Author: Akiko Design

Just like a real desk, it’s easy for your virtual desktop to get cluttered. A folder here, an icon there and suddenly you’re wading through a sea of links, unable to find anything!

Luckily, today is national Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day, and we’re here with some tips to help you get your virtual workspace shipshape once again. And, as some extra inspiration, we have some photos of the (impressively tidy) desks of a few members of the Get Ahead VA team.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get your desktop sorted!

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Social media is a vital tool for modern businesses, but with so many platforms to choose from, how do you know which one is right for you? We’re here to help – each month we’ll focus on one social media platform and examine how it can help your business grow and connect with an online audience. This month, we’re looking at YouTube.

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This week (7th to 11th October) is National Work Life Week, a campaign dedicated to understanding workplace well-being and work–life balance. The week is organised by Working Families, and it aims to encourage “healthy and sustainable ways of working”.

Here at Get Ahead VA, we give all our team members the freedom and flexibility to manage their own time, which is so important for achieving a good work–life balance. In fact, this flexibility is one of the main reasons that most of our Regional Directors – who run the local branches of Get Ahead VA all over the country – decided to join the Get Ahead family.

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Small business owners have all sorts of costs to think about, but quite often more immediate outlays like rent, stock and insurance can push your pension to the bottom of the list. In fact, according to the Money Advice Service, only 31% of self-employed people have a pension scheme in place.*

However, having a pension is vitally important, so today we’re bringing you some pointers about the types of pensions available for self-employed people and how to deal with pensions for your employees.†

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Facebook can be a hugely useful tool for businesses to find and connect with their audience online. The platform – which has more than 2 billion active monthly users globally* − allows business owners to run ad campaigns and monitor response in order to get their message to the people who matter.

Of course, not all Facebook ads are created equal, and there are some tricks of the trade that can boost the reach and performance of your ads. We spoke to one of our VAs, social media expert Isil, to find out the most essential elements of making Facebook ads that work.

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Social media is a vital tool for modern businesses, but with so many platforms to choose from, how do you know which one is right for you? We’re here to help – each month we’ll focus on one social media platform and examine how it can help your business grow and connect with an online audience. This month, we’re looking at Instagram.

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At 12:00 pm on Monday 30th September, Get Ahead VA will be running a free one-hour webinar all about becoming a Get Ahead VA franchisee. 

Our franchisees run the Get Ahead VA regional offices all over the country, offering business and marketing services through our team of professional virtual assistants (VAs). We currently have offices in Guildford, Berkshire and North Hampshire, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle, and we’re always on the lookout for new franchisees to join the Get Ahead VA family. 

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This month we’re delighted to be celebrating Get Ahead VA’s 9th birthday, and we couldn’t be prouder of everything our Regional Directors and Virtual Assistants have achieved over the years.

We also understand that big achievements come out of small actions, so we’ve put together a list of 9 things you can do over 9 days to develop yourself – your motivation, productivity or general well-being. Each of these should take no more than half an hour, but you might be surprised by what a big difference they make.

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September is Get Ahead VA’s birthday month, and this year we’re turning nine years old! Back in 2010, Rebecca Newenham founded Get Ahead VA in order to provide business and marketing support to business owners, and the company has gone from strength to strength since then. So, to celebrate our birthday, here are 9 top tips for starting a successful business of your own!

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If you’ve always dreamed of starting a business and being your own boss, Get Ahead VA’s franchise opportunity could be right for you. It allows you to set up a branch of Get Ahead VA in your area, so you’ll be going into business for yourself, but with the backing of an established and successful brand.

So when you decide to become a Get Ahead VA Regional Director, where should you begin? We’ve spoken to a few of our existing RDs to find out the first steps they took when they opened up their franchise, so you can see just what it takes to get a new business off the ground.

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