Author: Lucy Andrews

Outsource social media and you’ll have complete peace of mind that your followers will stay engaged even when you’re on holiday. But outsourcing is just part of the solution. There is still a lot you can do yourself to keep your social accounts ticking over while you’re taking a break.

In this blog, our social media expert Leah outlines practical steps you can take to ensure your posts are consistent while you’re away. 

Value your break

You need a holiday. Smartphones and connectivity mean that it’s very easy to find yourself working while you’re away. But working on holiday means you don’t get the complete break we all need. So before you go away, put whatever you need to in place so you can switch off. Just because you can update your business Instagram from the beach, it doesn’t mean you should. 

Assess the potential risks

Depending on your business, you might choose to do a full risk assessment of your social media before you go on holiday. For example, if you receive most of your customer communication via your Facebook page, an unanswered complaint could create serious problems for your business. If this is the case, you should consider outsourcing your social media to someone like me. I can keep up with responses while you’re away so you have complete peace of mind. 

Even if neglecting your social media won’t have serious consequences, it’s still important to consider what could go wrong. This is because knowing how serious (or trivial) the outcomes could be will help you decide whether you should “just check your LinkedIn” while you’re on holiday or if you can switch off for a week without any negative impact.

Share your “out of office”

If your business will completely close while you’re away, putting up an “out of office” post will let your online community know. As a small business, your clients and customers will probably appreciate your honesty – it’s always valuable to connect with people on a personal level. 

Delegate to ChatGPT

If you don’t have time to write fresh social media content before you go on holiday, you could get ChatGPT to do it for you. The customer service AI can write on-brand posts, sharing your key messages.

Only choose this option if you’re already familiar with ChatGPT – if you’re new to it, you could lose valuable time working out how to get it to write what you want. 

It’s also important to check what it has written before you let it post for you. AI is a good servant but a bad master – don’t assume that everything ChatGPT writes is correct.

Find out more about Chat GPT here.

Schedule your content

Scheduling content has been a game changer for social media. It allows business owners to schedule a big batch of posts all at once, which roll out one by one across your social media channels. This works well if you have a busy week but it’s also a huge advantage when it’s time to go on holiday. Simply schedule your posts for the duration of your holiday so your posting remains consistent even when you’re not there to do it in real time. 

Scheduling content is not entirely risk-free – the last thing you want to do is schedule something controversial when you won’t be there to deal with your community’s response. Instead, stay safe with tried and tested, on-brand content. Maybe repost a successful blog, or share links to specific products or services.  

Outsource social media while you’re on holiday

The safest option is to outsource your social media for the duration of your holiday. This will mean that a real person (maybe me!) will post for you regularly throughout your break, providing seamless communication with your community. I can adjust scheduled content if something unexpected happens and respond to comments while keeping your brand message consistent. 

Outsource social media

Outsourcing social media is one of our most popular forms of business support. We offer the same flexible service for large and small businesses, ranging from one-off holiday cover to a full circle service. Find out more about our social media support here.  

PS – if you’re going on holiday tomorrow, we’ve put together our top out-of-office hacks here!

Business admin for personal trainers can be a distraction from your core business. If you’re a personal trainer, your business is to help your clients get fitter, stronger and healthier – it’s a brilliant job and you make a real difference to people’s lives. 

The downside of being a great personal trainer and offering a fantastic service to your clients is that you might fall behind on your business admin. Fortunately, Get Ahead are here to help! In this blog, our admin expert, Lucy, looks at some of the key challenges personal trainers face and how she helps overcome them.

Business admin for personal trainers – challenges and solutions
Personal trainers are never at their desks!

Your core business takes you out and about, to parks, leisure centres and even people’s homes. This is great for your clients, but it does mean you get far less desk time than people with office-based jobs. It’s easy to leave your admin, emails, social media and invoicing until the evening, but this isn’t ideal either – I know many of the personal trainers I’ve worked with have very early starts. 

However, outsourced support could be the solution you’re looking for. I’m proud to say I’ve built strong, trusting relationships with the personal trainers I’ve supported. This means they can leave their admin to me while they’re with their clients, doing what they do best.

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something

I love that quote – it describes the reasons for outsourcing perfectly! If you’re an experienced personal trainer, you’re probably amazing at creating individualised fitness regimes. You’ve invested your energy at improving in that area, rather than learning how to use accounting software or streamline your social media. Your clients love you for it, but it might not be great for your business. 

But just because admin or marketing isn’t your thing, it doesn’t mean you have to worry about them. Instead, pass them onto someone like me who loves back-office jobs and does them quickly. I might be able to do a job in one hour that would take you two hours – that’s an efficiency that makes sense for a small business like yours. 

You want to improve your service, not increase your numbers

When you work on your own, gaining more clients is not necessarily your business goal. When will you have time to train them all? Instead, you’re probably focused on improving what you offer to the clients you have. 

If improving your service is your business goal, tailor-made support is probably a better solution than a crash course in growth. When you receive support from a virtual assistant like me, I’ll listen to your needs and – working with your local Get Ahead regional director too – we’ll find a solution to help you achieve your specific business goals.

Business support for personal trainers – a flexible solution for micro businesses

Get Ahead supports lots of businesses in the wellness industry. We’ve built up our knowledge of the different challenges the industry faces and we’re working on improving our service so we can help you meet specific goals. 

If you’re a personal trainer looking for reliable, affordable business support, we’d love to help. Explore our site to find out more or contact your local regional director. 

PS – we’ve put together some of our ideas in this infographic

Outsource digital marketing and you could see a real difference in your online presence. 

Getting your business out there can be tough if you work in the wellbeing industry. Your diary is so busy with appointments that it’s hard to find time to blog or post on social media. Equally, your expertise might lie in hairdressing, manicures or reflexology, rather than marketing. That’s no bad thing – everyone can do something but no one can do everything. 

Fortunately, outsourcing can be a time and cost-efficient way to market your business, especially when you don’t have time to do it yourself.

In this blog, our digital marketing expert Mel explains the advantages of social media for the health and beauty industry, and shares her top online marketing ideas. 

Why does outsourcing digital marketing help health and beauty businesses?

Outsourcing digital marketing is a great solution for businesses like yours. Many people seeking health and beauty treatments start with the internet – often, it’s social media that has given them the idea to have the treatment in the first place.   

With a ready-made online community, it’s important to find your own way to tap into it. Marketing your wellness or beauty expertise online is a great way to connect with new audiences and grow your business. Make it personal – what you do is all about trust and building relationships with clients. Don’t be afraid to be yourself! 

Here are some of my favourite ideas for marketing your wellness business online:Share before and after pictures

Share before and after pictures

Instagram and Facebook are both fantastic platforms to share before and after pictures. If you’ve transformed a client’s look, show how they used to look and how they look now. And if your business is about feeling good rather than looking good, sharing a testimonial about how much better a client feels now can send a powerful message too. 

Build your community of people in the know

Everyone wants to find their tribe so why not build a community of your clients? These will be people who know what makes your services different and come to you time and again. When would-be customers see the interactions, in-jokes and generous sharing of tips and advice, they’ll want to join in too. 

Build a community by tagging clients and asking questions that encourage discussion. Remember to reply to comments and thank anyone sharing their own top tips. You can also encourage your community to use certain hashtags. This will make your brand available to a wider audience, as well as showing those beyond your community that you do what you say you do. 

Create and share videos

A great way to show people what you do is to create videos and share them on your website, social channels and via your newsletter. A video can help a potential client know what to expect from a session or treatment with you. It’s also one of the best ways to get your personality across – really important for health and beauty businesses where trust and a personal connection matter. 

Sign up for a Google My Business page

Google My Business is a free service where your business will appear when someone searches for what you offer within your local area. This is a brilliant opportunity for businesses offering in-person treatment – they can increase their online visibility and reach more customers. Find out more about Google My Business here.

Send out a regular newsletter

A newsletter is a great place to share news, offers and top tips. Encourage readers to open it by putting a special offer inside, or share some helpful information that will help them get more from their sessions with you. Depending on what your business offers, you might like your newsletter to be for “members only” – people who have paid to receive regular wellness advice, health challenges or seasonal beauty tips from an expert. 

Sell your products

Facebook and Instagram both have selling features, enabling you to sell products online. If you make your own health and beauty products, you can use social media as an extension of your ecommerce website. Alternatively, your business might be a named stockist of a particular cosmetics brand. And if your business is about fitness, why not use your social channels to sell yoga mats or performance clothing? 

Outsource digital marketing to Get Ahead

If you like the sound of Mel’s suggestions, we’d love to help you make the most of them! Outsourcing your social media, newsletters and other digital marketing will give you the results your business deserves, without taking you away from your clients. To find out more, contact your local regional director today – they’d love to help you take your business to the next level. 

How automation helps business is a common question at the moment. Automation, bots and AI seem to be everywhere, but are we using them in the right way to take our businesses to the next level?

In this blog, we look at how automation can streamline your processes and drive business growth.

Why does automation drive business growth?

There are all sorts of processes a business can automate. You might use a customer relationship management platform and automate some of your client interactions. Or you might use a social media scheduling tool like Buffer to ensure you post regularly. 

Whatever automation you choose, it is usually quicker in the long run than doing the task manually. This saves time and money which you can reinvest in your business.

Automation for improved customer service

Automated tasks don’t just save time and money – they can also help you improve your customer service. Improved customer service can translate into better client retention, and build your reputation so you’ll attract new customers too. 

For example, if you have a business which customers need regularly, like a garage that offers MOTs, sending out automatic reminders to your clients will help you provide a higher standard of service. Or you might run events, in which case you might hold a record of clients’ special days. Contacting them to suggest they throw their next party with you could be just the service they need. In either case, you’re nurturing relationships with your existing customers – your most important client group for business growth. 

Developments in ChatGPT enable businesses to solve basic inquiries through automation. This means your customers can find their answers more quickly than if they had to wait for office hours – another way to provide the great service your customers deserve. 

Trends indicate that some customer bases, such a millennials, prefer automated interactions. Savvy business owners know their audiences and choose the right level of automation for their customer service. 

Automation for consistent, targeted marketing

Marketing is an essential part of business growth. When we use automation to ensure our marketing is consistent, we improve our chances of connecting with more potential customers. 

We can also use automation to target specific groups, particularly those who are likely to buy our products. For example, Facebook ads enable businesses to show their content to people who are of a certain age and gender, or who have relevant interests that would make them more likely to buy from you. 

How automation helps business…and how Get Ahead helps too! 

We love helping our clients automate processes like customer service, social media and more. Automation is a great solution but it’s worth investing in the right platform and setting it up correctly before you start. The Get Ahead team have helped countless clients get started with automation. To find out more, read our interview with one of our automation experts, or watch our video.

Business administration services can be easier, quicker and cheaper when you automate them. But automation doesn’t mean no human input at all. Equally, choosing the right software and setting it up correctly is not always straightforward.

In this blog, we talk to automation expert Jenny who shares her insights on what business processes you can automate and how to get the most out of it. 

What business administration services can I automate?

Jenny: Almost anything! Most business owners are probably familiar with accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks. But software developers have also created platforms to help you schedule social media, manage your customers, write and schedule email marketing and more. 

If a job is taking you ages, or you keep forgetting to do it, it’s worth checking whether there’s any automated help out there. In other words, “is there an app for that?” For example, I’ve met loads of business owners who have really good intentions about posting on their social channels, but they just don’t get round to it. But once I’ve helped them set up Later, Hootsuite, Buffer or one of the other scheduling platforms, they can just write all their posts in one go and let them roll out regularly. 

If I’m paying for software, how do I get value for money?

Jenny: The software can’t do anything on its own. To get the best value from it, you’ll need to set it up correctly and load it with information it can use. The information needs to be up-to-date and accurate. For example, a CRM system is a fantastic piece of automation but it can only work if all the customer details it contains are correct. 

Or you might have invested in MailChimp to help you with email marketing. Again, you’ll get the best from it if your mailing lists are current and the content you’re sharing is worth reading. 

That’s where virtual experts like me come in. I love tech – during the pandemic, I was working hard to get to grips with all the new remote working platforms so I could support Get Ahead clients. I still love exploring new platforms and helping business owners get the best from them. I can help you choose the right one for your needs and set it up so you’re all ready to go. 

For example, if you’ve decided to use email software to communicate with your client base, I’d love to help. I can provide training, advice and troubleshooting. And if you’ve invested in the software but still aren’t getting round to sending anything, I can log into your account remotely and do the whole thing for you. 

The Get Ahead team has loads of admin expertise too – people who can deliver data entry services so your software is always updated with the right information. 

Business administration services from Get Ahead

We love having virtual experts like Jenny on our team to support our clients with automation. As she says, you can automate lots of different business processes and we can support you with all of them. 

As a busy business ourselves, we know how important it is to feel in control of our systems. With the right automation set-up, you’ll feel empowered to run your own accounting, social media, email campaigns or any other process. And our flexible business administration services mean you can always tap into help from Jenny or the team if you get stuck. 

To find out if you should automate a particular job, take our mini quiz here.

HR outsourcing is a great way of keeping your team running smoothly and strengthening the relationships between business leaders, middle management and staff. With outsourced support, your business will benefit from a fresh pair of eyes and an independent perspective – two valuable assets when it comes to personnel management.

We caught up with HR expert Louise who shares her knowledge about the benefits of HR outsourcing and how it works in practice. 

Why are employee relations so important?

Louise: People are your most important asset. It’s easy to think running a business is all about the bottom line, but the reality is that your business won’t grow without good management to bring out the best in your personnel. 

Many employers are struggling to recruit at the moment, which makes employee retention more important than ever. Fortunately, with good communication between management and staff, you can hold onto your employees. A long-term employee offers better value than a newbie, and a happy, well-managed staff means higher productivity and savings right across your business. 

How can outsourced HR support help employers?

Louise: All too often, people are promoted to management because of length of service rather than because they have the right experience. It’s a shame to see managers with great potential and business knowledge fail to manage their teams well simply because the manager hasn’t received the right training to bring everyone together. 

However, HR outsourcing can help you to get the basics of management in place, like a solid employee handbook and up-to-date policies. With these for reference, you should be able to handle day-to-day issues. A good employee handbook also forms a great foundation for further training. For example, I recently trained managers in inclusivity and awareness – this has helped them meet the diverse needs of their teams and make everyone feel included. And a happy team is a productive team, so it’s a win for the business too. 

How do you work alongside an in-house HR team?

Louise: Many businesses I’ve supported have excellent in-house HR managers. However, most HR issues only arise once in a while, meaning that for small and medium-sized businesses, it doesn’t make financial sense to employ a full-time HR team. Instead, HR managers outsource general and specific HR support as the need arises. This is usually better value and also brings a fresh perspective. 

For example, I’ve recently carried out an investigation on behalf of a client – the situation needed someone from outside the business to ask the right questions and give an objective view. 

HR outsourcing from Get Ahead

Louise is just one of our amazing virtual experts ready to share their skills and experience with business owners like you. To find out more about what HR services we offer, explore our HR pages or scroll down for more blogs about business support. 

Business administration support from Get Ahead always works well, but it works even better with strong teamwork. 

One of our administration experts, Lisa shared her experiences of working as part of a team for our UK/US-based client Elevated. In this blog, we look at how this situation came about, the advantages of teamwork for the client, and what that teamwork looks like in a regular working week. 

Developing the client relationship

Elevated is a UK/American business consultancy offering a wide variety of support to its international clients. Get Ahead has been supporting their client team who provide medical training in neuro-critical care. In November 2022, Andrew at Elevated approached Emma, regional director in our East Midlands office (who had provided him support with a previous business), looking for business administration support. He needed help covering email management, customer service, reporting, minute taking, event support, client liaison and ad-hoc project management. Emma immediately matched him with three possible specialists who could deliver all the work remotely from their UK-based home offices.

Although the initial plan was for Andrew and his US business partner to select one or two VA specialists to deliver the requirements, after an introduction meeting, they ended up engaging all three. This was because they were so impressed with the breadth of knowledge and experience of all three candidates…and it turned out to be a very wise decision. 

Why? Because in March 2023, Elevated upgraded all its tech systems. And like many tech refresh projects, this one has had its share of teething troubles, including a sizeable email backlog. Fortunately, the three-person Get Ahead team has the right skills and experience to clear these emails and help Elevated offer the service it prides itself upon. 

What does Get Ahead teamwork look like? 

Lisa, Ruth and Jessica were chosen by Emma because she thought they’d work well together, and because she thought they’d be a good fit for Elevated. She was right! The three VAs quickly found effective ways to work together. As remote workers in a different time zone from their client, they’ve had to do their own team leadership, with support from regional director Emma. 

A weekly Thursday meeting gives them a regular time slot to share information and updates, but also find time for emergency meetings. They have a WhatsApp group for quick questions and are always at the end of the phone and ready to support each other.  

What are the advantages of Get Ahead teamwork for the client?

Elevated are delighted with Lisa, Ruth and Jessica’s work – so we are delighted too! Because there are three people in the team, they can cover each other’s holidays and sick leave. This means continuity for the client – there is always someone to keep on top of the work and ensure that Elevated provides a great service to its own clients. 

This also means more flexibility for Elevated – they can make business decisions without being restricted by the availability of their business support experts. 

Because the three VAs are all part of Get Ahead, it’s easy for them to manage themselves and their own team. They communicate between themselves instead of needing Elevated to act as a conduit. This releases the internal team to address other priorities instead of having to add team leadership to their list. 

Business administration support from Get Ahead

We love putting together teams to deliver great results for our clients. To find out more about how we hand pick the right team for your business, check out our infographic here. 

As we prepare for the shutdown of Universal Analytics at the end of June 2023, it’s important that business owners are ready for the new analytics programme, Google Analytics 4. Our new Google Analytics 4 migration services are here to help, but it’s useful to have your own understanding too. 

What is Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s analytics software. If you have a retail business, you probably use Google Analytics already. It’s a data collection tool that with monitoring, visualisation, reporting and interpretation features. These help users to track their customers, look at trends and decide where to focus their energies. 

GA4 comes with a variety of new features. For example, its developers have improved the display to make big data more user-friendly. They’ve enhanced the online privacy to make it compliant with current laws and best practice. They’ve developed additional user groups so you can track customer behaviour more accurately. And they’ve created the capability to combine data from your apps and websites in once place, so you can see a more complete picture. Fantastic. 

Why does GA4 matter?

The first thing to say is that the current Analytics platform, Universal Analytics, will disappear at the end of June and be replaced by GA4. If you haven’t migrated by then, your analytics data will be lost. 

But the change in Analytics platforms is also an opportunity. If you haven’t used Google Analytics seriously yet, the advent of GA4 is a good time to start. Savvy business owners look at their web data regularly and build up a picture of their online performance. They can feed this information into their broader strategy to maximise their chances of success. This is a great habit to get into – one which can really help you grow your business. 

Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as just opening up GA4 and seeing everything you need to know. The new platform is there to help you, but you need to understand its capabilities before you start. With good understanding, you can review and interpret the data it gives you, and use your findings to good effect.

Google Analytics 4 migration services from Get Ahead

There is a lot of responsibility when you’re running a business. We know that there are many fantastic businesses out there who are so busy providing their core services that they don’t have time to look analyse data. Data analysis is not everyone’s strength – we’re always meeting business owners who know they should be looking at it but keep returning to the tasks they’re good at instead. 

If the arrival of GA4 is the catalyst you need to start reviewing web data and acting on the results, Get Ahead are here to help. Our data experts love helping business owners get more from their websites. We’ve put together three packages so you can choose the right level of support for your needs. These packages range from migration and compliance checking to detailed training and improved SEO. 

To find out more about our packages, check out our summary here.

To find out more about our data experts and web developers, visit our team page here.

What to look for when you’re choosing a franchise? You might well be making a sideways or even forward step on your career. Perhaps you’ve worked your way up in the corporate world and now you’d like to work for yourself (not by yourself!) and gain more flexibility. Maybe you see a franchise as an opportunity to extend your management and leadership skills. 

At Get Ahead, we value the input of all our franchisees and do what we can to help them grow. Buying a franchise should be a positive career step and we want to help you move forward. Let’s take a closer look.

Why is it important to invest in our franchisees? 

Franchisor Rebecca Newenham is a self-confessed people person. She loves meeting new people and learning what makes them tick. This translates into a great generosity of spirit that’s been the driving force behind Get Ahead from its foundation more than a decade ago.

But there’s solid business acumen behind this approach too. Rebecca knows that investing in her franchisees means that they can do a better job. As franchisees grow as people and managers, they bring in more business and enhance the Get Ahead brand and its reputation. 

What does “investment in potential” look like at Get Ahead? 

Rebecca is a great champion of all the franchisees. She firmly believes that flexible working is an opportunity, not a compromise, and is keen to open this up to others. 

Franchisees start by receiving a full induction, tailored to their needs and experience. For example, if you come from a marketing background but feel less confident about finance, you’ll receive finance training but we won’t make you sit through (!) marketing basics. 

Once you’re up and running, you’ll benefit from regular monthly calls with the other franchisees, whom we call regional directors. This is a great way to celebrate successes, raise issues, share best practice and offload if you need to. You’ll also have a regular check-in with Rebecca – a two-way meeting where you can both discuss progress and ask questions. 

Get Ahead’s model allows you to run your regional office the way you want to. Our established franchisees have a variety of approaches, often starting with the methods they know best before branching out and trying something new. 

This flexible, tailored approach is possible because we genuinely believe in the power of people. Unlike other franchises, we don’t have targets.

Before she franchised her business, Rebecca worked as the Get Ahead regional director for Surrey (now part of our South East super-hub). This means that she knows exactly what’s involved in being a regional director. She knows what it is to be in that role and to further her career – a benefit she’d love to pass on to you too.

What to look for when you’re choosing a franchise?

If you think buying a Get Ahead franchise could be your next career move, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today to book a no-obligation call with Rebecca Newenham.