Category: News

Get Ahead VA is jumping for joy, because at last week’s Women in Business Awards we were Highly Commended in the Enlightened Employer category!

The Women in Business Awards are a celebration of businesswomen in the Thames Valley, Solent and South Coast regions of the UK. The awards are given to women who have made an important contribution to their organisations, at all levels, and Get Ahead VA was thrilled to be nominated for two awards this year.

The ‘Enlightened Employer – supporting women in the workplace’ award is given to companies “that have shown exceptional commitment to gender equality in the workplace.” This includes all areas of business, from recruitment to employee development, “or any other ways of creating a positive and inclusive workplace culture which enables women to excel.”

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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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Google recently announced that it’s unveiling a new feed for users – a feed that will reportedly provide people with Facebook-style updates.

The latest move comes on the back of the tech giant adding a news feed to its mobile search app at the end of last year. We explore what the new feed involves and, more importantly, what it means for users.

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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 and financial consultants to fashion designers.  All of our clients are motivated and driven businesses with clear plans for 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 Wes at independent mortgage broker Fox Davidson who came to Get Ahead VA in search of some award-winning assistance:

What situation was your business in when you came to Get Ahead VA? Our business was growing strongly.  It was three years since myself and my business partner Sarah had formed the business and we were really proud of everything we had achieved.  We were keen to enter awards to gain external recognition of our success and help fuel further growth by generating good PR.

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Writing press releases is a key part of PR.

Get your releases right and they’ll be published far and wide, but get them wrong, and they a) won’t generate the coverage that they deserve or b) you were hoping for.

It’s not possible to write all of your press releases in exactly the same way, but there are best practice techniques you can follow, like these:

1: THINK ABOUT HOW THINGS LOOK

Before we focus on the writing side of things, there’s just one small, but crucial thing I wanted to flag that has the potential to really impact how your press releases perform, and that’s how they’re presented.

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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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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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The past week has been one of the most uncertain in recent history.  The referendum was meant to answer the question of whether the UK should remain in the EU or leave it. 

Whilst this question may have been answered by the British public with a narrow Leave result, there have been more and more questions raised since about what happens next.

These questions affect every aspect of our society.  What is the Leave plan?  When will Article 50 be triggered?  Will we remain part of the single market?  Can we really control immigration or not?  What will happen to financial markets in the long term?  Are we really entering a period of recession as predicted or were the ‘scare mongers’ doing exactly that?

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With less than a month to go till the European Referendum the debate is heating up on a number of key areas – including the impact on SMEs.  Could leaving the European Union decrease red tape for SMEs, giving business owners more freedom and independence?  Or could it make trading with our key European partners much harder?

Pro-European campaigners are trying to convince the electorate to vote ‘Remain’ by highlighting quotes from key business and economic figures.  The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently warned that a majority vote to “leave” in next month’s European Union referendum carried the risk of a “technical recession” for the UK.  Billionaire businessman Richard Branson warned back in March that leaving the European Union would be “the worst decision the British public ever made”.

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April is Stress Awareness month which has been held every April since 1992.  The American-led initiative is designed to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.

Many of our clients are all too familiar with stress.  Managing your own business can be hugely empowering but it can also lead to significant levels of stress.  Everything falls directly on your shoulders.  You must be sales person, accountant, marketer, inventor, customer service, production – everything at once.  Your personal wealth and wellbeing rests directly with you and if you employ others theirs does too.  Salaries and bills must be paid out every month – regardless of what income has come in.

Here are our top tips for managing stress and restoring a healthy balance at work and home: (more…)