Award-winning virtual agency Get Ahead VA is delighted to welcome a new franchisee for the East Midlands to support businesses in Nottingham, Derby, Loughborough and Burton-on-Trent.
Marketing expert Emma Barratt has over 18 years of experience in marketing, sales and operations roles, having worked in a variety of industry sectors. Emma was born in Leicestershire, but her marketing career took her down to London and as far north as Scotland. She set up and ran the entire marketing function at the dealership level for multiple Aston Martin and Jaguar locations, as well as spending many years managing stores for a high-end furniture retailer.
Having returned to the East Midlands, Emma was keen to use her entrepreneurial flair to run her own business. But she was aware of the potential pitfalls of totally ‘going it alone.’ She knew that franchising could offer the best of both worlds, with the freedom to be your own boss and the support of a franchisor. After searching various franchising websites, she came across Get Ahead VA on Franchise Local.
“The Get Ahead VA franchising model was really interesting as it was so flexible and scalable. It offered me the chance to use my marketing and sales experience to grow my own business as well as tap into the fantastic pool of virtual assistants already within the Get Ahead VA team. I could really hit the ground running, with experts in everything from bookkeeping to blogging and telephone answering to Twitter right by my side.
From our first contact Rebecca, founder of Get Ahead VA, was so enthusiastic, open and honest. I could immediately see that we would work well together. She made the whole process so straightforward and was very patient in answering all of my questions, as well as putting me in touch with other franchisees so I could really be sure it was the right opportunity for me.”
An expanding national network
Rebecca Newenham, founder and director of Get Ahead VA says: “I am delighted to welcome Emma to our team to run our East Midlands region. Emma has so much sales and marketing experience, combined with such an enthusiastic and intelligent approach. I know she will be a real asset to our franchising team.
With franchisees in South Yorkshire, Leeds, Suffolk & Essex, Berkshire & North Hants and West Surrey, we have an expanding presence in key regional areas across England. I look forward to seeing our team continue to grow over the coming months and supporting all of our franchisees as they welcome new clients on board.”
