Author: Akiko Design

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. Our Regional Directors are brimming with good advice about being your own boss. Today, Kristy and Suzanne, co-Directors of our Berkshire and North Hampshire office, are here to share their organisation tips for business owners.

When we opened the Berkshire and North Hampshire branch of Get Ahead VA, we wanted to start as we meant to go on – by being organised. As it turned out, we won a big project early on, which cut into our preparation time, and so we were very pleased that we already had useful systems in place.

Here are three of our top organisation tips for business owners. Whether your business is new or established, we hope you’ll find something valuable here!

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Social media is a vital tool for modern businesses, but with so many platforms to choose from, how can 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 Pinterest.

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‘Tis the season of pre-Christmas promotions, and there are two particularly important retail events coming up on the calendar: Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. But what exactly are they, and which one should you concentrate your efforts on? Here’s the lowdown on these two significant events, to help you decide which one is right for your business.

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Has your business got stuck in a rut? Do you find yourself bored by things that used to excite you? Don’t worry – after the first exciting flush of starting a new business, it’s normal for things to start to feel stale, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. This is the perfect time of year to put the fireworks back into your business so you can feel the passion again in 2020, and we have some tips to help you do just that!

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Get Ahead VA has branches all over the country, dedicated to supporting local businesses through business and marketing services delivered by our team of virtual experts.

The Regional Directors who run these branches each decided to go into business with us for their own reasons. Today, we’re looking at exactly why our Regional Directors chose to take the leap, to help you decide if our franchise opportunity is the best next step for your career, too!

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October half-term is just around the corner, and with the kids home from school, it’s the perfect opportunity for some family days out or cosy days in. But if you have a business to run – and especially if you work from home – how can you balance the commitments of both work and family over half-term?

Fortunately, the Get Ahead VA team is here to help. Most of our Virtual Assistants and Regional Directors work from home, and they’ve got some great tips about keeping your business running during the school holidays – without missing out on quality family time!

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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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