Five reasons you should start a franchise right now

Five reasons you should start a franchise right now by Michael Cheary If you’re looking to own your own business, why not consider franchising?Aside from the obvious benefits that come from being your own boss, it can also be a very lucrative decision for anyone willing to work hard and do something they love.Here are five reasons you should start franchising right now:1. You can own a successful franchise brandStarting a franchise doesn’t mean starting out on your own you’ll be working with a tried and tested business model.Basing your business on an established idea allows you to attract customers right away, and use any existing marketing efforts to help spread your message.That existing customer-facing relationship and instant brand recognition will benefit your business in ways that a brand new company just couldn’t generate the same way.2. You can choose the industry you work inNot sure retail is right for you? No problem.There are a wide range of franchise opportunities available, across a variety of different industries and sectors. So whether you want to run your own restaurant or head up your own distribution depot, there will be an opportunity out there for you.Not sure where to start? Think of something you’re passionate about and go from there. It really could be that simple.Franchising: how to get started »3. You can find finance more easilyTo put it simply, banks like franchises.Basing your business plan on something which has already seen success alleviates some fears that lenders may have backing your idea.You’ll also be able to benefit from reduced costs moving forward due to the collective buying power behind your company, easing your financial burden and helping pay dividends when it comes your end of year accounts.4. You can eliminate many of the risks associated with starting a businessDid we mention that a franchise is tried and tested?Although starting your own business will never be able to guarantee success, becoming a franchisee allows you to adopt an already exis ting business model. That means that many of the teething problems that come with starting a new business have been ironed out.Remember: being successful is mutually beneficial for both the franchise and franchisee, meaning it’s in both parties’ interest to make sure the relationship works.Essentially, you’ll be set up for success from the outset â€" it’s simply up to you to drive your own business forward.5. You can secure support from the franchiseFinally, starting your own franchise doesn’t mean you’re merely buying into a name.You’ll be provided with ongoing support as part of the package, not to mention comprehensive training about how best to embody the brand values. If you have any problems at any part of the process, the right people will be there to help.Having real business backing behind you will give you the confidence to start out on your own, providing ongoing advice to make your business â€" not to mention theirs â€" a success.And let’s face it, someti me a little help really can go a long way…Find out about the latest franchise opportunities »Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. What job suits me?

Best new tool for networking Google Alerts

Best new tool for networking Google Alerts In the ongoing development of me as a brazen careerist, my weak point has been networking. I know its my weak point because I meet a lot of powerful people who could do a lot for me and instead of leveraging the relationship, I end up losing touch with them. Where I fail is that I dont know how to maintain regular contact once I have established a base relationship. There is an art form to the act of the just checking in to see what youre up to email that is lost on me. I try to pay close attention when I get one from someone else. Heres what Ive noticed: That I always appreciate the email, no matter how long its been since I heard from the person. So probably other people would appreciate an email from me. But still, I put off sending these emails because I fear I have nothing to say that the person cares about. If I were giving advice to myself Id say, Just a short, simple email. Nothing huge. To remind the person you are thinking about them and also to tell them what youve been up to. But I always feel like I need some sort of excuse to email. If I were a guy, Id send an email about sports, like, Rah rah my team beat yours. Rah rah. Or, I thought of you sitting in my court-side seats. My instinct, as a woman, Im sorry to say, is to send stuff about kids. Like, Congratulations on your sons first birthday. I remember seeing the photo last year and he was so cute. But the kid emails have not gone over that well in the world, and, right or wrong, I never get the kid emails from men, so I stopped sending them to men. I had this idea to buy into a service that scans newspapers every day for names of people I know. Then I could say, I saw your name in the paper. Congratulations on blah blah blah, I would look like Im really on top of the industry news, and that Im concerned about the person. But the services were all really expensive. And, lets face it, if I were a millionaire, my networking could be, Hi. How are you? Id love to chat with you again. Do you want to fly on my jet to my island next week? But recently I noticed that Google has a new service, in Beta right now, called Google Alerts. This is how the company web site describe the service: Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. It seemed too good to be true, but I tried it. I set up an alert for a former boss of mine who was really supportive of me, and then about a year after I left his company I stopped contacting him because I couldnt think of anything to say. (Insane, really. A complete violation of any networking rulebook. And just writing about it here makes me realize how absurd it is that I cant figure out how to write a just saying hi email. After all, Im a writer!) I thought Id redeem myself by contacting him next time his name is in the press. But after a few days of hearing nothing from Google, I realized I didnt even know if the service worked. So I set up a Google alert for my sister-in-law, who just landed a job big enough that shes popping up in newspapers all over the country almost every day lately. And sure enough, her name landed in my email box today: The Google alerts worked. My sister-in-law didnt know she was in a Seattle newspaper today until I told her. Tonight, I created Google alerts for twenty of the people I most wish I would be good at staying in touch with. I feel like Im on the cusp of making amazing headway in the networking department. God bless

Your Own Personal Brand No Fly Zone - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Your Own Personal Brand No Fly Zone - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career “There are times when the best appointment you keep is with yourself.” [tweet this] There are many times, especially as we start the week, that we run around trying to take care of so many “conditions” that we ourselves have implemented.  We might have the standard that all phone calls get answered in two hours and might also have the standard that we’ll spend one hour strategically planning each week. Many times those two standards “collide” and our schedules and our feeling of well-being are in a literal train wreck! Establishing “no fly zones” are areas in your life that are non-negotiable they are boundaries and promises to ourselves and our valued others in which we say “no” so that we honor that which is most important to us. What are your no fly zones? Awareness is first in anything.  Then, the next step would be to communicate those with others before it gets to the point of a heated communication because they’ve trespassed in our “no fly zone” too much.  For example, I don’t take any phone calls after 6:30 p.m.  That’s when our family sits down to supper, when I help my children with their homework or when I sit down and spend time with my husband.  Short of you being literally “on fire”, I’m not interrupting “the time I live for” for anything else.  That’s my no fly zone!  And while others may call and call and call that’s still my “off limits area”.  Now, of course, my job is to communicate that to someone before I treat them like a stalker! What’s your no fly zone?  Have you communicated to those who need to know? Author: Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of  buzz2bucksâ€"  a word of mouth marketing firm, and a professional speaker and trainer on developing social networks that work. She provides workshops, webinars, seminars and direct services that help create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand.   Maria Duron is founder  and moderator of  #brandchat   a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of  branding  that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers. Are you busy? Here’s some quick and easy tips on  Social Marketing for busy people.

How to find satisfying work

How to find satisfying work Today is the first hay baling day of the summer. The farmer is used to making huge, round bales, with big, loud machines. This time, though, he did smaller, square bales, and he found a way to include our son. And the dog. I spend part of each day counseling people who dont know how to find work that is satisfying. Its one of the hardest things to learn to do. Here is how to do it well, at any age: 1. Get yourself accustomed to trying new things. To find work you love, you have to try working at lots of different jobs, maybe 50, maybe 100. You are limited only by the ideas you have for what to try. To instill this spirit for experimentation in my son, I have helped him do things like sell rhubarb at a farmers market, decorate containers to market eggs, and raise animals to sell. Each job involved different skills, and he will have to learn which skills feel best to use. Knowing that is essential because, as the Harvard Business Review shows, satisfying work is the intersection of what what you like to do, what you are good at, and what an organization values. For many people, knowing the intersection of these three circles is the hardest part of adult life. 2. Dont think youre above caring about prestige. We would each like to think that we are above choosing careers based on how people think of us. But studies show that the prestige of a career matters more than the money earned from that career. This makes sense to me because when I tell people Im a writer, they are impressed, and when I tell people Im a blogger, they think Im unemployed. So I usually say Im a writer. A lot of people in rural communities cant wait to get their kids off the farms. They think of it as low-level labor. In fact, though, farm work is technical, requires tons of planning, and is entrepreneurial, if you think of it that way. We stress those aspects of farm work with my son so that he feels important when hes doing hard labor. 3. Seek to understand your impact. I have read a ton of psychology research about how the most important things we need for job satisfaction are meaningful work, responsibility, and knowledge of the outcome. Melissa baled with the Farmer because the square bales are too heavy for the kids. But I asked the Farmer to save the end work, gathering the loose hay, for my son. My son is depending on the hay to feed his goats all winter, so he should do some work for that. At the end of baling, Melissa and the Farmer picked up my son and me at the house, and I rode on the back of the trailer while the farmer drove and Melissa took photos and my son jumped on and off the truck picking up the loose hay. I picked up loose hay, tooif nothing else, work is more satisfying in the context of a collectivist culture, but I was there mostly to make sure my son did the work. I didnt have to do much though, besides stay out of his way and keep the dog from getting run over. Because once he realized he was doing important work for the farm and for our family, it was amazing to see his body language transform. He looked stronger and more authoritative, because the work made him feel important. (Youll notice that also, he has claimed Cullens boots as his own.) I loved feeling like I was on a joyride hayride, and I loved watching my son grow into his job, and I love when the Farmer lifted the brim of my hat to kiss me.

9 truly terrifying Halloween costumes for millennials - Debut

9 truly terrifying Halloween costumes for millennials - Debut This post is written by a member of the Debut Contributor Network. Read on for  Christines  Halloween costume ideas: Lets update this years fall festivities, shall we? Ghosts and witches arent so scary to the millennial generation anymore. This Halloween, we delve into the modern-day fears. 1. Donald Trump as president Its been nearly a year and the concept of Donald Trump being president is still downright terrifying. He stands for everything the millennial fears. His backwards views and hair-trigger temper makes for a seriously insane world with him at its helm. How to costume: Get the worst short blonde wig you can find. Apply an insane amount of spray tan (or use orange face paint, as long as you make sure its all relatively safe/non-toxic!). Wear a suit. Buy a pack of party poppers and at a specific point of the night, get some friends to set them off to celebrate your presidency. 2. Student loans Now, were talking about the piles and piles of money that you owe to the government for your wild Freshers binge. In the UK, if you cant pay them back after a while they will essentially disappear. But that doesnt mean that feeling you get when you realise how much money you owe every year disappears too. How to costume: Get some toy money and attach as much as you can to yourself. Find or create a mortarboard out of card. Proceed to spend the night chasing after various people as the money they dont have. 3. The awkward Tinder hook-up Whether theyre sending super inappropriate pictures or  trying to impress you with awful pick-up lines, were all fearful of the dreaded awkward Tinder hook-up. Sure, online dating is the way to romance for our generation. But that means straying into its dark paths and maybe finding things you cant unsee. The Internet is great. The fact that online dating is our main way to actively search for romance? Not so much. How to costume: Print out the Tinder like/dislike buttons and logo. Cut out the logo (maybe attach it to some card/cardboard to keep it steady) and stick it to some sort of headband. Stick the like/dislike buttons to your shirt. All done! 4. Social media Oh, man. Social media runs our society in ways we may not want to admit. A decade ago, we didnt really have a concept of Facebook or Twitter. But now all of your information is there for the world to see, including family members and employers. Eep. How much information are we really willing to share, and how does that impact upon our lives? How to costume: Try to make this a group costume if possible. Each person could be a different social media  platform. Depending on how creative you want to get with this, it can range from just printing out the logos and sticking them to your shirts to emulating the websites colour schemes with makeup or face paint. 5. Newspaper headlines mocking millennials No one takes us seriously, or at least thats what the news enjoys telling us. The scarier thing is that there are a lot of people who truly believe the media hype. To society, we millennials truly are the Me, Me, Me generation. No matter how hard we try to prove ourselves, those people will never be able to look past the mentality that new is bad. ?? How to costume: Do a quick Google search of articles about millennials and try to embody those stereotypes or headlines. Ive found that Google searching millennials are ruining and using the News feature gives you many gems, like Are millennials ruining the High Holidays? and Millennials ruined the Mexican internet. You could also take another route and instead of trying to dress up as the content of the article, just print out or write the headlines on a white t-shirt. 6. Your CV No matter how many months of work experience you do or internships you go through, youre always going to be terrified that its never going to be enough. In a world where the vicious cycle of you need experience to get experience exists, its getting harder and harder to find a first job. You can only stare at your CV and change it over and over again, hoping itll work this time. How to costume: Get a white t-shirt and a Sharpie. Write a CV copy on it. For a bonus, carry around copies of a generic rejection letter and chuck them at people as they pass by. 7. Your degree (if you have one) On that note, the whole point of having a university degree (we were told) was to increase our chances of getting a job and having a comfortable adult life. But nowadays the bachelors degree feels like the bare minimum. Again, millennials will always be scared that no matter how hard they work or how many qualifications they have they will not be employable. Its easy to worry that youve wasted years on an education that might not even help you at all. How to costume: Similarly to the CV, get a white t-shirt and either print out your universitys logo or if youre feeling particularly artistic, draw it. Then fill it in with the details a degree would have. Get creative with this one! 8. Being an impostor Imposter syndrome is where you feel like no matter what you achieve, youve not earned it because youre only pretending to be good at what you do. Many millennials struggle with this, even more so because were given participation trophies just for being there (and we know the trophies dont really mean anything) or were told were narcissistic and selfish all the time. Being told that everything you do benefits you and that thats a bad thing makes doing anything or achieving anything a miserable endeavour. Terrifying. How to costume: Admittedly, this ones a little more abstract. But you can do this a number of ways. Maybe get some friends to band together so you all wear the same thing, or copy one of your friends costumes badly. The idea is to make it purposefully and obviously a copy of something else. 9. Becoming an adult And what we fear most of all becoming an adult. Yes, partially its because we feel that were not prepared to handle the nitty gritty details of adulthood, like taxes and learning how to drive. But I think as millennials were also worried that the world is changing for the worse, and that the more we grow up and the more we know, the scarier the world gets. How to costume: Think about what you thought an adult had to be when you were younger and try to emulate that. Depending on how adult you want to be, maybe even draw in some wrinkles on your face or carry a briefcase around again, this ones a little more vague and up to you to interpret. Being a millennial is pretty terrifying. But that doesnt mean that this generation should let that scare us. No matter what the future holds, its worth noting that all these fears, like the day of Halloween itself, will hopefully wash away. If we all come together and work towards a better future, maybe it wont be so scary after all. Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.

Getting To Grips With The Police Rank Structure

Getting To Grips With The Police Rank Structure The UK Police Service is made up of many different ranks. Starting from the bottom, everyone who joins the police as an officer, will undergo a probationary period which usually lasts for two years. During this time, you must pass continuous training assessments and demonstrate to your superior officers that you have what it takes to become a fully qualified police officer.When you join your chosen constabulary, you will be immediately issued with a number. This number is more commonly known as your warrant number. The warrant number stays with police officers for the entirety of their service, and all the way up to the rank of Sergeant. You will wear this number on your uniform shoulders whilst on duty. If you get promoted past the rank of sergeant, then this number will no longer appear on your uniform.Sergeant is the first promotion after the rank of police officer, in the police rank structure. In order to become a sergeant, you will need to pass a number of examinations. These e xams are nationally run, and include assessments such as the OSPRE. In order to progress beyond the role of Sergeant, you will need to seriously dedicate yourself to the force, as well as taking significant amounts of extra training.Now, let’s look at the Police Rank Structure in more detail. Police Rank StructureChief Constable â€" This person is responsible for the running of their Police Service, and reports directly to the elected members of the Police Authority.  Deputy  Chief  Constable â€" This person acts as the deputy to the Chief Constable, and will also run the force when he or she is on leave/or away on duties outside of the Police Force.  Assistant  Chief  Constable â€" This person is usually responsible for a specific section of the Police Force, such as Operations and  Intelligence.Chief Superintendent â€" This person is responsible for policy of a large area or Command of the Police Force in that area. These are usually geographical.  Superintendent â€" The Superi ntendent is usually responsible for a section of a Borough or Command, such as Operations, Crime or Partnerships.Chief Inspector â€" These people usually oversee large teams; such as response teams, CID or investigations. They are responsible to the Chief Constable for their particular area.Inspector â€" Oversees all officers who are on duty at any given time, 24/7. Inspectors are  operational  and will also attend and take charge of serious operational incidents.  Sergeant â€" These supervise a team of officers at a station or unit. You will also see ‘Custody Sergeants’ at police stations in this role.Police Constable â€" Generally turn up and respond to 999 calls. They will also gather information at incidents in their log books and attend court to give evidence when required.  *All police rank structure images on this page have been taken from www.wikipedia.org, under the creative commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ This entry was posted in Police, Career Advice. Bookmark the permalink. Richard 3 Tips to Get your Dream Job in 2017SPAG Test KS2 â€" Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

The Importance of a Resume Writing Service LA

The Importance of a Resume Writing Service LAA resume writing service in LA can be an invaluable tool in your employment search, and you should utilize it carefully. This is because the person doing the writing has to rely on some of the best resume writers in the country, and it is their job to come up with persuasive language that will persuade a hiring manager to call you for an interview.The resume writer must be able to make your resume shine. To do this, they must employ the best writing principles and techniques that work best for the specific types of resumes that they are creating. In turn, you must be able to use the same methods to put together a strong resume and ensure that it is effective and appropriate for an employer to call you for an interview.You can do this by relying on several important qualities that a good resume writer must possess. They must know the best way to make sure that you are making your resume stand out from the crowd. This means that they must kn ow how to use several common formatting conventions such as bullet points, paragraph breaks, space, and line breaks to help you structure your information so that it makes the most of the space you have available. These are all surefire ways to help a person to give a thorough presentation of the information needed in order to make a persuasive resume.Resume writers also have to know what to include in a resume in order to get the best results. You must be sure that you take advantage of these techniques as well. There are many other important things that you should know that will help you ensure that you get the job of your dreams.There are two types of jobs: permanent positions and short-term positions. Because the type of job you seek will depend on the location you live in, the standard format you should expect is a single page resume, which is three to five pages in length. Most job agencies have standards of length based on the state or country where you live. In this case, yo u may want to use the standard four-page format.You will want to supply your best job-seeking experience and your education, then you will have to provide your most recent resume and one extra page where you can include your professional website URL, your phone number, and your email address. A good resume writing service LA will certainly want to get this information as well, because it makes it easier for them to organize your resume for you.After your resume is ready, you will want to follow up by sending an email to your potential employer or a professionally written letter to introduce yourself and why you are the right person for the job. Using a professional letter can really make a difference in your ability to land the job that you want.When you use a resume writing service, make sure that they put your needs at the top of the list. They should always be looking out for the needs of job seekers and follow through on these priorities. Be sure to check out several services be fore deciding which one to go with.