Online Business Blog

If you are advertising a position within your organisation it could well be tempting to slightly embellish the role to make it sound more exciting or glamorous than it really is, after all you want to attract a lot of good people to apply. However this can easily backfire on you if the person you have employed decides that their new job does not match up to what was advertised and decides to leave. That’s why it’s always good to be honest about the job and the kind of skill you will be requiring.  You aren’t allowed to discriminate in your advertisement either, but you are allowed to talk about the skills, traits and education you are searching for from a candidate.

Targeting the right people with your vacancy advert is essential in recruiting the right person. After all there’s no point spending a lot of money placing an advertisement for a senior manager in a magazine read predominantly by people in there twenties, as the readers are not going to have the skills or experience necessary for the position. This will mean you have wasted hundreds or even thousands of pounds on an advert which returned no suitable applicants.

This is where a recruitment advertising agency will often provide invaluable expertise in targeting the right outlets to attract the right people and not wasting you money by placing expensive ads which don’t attract suitable recruits. They will have detailed knowledge and data to be able to target the right advertising opportunities to bring the right candidates to your business. Marketing recruitment agencies can also be great time savers as a simple phone call or two could result in your vacancy being placed in a number of different places via different medias, a task which completed by yourself could take hours if not days to complete.

Latest bingo news is not looking good. Amidst tough times for the bingo industry the government delta bother blow in their recent budget, despite belief that the government was sympathetic towards the industry.

The government has brought in partial exemption for bingo clubs yet it has stopped VAT reclaims which has previously been so beneficial to the industry to help reduce there large tax burden.

GPT meanwhile has seen an almost 50% increase to 22% from 15%. Some in the bingo industry are seeing this as an even heavier tax burden laid onto to struggling sector.

Many bingo games, specifically those involving cash for prizes, were originally tax exempt, under new government proposals however they will see there current tax levels rise from 15% to 22%. It was also revealed on Wednesday that VAT will be exempt from bingo rather than the zero rated that many had been hoping for. Leading bingo company Ranks chief executive Ian Burke said to the Daily Telegraph “I don’t understand what the UK land Bingo Industry has done to justify the government’s vindictiveness.”

The news of the tax increase spread quickly through the city and it traders. Shares in the Rank group tumbled by almost 14% after Alistair Darlings budget. The company has been predicting that the tax increase could see almost £6million wiped off its profits in the coming year while it could be as much as £9million annual in the future. As a result the company has had to scale down there pretax profit predictions, for 2009 the group are now predicting profits of £34million compared to £40.3million previously, while in 2010 forecasts are down to £32.5million from an expected £41million

Online bingo sector seems to have been much more fortunate that its offline counterpart. This has been largely due to the fact that many online operators are based outside of the UK so they get to avoid the tax burden. Those Online bingo operators who are in the UK have predicted an extra 7% of there income will go in the treasury coffers.

When looking for finance jobs you may have seen the term risk management used, you may already know what this role is or like me might be wondering it involves. After some research I have found some great information about what risk management is in the financial sector.

Employees who work in financial risk management help to create economic value for a business they are hired by, using financial instrument to manage credit and market risk. They may also deal with inflation risks, liquidity and foreign exchange.

As expected financial risk management is very similar to risk management in other areas. It requires the identification of sources of risks, measuring how big the risk is then coming up with ways to help prevent them. When dealing with risks in the financial sense, you will be dealing with both quantitative and qualitative management. To manage financial risks, teams and individuals need to use a technique called hedging with financial instruments to prevent and maintain costly risks and exposures to them.

So when do companies need to use financial risk management? The current theory is that a business should take on risk management project when it will improve the situation for its shareholders. Firm managers cannot add value for the investors or shareholders in a project that can be carried out by the shareholders themselves for similar cost. So in terms of financial risk management, if possible shareholders should hedge risks rather than bringing in a firm to do it for them at the same cost.

But hedging risks internally by shareholders is the best situation using perfect markets, according to business theory. But financial markets are often not perfect markets and firm managers will have better luck creating value using risk management than shareholders would be able to.

For more information on risk management jobs and financial jobs, visit Martin Ward Anderson

Martin Ward Anderson offer financial recruitment services for all types of finance jobs in mainly large companies in the UK and abroad. Here is a brief look at three large companies that you can apply for finance positions through Martin Ward Anderson.

ASDA

With over 340 stores in the UK, Asda is one of the UK’s largest retailers and has even been voted in the top 10 UK companies to work for. The company is looking for proactive, talented and commercially focused employees who help in a variety of financial aspects throughout the business.

ASDA currently has a team of around 250 people that are based in Leeds. This team is split into financial control roles such as business accounting and accounts payable and crucial commercial roles.

While the pace is fast, you will have strong opportunities to move around the business.

For more information visit ASDA’s profile at Martin Ward Anderson

Royal Mail Group

The postal market in the UK is currently very competitive and this means the Royal Mail group is look for individuals to join its finance team that will help them compete and offer the best service to its customers.

The group looks for employees to have a commercial focus and has vacancies in key areas such as group investment, group finance, and risk finance. As the royal mail group includes, Royal Mail and the Post Office limited there are plenty of financial jobs throughout the businesses.

For more information visit Royal Mail’s profile at Martin Ward Anderson

Home retail group / Argos

The home retail group is the UK’s largest home and general merchandise retailers selling through Argos and Homebase.

The groups financial services business drives sales and customer loyalty to both the business, combined with insurance and credit products available to customers in a variety of forms.

There are a variety of financial positions throughout the companies, whether it is in the analytical finance team or the technical specialist finance team, you will be helping ensure that the home retail group looks after its customers and keeps them coming back.

For more information visit Home Retail Group’s profile at Martin Ward Anderson

Finding a job in any foreign country can be hard as there will be obstacles such as different customs and different languages that may hinder your efforts. Hopefully language won’t be too much of an issue as you will either be able to speak the language or will be targeting English based companies. In the case of the Netherlands around 70% of the population can speak English, so if your Dutch isn’t up to scratch when you make the move, you should find communicating easier.

Here are a few pointers on finding a job in the Netherlands.

Internet

As with most things there days, the Internet is now one of the best resources to use for finding things. This is especially true in the world of recruitment and job hunting. There will be many Dutch based recruitment sites and jobs boards, but most of these will be in Dutch. So if you are looking for an English speaking role then, companies like Martin Ward Anderson Finance Recruitment services can help you find jobs in the Netherlands. The company focuses on jobs in finance such as banking jobs and public sector jobs, but if this is the area you are looking for then they are ideal.

Personal Contacts

Networking with people in your industry is a great way of finding out about job opportunities. How you deal with these contacts is up to you, but is not deemed appropriate to flat out ask people for a job. It is much easier to let your contacts know collectively that you are looking for work. This can be done with social sites like LinkedIn of Facebook.

Media Advertisements

Dutch Newspapers is a great source of finding job opportunities. Most Dutch papers have job sections in their Saturday editions and you can also find the job sections on their websites. Some Dutch papers to check out are the NRC Handelsblad, de Volkskrant, de Telegraaf and Algemeen Dagblad.

Temporary employment agencies

Uitzendbureaus are Dutch temporary employment agencies that are very common in the Netherlands. Most occupations can be found through temporary agencies but these are obviously not the best places to look if you want a permanent position.

With many people being made redundant in our current climate, it may look a very bleak time. But these changes are having a positive affect on some people, as it is giving them the incentive to start a business of their own. It maybe harder to start up your own business from scratch in the current financial climate, especially if you are trying to ask your bank manager for huge sums of money, so many people are looking to a franchise business opportunity. Franchises use proven formulas that will draw on expertise of the tried and tested business techniques and practices that the franchisee will have established. As well as the guidance, buying into a franchise will give you the benefits of branding, suppliers and support for your business.

You may think that starting up a business during a recession is a mad idea, but if you look back through history, many large companies including Microsoft were founded during bleak economic times.

As well as buying into a franchise, many people are starting small businesses out of their homes and utilising tools such as paypal with unique websites or websites like ebay. Some people have found niches in the market and have managed to make a healthy living using ebay. But these businesses are not always the best idea for long term money making, but can be a great way of making some cash while the economy is bad.

One business niche that could be ideal to get into is the property lettings market. With less people wanting to commit to mortgages with the risk of losing their jobs looming over them, the property rental and lettings sector is expected to see steady growth in the current climate.

Traditionally residents of the UK aspire to buy a house and get on the property ladder as soon as possible, but renting property is something that has been popular with the rest of Europe for a long time.

So if you have been made redundant or are just looking for a business opportunity why not consider buying into a property lettings franchise and make the most of the healthy state of the lettings sector.