTok actually requires from you

In practice, this is often the point where business owners realise whether it’s a fit for them or not.

TikTok is a video-first, high-frequency, native-feeling platform. The content that performs is not polished corporate video. It’s not a produced brand film. It’s not a graphic with text overlaid. It’s raw, direct, human, and – crucially – it looks and feels like TikTok. Audiences on the platform are extraordinarily good at identifying content that doesn’t belong there, and they scroll past it without a second thought.

To do TikTok properly, you need to be willing to appear on camera, regularly, in a way that feels natural rather than staged. You need to post frequently – the accounts that build audiences typically post daily or near-daily, at least in the early stages. And you need to spend enough time on the platform yourself to understand what native content looks and feels like in your category.

TikTok is the platform that rewards you for showing up as yourself.
The businesses that do well there aren’t the most polished. They’re the most consistent and the most human.

For some business owners, that description sounds energising. They’re already comfortable on camera, already have things to say, and enjoy the informal register the platform rewards. For others, it sounds like a significant ask on top of an already full working week. Both responses are completely valid – and both are useful information about whether TikTok is the right channel for your business right now.

TikTok isn’t difficult because it’s technical – it’s difficult because it’s personal.

The businesses finding real traction on TikTok

Looking at the SMEs that have built genuine, commercially valuable presences on TikTok, a few patterns emerge consistently.

They tend to be businesses where the owner or a key team member is the face of the brand – and is comfortable being that face on camera, consistently, without it feeling like a performance. A sole trader who is their business. A founder with a clear point of view. A specialist who can demonstrate their expertise visually and talk about what they do in a way that’s engaging rather than functional.

The sectors that seem to convert most effectively include food and hospitality, beauty and aesthetics, fitness and wellness, creative trades (interiors, floristry, craft), and certain retail businesses with strong visual products. What they share is that the work itself is watchable – there’s something to show, not just something to say.

B2B businesses and professional services can find an audience on TikTok – there is a growing community of business owners using the platform – but the bar for content quality and consistency is the same, and the conversion path from TikTok viewer to professional services client is longer and less direct than in consumer categories.

The regulatory uncertainty – worth factoring in

It’s also worth being aware of the wider conversation around TikTok. There have been ongoing concerns in several Western governments about TikTok’s data practices and its ownership by a Chinese parent company. The US came close to banning the platform entirely. The UK government has restricted TikTok on government devices.

None of this means TikTok is going away tomorrow. But it does mean that a business investing significant time and resource into building a TikTok presence is doing so on a platform with more structural uncertainty than any of the others in this series. That’s not a reason to avoid it – but it’s a reason to think carefully about how much of your content strategy you want to depend on it, and whether you’re repurposing that content across other channels as you go.

The honest question to ask yourself

Before you decide whether TikTok deserves your time, the question to sit with isn’t ‘should my business be on TikTok?’ It’s: ‘Am I – or is someone in my team – genuinely willing to show up on camera, consistently, in a way that feels natural?’

If the answer is yes, and your audience skews under 40, and you have something visually demonstrable to show – TikTok deserves serious consideration. The opportunity is real.

If the honest answer is that you’ll post three videos, feel uncomfortable, and let the account go quiet – it’s better to know that now than after you’ve invested the time. A dormant TikTok account doesn’t just underperform – it sends a signal about your business that you probably didn’t intend.

A final thought 

TikTok is a genuine opportunity – for the right business, with the right approach.

But it asks more of you than most platforms. More consistency, more visibility, more willingness to be human on camera in a way that can’t be automated or outsourced.

If you’re willing to meet those requirements, it can work. If you’re not – and there’s no shame in that – your time is probably better invested in channels where you’ll actually show up. The question isn’t whether TikTok is worth it in the abstract. It’s whether it’s worth it for you, right now, given everything else your business needs from you.

Working out which platforms deserve your time – and which are quietly draining it – is one of the conversations I have most often with business owners in Oxfordshire. If you’d find it useful to talk it through, I’m always happy to.

I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire.

If you’d like a conversation about where your business should be showing up, I’d love to hear from you –  please get in touch via vicky@getaheadva.com.

Next in the series: Is X (or Threads) Worth It for Your Business? 

If you missed Part 1 of this series discussing Facebook, you can find it here. And Part 2 – on Pinterest – is here.

Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire. Former Buying Director for major UK retailers and founder of a social media agency specialising in Pinterest for business. Vicky works with SME owners to find the right support for their business – and writes about the commercial realities of social media, outsourced expertise, and growing a business without burning out.

Before I became a Regional Director for Get Ahead, I spent years as a Buying Director for major UK retailers and then ran my own social media agency, with a specialism in Pinterest for business. I’ve used these platforms commercially. I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what’s simply not worth a busy business owner’s time. This series is my honest perspective on each one. No strategy guides. No content calendars. Just a straight answer to the question you’re probably already asking.

Is Pinterest Worth It for Your Business? 

This one is personal.

Pinterest was the platform I built my agency around. For several years, helping businesses understand and use Pinterest properly was my work. So when I tell you my honest view of whether it’s worth your time, you can trust that it comes from somewhere real – not from a blog post I read, or a course I took, but from years of working inside the platform on behalf of businesses that ranged from small independents to established brands.

Here’s what I learned: Pinterest is one of the most misunderstood platforms available to small businesses. And the misunderstanding cuts both ways. Some businesses dismiss it entirely – it’s for mood boards, they say, or for people planning weddings. Others pile in expecting quick results and leave frustrated. Both responses miss what Pinterest actually is.

Pinterest is not social media

This is the single most important thing to understand about Pinterest, and the thing that most businesses get wrong before they even begin.

Pinterest is a visual search engine. Not a social network. Not a content feed. A search engine – one where people go to find ideas, plan purchases, and research decisions that often take weeks or months to complete.

When someone opens Instagram, they’re scrolling. Consuming. Reacting. When someone opens Pinterest, they’re looking for something specific, or exploring a category they’re already interested in. The intent is different. And that changes everything about how content works on the platform.

A post on Instagram has a lifespan measured in hours. By the next morning, it’s effectively invisible. A well-optimised Pin on Pinterest can surface in search results for months – sometimes years. I’ve seen Pins driving steady traffic to a business website long after the person who created them had stopped actively using the platform. That kind of content longevity simply doesn’t exist on any other major social channel.

I saw this play out clearly in practice. For one client, a marketing agency, Pins we’d created months earlier were still driving over 100 visitors a week to their website and steadily growing their email list. It’s a very different model to most platforms – slower to build, but once it works, it keeps working.

Who Pinterest genuinely works for

Pinterest works best for businesses that sell something people aspire to, plan around, or return to repeatedly. The platform’s own data consistently shows its strongest categories, and after years of working in this space, my experience bears that out.

If your business operates in interiors, home improvement, food and recipe content, weddings and events, fashion, beauty, travel, crafts, or gardening – Pinterest is almost certainly worth serious consideration. These aren’t arbitrary categories. They reflect how people actually use the platform: to plan a kitchen renovation, to find a recipe for Saturday, to build a mood board for a wedding that’s a year away.

The businesses that thrive on Pinterest share a few common characteristics. Their products or services are visually appealing. Their customers make considered, planned purchases rather than impulse decisions. And there’s a clear aspiration attached to what they sell – a vision of how life could look, feel, or be improved.

I saw this particularly clearly with a client in the food space, a well-known chef promoting her books and content. Because the content was so visual and aspirational, it translated easily into Pinterest. Over a four-week period, impressions increased from around 90,000 to nearly 400,000, with strong growth in engagement, saves and outbound clicks. It was a good example of how the right type of content can gain real traction on the platform when it aligns with how people use it.

Who it doesn’t work for – and why

Being direct about this is important, because Pinterest isn’t for everyone and pretending otherwise wastes people’s time.

If you run a B2B services business, a professional services firm, or any business where the purchase decision is driven primarily by credentials and conversation rather than visual inspiration – Pinterest is unlikely to be a strong channel for you. It’s not that your potential clients aren’t on Pinterest personally. Many of them are. But they’re not there to think about hiring an accountant or finding a logistics partner. The mindset is wrong for that kind of decision.

Similarly, businesses targeting a primarily male demographic have historically found Pinterest more challenging – the platform’s user base skews heavily female, particularly in the UK. This is changing, slowly, but it’s worth factoring in.

And businesses that can’t commit to creating quality visual content consistently will struggle. Pinterest rewards accounts that post regularly with well-designed, properly keyword-optimised Pins. An account that posts in bursts and then goes quiet doesn’t build the momentum the algorithm rewards.

I’ve also had situations where Pinterest wasn’t the right fit. In one case, I worked with a business offering bespoke, made-to-order products – visually strong, but very niche and reliant on a more considered, relationship-led sales process. Even with consistent activity, it didn’t deliver enough return to justify the time investment. It highlighted how important it is to match the platform not just to the product, but to how customers actually search and buy.

What businesses consistently get wrong

After years of working with businesses on Pinterest, the mistakes I saw most often weren’t about design or posting frequency. They were about fundamentals.

The first is treating Pinterest like Instagram. Posting lifestyle images with no keywords, no description, no thought given to what someone might actually be searching for. Pinterest is a search engine. If your Pins aren’t optimised for the words and phrases your customers use when they’re looking for what you offer, they will not be found – no matter how beautiful they look.

The second is expecting fast results. Pinterest builds slowly. In the early months, it can feel like nothing is happening. Businesses that give up after six weeks – which many do – never see the compounding effect that makes Pinterest genuinely valuable. The accounts that commit to twelve months of consistent, well-structured activity are the ones that start to see the platform working the way it’s supposed to.

Pinterest builds slowly. The accounts that commit to twelve months of consistent, well-structured activity are the ones that start to see the platform working the way it’s supposed to.

The third mistake is ignoring the link back to the website. Every Pin should lead somewhere useful – a product page, a blog post, a service description. Pinterest is one of the strongest social media drivers of referral traffic when it’s set up correctly. Businesses that Pin without thinking about the destination are missing the most commercially valuable part of the platform.

The time investment – honestly assessed

Pinterest requires less real-time engagement than platforms like Instagram or Facebook – there’s no expectation that you’ll respond to comments within the hour, and the lack of an algorithmically-driven feed means you’re not competing for immediate attention. In that sense, it suits time-poor business owners reasonably well.

But it does require consistent creative output. Well-designed Pins, properly written descriptions, a structured board strategy. If you don’t have the capacity to create quality visual content regularly – either in-house or with support – Pinterest will underdeliver. It rewards the businesses that treat it as a long-term investment rather than a quick-win channel.

A final thought 

Pinterest isn’t for every business.

But for the ones it suits, it’s one of the most misunderstood – and underused – platforms available to SMEs.

If you sell something people aspire to, plan around, or come back to repeatedly – and you’re willing to invest consistently over time – it’s worth taking seriously. The question isn’t whether Pinterest is impressive. It’s whether your customers are there, and whether you’re prepared to show up for long enough to let it work.

Pinterest strategy was at the heart of the agency work I did before joining Get Ahead. If you’re wondering whether it could work for your business – or how to approach it properly – I’m always happy to have that conversation. 

I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire.

If you’d like a conversation about where your business should be showing up, I’d love to hear from you –  please get in touch via vicky@getaheadva.com.

Next in the series: Is TikTok Worth It for Your Business? 

If you missed Part 1 of this series discussing Facebook, you can find it here.

Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire. Former Buying Director for major UK retailers and founder of a social media agency specialising in Pinterest for business. Vicky works with SME owners to find the right support for their business – and writes about the commercial realities of social media, outsourced expertise, and growing a business without burning out.

When your business is going through a period of transformation, you need the right support in place. Maybe your schedule is busier and you need virtual PA services. Or maybe you have new products and need to expand your marketing department. Whatever kind of help you need, it’s a good idea to consider flexible business support.

In this blog, we help you identify what to look for when you’re choosing new business support. We’ll also look at why flexible business support is a great solution for both the short term and long term.

What should I look for when I’m choosing business support?

During your business transformation, it’s important that any support you receive is flexible. If you’re starting a new department, you might not know how many hours you need your new team to work. Or if you’re changing your workplace culture, you might need support in the early days but let the support go once the new culture is embedded. Whatever type of transformation your business is going through, looking for flexible support makes sense. 

What does flexible business support look like?

Flexible business support can take different forms. Consider:

  • Regular or flexible hours

    Do you have to use the same number of hours every week, or can you extend or reduce the number of hours depending on workload? Or can you choose to always use the same number of hours so you stay within your budget? Decide which option you need so your support will be as cost effective as possible. 

    • Contract length 

    Do you have to lock into a long contract or can you end the arrangement whenever you need to? This is an area where outsourcing is a great alternative to recruitment. 

    • Options to change type of support

    If you’ve asked for marketing support (for example), do you have to keep using it or could you use your budget to cover the cost of another service instead? Working with an agency like Get Ahead means you can change services whenever you need to because there are so many different experts available. 

    • Continuity 

    If your business transformation has included restructuring, you might find yourself with gaps to fill. Fully flexible business support allows you to maintain continuity with your internal and external clients while you draw up new job descriptions or recruit permanent team members. 

    Flexible business support from Get Ahead

    During business transformation, you deserve to receive outstanding support that works however you need it to. Get Ahead’s model means all our support is fully flexible – best of all, you only pay for the support you receive. 

    Explore our site to find out more or follow us on social media. When you’re ready, you can reach out to your local regional director here – they’d love to hear from you. 

    Bespoke Beats Off-the-Shelf: Why Fit Matters More Than Features

    In the first two pieces in this series, I’ve explored why human connection still drives buying decisions – and how community builds the trust that makes those decisions easier.

    The next step in that journey is something I see all the time:

    Access to talent isn’t the problem. Fit is.

    The Illusion of Choice

    We’re living in an era of abundance. Platforms offer thousands of freelancers. Marketplaces promise instant access. Low costs are attractive.

    On paper, it looks ideal. More choice. More flexibility. More control.

    But for many business owners, especially those already stretched, that level of choice creates a new problem:

    Decision fatigue.

    Who’s actually right for this stage of my business?
    What level of support do I really need?
    How do I know if this person will “get” how we operate?

    And when those questions aren’t easy to answer, hesitation creeps in again.

    Growing Businesses Aren’t Generic

    No two businesses are the same. Even if they operate in the same sector. Even if they’re similar in size.  Even if they face similar challenges.

    Growth stage matters. Leadership style matters. Internal culture matters. Communication preference matters.

    You can have two businesses that both “need marketing support”, yet require completely different solutions.

    One needs strategic direction. One needs delivery capacity. One needs structure and reporting. One needs creativity and momentum.

    That’s why off-the-shelf solutions often feel slightly uncomfortable.

    They’re efficient. But they’re not personal.

    Features Don’t Build Confidence. Fit Does

    When businesses are investing in support, they’re not just buying capability.

    They’re buying peace of mind.

    They want to know:

    • This person understands our pace.
    • They communicate in a way that works for us.
    • They can integrate into our team.
    • They’ll represent our business well.

    A long list of features on a profile doesn’t answer those questions. Fit does.

    And fit isn’t something you filter by keyword. It’s something you uncover through conversation and relationships.

    The Risk of Self-Serve Support

    There’s nothing wrong with self-serve platforms. They work brilliantly in certain scenarios.

    But when the stakes feel higher – when growth is on the line – many business owners don’t just want access.

    They want guidance.

    They want someone to say:

    “This is what I’m seeing.”
    “This is what I’d recommend.”
    “This is the level of support that will make the biggest difference right now.”

    Because choosing support isn’t just an operational decision.

    It’s a strategic one.

    And strategic decisions feel safer when someone experienced is helping you navigate them.

    Where a Regional Director Makes the Difference

    My role as a Regional Director at Get Ahead isn’t to hand over a list of options, it’s to interpret what a business actually needs.

    Often the initial request sounds like:

    “We need a VA.”

    But after a conversation, it becomes clearer:

    You don’t just need a VA.
    You need someone with operational strength and process discipline.
    Or someone commercially minded.
    Or someone who can confidently liaise with senior stakeholders.
    Or someone detail-focused who thrives in structured environments.

    That nuance matters.

    And that’s where bespoke support changes outcomes.

    My role is to:

    • Listen carefully
    • Understand context
    • Identify the real pressure point
    • Match the right Virtual ‘Expert’ to that specific need
    • Stay involved to ensure the relationship works

    That last part is important. Because fit isn’t a one-time decision.

    It evolves as the business evolves.

    Bespoke Doesn’t Mean Complicated

    There’s sometimes an assumption that bespoke equals complex.

    In reality, it should feel simpler.

    When the right person is matched correctly:

    • Communication flows more easily.
    • Expectations are clearer.
    • Delivery is more consistent.
    • Confidence grows.

    And when confidence grows, so does momentum.

    That’s the commercial impact of getting the fit right.

    Growth Is About Alignment

    In Parts 1 and 2, we talked about trust and community.

    This is where it becomes practical.

    Trust reduces hesitation.
    Community builds familiarity.
    Bespoke matching ensures alignment.

    Alignment is what sustains growth.

    Because when support is truly aligned with where your business is right now, you move forward with less friction.

    Less second-guessing.
    Less rework.
    Less “this isn’t quite right” feeling.

    And that saves more than time.

    It saves energy.

    Looking Ahead

    In the final part of this series, I’ll explore something I see time and time again:

    Growth can feel heavy.

    And often what business owners think they need is more pressure.

    What they actually need is the right people in their corner.

    Because scaling isn’t about doing everything yourself.

    It’s about knowing who to bring in – and when.

    If you’re considering bringing in support but feeling unsure what “right” looks like for your stage of business, let’s talk. kristy@getaheadva.com or book in a chat –  Calendly – Kristy Roff

    Sometimes the most valuable outcome of a conversation isn’t a proposal.

    It’s clarity.

    About the Author

    Kristy Roff is a Get Ahead Regional Director with over 20 years’ experience in commercial, marketing and client relationship roles. Her career has spanned radio broadcasting – including senior positions at Global Radio – and a decade in B2B technology consultancy, giving her a broad understanding of the pressures that growing businesses face. Kristy works closely with SME leadership teams to identify the right support and build flexible solutions that drive sustainable growth. Rather than simply placing Virtual Experts, she takes time to understand each client’s business, challenges and ambitions before carefully matching them with the right specialists from the Get Ahead network. Her areas of expertise include marketing strategy, operational capacity, client relationship management and business support.

    Learn more about Kristy here

    In Your Corner – The Human Side of Growth

    A four-part series exploring why human connection, community, and the right support still define how growing businesses succeed – even in an age of automation.

    1. In a World of Artificial Intelligence, Human Connection Still Wins the Buying Decision
    2. Community Is a Commercial Strategy (Not Just a Nice Idea)
    3. Bespoke Beats Off-the-Shelf: Why Fit Matters More Than Features
    4. You Don’t Need More Pressure – You Need the Right People in Your Corner

    Before I became a Regional Director for Get Ahead, I spent years as a Buying Director for major UK retailers and then ran my own social media agency, with a specialism in Pinterest for business. I’ve used these platforms commercially. I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what’s simply not worth a busy business owner’s time. This series is my honest perspective on each one. No strategy guides. No content calendars. Just a straight answer to the question you’re probably already asking.

    Is Facebook Worth It for Your Business? 

    Let’s be honest about how most business owners feel about Facebook right now. 

    Somewhere between mildly guilty and quietly relieved. Guilty because you know you probably should be doing something with it. Relieved because, increasingly, it feels like permission to stop trying. 

    Everyone seems to have written it off. It’s the platform your parents use. Organic reach died years ago. The young people have left. It’s all ads and algorithms and content that disappeared into a void the moment you posted it. 

    That’s the story. And like most stories, it’s partly true and partly a convenient excuse not to think harder about it. 

    What Facebook actually is now 

    Facebook has changed significantly, and it helps to see it clearly rather than through the lens of what it used to be. 

    It is no longer a platform where you post content and your followers reliably see it. Organic reach on Facebook Pages has declined sharply over the past decade and continues to fall. If you’re still running a business Page and posting content into it with no paid support, you are largely talking to yourself. That part of the story is true. 

    But Facebook is also, still, the most widely used social media platform in the UK. Not among teenagers, you’re right about that. But among adults aged 35 and over, Facebook remains the dominant platform. Two thirds of UK adults use it regularly. And if you’re running a business that sells to people over 35, or to local communities, or to families, or to anyone who makes purchasing decisions that involve more than a moment’s thought, those are still your people, and they are still there. 

    The platform has also quietly shifted its centre of gravity away from Pages and towards Groups. That’s the part most businesses have missed. 

    The Groups opportunity most businesses are ignoring 

    Facebook Groups are a different proposition entirely from Pages. Where a Page is essentially a broadcast channel that increasingly requires paid amplification to be seen, a Group is a community. Content shared within Groups gets significantly higher organic reach than Page content. Members receive notifications. Conversations happen. People come back. 

    The businesses getting the most out of Facebook right now aren’t the ones posting on their Page three times a week. They’re the ones running, contributing to, or genuinely participating in Groups relevant to their customers.

    This could mean running your own Group – a space for customers, clients, or a niche audience you serve. It could mean becoming an active, genuinely helpful presence in existing Groups where your target clients spend time. Not to promote, but to contribute. To answer questions. To demonstrate expertise. In the same way that showing up consistently at a networking event builds reputation over time, showing up consistently in the right Group builds something similar – just in a digital space. 

    It takes time. It requires you to give more than you take. And it only works if the Group’s audience genuinely overlaps with yours. But for the businesses that get this right, Facebook remains one of the most effective community-building tools available, and it costs nothing but consistency. 

    What about Facebook advertising? 

    Facebook and Instagram advertising – they share the same Meta infrastructure – can be extremely effective for SMEs, with one important condition: you need to know what you’re doing, or work with someone who does. 

    The targeting capability is genuinely impressive. You can reach people by age, location, interests, life stage, and a dozen other parameters. For local businesses, service businesses targeting specific demographics, or anyone selling something with strong visual appeal, the audience is there and the tools exist to reach them efficiently. 

    But running Facebook ads badly is an effective way to spend money and learn very little. Without a clear objective, a properly structured campaign, and enough budget to generate meaningful data, the results are rarely worth the investment. If you’re considering Facebook ads, the question isn’t whether the platform can deliver, it often can, but whether you have the expertise in-house or the budget to bring it in. 

    The honest question to ask yourself 

    Before you decide whether Facebook is worth your time, there’s one question that cuts through most of the noise: 

    How old are your best customers? 

    If the answer is under 30, Facebook probably isn’t your primary channel. If the answer is 35 to 65, it almost certainly still is, even if the way you show up there needs to look different from how it looked five years ago. 

    The second question is: 

    Do I sell something that benefits from community, conversation, or local presence? 

    Services businesses, local retailers, and businesses that thrive on word of mouth and relationships tend to find real value in Facebook Groups. Businesses selling to a broad national audience, or to a younger demographic, or whose customers make fast, low-consideration purchases, may find their time better spent elsewhere. 

    A final thought 

    Facebook isn’t what it was. 

    But that doesn’t mean it’s not useful. 

    For the right business, with the right audience, it can still be a valuable part of how you stay visible and connected, particularly if community is part of how your business grows. 

    The key is not whether you should be on Facebook. It’s whether it makes sense for you. 

    If you’re trying to work out which platforms are actually worth your time – and what to do with them – that’s exactly the kind of question I work through with business owners in Oxfordshire every day. 

    I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire. If you’d like a conversation about where your business should be showing up, I’d love to hear from you –  please get in touch via vicky@getaheadva.com.

    Next in the series: Is Pinterest Worth It for Your Business? 

    Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire. Former Buying Director for major UK retailers and founder of a social media agency specialising in Pinterest for business. Vicky works with SME owners to find the right support for their business – and writes about the commercial realities of social media, outsourced expertise, and growing a business without burning out.