Category: Small business

Tell anyone who knows Fiona Ibbetson that she’s just won a major industry award, and their reaction is likely to be “Well, of course she would. Obvs”.

And it’s easy to understand why. The owner of Get Ahead in Leeds and Wakefield made her business profitable in the first three months, created work for 22 people, and expects to triple her revenue this year.

She’s also taking on the additional territory of York and Harrogate which will generate work for many more people as well as making life easier for the business owners she serves by providing outsourced virtual assistants.

“I’d not had my own business before this,” says Fiona, who’d worked for Morrisons supermarkets for 20 years. “That’s why I went down the franchise route.

“The franchise model offers flexibility and leverages the skills of my team to help local businesses. That’s my passion.

“I’ve grown the business really well during the pandemic, despite losing three clients which halved my revenue overnight.

“I’ve had a great mentor in the franchisor, plus I use two business coaches, one for my personal brand.

“I thought networking would be a completely new skill to learn until I realised I’d been networking naturally with peers and colleagues for years.

“My husband’s still working from home as well, and I’m working on my business around my family as well as home-schooling two children. Everybody’s had to adapt.”

Despite the face-to-face networks she relied on for new business vanishing overnight in the pandemic, Fiona built the business up to a team of six plus 16 virtual assistants, and she’s taking on a Business Development Manager to help with the new territory.

“Winning the award is amazing,” she says. “I’m thrilled to be recognised and it puts me up there with other great franchisees which is fantastic.”

The Great British Franchisee Awards recognise franchisees’ exceptional performance and business experience, ability to drive business growth, staff retention, customer satisfaction, community involvement, inspired leadership, and franchise involvement.

The awards are run by whichfranchise, supported by Lloyds Bank, BDO, AMO Consulting and Chantry Group.

• Read more about the awards at https://www.whichfranchise.com/awards

• For over 25 years, whichfranchise has promoted ethical franchise opportunities in the UK. Learn more at https://www.whichfranchise.com/

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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We are great believers in outsourcing, but how do you get from knowing you need to outsource something, to actually having someone else complete that task for you? How does the outsourcing process work?

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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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If you’re a busy business owner, you’ll have jobs you need to delegate. But do you really need the hassle of the recruitment process? At Get Ahead, we believe that outsourcing to one or more virtual assistants is a realistic alternative to recruitment for businesses of any size. Here’s why:

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