Online Business Blog

Buying a franchise is a great way to get into an area of business and to become a success. The franchisors have a business for sale and want you to succeed. They want to protect their brand and image so they will be giving you continuing support, making sure you are able to run the business and make it a success. The opposite of this would be to start your own business and try and compete against already established companies, so this is where the old saying comes into place. If you can’t beat them, join them.

But franchises will suit certain types of people. If you are strong minded and have to have the final say and decision on everything, then they may not be for you. You will be told what suppliers to use, what products to sell, how to recruit and generally how to run the business. You can look at this two ways, that the franchisors are nosey busy bodies who want to control everything or that they are trying to make your business a success by using tried and tested business techniques that has seen the brand through to its current success.

As a franchisee you will also have to pay a percentage of your profits to the parent company, but this cut will not be buying the owner a flashy car. Most of it will be being used to help promote the brand you are part of and help improve business techniques and improve training.

When choosing a franchise you should take a long hard look at what they offering you. Franchise business opportunities are a great fast low risk method of expanding a successful business in new areas and across the world. They will take the majority of the financial risk and will provide local knowledge to help you along. But you need to ask yourself whether the support, training, business techniques and brand will be worth the investment you will need to put in. In many business areas there will be competing franchises offering different deals and packages, so you should carefully think about which one will be the best for you and your business in the long run.

One of the biggest financial recruitment tips for 2009 is to watch your online behaviour. With the rise in popularity of social network sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, candidates are now putting out a lot more information about themselves for anyone to see. Statistics show that around 44% of all adults have created and posted a profile of themselves in some form on the internet. The worrying thing for potential candidates these days is that recruiters and employers may look up this information and use it to help them form an opinion of you. So how can you help sort this out, well for starters you hopefully won’t have anything to incriminating on your profiles in the first place. But if there is anything you think may hamper your chances, simply remove it. But why not take this a step further, why not add a few more CV style bits of information that will help sell you if they are reading these profiles. But if employers do happen to read these profiles they should really take them with a pinch of salt as most people use social media sites to project an alter ego version of themselves. People will often exaggerate things or make boasts to make their lives seem whacky and zany.

If you would like to participate in social networking sites but help boost your recruitment chances then why not consider creating a more professional profile on a site like LinkedIn. Sites like these specialise in the career aspects of social media and your profile will allow you to communicate with peers in your field and even let people know if you are looking for work and what your credentials are. They are basically and online CV but with more interactive social aspects. You could find other people that have banking jobs or have jobs in finance and want to communicate and network.

There also maybe social networks that relate to your field of work that you may not of heard of. Some industry sites will have directories, profiles and forums where you can partake in more healthy social activities that will help boost your job chances. You may not directly find a job through them or your employer may not ever read them, but you may find that you will read some handy tips and advice.

So to conclude, make social media an advantage to your career prospects, remove anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see, promote yourself and look into new places to network with people within your field.

One of the great benefits of working in the public sector is that there are so many organisations offerings job opportunities that almost anyone can find a role suited to their qualifications or experience. So what are the factors that lead so many people into taking up public sector jobs?

Work/ Life Balance

Public sector organisations are known for being flexible with work hours and often operate work patterns that will suit different types of employees. Whether its flexitime hours or part time roles you will be able to manage your home responsibilities like picking up children from school while having a great career in your chosen area.

Some roles will also have the benefit of childcare options so you can either get childcare vouchers or use onsite workplace nurseries.

Salary

One of the benefits of working in the public sector is the competitive salary rates. These are often in line with what similar roles in the private sector will be offering. But one of the benefits is that the salary structures will always be available so that you can make career choices easier than you could in the private sector.

Training

Public sector organisations are great believers in training and personal development. The organisations will usually provide plenty of training opportunities that allow staff to develop both personal and workplace skills that will benefit them with their career.

Career Progression

The public sector differs from the private sector in that many employers progress their career by moving up structured levels within the organisation. Most public sector job opportunities will be offered internally before they are made public which encourages to keep hold of the staff they have spent time training and also maintains staff motivation by creating a family style environment.

Some of the latest reports concerning the online bingo sector show that after bucking the credit crunch for so long bingo sites might finally start feeling the pinch. In the last quarter of 2008 online users increased just 1% which is down significantly on the 10% increase the market experienced in the previous quarter.

The on going recession is a clear impact on the performance of online bingo. With more people unemployed or facing the prospect of unemployment people are cutting back on their spending, especially on non essential items like internet bingo.

Recession is not the only problem however. After years of growth more and more bingo sites sprung up in an attempt to cash in on the massive popularity of bingo. As a result the online bingo market has now reached a saturation point. Before long many bingo sites will be closing down as they fail to compete with the bigger competitors. We will also see many sites merge and other bought out in an attempt to solidify market share.

The fact that growth in online bingo games slowed in the last 3 months did not come as much of a surprise to some. Some see the lack of advertising in the last quarter of the year as a reason for a lack of new customers. With Christmas falling in the last quarter bingo sites are simply unable to match the advertising spend of the high street companies in the last few months of the year. Companies spend millions each in advertising and marketing leaving the vast majority of bingo sites unable to buy advertising space or to make it cost effective enough.

All eyes will be on the figures for the first quarter of 2009 to see if the slow down is a mere blip or a sign of things to come.