Unique Opportunity for UK Companies to Profit from Export sales into Europe.

Whilst the pound remains low against the euro, UK industry is in a prime position to capitalise on export sales.

Since the financial crisis began the sterling has devalued by over 30%. Although this has raised the prices of imported goods sold in the UK, the export market is poised to benefit. By exporting to Europe, UK manufacturers will profit from the current exchange rate which today stands at 1.16 Euro to the Pound.

This rate is heavily down from the beginnings of 2007 when the pound was equal to 1.53 Euro. Whereas in January 2007 a £100,000 GBP sales order would cost a European buyer €153,000 the same order can be placed today at €116,000, almost a third cheaper. British manufacturers therefore have the opportunity to both sell at lower costs and increase the profitability on their overseas orders.



With France, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong emerging from the global recession, experts are claiming that a recent surge in overseas trade has contributed to their economic growth. An increase of export sales in the UK could similarly rejuvenate the UK’s economy bringing an end to the recession. Now is therefore the prime time for UK companies to expand into export sales.

Exporting has always had the added potential of boosting turnover and lessening your dependence on the UK market. However, with language barriers and cultural obstacles the route to entry to the export market has always been difficult.

As experts in export sales recruitment, Aaron Wallis has commission numerous articles containing authoritative advice on how UK sales companies can enter into overseas markets and understand potential trade barriers.

By entering our free online business library you can access a range of facts and advice concerning international business and setting up international links. It will help you identify promising markets and customers and ensure that you can optimise the lucrative overseas opportunities that the current economic climate has to offer.

Visit: http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/client_advice_library.php and click on ‘Doing Business in Other Countries’ for further information and articles on:

* Exporting: Doing Business Overseas
* Buying a European Business - The mysteries explained
* Everything you need to know about the euro
* A Charter for Small Enterprises in Europe
* Doing Business in Australia
* Doing Business in Barbados
* Doing Business in Canada
* Doing Business in China
* Doing Business in France
* Doing Business in India
* Doing Business in Malta
* Doing Business in Oman
* Doing Business in Pakistan
* Doing Business in Panama
* Doing Business in Russia
* Doing Business in South Africa
* Doing Business in Spain
* Doing Business in the Isle of Man
* Doing Business in The Netherlands
* Doing Business in the United Arab Emirates
* Doing Business in the United States of America
* Doing Business in Turkey
* Business Etiquette - Doing Business Internationally
* The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)
* EU Services Directive
* Proposals for a European Private Company (Societas Privata Europaea)
* Glossary of EU Terms

We hope that you find these free articles on international trade useful to your business.

For further information and to place an export sales vacancy call 01908 764280 or visit http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/

Salespeople – Take Steps to Avoid Swine Flu at work.

Although there has been a fall in the number of newly diagnosed cases of Swine Flu this week, it is still important that businesses protect themselves from the virus.

The Government is predicting that 12% of the workforce could be affected by September so employers need to be prepared.

Sales employees are potentially at a higher risk of contracting the disease than staff from other sectors by the very fact that they are regularly meeting and shaking hands with new clients and colleagues, increasing their chances of contracting the disease which can be transmitted by hand contact.

Frequent travelling across the country could also mean that sales professionals are more at risk of being exposed to the strain.

To prevent the transmission of the virus in the work place, take note of the following guidelines provided by the NHS.

Advice for Employers:

The more your employees know about how to prevent infection, the more resilient your business will be.

It is advised that information on the virus and how to protect yourself should be circulated to all staff.

If workers in the office contract the virus, employers may also want to consider temporary home working.

Be careful not put pressure on staff to come in, especially pregnant workers who are thought to be more at risk. Employment lawyers are already warning of personal injury claims.

• To protect your office and staff, you should:
• Have a business continuity plan to ensure your business continues to operate effectively
• Have a policy to cover all staff. The HR Dept can provide this for you
• Impress on your cleaners the need for extra care to keep surfaces germ free
• Remind staff of your absence policy
• Keep up to date with government guidelines and adjust plans accordingly

Advice for Employees:

• To prevent the spread of the disease in the work place, the NHS is using the catchphrase ‘catch it, bin it kill it’.
• Always cover nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
• Dispose of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
• Maintain good basic hygiene. It may be worth considering carrying an antibacterial gel in your car post meetings, or getting into the habit of washing your hands with soap and water after every meeting.
• Clean hard surfaces, such as door handles, often and thoroughly using a normal cleaning product.

If you think you have Swine flu, DON’T self-diagnose - employers will not appreciate you speculatively deciding you have swine flu without proper medical advice.

Although going to the doctor for a diagnosis is not advisable, it is easy to get information by calling the NHS helplines on 0800 1 513 100 or going onto the NHS website.

If a health professional diagnoses swine flu then ring your employer and stay at home.

Find out more about avoiding swine flu from this government advice site aimed at the business community

Fewer redundancies are expected – Is it too early to say that ‘green shoots’ are sprouting?

The number of redundancies in the UK jobs market is expected to decrease, according to a recent survey. Following the dismal start to the year, which has seen the unemployment rate rise to 2.4 million, a new survey conducted by KPMG and The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development is now suggesting that the private sector is stabilising.

The Labour Market Outlook Survey has shown that a significantly lower amount of employers are expecting to make staff redundant. The results collected from over 900 employers, covering all sectors of the economy also revealed that the scale of planned redundancies has reduced.

Although signs of a full recovery still appear a while away, it seems that the results of the survey are by no means unfounded.

Rob Scott from Aaron Wallis, a specialist sales recruitment agency, has noted a gentle but positive upturn from employers in recent months. He said: "Back in February we received through our website 1900 speculative CVs which was three times more than we'd typically receive. The majority of these candidates had unfortunately been made redundant as companies restructured and cut costs for the New Year.

“This huge spike of speculative CVs has now settled but our July candidate registrations still remains double that the same month last year. Aaron Wallis have had calls from tens of employers that didn't replace positions vacated in September, October and November last year but are now realising that the position needs to be filled in order for them to maintain and improve their market share"

How to stand out in a job interview – calm and collected, or quirky and memorable?

It is fair to say that competition for jobs is fierce. Yesterday’s announcement that unemployment has reached its highest point since 1995 is enough to instil fear into even the most confident of job searchers.

Yet despite these horrifying and well publicised statistics, many professionals within the recruitment industry, including ourselves, are reporting a quiet but significant increase in the number of jobs that are becoming available. So, never a better time for those looking for work to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and refine their interview technique.

Employment success is often down to the applicant standing out in the interview. In recent months we are hearing of more jobs applicants who are going into interviews with a quirky strategy to get themselves remembered.

I have heard of one applicant that was so determined to stand out that he began the interview by ceremoniously presenting the interviewer with a pineapple. Sure, he was remembered - but not necessarily for the right reasons.

A sense of humour and a creative idea may only serve to evoke a quick chuckle from the interviewer before he stumps you with question on company policy. Having said this, a well thought out gimmick which is quirky, but RELEVANT could potentially work in your favour.

When applying for a marketing job with a major pizza restaurant chain we have heard the tale of an applicant who went into the interview with a pizza box which contained his CV, ‘brag file’ and a detailed presentation and business plan for the role. Needless to say, the interviewer was impressed and he got the job.

The candidate demonstrated initiative and enthusiasm as well as a strong knowledge of company branding. BUT, it was for a marketing and branding job and creative ideas such as this are not the only way earn success in an interview.

Merit alone can be far more appealing to a potential employer than a random gimmick which could scream of the candidates’ desperation.

Above all, interviewers are looking for applicants who are well versed, professional and enthusiastic. Therefore, make sure you are prepared, appropriately dressed and engaging and you will stand out far more than if you go to an interview with a well rehearsed comedy routine.

Stand out for the RIGHT reasons, and take advantage of increasing employment opportunities.

For further interview tips visit our Career Tools section with tens of ideas to increase your interview skills and sales success.

Are Facebook and Twitter preventing you from getting a job?

With more companies signing up to sites such as Twitter and Facebook, it is becoming general practice to search applicants through these social networking sites.

Potential employers can have unlimited access to moments of your personal life by simply searching your name on Google.

Drunken photos or an inappropriate ‘status’ can quickly undermine a good CV or a successful interview.

Recently an applicant sent a CV to Aaron Wallis and detailed ‘social networking’ as one of her hobbies.

Upon sending the CV to the client they refused to meet with the candidate even though she was ideal for the role.

When we told her that unfortunately things are not going to move forward she said ‘I bet they’ve been looking at my facebook account’.

The employer of course did not use this as a reason for declining to meet with her but upon looking at her uncensored facebook account it was riddled with drunken photos and profanities!

Suffice to say we recommended that she took appropriate steps to clean up her facebook presence!

With the ability on Facebook and Twitter to limit your profile so that only ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ can have access to your private thoughts, its seems odd that applicants can be found publicising opinions such as: “What a f***ing s*** interview with a s*** company, I don’t know why I bother.”

Although it is not expected that candidates remain pious while sending out jobs applications, it is probably advisable to consider that photos of you sprawled over a bar with a traffic cone on your head may not be quite as funny to a potential employer!

Aaron Wallis conducts largest survey of UK sales Professionals.

The UK’s largest survey of sales professionals promises to reveal a fascinating insight into the condition of the British sales industry and the impact of the recession.

Previous sales surveys conducted by Milton Keynes based recruiter Aaron Wallis have been the largest of their kind and were extremely well received by the sales industry, media and academics.

This year, in light of the current economic situation Aaron Wallis are expecting the results to be even more interesting.

So far 550 professionals have completed the survey and with two weeks remaining over 1,000 responses are expected in total.

The responses cover a wide demographic of ages, industries, and areas of the country.

For this reason they will be extremely credible and will give a real understanding how the sales industry is fairing since the last survey was conducted in 2007.

Reponses so far are extremely interesting and include a few surprises. It seems that the sales industry and its workers are surprisingly upbeat despite the current economic climate.

The 2007 Survey revealed fascinating statistics including the finding that only 23% of female respondents were in senior management roles compared to 46% of male respondents making for an interesting comparison two years on.

Results are eagerly awaited by several industry publications including ISMM’s Winning Edge which has dedicated several pages in its Autumn/Winter edition to the surveys’ findings.

The survey is also being promoted across most of the major sales related web sites, sales job boards, sales magazines, social networks and the employer and candidate databases at Aaron Wallis.

To participate in this survey and for the chance to put forward your opinion about working in the industry, candidates should be directed to http://www.survey2009.info/

The survey consists of just over 60 questions and will take around ten to twelve minutes to complete. The questions are designed to be a mixture of work related and life related questions.

As an incentive Aaron Wallis are offering to everyone that takes part the chance to win an ‘ultimate experience’. This is a choice of over 100 experiences ranging from a 30 minute ‘Tiger Moth’ flight to an overnight golf break for two to a racing experience in a Lamborghini.

Official results will be released on 24th August.

To view “The State of Sales in 2007” survey, please visit http://www.aaronwallis.co.uk/The%20State%20of%20Sales%20in%20the%20UK.pdf

More under 21’s are found to have lied on their CV’s.

More young people are lying on their CV’s as competition for jobs heightens, a survey has revealed.

Almost one in five under 21’s were found to have been lying or hiding information on job applications making them the most likely age group to be untruthful.

This is an increase of 29% from last year when under 21’s were considered the most honest.

In a survey of 4,735 job applications made to financial firms between June last year and May this year, it was found that of the 307 belonging to under 21’s, 18% contained false information.

The Survey conducted by Powerchex revealed that people educated in state schools were 25% more likely to lie on their CV than those who went to private school.

The most common lie was to claim a 2:1 university degree when they had been awarded a 2:2.
Others exaggerated menial jobs to make themselves sound more important.

These results come as this year’s university graduates are facing the highest levels of unemployment in a generation.

The Guardian reports that Alexandra Kelly, managing director of Powerchex said: “The pressure of the recession on job markets seems to have led to more applicants to believe that they should lie or make embellished claims to get jobs.”

Overall, 19% of candidates lied on an application, up from 17% in 2008.

In response to falsified applications, many companies now appoint credit referencing agencies to conduct a thorough CV Verification.

Rob Scott, Managing Director of leading Sales recruiter, Aaron Wallis, commented: “Lying on your CV is really very short-sighted as lying about your education is extremely easy to check and confirm.

“We recommend in our CV advice that it is important to sell your achievements and career highlights but to always be able to substantiate any claim at interview.”

Follow this link for free PDF and MP3 downloads on CV and career advice .