The truth is – that such opportunities do exist and thousands of men and women across the country take advantage.
 
Businesses that you can run from home, like My Little Wrapper the personalised chocolate wrapping business can be a brilliant ‘half-way’ house, where you earn your own money, on your own terms, in your own time. It’s not going to make you a millionaire, but My Little Wrapper can generate a very handy (and decent sized) second income for almost any household.
 
My Little Wrapper is based on the franchise system – but its not a franchise. Although you get access to all the proven marketing materials, brand, training and products there are no ongoing fees or costs like in a normal franchise, so every penny you earn is yours to keep. The stats show that using a proven ‘franchise-like’ system significantly increases your chances of success in business and its not hard to understand why. Do what someone else has done and you’ll get the same results, right?

Well, there is a bit more to it than that but the advantages of running your own business are significant.

Be your own boss
This is such an important thing for so many people – and with a business like My Little Wrapper you are definitely the one in charge!

Hard work is rewarded
There’s nothing better for the entrepreneurial spirit than being rewarded directly for their effort. That usually isn’t possible in corporate life,
 
Training and Support
Franchisors want franchisees to succeed. In fact, they need franchisees to succeed. That’s why intensive training is usually included in the franchise fee.

Financing
Many business opportunities and farnchises, like My Little Wrapper, have arrangements with the franchise departments of the major banks to assist with funding for new franchisees. This can be a big help – although some businesses, like My Little Wrapper don’t involve such significant outlay.

Peer networking
Don’t underestimate the loneliness of running your own business. Similarly don’t forget the value of having people in the same position as you that you can talk to. This peer networking is of huge value to many franchisees and the network of over 500 My Little Wrapper business owners across the country are very cative in supporting each other.
 
So when looked at objectively there are many solid reasons why pursuing a franchise route to set up and run your own business and take control of your own destiny make perfect sense. But it’s not for everyone – so think it through carefully

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For more information about the My Little Wrapper franchise, check out these links:

• My Little Wrapper
• Get My Little Wrapper
• My Little Wrapper – Company Information
• My Little Wrapper on Facebook
• My Little Wrapper on Linkedin
• Example Franchise Websites:
  • MLW – London
  • MLW – Northern Ireland
  • MLW – Kent

The loss could put in jeporady, some 20,000 jobs worldwide as the group cut back their international operations.  There are fears for thousands of jobs in Edinburgh where HBOS is based.  HBOS was formed from a merger of the Halifax Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland and became Scotland’s largest employer.

The financial crisis that has left the world’s markets in tatters has claimed a multitude of financial service careers so far. 

In related news, Gordon Brown has promised a clean up of the UK banking industry on the back of the recent scandal of pension payouts to the bosses of failed banks (with Sir Fred Goodwin, HBOS cheif, receiving over £750,000 – although there have been calls for him to pay it back).

Personally, I find the drama no more than scapegoating on the part of the UK media.  So a bank boss got paid huge sums of money?  He had one of the most challenging and no doubt stressfull jobs in the country.  It wasn’t his fault the bank failed – the global economy claimed many victims – why should he pay the price with his pension after years of running a pretty profitable company?

What do you think?

Easy to influence:
It may surprise you but many people are easy to influence an unconsciously those who are being influenced by the exterior ideas will eventually end up imitating them, if you don’t think this is possible all you need to think about is that millions upon millions of people who start smoking or consuming drugs just because of social pressures in fact, teenagers are the easiest people to influence which is why there are several TV campaigns which target them in order to keep them from falling in the destructive path of drugs, alcohol and violence.

Those who are easy to influence will end up following career decisions others have made for them in other words, if a popular person decides to study business then all of his or her followers will end up signing up to a business class, it sounds pathetic but it happens. Don’t let yourself become a follower be a leader.

Setting your own goals:
An easy way to avoid being influenced by someone else’s opinion is to set your own goals, take some time to decide where you want to be in line in what will make you happy, don’t take into account what other people are doing, set yourself for success by doing your own research and making a good decision accordingly.

Having a strong will and enduring the path:
After you have decided what you want to do with your life it is now time to take action in order to make things happen, don’t look left or right always focus on what you have in front of you and do everything it takes to overcome the many obstacles that will come your way, cheer yourself up and never consider quitting even if the going gets tough.

Analyzing this “seemingly off-topic” paragraph we can see the similarities between the way things work in life to the way our business and professional life should develop. When we are first hired to work for a corporation (America is famous for this type of business structure) we start at the bottom, we learn how to efficiently do the tasks assigned to us and once we have mastered this position it is only “natural” to develop a sense of leadership which comes after acquiring the proper experience.

Once we know we have assimilated enough knowledge to take care of bigger responsibilities then we are ready to request a promotion. If you have spent a significant amount of time working for a company 6months-1year+ and you feel you can handle your position really well but are afraid you don’t know everything there is to know in order to take on a higher position, don’t worry, this is natural; no one takes on an important charge knowing exactly what to do, we learn from experience, if you still doubt it “ask our president!” This can sometimes be the most difficult step towards job promotion, you need to convince yourself you are good enough for this position.

The most successful people in the world assumed an imaginary high position while they were yet “poor”, they “acted as if” they were rich or “as if” they were the most successful people in the world; and true enough along with hard work and positive thinking came success. Acting “as if” you were a supervisor or manager within your company projects your character which is sure to get noticed almost immediately.

Last but not least, we take on the easiest part, talking to your manager. When you approach your manager realize one thing, he is just a human being like yourself, no more no less, the only thing that set you apart is the years of experience but never feel intimidated by it; start by creating a friendly conversation, remember to smile, and start asking questions which require “yes” for an answer or say concepts which will require your manager to agree with you, (psychological trap) this will help you get positive answers to all of the questions and requests you will present shortly. When you start getting to the work-related part of the conversation do not change your tone of voice, keep talking normally just like you were a few seconds before, and then present all the important and efficient tasks you have efficiently handled and how useful you’d be to the company if you were a “supervisor” or “assistant manager”. Remember that you are selling yourself, a common error people make starts by approaching their manager and just popping the question without first presenting the “features and benefits” to the company – sort to speak.

If you get any objection make sure to present an adequate “rebuttal” which should present a solution to the issue being discussed, once you have justified yourself don’t stop, keep talking about the benefits of having you as an “assistant manager” (or the desired position). If you get a positive answer then don’t ruin it for yourself, acknowledge the positive answer in a professional manner and lift the pressure from your shoulders by slightly changing the conversation to a topic you both can relate to, it may be a joke or something you know both of you have in common, in other words forget about business talk since you accomplish what you wanted and move on to a friendlier conversation which will help you close the deal smoothly.

Following these easy steps will help you ease the process of asking for a job promotion while making it a better experience for both your manager and yourself.

There are really simple steps you can take to avoid falling into the trap of spending your life wondering “what if” – the key to remember is that no matter how large the obstacles in front of you seem to be, breaking them down into manageable chunks can be easy to do.  If you find yourself in a career rut, either not sure what you want to do for a living or just simply if you hate your job, then follow these steps to moving yourself forward…

1. Set your goal.  It may be the case that it will take you years to reach it, but you need a starting point.  Your goal might be to decide what you want to do for a living by the end of the year or it might be to progress to the highest possible level in your chosen profession.  It doesn’t matter at this point – all you need to do is to define your goal.
2. Work backwards and understand your obstacles.  Your goal may seem far off but sitting around worrying about that won’t get you anywhere.  Write a list of everything you think will stand in your way.  Money.  Education.  Experience.  Problems in your personal life.  A dodgy knee.  Put everything down on paper, no matter how trivial you think they may be or how well you think you can handle the obstacle.  Write it all down!
3. Take them on step at a time.  Knowing your obstacles puts you in a position to be able to tackle them one by one.  That’s half the battle already.  Is money a problem?  Then check out government grant schemes or look at getting some part time work.  For every problem you think you will face you should have an action plan for – a series of notes to yourself that tells you how you will deal with that situation.
4. Ask for some help.  After step 3 there may very well be some obstacles that you simply don’t know how to overcome.  That’s OK.  Everyone goes through this.  But now you have isolated those issues and instead of worrying about them alongside other issues, you can look for help on specific topics.  Ask friends, families, career advisers, discussion forums and so on.  Your goal here is to finish your action plan list.
5. Get started and prioritise.  You have a goal.  You have a series of objectives to meet in order to achieve that goal.  You have an action plan for each of these objectives.  What areas will be quick to complete?  What areas need other things to be done before you can start them?  Do you have any constraints (money for investment / training, time for studying, qualifications for Uni courses)?  By the end of this step you should have a clear cut view on how you will go about reaching your goal.
6. Don’t worry about bumps in the road.  Things will happen along the way that you didn’t expect.  Changes in your personal life might affect how you are able to follow your action plan.  Unexpected positive areas may come into your life (children, promotion – maybe even a lottery win!).  Don’t let these things halt your plan – instead, pause your plan and adjust it for these new pieces.  You might be able to get there quicker, or it might take longer (or you might even completely change your end goal) – but if you take things one piece at a time it will be much more manageable for you.

I know that sounds quite cheesey and most people have read stuff like this a lot – but it really does work.  It’s not even the organisational element that helps so much – it’s your attitude change that makes the difference.

People don’t realise just how much stressing over your career can be your worst enemy.  Even some small positive changes (perhaps only the fact that you’ve stopped to think about your career and written up a brief action plan) can really make a marked difference on your outlook in life. 

Yeh, yeh, the first step can be the hardest one to take, blah blah – but believe me when I say that a positive mindset can really make that difference you are looking for.  A lot of people would love for their dream job to be landed right in their lap but it just doesn’t work like that.  YOU need to make it work like that and making your own future is by far the best thing you can do for yourself.