ChatGPT is a hot topic at the moment. Businesses are considering whether it could make their lives easier. And skilled content creators are wondering if they’re about to be replaced by a bot. We’ve noticed that savvy business users are weighing up the pros and cons, working out where ChatGPT is the right solution and identifying where a real person will do a better job.

Let’s take a closer look.

(more…)
What does “choose your own hours” look like for a Get Ahead franchisee?
All the support and none of the targets

Get Ahead’s regional directors have the freedom to work as much or as little as they like. This because, unlike other franchises, they are not given targets.

When Rebecca Newenham first founded Get Ahead, she wanted it to be flexible so that regional directors and team members could have work life balance the freedom to adjust their priorities if needed. That is why she doesn’t set targets – she just gives loads of support instead, exactly the right kind of motivation for the business to grow.

A scalable business model

One of the reasons Get Ahead regional directors can work flexibly is that the work is scalable. Each RD is a team manager for their local team of virtual experts. The virtual experts deliver the work for the clients, whether that’s social media management, admin, marketing or something else.

The franchisee does not need to deliver work themselves – instead, they can spend their time connecting clients with team members or building their networks. They can push themselves and become a local business support hub, accepting every job because they know they can outsource it to the team. Or they can limit their client base, maybe to manage their own workload or because there’s something happening at home which has to take priority.

What could choosing your own hours mean for you?
The best of both worlds

Choosing your own hours means the best of both worlds. You can lead your team and run a thriving business, working for yourself but not by yourself. But you can also have a happy family life, with the flexibility for hobbies and lunch dates. Our franchisees find ill partners and school snow days less stressful to deal with too!

Work life balance

When work and life are truly balanced, they should each be important and each fulfil you. A true balance is difficult to find, but we believe our flexible model comes very close.

A healthy attitude to work

Bags of stress and fifty-hour weeks are bad for us. So is measuring our worth only by how hard we work. Fortunately, choosing your own hours means you can nurture a healthier attitude. You’ll have time to exercise both body and mind. You’ll have time to spend with the people who bring out the best in you. You’ll have time to be a hand-on parent instead of being the one who’s always late for school pick up.
With more balance and less stress in your life, you should be able to keep things in proportion. We’ve seen this translate into working more effectively, and having fewer parental meltdowns too.

Become a Get Ahead franchisee

Rebecca founded Get Ahead to provide flexible support for business owners…and flexible opportunities for team managers like you. If you’re looking for a better work/life balance, we could be your next career move. Contact Rebecca to find out more.

Social media strategy is essential if you want to take your business channels to the next level. If you have a small business you’re planning to scale up, social media is a great tool to help you reach new customers. And it’s well worth investing in social media strategy to increase your chances of getting the results your business deserves.

In this blog, we look at why a strategic approach is important, and what you should consider when you’re planning future social media posts.

(more…)

As you prepare your business for Q1, you’ve probably made some key decisions that will affect the whole organisation. For your business to carry these out and achieve the goals you’ve set, it is essential that you take your employees with you. When employees are fully engaged with the goal setting process and understand the direction the business is going, they are more likely to deliver the work you need.

In this blog, we look at ways you might engage staff and communicate your new goals to ensure your employees support your business direction.

(more…)

As we look ahead to the New Year, we can start to plan our next steps for business growth. Part of this process is breaking down an overall priority into strategic goals and identifying what your business needs to achieve them. This might be anything from moving to a new premises to using an outsourced lead generation service, but the important thing is to identify it and act on it.

In this blog, we take a closer look at strategic goals, how to write them and how Get Ahead can help you achieve them.

(more…)

Get Ahead’s business model helps our team and clients find a healthier work-life balance. We believe in flexibility – we’ve seen time and again that it translates into better productivity and better mental health. We were delighted to hear that the organisation Working Families is holding its annual National Work/Life Week from 10th-14th October 2022.

This year, the emphasis is on increasing access to flexible working, and finding the flex in every role. Let’s take a closer look.

(more…)

Get Ahead exists to provide back-office support for busy businesses. Since our foundation in 2010, we’ve supported a wide variety of businesses, including web and digital agencies. As an agency ourselves, we understand the importance of a consistent culture throughout the organisation, even when the work is delivered remotely.

In this blog, we look at what kind of work digital agencies might choose to outsource and how it could benefit the business as a whole.

(more…)

Email marketing is a valuable tool and one we should all make time for. Only when you take email seriously and interweave it with the rest of your marketing will you start to see the results you are looking for.

In this blog, we look at how you can fit email marketing into the rest of your marketing plan.

(more…)

Email marketing doesn’t have to be a headache. With a good stock of content and the right software in place, you can deliver consistent, on-brand email marketing to boost your conversion rate.  

Here are some essential tools to underpin successful email marketing.

  1. Strong brand and tone of voice

With a strong brand behind you, you can feel confident that all your communications will be on-message. Knowing what you want to tell people helps you and your marketing team choose an effective approach and build confidence in your brand.

Tone of voice guidelines can help you keep your language consistent, help you create the right feel and communicate with the most likely prospects.

  1. Approved mailing list

Since GDPR guidelines came into force, businesses are no longer allowed to add people to mailing lists at random. This is a good thing, as you’re much more likely to convert someone who already cares about your business than someone you contact out of the blue.

To get the most from your mailing list, check that whatever tool you use to add people is effective. Make sure people understand what they’re signing up to – this will lower your unsubscriber numbers and could improve your interactions too.

There are a number of ways of attracting new subscribers to your mailing list. A pop-up on your website or a special offer customers can unlock by signing up are both very effective. The most important thing to remember is your customer or client profile – that way, you can create a sign-up that is likely to capture the right kind of people.

If you have an old list, it’s worth checking that it’s GDPR compliant. A complaint or a high deletion rate could damage the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

  1. The right email marketing software

Sending individual emails is delightfully personal but not practical for an email marketing campaign. Depending on the size of your mailing list, your everyday email platform (e.g. Outlook) might have the capacity to send mass emails. However, most businesses with regular email campaigns invest in purpose-built software like Mailchimp or HubSpot. If these big names don’t meet your requirements, there are many alternatives with a variety of pricing structures. It’s worth doing some research – our expert email marketers here at Get Ahead can help you find the right product for your needs.

  1. Really good content

It can be hard to think of fresh email content every week, month or however often your newsletter goes out. But if you harness the power of your existing content, you might find the whole process easier! We love repurposing our blogs in our monthly newsletters – sign up and you’ll probably see this one soon. Photo galleries and videos also work well. Repurposing content means value for money and also helps your messages to stay consistent. Remember to keep your customer or client at the heart of your campaign and share the content they’ll want to see.  

Outsource your email marketing

Our team of email marketing experts and content creators would love to help you with your next email marketing campaign. Get in touch with your local regional director today, or explore our site to find out more.

In these days of digital marketing, it’s easy to get bogged down in numbers. How many impressions, likes, comments and shares did you get on social media? How many people read your blog, and how long did they spend on the page? And did you get the stats you hoped from your email marketing campaign?

However, there are a lot of people out there who are listening, but only quietly. Their journey to conversion is different, and not as easy to measure, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

In this blog, we explore “listening” and why marketers should be aware of it.

(more…)