Happy birthday to us! Get Ahead turns eleven this autumn and we are so proud of how far we’ve come. Of course, we don’t just want to keep our success to ourselves.

Here’s what we’ve learned in the last eleven years – we hope our experience will help you too!

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Get Ahead is growing, with new franchisees steadily joining the family. As the business expands, our new regional directors bring virtual expertise to more and more areas of the UK and beyond.

Something that sets Get Ahead apart from other franchise offerings is the amount of support we give to our regional directors. We believe you should work for yourself, but not by yourself – it’s important to us that we should always be there for our RDs.

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If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably been told that you should have a blog, or publish regular articles or news items. But what about the detail? What’s so great about blogging? And what part could blogging play in your marketing strategy?

It’s time to demystify blogging and answer the questions. Let’s explore the role blogging can play in getting new clients to notice your business…and then make it happen!

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It’s easy to think that your business is for everyone. It’s easy to see yourself as a lowest common denominator – everyone needs what you do, whether it’s food, electricity, clothing, marketing support or something else. But the truth is, what you offer is actually for a specific sort of person. Your USP (unique selling point) means that you’re not for everyone. What’s more, trying to market to everyone rarely works. Only by understanding your specific market and connecting with them will you achieve your business goals.

Let’s take a closer look.

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SEO stands for search engine optimisation, which is the fine art of helping Google find your website. Many factors play a part in getting your website to the front page of Google, including keywords and the way your website is constructed. SEO may seem overwhelming, but by understanding what Google is trying to get out of the deal, you will start to understand how SEO and keywords work too.

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The first thing we want to say is that we don’t believe your business is boring. You don’t believe your business is boring. Numbers, letters, spreadsheets or cleaning products may not ignite everyone’s passion but they certainly ignite yours. Maybe that’s because you can see how important they are for keeping businesses open; maybe it’s because you can see there’s money to be made.

However, when it comes to marketing, you might not know where to start. But help is at hand! Read on for five ideas for marketing your “boring” business.

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In marketing, the word “content” refers to a high-quality blog, article, white paper, e-book, video or social media post. The type of content you choose to share will depend on you and your business. Video is very engaging, but written content has its place too, and provides an opportunity to incorporate keywords.

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Ambitious entrepreneurs want to take their business to the next level. Depending on where you are in your career, “the next level” might be a taking on a second client, or opening a second office. Whichever step is right for you, outsourcing can help you expand at an affordable pace, without committing to a huge outlay before your return is guaranteed.

Here are three ways that outsourcing can take your business to the next level:

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Sometimes, we have a job on our to-do list that we don’t like doing, or don’t have time to do. Some of those jobs are commonly outsourced – for example, many of us use an accountant and/or an app like Xero to keep on top of our invoicing. But what about cold calling? Or email management? Or social media?

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Top tips from our newest regional director, Joanne McGowan

Joanne McGowan has been part of our network for a number of years, and when we learned she was looking for a franchise opportunity, it sounded like the perfect match. She took over the running of the Guildford and East Surrey office at the start of June.

Joanne has lots of ideas for keeping businesses running smoothly, so she was the perfect person to interview for our holiday blog! Here are some of her insightful tips:

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