Category: Get Ahead team

We’re back with another Top 8 list to celebrate Get Ahead VA’s 8th birthday, and this time we’re talking productivity! If you’ve ever wondered how you can get more done in the day without feeling overwhelmed, here are 8 useful tips from Senior Virtual Assistant Melanie McDowell.

  1. Schedule your days

Forget about writing to-do lists – they’re always too long and you never get to the bottom of them. Instead, I prefer to schedule every day, or even better, write out my next day’s schedule the night before I go to bed. Attaching a specific time to each task helps you keep on track and avoid distraction. Don’t forget to schedule in down-time, and time for travel between locations. When you first start scheduling, you might find that you put far too much into one day, so scale it back to what you can realistically achieve. I used to beat myself up for not ticking lots of things off my list, but it’s tremendously rewarding to see what you can actually get through in a day.

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Here at Get Ahead VA, we’re happy to let you in on some of our business secrets – the things that help our virtual assistants to be as organised and efficient as they can be. Previously we’ve told you about Get Ahead VA’s favourite apps, and today we’re back with another helping.

So without further ado, here are 5 more brilliant apps that can help you to manage your business and keep yourself informed!

Bitly

Bitly is a URL-shortening app that you can install on your phone or add as an extension to your web browser. If you need to share a link with your social media followers or members of your team, just pop it into Bitly and get a shorter, more shareable version to use in its place. With this app you can also customise URLs to fit with your branding, and track the analytics for each link.

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As we are celebrate our 8th year in business, we would like to share our 8 best business reads with you – kindly compiled by one of our team – Senior Virtual Assistant, Melanie McDowell.

1.  Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker.  This will shock you into getting an early night!  Full of evidence for why we should prioritise sleep, including research about the implications of sleep deprivation on our health and well-being.  Compelling and utterly terrifying reading.

2.  View From The Summit by Sir Edmund Hillary.  I find autobiographies by people I admire to be incredibly insightful and inspiring.  This is one of my favourites, being both a New Zealander and a rock climber myself.  Find someone you admire and read their story.

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We are delighted to announce that Get Ahead VA has been shortlisted for not one, but two awards in the upcoming Women in Business Awards 2018!

The Women in Business Awards “celebrate, encourage and inspire successful and aspiring business women in the South.” This will be the event’s fifth year, and awards will be given to business women from the Thames Valley, Solent and South Coast regions across eight different categories. These awards will honour women who have made a significant difference inside or outside their organisations, at all levels of business, from start-ups to senior executives.

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Here at Get Ahead VA, our team of virtual assistants 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.

With that in mind, our VAs are always on the lookout for the apps, tools and tricks of the trade that will help them to work more efficiently. We asked them to name their favourites, so you can discover the programs behind the people, and get some inspiration for your own business.

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When it comes to working with virtual assistants (VAs), there are all sorts of myths out there that can make it seem like more trouble than it’s worth. Fortunately these simply aren’t true, and VAs can actually provide plenty of benefits to your business.

Do you want to know more about what working with VAs is really like? Here are 5 of the biggest myths about VAs: debunked.

Myth #1: Anybody can be a VA

Many people think that, as long as you have a computer and an internet connection, you can be a VA. This might be off-putting to people looking to hire a VA, who might be concerned about working with someone unqualified, unprofessional or likely to disappear halfway through a job. Of course, this isn’t true. Being a VA is a business that requires investments of money and time, and therefore professional VAs take their work very seriously. Furthermore, VAs who work for agencies such as Get Ahead are thoroughly vetted to make sure they have the skills to reliably deliver high-quality work.

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Getting a business off the ground is a huge achievement, but after that exciting period of initial growth you might find that you start to lose momentum. This is normal for a business moving from start-up to stability, so how can you get through it and make sure that your business continues to grow?

The answer could be freelancers. Whether you’re working with individuals or an agency, freelancers, contractors and virtual assistants could be just what you need to build on your achievements and develop your business. Freelancers offer all sorts of advantages to business owners: they can be hired as and when they’re needed, they come with all the required skills, and there are plenty of excellent workers to choose from so you’re bound to find someone who’s a good fit.

Are you interested in finding out more? Here are 5 ways freelancers can help to grow your business.

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Pretty much everybody’s blogging these days, which is a really good thing.

There are many reasons why businesses should blog, from boosting their SEO rankings (because we all know just how much search engines love new content!) to raising brand awareness and positioning themselves as thought leaders.

But here’s the thing…not everybody’s sharing their blogs.

Blog-writing is only half of the equation, the other half involves sharing your posts far and wide. By doing this, businesses can increase the chances of their blogs being read, shared and commented upon.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=3LQ0sjfz2n0

The Christmas party: love it or hate it, the end-of-year do is big business in the UK. In fact, a 2015 investigation by Eventbrite estimated that UK businesses spend an average of £1 billion per year on festive parties.

So what makes a great Christmas party, and how can you bring the whole company together for a truly memorable celebration? If you’re struggling for ideas, look no further: here are six ways to celebrate a company Christmas.

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