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Write a brief for: a content writer

Get Ahead VA is here to help business owners. Our team of virtual assistants (VAs) can take on the jobs you don’t have the time or the skills for, freeing you up to focus on what you’re best at. In order to get the most out of your VA, you will need to provide a good brief, but what should you include? In this series, we look at how to write a useful brief for every kind of job, and this month we’re looking at content writing.

Written content is a vital part of any marketing strategy, whether you’re updating a blog, posting on social media or writing copy for your website. In order to keep up with the demand for regular, quality content, it can be useful to outsource your writing to a professional copywriter – if you do this, here are a few important things to include in your brief.

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Press-releases-that-rock-Blog
30
Jun

5 tips for writing press releases that rock!

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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8-things-a-VA-can-do for you
11
Jun

8 things a Virtual Assistant could organise for your business

Whether you are running your own business or working in one, it can easily feel as though there are never enough hours in the day.  The ‘to-do’ list only seems to get longer.  You dream of having a magic wand with which you could clear your desk and get things sorted.

What you might need is a top organiser to help you get things on track.  A virtual assistant can do just that – taking on administration, social media management and marketing tasks to enable you to get back what you do best.

Here are 8 suggestions of things a virtual assistant could organise for your business:

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Get Ahead VA National-Pet-Month-Blog
19
Apr

Could an office dog boost your productivity?

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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5 things a Virtual Assistant can do for your Small Business

This Saturday 3rd December is Small Business Saturday.  Small Business Saturday UK is a grassroots, non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success and encourages consumers to ‘shop local’ to support small businesses in their communities.

As a small business you can visit the website www.smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com and download and print free marketing packs and logos to advertise that you are part of the nationwide campaign.  You can also get involved online by listing your business on their ‘Small Business Finder’ for free.

On social media you can get a free shout out for your plans for the day on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, using the hashtag #SmallBizSatUK.  Last year #SmallBizSatUK trended at number 1 all day on Small Business Saturday with over 100,000 tweets sent in support of the day, reaching more than 25 million people.  That could provide fantastic exposure for your business.

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Value-of-Outsourcing Get Ahead VA
17
May

Three great benefits of outsourcing

How outsourcing can benefit your business 

Get Ahead VA founder and owner Rebecca Newenham presented a seminar at The Business Show in Excel, London which discussed how outsourcing could benefit your business.

Her fact-packed presentation highlighted the growth and importance of the outsourcing industry, which delivers £21bn to the UK economy in added value.

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stress_aware-Get Ahead VA
26
Apr

5 top tips for managing stress

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…)