Category: Small business

As we embark upon England’s second lockdown, it’s great to see how many businesses have been able to relaunch (or continue) homeworking, building on everything they learned last time. In these trying times, we’ve seen a material demand for Zoom facilitation, particularly for training sessions. We’ll be honest with you, we’ve had to ramp up our skillset pretty quickly too, but now Get Ahead VA is offering a behind-the-scenes service for online training that we are really proud of.

Because Zoom training facilitation is a new service, we’ve noticed that while some clients know exactly what Zoom challenges they are trying to overcome, others have no idea what aspects of online training they could possibly outsource! In this blog, we break down the elements of online training facilitation to give you a clearer picture of how outsourcing Zoom management and tapping into our Miro expertise could help you.

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In any other year, businesses would have booked their Christmas party back in August or so – big room, catering of some sort, maybe a magician visiting your table doing some close up magic. If you were really (un)lucky, someone might even have hired a karaoke machine.

But this year, it will all be different. Lockdown didn’t just introduce new restrictions; it introduced a new way of working. So many businesses have noticed how much easier remote working is that it’s looking like it’s here to stay, even when restrictions are finally over. What’s certain is that we’ll be having our works Christmas parties remotely, and we’re proud to report that our VAs with Zoom expertise are already receiving bookings to provide tech support during the virtual party season.

Here are some ideas for virtual Christmas parties!

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Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) can be a really smart move for your business – they can provide skills and support when you need them the most, and they’re totally flexible so you only hire them for as long as you need them.  

If you’ve never worked with a VA before, you probably have lots of questions about how it all works. As a virtual assistant agency, we know the most common queries that people have about VAs, so we’re here to help you learn more. Here are the top 5 most frequently asked questions about VAs.  

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It’s safe to say that, for most people, this year hasn’t exactly gone to plan – perhaps you started 2020 with big dreams of finally starting your own business, only to have to put those dreams aside in order to make it through the crisis. But the pandemic doesn’t have to stop your entrepreneurial aspirations forever. In fact, opening a franchise could get you back on track sooner than you think. 

There are all sorts of fantastic benefits to opening a franchise, but today we’re looking at four key advantages that could make this a great career move for you, even in all the upheaval of 2020. 

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At Get Ahead VA, we are privileged to work with a wide variety of clients who recognise the value of outsourcing.  Here’s 60 seconds with one of our clients, Ketan Makwana CEO of Enterprise Lab, a professional development agency that specialises in helping businesses grow sustainably

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OneDrive is a cloud-storage platform – essentially a means of storing your files on the internet instead of on your hard drive. This frees up space on your laptop, PC, tablet or phone, as well as offering a variety of different capabilities to streamline your working life. 

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As we go into autumn, it’s impossible to ignore the warnings of a second coronavirus wave, predicted by health experts during the summer and now back in the press. But what will happen to UK businesses if we do go into a second lockdown?

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Unconventional marketing gets noticed. Most people hit “skip ad” on YouTube, but those same people might watch it to the end if it really caught their eye. That said, going completely over the top can be dangerous – it’s important to keep our marketing under control or we’ll end up promoting the mistake not the product. Fortunately, our marketing VAs know just how far to go. Here are five of their ideas that are unconventional enough to get noticed, and have solid business sense behind them as well.

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A couple of weeks ago, as part of Get Ahead VA’s 10th business birthday celebrations, we asked our team of Regional Directors what they’ve learned about being in business over the years, and we shared all their great tips in our ‘10 things we’ve learned from 10 years in business’ post.  

Well, they gave us so much good advice that we’re back with another 10 things we’ve learned over the past decade! Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been running your business for a while, we hope you’ll find something useful here. 

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Looking after customers is important for any business, and using your marketing strategy to attract new customers is important.  But in truth, your existing customers are more valuable to your business than your new ones. This is because an existing customer already knows and trusts your brand and is highly likely to buy from you again. It is also a lot more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one.

In this blog, we look at why customer-focused strategies work, and which customers you should target.

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