BUSINESS ADVICE
by Ellis Bardsley, Action Coach
Business vs Busy-Ness...
Are you a busy fool?
Find yourself running your business on a 30-day cycle with meeting your financial obligations as the number 1 objective? Then there’ s a good chance you are in fact doing‘ busyness’ not business! Often the brilliantly capable technician that starts up a business is likely to, in reality build a busy-ness that looks like this.
They are reliant on the owner to be the driving force, strategist, tactician, planner, book keeper, marketeer, sales person, administrator, HR expert, tax specialist etc etc.
The answer is to become a master of business. Design your business to work progressively, over time without you. Start with the following 5 steps: 1. Define where you are going, when and how! Set a destination. Be clear what it looks like when it’ s finished? When will you exit / sell, hand it over to the team or family? 2. Build 4 plans – a‘ live’ business plan, a financial budget, a targeted marketing plan and a people plan that defines how you will develop your individual team members. 3. Build a dashboard- that shows cashflow forecast, Actual P & L per budget via your live business plan and track results against it, every month. 4. Swap £ for Time – find a way to cash flow the essential delegation of basic‘ work IN’ your business. You should be working more
and more ON it, ensuring that your plans are being delivered. 5. Get focused on delivery – create an operations manual, flow chart your processes, write them up systemise. Take a leaf out of the brilliant global businesses that have systemised businesses to deliver consistently around the world.
Life is a mirror; if a business is chaotic, draining your time or underperforming it is because it’ s been allowed to. Take control, design and build your business to allow you to enjoy growth, improved financial power and crucially to gain control of your time.
Start today and don’ t be a busy fool!
For more info: www. actioncoach. com / ellisbardsley
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1st come, 1st served? Why only qualified candidates count
CMD’ s Dan Barfoot explains why unqualified CVs are bad for clients and candidates, and very frustrating for the reputable recruiter.
This year could be a difficult one for recruiters, and we’ re starting to see weaker agencies struggle. Last year 9,000 new recruitment businesses launched and as employment is reaching record highs, we are operating in a candidate driven market. Client’ s expectations are high, and the vacancies to fill are often urgent.
We work hard to bring the best possible candidates to an employer. We can’ t guarantee that we’ ll be the quickest, but we can guarantee that we will qualify the candidates we put forward and ensure we have their permission to represent them.
So it’ s frustrating to hear back from a client“ sorry, we already had this CV.” Usually we then go back to the candidate to find out what happened, and learn that the candidate had a phone call saying“ congratulations, you have an interview” for a role that they don’ t know the details about. On some occasions, the candidate has not even been spoken to about the role, and simply put forward by the recruiter without discussion!
Some say that GDPR coming in should stop this completely, but I fear not, as some recruitment agencies basically use this as their business model.
“ If you throw enough CVs at a role one will stick.”
“ Many problems can be caused when the candidate hasn’ t given permission for the recruiter to submit their CV for a job.”
Perhaps the application for this role undermines an application for a more suitable or senior role at the same employer, or maybe the applicant’ s details will be available to someone who knows their current boss and causes a difficult conversation.
I understand that candidates are interested in getting the best work that they can, and so they don’ t always object to a recruiter putting them forward for roles without their say-so. And sometimes, candidates may forget that they have applied to a role directly, which makes the recruiter wonder if the forgetful candidate is one they really want to represent.
But it is frustrating that some businesses operate a‘ first come first served’ policy for CVs without requiring that the candidate has been properly qualified by the recruiter, and given permission to be put forward.
I think candidates should kick back if this happens to them, as the recruiter hasn’ t done their job if the CV has been sent without the candidate’ s permission. How as a candidate can you tailor your CV to a role or prepare properly for an interview without having all the facts about a job? In these cases we can end up with candidates booked for interviews without proper information, a stand off between the qualified and speculative recruiter, and a HR person caught in the middle.
When paying for a recruitment service, you want to ensure that the candidate experience is good, and that your business is being promoted in the best light by someone who knows your business well.
This is why we always ask for the right to represent, and can demonstrate to clients that we’ ve confirmed that candidates are happy to have their details submitted for the vacancy. If your recruiter can’ t do this then you may want to consider their position.
For more info: www. cmdrecruitment. com
36 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018