A virtual assistant (VA) can be useful for a small business at any time of year, but especially so over Christmas, when things get busy and people start taking time off for the holidays. Get Ahead VA’s franchisees know how much their VAs are needed during the festive season, and they offer a wide range of services to help out local businesses at this time. Here are 5 key ways that hiring a VA can make a difference to your business this Christmas.
(more…)Category: Virtual support
Our West Yorkshire franchise has recently had a number of requests for support with landing pages and newsletter automation. Landing pages are great for increasing conversions, and newsletters are a great communication tool. Best of all, once your automation is set up, it’s easy for you, your team or your virtual assistant to run email marketing campaigns without having to start from scratch each time.
In this blog, we look more at landing pages and automated newsletters, and how virtual assistants can help you.
(more…)Maintaining some kind of balance between work and life is hard enough when you’re going out to work, but when you’re working from home, the challenge is even greater. Fortunately, by identifying the problem and really addressing it, you can get your life back without your work suffering.
The team at Get Ahead VA have been working at home for years. Here are our top tips:
(more…)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.
1. Build a business
Starting a new business always comes with some risk, and this is especially true now, when markets are changing quickly and unexpectedly all the time. Against this backdrop of uncertainty, opening a franchise brings with it extra security and reassurance – you will benefit from starting a business within an established and proven brand, and you will have the support of other franchisees to help you through those difficult early months. A franchise allows you to open a business, but not alone.
2. Work for yourself
Many people have had to rethink how they work over the last few months, from finding a new office space, to adapting to new regulations, to having to leave a previous job. Although these things can be extremely stressful, they also provide an opportunity to take a serious look at your working life and see if you are in a position to make a more long-term change. You must weigh up your options carefully, but these new circumstances may be just the push you need to finally pursue the dream of being your own boss.
3. Manage your own time
One of the greatest benefits of running a business is that you have the freedom to manage your own time. This is more important than ever when life is unpredictable and you never know when you might need to help out a relative or do some last-minute childcare. Running your own business allows you to be flexible – you can take on extra work when you have the time, or prioritise your other commitments if you need to.
4. Work remotely
Almost all of us have had to adjust to remote working this year, and you may have discovered that you really like it – the freedom to build your work around your family life, the flexibility of the working hours, and the peace and quiet of having an office all to yourself. If this sounds like you, then starting a franchise could mean you can benefit from the home-working lifestyle for a long time to come!
If you’re interested in running a virtual assistant agency, providing administrative and business support to small businesses in your area, then the Get Ahead VA franchise opportunity could be perfect for you! Contact us on 01483 332 220. We’d be happy to talk to you about your next big career move!
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.
(more…)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!
(more…)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.
(more…)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
(more…)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.
(more…)If you’re new to outsourcing, you might not have written a brief before. The prospect of crystallising your business into a few sentences for a graphic designer, copywriter or other creative to work from may seem daunting. However, by staying focused, you can write a great brief that will translate into work that builds your brand.
Here are six questions to ask yourself as you’re writing your brief:
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