Author: Akiko Design

As we embark upon England’s second lockdown, it’s great to see how many businesses have been able to relaunch (or continue) homeworking, building on everything they learned last time. In these trying times, we’ve seen a material demand for Zoom facilitation, particularly for training sessions. We’ll be honest with you, we’ve had to ramp up our skillset pretty quickly too, but now Get Ahead VA is offering a behind-the-scenes service for online training that we are really proud of.

Because Zoom training facilitation is a new service, we’ve noticed that while some clients know exactly what Zoom challenges they are trying to overcome, others have no idea what aspects of online training they could possibly outsource! In this blog, we break down the elements of online training facilitation to give you a clearer picture of how outsourcing Zoom management and tapping into our Miro expertise could help you.

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Read our top tips for constructive feedback and get more from your outsourcing relationship!

At Get Ahead VA, we have a large team of virtual assistants to draw upon, so we can always find someone with the right skills and personality to work with your business. As such, we’re quietly confident you’ll develop a good working relationship with your VA and that the positive feedback you give will outweigh the negative!

VAs are professionals and are used to receiving comments, positive and negative, and acting upon them. For many reasons, it’s important to give feedback. When business owners withhold criticisms, it can result in issues going unresolved, ultimately causing the breakdown of the working relationship. And when business owners don’t show their appreciation, the VA might feel under-valued and less motivated. Fortunately, when you give useful feedback, it enables the VA to develop the work they are producing so they can support your business in the right way.

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In any other year, businesses would have booked their Christmas party back in August or so – big room, catering of some sort, maybe a magician visiting your table doing some close up magic. If you were really (un)lucky, someone might even have hired a karaoke machine.

But this year, it will all be different. Lockdown didn’t just introduce new restrictions; it introduced a new way of working. So many businesses have noticed how much easier remote working is that it’s looking like it’s here to stay, even when restrictions are finally over. What’s certain is that we’ll be having our works Christmas parties remotely, and we’re proud to report that our VAs with Zoom expertise are already receiving bookings to provide tech support during the virtual party season.

Here are some ideas for virtual Christmas parties!

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Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) can be a really smart move for your business – they can provide skills and support when you need them the most, and they’re totally flexible so you only hire them for as long as you need them.  

If you’ve never worked with a VA before, you probably have lots of questions about how it all works. As a virtual assistant agency, we know the most common queries that people have about VAs, so we’re here to help you learn more. Here are the top 5 most frequently asked questions about VAs.  

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It’s safe to say that, for most people, this year hasn’t exactly gone to plan – perhaps you started 2020 with big dreams of finally starting your own business, only to have to put those dreams aside in order to make it through the crisis. But the pandemic doesn’t have to stop your entrepreneurial aspirations forever. In fact, opening a franchise could get you back on track sooner than you think. 

There are all sorts of fantastic benefits to opening a franchise, but today we’re looking at four key advantages that could make this a great career move for you, even in all the upheaval of 2020. 

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At Get Ahead VA, we are privileged to work with a wide variety of clients who recognise the value of outsourcing.  Here’s 60 seconds with one of our clients, Ketan Makwana CEO of Enterprise Lab, a professional development agency that specialises in helping businesses grow sustainably

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OneDrive is a cloud-storage platform – essentially a means of storing your files on the internet instead of on your hard drive. This frees up space on your laptop, PC, tablet or phone, as well as offering a variety of different capabilities to streamline your working life. 

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One-to-ones are an important element of networking. When carried out with the right approach and motivation, they can be a highly effective means of building professional relationships and ultimately helping you to build your business.

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Maintaining some kind of balance between work and life is hard enough when you’re going out to work, but when you’re working from home, the challenge is even greater. Fortunately, by identifying the problem and really addressing it, you can get your life back without your work suffering. Rest assured, you really can manage work/life balance when you work from home.

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If you’re new to outsourcing, you might not have written a brief before. The prospect of crystallising your business into a few sentences for a graphic designer, copywriter or other creative to work from may seem daunting. However, by staying focused, you can write a great brief that will translate into work that builds your brand.

Here are six questions to ask yourself as you’re writing your brief:

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