Online Business Blog

Social networking giants Facebook are hoping that a different onsite advert format will change experts perceptions that advertising on social networks is failing.

Experts believe that because of Google the online advertising industry has become too absorbed by direct response advertising. Thanks to this there is a high expectancy on delivering a high click through or impressions rate, something that doesn’t appear to go hand in hand with social networking sites.

A main reason for this supposed failure in the social networking sector is that users are less likely to want to click on an advert that is likely to take them off of the site and away from talking to their friends.

The new advert idea that Facebook have come up with are to do with encouraging the user to click on a specific brand before passing on that information to their friends who are likely to be interested in the same thing. They are hoping to be able to do this without the user having to leave the site, something that should prove popular with Facebook users.

The idea is to get people to befriend a brand just like they would a peer. Here they can make comments next to a video or static advertisement where they will be informed on any recent news on the brand. (this has recently been tested on Facebook for an up and coming comedy film) This will hopefully in the long term increase the users brand awareness whilst also increasing Facebook’s click through rate.

I’m sure this will be a question that has crossed everyone’s mind at some point in their working life. How do you know you are being paid fairly for the skills and knowledge that you bring to your job? Most people have a rough idea what they should be earning but unless you do some research you won’t know exactly what you should be on.

There are quite a few sources on the internet for you to check your expected salary, some while looking on Google include Payscale, mysalary.co.uk and a government page coming at number one.  But if you want a more in depth look into salary benchmarking, Martin Ward Anderson provide a very in depth Salary Survey report that can be found here. The survey gives plenty of in depth statistics and information for people who are interested in banking jobs, jobs in finance and public sector jobs.

What do you do if you find out you are not being paid enough, well we will leave that one up to you, do you ask for a raise, find a better paying job or stay where you are?

How about an estate agents or a property lettings company? Well you could start from scratch, but that would take a lot of research, time and resources. The easier way to start a business is to find a company with franchises for sale. There are many famous ones that people immediately think of such as Mc Donald’s or Subway. But there are also plenty of other franchise opportunities in other business sectors.

How do you choose which company to go with when buying a franchise? Well obviously you would narrow the selection down by the sector you would like to work in. You should do plenty of homework and make sure any business model a franchise company provides is right for you. The benefits of using a franchise system is that you essentially run your own business, but you get the benefit of buying into the brand and getting support and resources from the existing network of people and information.

Experience is not always required when purchasing a franchise as a lot of companies will provide relevant training to give you the knowledge needed to run your business. Obviously having some experience in the field will give you an upper hand, but with plenty of hard work and the drive to succeed, anyone can make it running a franchise business.

When you decide on a franchise opportunity to purchase, you will probably be checked out by the company to ensure they believe you will be able to run the business successfully as you will be running a business under their branding. You will also pay for a franchise fee, which can range wildly between companies. How you get this money is up to each individual person. Some people will have the cash saved up from previous businesses, but if you are starting out you may need to take the money from savings or re-mortgage your house.

Banks generally will not lend you the whole franchise fee amount for your franchise opportunity, but if you pay the franchise fee and have a good business model you maybe able to secure additional funding from banks for things such as working capital.

Once you have bought a franchise, sorted out your business plan and acquired a property to run your business from then you will be set on your path. The main thing to bear in mind is you should take advice from your franchisor, they have had plenty of experience and want to see you be successful.

Advertising nowadays is a massive business. Marketing your product and getting it out there has now gone beyond just putting an advert on the television or having an advertising board on the side of the road. Modern day advertising is about making a brand and a lifestyle that fits in with how people want to live their lives and if you can do this right then this can mean big, big money.

Designing an advert has always been an innovative process but it appears to be even more so these days because the cost of traditional marketing has gone up and companies are looking to advertise through hundreds of different mediums. Done correctly a well thought out advert can make the company a lot of money but more importantly push them to the forefront of their sector.

Unfortunately however one wrong move in the world of advertising can see you brand blacklisted and sales can plummet. Sometimes even an average advertising campaign isn’t good enough as if a product or brand is failing the first thing that will be cut is the advertising expenditure.

Such losses will hit the advertisement team hard. The next advert will have to be better and will quite likely be have to be made on a smaller budget. If it’s a small company they might do their own advertising and start to feel that to get the most bang for their buck an professional advertising agency may be the best place to turn too.

With the huge amount of competitors not just locally but worldwide, advertising can be a very unpredictable business. A decent advert will make you a hero, a poor one could make you jobless. Your company will succeed if your advertising succeeds you just have to make sure that you do it with an ad agency you can trust.

Out of work? Struggling to find a new job? Don’t worry, there are a large variety of options available to you. Have you checked the local and national newspapers for job vacancies? Other ways to look for jobs are through a online recruitment advertising agency, there are hundreds online but the main 5-10 will generally have the most job roles and thus the best chance of finding the job for you.

If you have applied for work like this and are still struggling to find a job then visit your local recruitment agency. These companies can be found online but will require you to drop in to fill out personal details on yourself and your work history.(this eliminates the chance of the agency putting you forward for the wrong role) The larger and better recruitment agencies are the ones that get approached from the major companies looking for the best possible employee, hopefully that could be you! Often the most effective and easiest method of finding work is leaving it to a professional to find it for you.

A recruitment agency is a useful medium for all parties. The job searcher, future employer and the recruitment advertising agency all benefit from you walking through the agency doors. (obviously you will benefit in finding work!) Most agencies will find a job opening for you and should an interview come up, give you plenty of information on the job role and the company. At the end of the day their interest is in you getting the role as they are paid bonuses per successful applicant.

Here are a few tips for you to help find the best job role for you:

1. Never pay a recruitment agency to find you a job as they are being paid by the employers to find an applicant like you.
2. Don’t be shy in putting yourself forward for roles that you like the look of.
3. Design your C.V around the kind of job you will be applying for. If you need help on this the recruitment agency should help you create a new one.
4. Be sure to build a strong relationship with your recruiter as they will be the one finding you work. The more often you talk to them the more often they will think of you should a new job possibility arise.

A successful job interview will be determined by plenty of factors, some you will have no control over. But there are certain things you can do to sway it in your favour. Here is our step by step guide on how to prepare yourself for a job interview.

Review your CV

One of the first crucial steps of a great job interview performance, is reviewing your CV. You should make sure you can talk in detail about the information you have already provided to the interviewer. There is nothing worse than if the interviewer asks about a certain part of your CV and you can’t elaborate and make it fit with the job you are applying for.

Before the interview

Research is also highly important when going for a job interview. Most interviewers will expect you to have done some research and any lack of preparation will look bad on your part. You should look at the company’s website as a start to your research and maybe even contact the company’s press team for brochures and information.

Anticipate questions

Using your CV and job description, you will probably be able to anticipate a fair amount of questions the interviewer will use. The key is to make sure you are comfortable answering these and give the best answer possible. Take some of these predicted questions and give them to a partner or friend to practice responding to them.

On the day preparation

It’s a familiar saying, but it is especially true in this case, first impressions do count. Punctuality is essential so aim to be around ten minutes early and it is essential to look smart, so you should always wear a suit.

The Interview

Here are some simple tips to bear in mind during the interview

-Use a firm handshake while smiling

-Maintain eye contact

-Use common sense when answering questions

-Be truthful if you don’t know an answer to a question

-Try to elaborate with answer instead or yes or no

-Ask questions at the end of the interview that are relevant and make you appear keen

For more information on interview tips and advice for jobs in finance please visit Martin Ward Anderson Financial Recruitment.

The word “tax” in the UK and usually everywhere else creates a feeling of problems, dislikes and general discomfort.  In the UK it is essential that individuals and businesses adhere to the country’s tax laws.  Failing to do this can lead to a heavy financial reprimand or in the most severe cases even imprisonment.

Tax in the UK comes as part and parcel of everyone’s everyday life.  The most common form of tax which must be paid by every working person, including self employed people who are earning over a certain amount per year, is income tax. If the person is earning less than the tax threshold amount, no income tax will be charged.  The higher amount a person earns per annum is dependant on how much tax they will need to pay, a higher earner will be placed in a higher tax band, therefore they will pay more tax, it is important for legal reasons to declare all earnings which are taxable, including wages, income from renting out accommodation and even interest on a person’s bank account.  Other common for of taxes in the UK is Value Added Tax or VAT, it is added to the price of most items we buy in the shops or the supermarket and most business goods which involve a transfer of goods or services.  If a business reaches a certain financial point, they will need to register for VAT and charge it on top of any goods or services they sell.  Proper VAT records must be kept and sent away quarterly.

It is very important that UK resident comply with the tax laws such as income, VAT, inheritance and council.  Most people don’t like them but there is nothing we can do about it except for adhere to the laws if you want to stay out of trouble.

For impartial & independent financial advice contact Source IFA.

In this current financial climate finding tenants for rental property is not as easy as it used to be. Let alone ones that will respect your property and pay on time. Luckily there are a large variety of ways that you can attract the kind of tenant you are after using a successful advertising campaign.

Property Advertising doesn’t have to be a problem if you get the right people to do the work for you. Information is available online about how you can attract people into renting your property. If you have the money then it is advised that you get in contact with a professional company who will be able to advertise your property to its optimum capability.

A professional company will use different types of media in which to advertise your property they are as follows:

· Newspapers – Generally where people look first for property advertising be it for sale or rental. Placing an ad in a paper can be expensive but this depends on how long you run the advert for (1 day, 1 week or longer?) The type of paper (tabloid, broadsheet or local) and how big the advert is (1 sq inch, half a page, whole page) The best idea is to generally allow the advert to run for 3-4 weeks so that you can get in the best possible tenant for your property and not just the first one to call! You will also want to find out if you can advertise on the newspapers website as well.

· Online Advertising – A lot of people that look for property advertising may not be local and will possibly be from the other end of the country or maybe even a different continent! Online Advertising allows you to show off your property to a larger audience, the charge is usually cheap or even free and allow a lot more information to be passed on to the possible tenant.

· Apartment Guides – A cheap way of advertising your property is through apartment guides. Allowing a lot more information space than a newspaper and are free which means that people will pick them up on a whim or specifically for renting/purchasing a property.

· Rental signs – An easy, effective and obvious way to advertise your property. All you need to do is put the sign up outside your property with details on who to contact and where to go. The only negative is the sign only attracts possible tenants from a specific area.

These things can all be done yourself but to attract the correct tenant for you it would be advised to talk to a professional company for your property advertising needs.

If you are a company looking to recruit some of the finest people in your sector then you need to make sure that you advertise your job role effectively. You can either do this yourself or if you’ve got the money (and sense!) then you will go with a professional company do help you with your advertising needs. Here are some of the things that you will expect to see from a top recruitment advertising company.

1. Make an advert that catches attention and is easy to read – Stats and research show that people remember red, read black and white and see yellow. Upper and lower cased serif typefaces are generally read easier (this is what newspapers use!). If possible don’t use capitals or “creative” typefaces, basically anything that will make it hard to read or remember your advert.
2. Describe the job role properly – The possible applicants need to know what they need to do to apply for the role. What skills, experience and background is needed. Avoid filler and make sure you get your point across. The best recruitment advert is one that attracts the right applicant.
3. State who you are and what you do – What you need here is a couple of brief sentences about the company and what it does. If you don’t discuss these points the possible candidate may get suspicious and not apply for the role.
4. Give a phone number and email address – Conduct a phone interview with each of the applicants and you should soon find who is deserving of a face to face interview. If you expect a lot of people to call then maybe place an answering machine on that line and you can call back when you have the time.
5. Don’t offer an interview to every applicant – Similar to the point above, make sure that your interviews test the applicant with tests on knowledge and skills. Be sure to ask 3-4 questions in the phone interview so that you can create a list of strong candidates.

In conclusion finding the right candidate can be a tricky and expensive process, and that’s when it’s successful! Planning and writing a decent advert can be difficult and time consuming, so my advice would be to make sure to contact a professional in the recruitment advertising sector who will be able to help with all your needs.

Although the banks are ignoring any current claims until the High Court has sorted through the battle, soon enough people in the UK may be able to begin requesting the refund of bank charges applied to their bank accounts, debits cards and credit cards. If this does go through the Courts, people that claim their refunds may be needing to find a new bank as banks are threatening to close the accounts of any of their customers that file for these charges to be refunded to them. If the banks lose this in the Court system, they could be facing refund claims from their customers from as far back as six years, except in Scotland where they can only go back five years. If someone is interested in filing one of these claims but does not have time there are many companies such as Easiest Claim that offer this service for a percentage of the refund. You might want to go ahead and set up a new bank account before you file or claim, just in case.