Author: Akiko Design

Here at Get Ahead VA our team includes experts in a wide variety of fields.  From Accounting to Admin, Hootsuite to Holiday cover, Email Marketing to Excel, our VAs can add value to many aspects of your business.  In this Expert Showcase series our team deliver some of this expertise to you, with ‘How to’ guides to help you get the best bang for your buck in your business.

In this guide one of our PR & Marketing specialists Caroline talks about how you can write a persuasive and compelling awards entry to help you grow your business through PR:

“Awards can be a fantastic way of boosting the profile of your business – both locally and online.  Simply being nominated for an award is an accolade in itself, and being selected as a finalist or even winning an award provides fantastic fuel for your PR and social media.  Every step of the awards process is an opportunity to talk positively about your business and about the third-party recognition you have gained.

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Franchising can be a great way to grow your business.  It can enable you to expand your geographical reach as well as your penetration of key markets.  It is a well-known model used all over the world by smaller companies as well as larger scale multinationals such as McDonald’s, Clarks shoes, Interlink Express and Toni & Guy. 

Franchising is also a fast-growing industry, with the latest bfa/Natwest Franchise survey revealing an industry worth £15.1bn in the UK, three times the size that it was 20 years ago.  44,200 franchise outlets employ 621,000 people, an increase of 70% over the last 10 years.

What is franchising?

Business format franchising is the granting of a license by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems and proven business model of the franchisor.” British Franchise Association

A variety of different industries lend themselves to a franchising model, but it isn’t for everyone.  Managing a group of franchisees is completely different to running your business – and one can certainly distract from the other if not handled properly.  If you think franchising might be right for your business, then here are our five top tips to ensure your franchising journey is a success:

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Here at Get Ahead VA our team includes experts in a wide variety of fields.  From Accounting to Admin, Hootsuite to Holiday cover, Email Marketing to Excel, our virtual assistants can add value to many aspects of your business.

In our Expert Showcase series our team deliver some of this expertise to you, with a series of ‘How to’ guides to help you get the best bang for your buck in your business.

In this guide one of our marketing and PR specialists Starr talks about how you can video to boost your online marketing and make a real impact with your customers: 

“Video is a hot topic for 2017.  In fact, it has seen a massive rise in importance over the past few years.  This is driven by a number of factors, including the increasing use of mobile, our time poor/information hungry lifestyles and the increased accessibility of technology.  Gone are the days where video was a highly expensive medium for only the largest of companies with the biggest of budgets.  You can now get started with video straight away, by yourself and from the comfort of your own home with just your smart phone.

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We all have a vision in our heads of an angel – the being that came to bring messages of good news and great joy in the nativity story – or the little girl dressed in white with her fluffy halo on her head in the school play.  But how does that work in a business context?   What is a business angel?

“An angel investor is a high net worth individual who makes use of their personal disposable finance and makes their own decision about making the investment.” UK Business Angels Association

A business angel is someone (or a group of people) who decides to invest their money in other businesses.  It is described as equity finance, as the angel would usually take shares in your company in return for the finance they are providing.  In contrast to other forms of lending, angels will usually wish to volunteer their expertise as well as their money, helping you to achieve your objectives and them to achieve a return on their investment.  One of the most famous groups of angel investors is of course the BBC Show Dragon’s Den.

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April is National Pet Month and up and down the UK thousands of people will be celebrating life with their pets.  The National Pet Month charity aims to promote responsible pet ownership, make people aware of the mutual benefits of living with pets, increase public awareness of the role of pet care specialists and raise awareness of the value of working and assistance companion animals.

For some individuals, assistance dogs are a vital part of their life that enables them to get to work every day.  For others, pets are simply a happy part of family life. So could an office dog (or cat or goldfish?) actually boost your productivity? 

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Historically, finding funding for your business was a fairly straightforward business.  You asked the bank, or you saved up enough money yourself.  But in our digital, virtual age, there are far more funding sources on offer.  Of course, the bank (or building society) is still an option, but it isn’t suitable for everyone.  There are friends and family, who can be a fantastic support for your business – both financially and emotionally.  Then come other options such as angel investors or crowdfunding.

“Crowdfunding is a way of raising finance by asking a large number of people each for a small amount of money.” UK Crowdfunding Association

Sometimes referred to as crowd sourcing or peer to peer lending, crowdfunding is the opposite of traditional lending.  Instead of asking a few people (such as a bank) for a larger sum of money, you break it down and ask for a larger number of people to invest a little.  This makes your investment much more accessible for everyday people, not just major investors with big sums of money.

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Here at Get Ahead VA our team includes experts in a wide variety of fields.  From Accounting to Admin, Hootsuite to Holiday cover, Email Marketing to Excel, our VAs can add value to many aspects of your business.  In our Expert Showcase series our team deliver some of this expertise to you, with a series of ‘How to’ guides to help you get the best bang for your buck in your business.

In this guide one of our marketing and social media management specialists Jenny talks about how you can use icons to boost the visual impact of your marketing – both on and offline:

As consumers, we are bombarded with marketing messages every day.  Our phones receive marketing emails, texts and even calls wherever we are.  As soon as we log into our social media accounts we are bombarded with sponsored posts and ‘suggested’ updates.  Our brains are firmly on overload.

So as a business, how do you cut through all that clutter and ensure that your marketing messages do get through?

Graphic design can be a really effective tool, providing visual impact.  Icons are an important part of the designer’s toolkit which can add an identity to your marketing messages and bring them together to reinforce their impact.

An icon is a small picture that represents a topic, information category or programme.

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Here at Get Ahead VA our team includes experts in a wide variety of fields.  From Accounting to Admin, Hootsuite to Holiday cover, Email Marketing to Excel, our VAs can add value to many aspects of your business.  In this Expert Showcase series our team deliver some of this expertise to you, with ‘How to’ guides to help you get the best bang for your buck in your business.

In this guide one of our digital marketing specialists Carrie talks about how you can get started with your first email marketing campaign to grow your business:

As a small business money for investing in marketing is always tight.  Every penny is scrutinised and potentially one straight out of your back pocket.  But the good news is that there are lots of free tools that can help you market your business effectively.  Mail Chimp is one example of a free tool which is simple and easy to use and can get your started with communicating with your customers by email.

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Today is Safer Internet Day, a global event which is celebrated in over a hundred countries, coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network.  It is supported by the European Commission and national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.  The day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community.

Be the change: unite for a better internet

This year’s theme is ‘Be the change: unite for a better internet’ and it is something we can do in our professional, as well as our personal lives.  Teaching internet safety is vital for children and young people – but it is also critically important for businesses too.  There are regular headlines about major multinational companies like Yahoo and Tesco Bank being hit by hacking.  But small businesses are vulnerable as well, yet might not have big IT departments to address the risks.

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Here at Get Ahead VA we are privileged to work with a wide variety of clients ranging from will writers to window cleaners, financial consultants to fashion designers.  All of our clients are motivated and driven business owners, with clear plans for business growth.  They recognise the value of outsourcing, passing onto others tasks that either they lack skills in, or tasks that drain their valuable time.

Here’s 60 seconds with one of our clients Sam Farrow.  Sam  is a professional graphic designer with over 20 years’ experience. She is the founder and managing director of Farrow Creative, a full-service design agency with offices in Petersfield and Guildford. She is also a mentor and regular speaker on the MBA programme at the University of Surrey.

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