The Dark Side - Nov 2012

The Power of Three!

Chris goes DIY - Slow PC?

Pop’s PantryWhat’s New?

Employment Myths - Part Deux!Part Time Employees?Terminology!

It’s funny isn’t it?

SSG flies around trying to come up with great new ideas to help making running your own business that bit easier. Our Recruiter partners all work hard, worry endlessly and sometimes get good luck and sometimes bad.

That’s what it is all about – right?

Well, a funny thing happened to me this month.....

Three Client meetings with three different businesses all working in different sectors.

We ran through the Monthly Management Accounts and we chatted about all the normal clever stuff & the economy & interest rates & LinkedIn and all the normal clever stuff like that.

But the bit that was really interesting was when it came down to understanding some basic terminology which we were all using during our conversation – but applying different meanings to the same ‘recruitment words’.

In other words, we seemed to all be applying a different meaning to some other words!

OK – so for example, what do you think I mean when I say:

Yep, I am sure that you all have your own clear understanding of what these obvious terms mean (to you).

I guess the important bit is that we all start to say the same things and recognise the importance of these definitions when we think about how these definitions affect the ‘business side’ of our work.

It made me think – truth is, we all need to keep it simple, not to worry about being too clever and remember that making a placement is the only bit that really matters.

For a closer look at these definitions, please take a peek at Page 19 (Terminology).

You might be surprised!!

Generated PlacementsInvoiced PlacementsPaid Placements

1. All the contents of The Dark Side are only for general information and/or use. Such contents do not constitute advice and should not be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any decision. Any specific advice or replies to queries in any part of the publication is/are the personal opinion of such experts/consultants/persons. 2. The information in The Dark Side is provided on an "AS IS" basis, and all warranties, expressed or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any information, advice or replies are disclaimed and excluded. 3. The Dark Side and its associates shall not be liable, at any time for damages including, without limitation, damages for loss of any kind(but excluding personal injury or death caused by negligence) arising in contract, tort or otherwise from the use of or inability to use the publication, or any of its contents, or from any action taken (or refrained from being taken) as a result of using the publication or any such contents or use of information contained in the publication. 4. No representations, warranties, or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability, or applicability of the information to a particular situation. 5. Certain references in the publication refer to third parties over whom The Dark Side has no control or connection, business or otherwise.

Material Submitted by OthersSome sections in The Dark Side contain materials submitted by users. The Dark Side accepts no responsibility for the content, accuracy, and conformity to applicable laws of such material, and any views or opinions expressed by such third parties are those of the author alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the owners or publishers of the Dark Side.Effect of these TermsThese terms constitute the sole basis on which the Dark Side is published and made available and supersede and replace all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, or any implied terms which might otherwise apply.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Regular Stuff

Fluffy Bits

So Serious!

Money & Things

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National InsuranceNumbers you simply HAVE to knowMadness of Small Business Funding

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info@ the-darkside.tv

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Business Launches Some Jokes!Thought for the DayA Word from Lloyds

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NUMBERS YOU NEED TO KNOW!

PAGE 10

Time to stopyour money fromslipping AWAY!

3

I am a‘MYTH

BUSTER’

MYTH NO. 4

“You don’t have to pay anEmployee who resigns butdoesn’t work their notice period”VERDICT: COBBLERS

I am a‘MYTH

BUSTER’

MYTH NO. 5

“You have to offer a new vacancy to anyone who was made redundant”VERDICT: MORE COBBLERS

You might remember from last time (September’s Dark Side) that we were all engrossed by the discovery of a few myths that surround good old employment law!

That’s right, the excitement finally grew to the point that it was hard to continue our exploration of the whole subject without the risk of boiling over at the sense of injustice that accompanied our revelations – well, to be more accurate my colleagues at SSG begged me to stop and suggested that should any reader still be awake after a couple of pages that we ought to let them now rest in peace.

So, heeding their advice (as I often do), I put a hold on the excitement.

But, that was then & this is now!

QUICK RECAP:

There is a lot of nonsense touted around as fact when it comes to what is legal, what is illegal & what is just plain crazy when it comes to Employment Law, Employment Contracts, Employment Breaches and the like.

As a business owner, you need to know what is real and what is hearsay.

It might not seem important, but once you start to think about employing a Recruiter of your own or get chased by your own ex-employer, you might wish that you taken a little more time to find out where you stand.

Thus far, we exploded three myths:

Myth 1: Just because there is nothing in writing, it does not mean that there is not a contract.

Myth 2: Just because an actual contract wasn’t physically signed, does not mean that it is not valid.

Myth 3: An employer can indeed withdraw a job offer once it has been made.

Yes, it is all extremely shocking I will admit, but like any good Harry Potter script there is even more to come....

AND THE NEW STUFF?

You know the score, a Recruiter (or any other employee) walks out without giving notice.

The logic suggests that the employee has forfeited the right to receive further payments from their employer.

However, as employers, you are not entitled to withhold pay owed to employees who have left without giving notice, for work that they have already carried out, although you can withhold the pay that the employee would have received had he or she worked the notice period.

If you have been "left in the lurch" by an employee you do have some legal redress.

The employee's failure to give notice is a breach of contract and you can (if you can be bothered) bring a claim in the civil courts for the financial loss that you have suffered.

However, it is often difficult for employers to establish loss or damage to the business and, as a result, very few claims are brought by employers in these circumstances.

If you have been forced to hire cover at a higher pay rate or pay an overtime rate to other employees to cover the shortfall in work caused by an employee's failure to give notice then it may be worth suing asyou can show financial loss.

It is a popular view that employers that have made an employee redundant must offer him or her any future vacancies that arise.

In recruitment, it is often the case that you may have made an employee redundant due to you no longer needing someone to perform in a particular role, only to find that, shortly after, due to an upturn in business or the resignation of another employee, you need additional headcount.

In this situation, do you have to offer your former employee the available position?

If you don’t, will this render the previous redundancy unfair?

The answer is no – you are under no legal obligation to offer previously redundant employees future vacancies, and the fairness of the previous redundancy is only decided by an assessment of the situation at the point at which you made the employee redundant.

The redundancy will be fair if there were genuine reasons for it at the time and you followed a fair procedure and selection process.

More

Myths Employment Law

wherever it hides!Fighting Employment

Law Injustice

A friend got sacked from his fairground job recently - he worked on the dodgems and loved it. He's suing

his boss for for Funfair dismissal!!"

Clare’s Employment Law Myth Stuff

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I am a‘MYTH

BUSTER’

MYTH NO. 7

“If you make redundancies, you can’t immediately start hiring”VERDICT: YOU CAN

I am a‘MYTH

BUSTER’

MYTH NO. 8

“Fixed Term Contractors have no redundancy rights”VERDICT: THEY DO

I am a‘MYTH

BUSTER’

MYTH NO. 6

“You can’t sack a pregnant woman”VERDICT: ACTUALLY....

Notwithstanding this, it is worth being careful about recruiting very soon after making redundancies as people may question whether or not the redundancies were genuine.

You should keep thorough records of your reasons for making redundancies and the selection process you followed.

A number of employers are understandably cautious about making employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave redundant.

If an employee is dismissed or selected for redundancy for a reason that is related to pregnancy, birth or maternity leave, the dismissal will be automatically unfair and will amount to pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

The compensation payments are uncapped and the whole process can be very expensive.

However, employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave can be made redundant provided that the redundancy is genuine and the employee's maternity situation does not disadvantage her in any way.

For example, you should ignore pregnancy-related absence when assessing attendance records for the purposes of selection.

You may also need to make adjustments to the consultation process in relation to an employee who is unable to attend meetings at the workplace due to her pregnancy or maternity leave, by carrying out consultation meetings closer to her home.

While it is important that employers create a level playing field when applying redundancy selection criteria, you must be careful that attempts to neutralise selection criteria that are potentially discriminatory against employees who are pregnant or on maternity leave do not

result in discrimination against their male colleagues.

In other words – don’t overcompensate!

The mighty law firm Eversheds came a cropper with just this scenario where the Court of Appeal Tribunal found that they had discriminated against a male lawyer by inflating the score of the other lawyer in the selection pool because she was on maternity leave.

There is no specific period of time that you must wait before you can recruit new staff without rendering the previous redundancy dismissals unfair.

Although there is no specific time frame during which you cannot recruit new employees, if you recruit soon after making redundancies when there has been no change in circumstances, this is likely to cast doubt on whether or not the redundancies were genuine.

Where you can point to a changein commercial circumstances then you are more likely to be able to justify the need to recruit only a short period after.

Employees who are employed on a fixed-term contract are entitled to redundancy pay if their contract comes to an end.

In the past (before 2002) someone on a fixed term contract could waive their right but not anymore!

AND JUST ONE MORE THING(said in a Columbo Style voice over)

Here is a little story about a woman who stole an Apple Pie:

Should she be sacked?

A Little Chef employee lost a compensation claim for unfair dismissal – after she took an apple pie home without permission and lost her job as a result.

Lynn Smith had been employed as a supervisor at the for 12 years with a good record.

Mrs Smith believed she had been harshly treated and made a compensation claim against her employer.

Little Chef did not attend the hearing and was not represented, but had apparently written to the Tribunal stating that the Little Chef rules were that food could be eaten on the premises but that there were strict rules about staff taking it home.

The tribunal said: "Mrs Smith knew it was against the rules to misappropriate food and Mrs Smith admitted taking the apple pie.

She should not have taken the apple pie away."

Little Chef currently charges £3.99 for a serving of its delicious Kentish Bramley apple pie which is dished up with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Regrettably said the tribunal , they had decided Mrs Smith had lost her compensation claim for unfair dismissal as Little Chef had acted within the bounds of reasonableness when deciding to dismiss Mrs Smith.

OUR VIEW:

Always go for the Chocolate Fudge Sundae – what a silly lady Mrs Smith is.

Every myth is individual, so if you require further advice please contact

[email protected]

5

As shown in our May issue the most tax efficient way to draw income from your Limited Company is to take a minimal salary and take the rest as dividends.

This in effect means that you are not paying national insurance on your dividend income which is where the savings for tax come in.

But what is this National Insurance we speak about.

National Insurance (NI) is an amount that individuals (and employers) pay to the government calculated on wages and salary to contribute to social benefits including state pension, statutory maternity pay and sick pay and also to fund the National Health Service.

Obviously the National Health Service is free to all and does not require NI contributions.

However, other benefits are dependent on having paid NI historically.

You probably now feel that you would quite like the benefits.

But surely the way you process my

income affects my benefits!

The answer is yes, but you don’t lose

them!

We run a payroll each month for you which is the minimal salary element of your income from the company.

This will be based on your personal allowances and be in the region of £675 per month.

National insurance is paid as a percentage of your earnings, so the more you earn the more you pay.

However, there is an element of salary that you can earn before National Insurance contributions start.

The monthly Salary we set is just enough to give you an income that starts to pay National Insurance (i.e. you don’t pay any NI on the vast majority of it)

Therefore you will still be shown as

contributing for National Insurance and get the relevant benefits.

How much do I pay?

At the current rates of NI for the tax year 2012 to 2013 and with the salary we mentioned above the amount of National Insurance you will pay each month is £11.96.

This is as a deduction from the monthly salary that we run for you each month.

However, you don’t have to make this payment personally.

The company makes it on your behalf. So each month SSG will supply you the information and the company has to make a payment to HMRC from the business bank account.

And that’s it. No forms, no online returns...

That’s all completed by SSG.

So what’s the catch then?

The catch is that some of these benefits are means tested so the more you contribute the more you get if you ever need them.

As we only run a minimal salary you will only be paying the bare minimum and would only get the bare minimum back if you ever claimed these benefits.

So that saving on tax does come at a potential cost (but one we think is worth paying)

For example The amount of state pension will be set based upon how much you contributed over a 10 year period.

Statutory Maternity Pay amount will be initially based on the National Insurance contributions on a set period before the expected birth of your Baby

The result is that if you claimed these benefits you would only get the minimum amount. However, don’t be alarmed.

In the vast majority of cases the savings you have made over the years will be far higher than what you could lose in benefits.

So put some of that saving to good use and look at a Company Pensions (there’s a future article for you)

What does the tax man do about this?

There’s not a lot the tax man can do.

If you have a low salary your contributions are low, just like anyone else on a low salary.

However, he may notice you are paying far less than you historically did when employed so will try and get you to “voluntarily” contribute.

So do expect a letter in the post explaining what National Insurance gains and how he has noticed that yours has gone down.

His suggestion is to “voluntarily” contribute yourself the National Insurance savings you have made on your income to him (he obviously doesn’t word it like that).

I can’t see many of you deciding to do this though.

Do I HAVE to pay National Insurance?

In a word – No. We could reduce the minimal salary element of your income so that you pay absolutely no National Insurance.

However, you will also lose the right to any benefits that require contributions to be paid.

That may conjure up thoughts of “hey ho, I want to pay as little as possible!” But the decision is entirely yours!!

If you would like to get any further info please feel free to contact me on 01442

200961 or you can email me at [email protected]

what’s it for and do i pay it?!

National Insurance

6

Chris Goes all ‘DIY’

Slow PC?

DO - A backup of main data

DO - Check Your RAM - how much have you got? / can you have?

DO - A Virus and Malware Check

DO Delete Windows Temporary Files

DO Delete Temporary Internet Files

DO Run Scandisk / Disk Defragmenter

...... Throw it out of the window.... NOOOOO!

Before you resort to physical machine violence, stop and try some of these old checks and tricks - you never know, it may simply be a case of deleting loads of rubbish that Windows puts on there for you.

Or a simple (and relatively cheap) hardware upgrade. Read on ......

Windows has a reputation of adding loads of rubbish to your machine the more you use it - building up temporary files, sticking them in the memory and stopping the things you want to work from working as it has to "read" the rubbish as well as the good stuff!

It also has a reputation of needing more memory (RAM) with each release (version) of Windows to allow it just to run - think of it as when you get up in the morning, do you have 2 or 3 Weetabix for breakfast? 2 will get you going, 3 will help you to really motor! See the cut out box for minimum / recommended

RAM amounts for different versions of Windows.

Need More “RAM”?

It may be that if your PC is getting on a bit, simply upgrading the RAM will help - if that option is available on your PC. To check what you have installed, click on the Start (Windows Logo) Key - hover over My Computer (or Computer - Windows Vista, 7 and 8) and right-click it. Select Properties from the menu and look for "Installed

Memory (RAM)". You can now check the maximum allowable for your PC - drop us an email if you want us to try and check this for you or for us to recommend where to look. If your PC has the capacity you may be able to upgrade - relatively cheaply.

That’s one “trick”. There are also tools out there to detect and recommend upgrades

Before doing the following, PLEASE ENSURE

YOU HAVE A BACKUP of all your critical data - just in case!

Windows Temporary Files

Now, back to these pesky Temporary files - thankfully this is one area that hasn't changed with each version of Windows (the location part anyway!) - go to "My

Computer" (or "Computer") or, if you're really impatient, click on the "Windows" Key, hold it and press "E" - this will open up Windows Explorer. Navigate to your local Hard Disk (usually "Localdisk C:\") click on "Windows" and then "Temp" (some versions / setups of Windows will ask you for permission - just click yes!). Hopefully (or not whichever way you look at it) you will see hundreds of files in there. Now, be brave - select them all (Ctrl + A) and delete them. It may say "can't delete XXXX as it is in use” - that's fine, delete as much as you can. CAVEAT HERE - some working program data may be contained in these files (although unlikely) so you may need to re-enter some program data as necessary (although I've never had a problem!).

These are 2 simple things you can do to help - a separate article on more “tricks” will follow - the "cutout" also gives some other things to try.......

Other Stuff

Other things include Disk Defragmenting, Scandisk, Temporary Internet Files and other built-in Windows tools (Windows is built to fail eventually - a bit like a car needing regular servicing!)

There are tools out there to do all these thing automatically for you (System Mechanic etc.) but BEWARE - anything that gets onto your PC that you didn’t put there for doing this is probably Malware.

More on these other elements in a later article.

The best solution is to completely reinstall Windows and all other software from scratch (System Recovery) but of course this is a major job.

As ever, if you are unsure and need a bit of help, please get in touch .....

[email protected]

01442 200941

Finally her PC was back

to normal. Just look

at that expression of joy!

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KeyFacts

Legal Formations

Accounting Issues

The Tax Man

The VAT Man

Sourcing Vacancies

Personal Cash Flow

Personal Isolation

Restrictive Covenants

Technical Issues

Staying Organised

Impact on your Family

Making Placements

Room in the Market

NIGGLING ANXIETIESExpectation Reality

MOTIVATIONS

Freedom & Autonomy

Financial / Earnings

Long Term Ambition

Increased Family Time

Reduction in Commute

Escape Office Politics

A Difficult Employer

The ‘Right Time’

Prove Doubters Wrong

Work / Life Balance

Shorter Working Day

Expectation Reality

?

So far,

so g

ood?

Big

gest

challe

nge?

Majo

r upsid

es?A:Yes! I have exceeded

my own expectations – at the beginning I just wanted to work for myself and now we have offices, employees, on a number of PSLs and a tier 1 agency in a multi tier arrangement with a very large company.

A:Being in control and having the time to work on business that I feel is important is a major upside. I know what I am trying to achieve and the culture of work hard when we need to and breathe a little when we don’t is a really important aspect of how Arco operates – when we hit target half way through a month it is cause for celebration – not a signal to increase the pressure!

A:Our biggest challenge has been expansion – sometimes I feel that we haven’t grown quickly enough and other times I feel that we should get more employees on board and capitalise on the good fortune that we have had. At the same time, we must be careful not to lose sight of the fact that it is our personal delivery of the recruitment service that has made us successful and that if we expand too much we may lose that.

So, what made you decide to SYOB? Why did you make the transition from Employee to Business Owner? For all of the rhetoric & seemingly endless discussions, was it money, freedom or perhaps the children which finally made you ‘get out of recruitment & into business’? What did you expect and what has been the reality?

How I arrived at setting up on my own was not through a long term burning desire to do so but more to do with the company I was working for going in to liquidation and a fortuitous meeting with Mike Walmsley. He suggested that I go it alone rather than work for someone else and he put me in touch with SSG. At the time, my second child was very small, we were in the middle of a worldwide recession and yet somehow it seemed the most logical next step was to set up on my own. I thought that if we made it through the tough times then when the good times arrived, the company would be in a good position to take advantage of it.

• Office Based• 4.5 Man Team• 2009 Launch• 100% Perm

This month, Joe Zerafa of Arco Recruitment “dishes the dirt” on what it’s really like to start your own business. Arco provides recruitment solutions to the Building Services sector & is based in Surrey.

50 WORDS ON WHY!In the back of my mind was a slight anxiety around what if it didn’t work but I kept positive and stuck to the path that I had decided on. I also had 2 job offers on the table and it was very tempting just to take one of them and be secure with a good basic and good commission but something was telling me that it was not the right thing to do and that in a strange way the liquidation had provided me with a great opportunity.

50 WORDS ON WHY NOT!

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And before you made the big decision to SYOB, what kept you awake at night? What were the awful worries, the ‘niggles’ you couldn’t escape? Has the Tax man been friend or foe? Did your Restrictive Covenant hold you back? What about cash flow? Technology? Do you have more time for your family? Has it been tougher than you anticipated?

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RUNNING YOUR BUSINESSHow hard was it

in the beginning? And Now?

Making Placements

Getting into a Work Routine

Clients Paying Up

Having Distractions

Feeling Isolated

Having Family Support

Getting Good Candidates

Getting Clients on Board

Stress Levels

LONG-TERM GOALS?BIGGEST MISTAKE?ADVICE FOR OTHERS?

I had an opportunity to set up a desk for another company – the difference with SSG was that I can have 100% say in the management of my company – no one would be questioning what I was doing and nobody would be setting unrealistic KPIs.

Very pleasant, well structured and the process was very smooth.

The support Arco needs now is very different from the beginning – then we were reliant on all the operational support in the set up of the business and getting us over the teething problems. Now, we are reliant on the back office support we get and also we have Clare as almost a ‘silent’ partner who we can bounce ideas off and who provides extra advice whenever we need it.

Just do it – believe in yourself and your capabilities and don’t look back. Know your strengths and keep positive.

My biggest mistake was probably not expanding the business and getting an office sooner – I was used to a routine at home and was working in a reactive manner and I think I stayed too long working just by myself when I could easily have taken someone on.

I want to continue doing what we are doing – continue to expand and one day be recognised as market leaders in our sector. Of course I would like the mansion and the Ferrari but I really believe that creating a credible business in this market, being true to my values and building a good team will get me to my goals.

We have r e a l l y e n j o y e d w o r k i n g with Joe and his g r o w i n g team. The

stand out feature of this business is the market knowledge and commitment to the client that Joe and his team consistently display. An ever calm presence and a focus on numbers means that this company is likely to go from strength to strength.

What to do Next?

Take the Challenge?

Why not Volunteer to be next with Clare?

Surely, it is much better to step forward and take a hit for the team than to be relentlessly tracked down by a seemingly pleasant & fair minded pseudo Psychiatrist?

To take part, please contact

CLARE ARMSTRONG01442 200 957

[email protected]

Football EastendersRock Jogging Wine LiteratureCasual UK Hol’sGlasses History

RugbyCorrieOperaCrispsBeerDVD’sSuitedOverseasContactsSci-Fi

NeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeitherNeither

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“Our business is based on honesty and not

being greedy ”

“We have a strong culture of working

hard...but only when we need to! ”

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Clare’s Last Words

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Opening Waffle!

Not everyone’s favourite subject I know! The avoidance of KPI’s and all of that type of ‘stuff’ probably constitute part of the reason that you decided to ‘paddle your own canoe’ in the first place & opt for business ownership I suspect (I know that it was for me).

But, looking very closely at all of the empirical data that we have collected since we starting launching businesses back in 2003, a few things are true:

Ventures that set and record targets generate more placement revenue than those that do not.Ventures that operate to a formal Cash Flow are more likely to grow and expand than those that do not.Ventures which do neither are (empirically) more likely to peak in terms of revenues after approximately 18 months – after which, revenues tend to decline.

These observations are not based on our intuition (such as it is!) or ‘thumb in the air’ estimates or even the occasional analysis of the numbers.

SSG is in a strangely privileged position – we legitimately need to collect data from

over 140 existing Recruitment Ventures and produce Monthly Management Accounts for each venture.

In addition, we are very lucky to communicate with the majority of the Recruiters who own those recruitment businesses. We are aware of how most of those Recruiters operate and how they approach the sticky business of making placements.

We know for a fact ‘who makes what’. No one can argue with our data – it is there. It exists and it is now based on over 9 years of results.

Some other more observational criteria

also seem to be valid:

Great Recruiters do not necessarily develop great businesses.Great Businesses almost always are owned by great recruiters.Great businesses are almost always owned by frustrated Recruiters.Great Recruiters become frustrated by lack of information.Great information is the basis for great decisions.

Are You Serious?

As part of our role, we are lucky enough to develop a real understanding of many Budding Entrepreneurs. We talk, we meet, we engage.

Over the years, we have been able to fairly accurately estimate how our Recruiter Clients will perform against their own objectives. We have reached the point where it is reasonable for us to take a pretty good stab at predicting what a typical start-up recruitment business will generate in Year 1, Year 2 and so on. All of this ‘expertise’ is actually based on fact – we know which business made what money and for how long. We have the data based on that priceless 9 years of

start-up experience which I keep mentioning!

If we then sprinkle a dusting of magical SSG intuition (don’t laugh) then we can reasonably explain the businesses which skew the performance curve – the odd venture that seems to under or over perform.

In many ways, we seem to spend more time with the budding entrepreneurs who own the businesses which seem to skew that curve than we do with those that conform to the accepted notion of how businesses behave. I guess that makes sense – the majority of our clients work fairly consistently & work against what they want to achieve. That also means that SSG is able to project what revenues are likely to filter into our coffers of course!

But, those businesses that do not seem to ‘conform’ to the norm are just as important – not just in terms of potential revenues to SSG but in terms of what lessons we can learn from their experiences.

So, what are the prime conclusions which we can draw from this analysis?

Perhaps the most blatant is that Recruiters who start their own businesses really do seem to fall neatly into a number of categories:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

1.

2.

3.

EmpiricalFacts!

Based on9 yearsof data!

We are ‘serious’ ...ARE YOU?!

Forecasting the Future!

28

Imagine you are dropped by parachute into the middle of a jungle.

You are surrounded by millions of obvious dangers – killer snakes, deadly spiders and a total absence of fresh pants, to name but a few.

You might meet your painful demise as a result of that horrible snake bite or poisonous spider for sure but apparently the most likely thing to finish you off is IGNORANCE.

In other words, it is probably not going to be the most obvious dangers that mean you don’t return to good old Blighty with heroic tales of your bravery, but much more likely something daft like eating the wrong kind of red berry or drinking water from a contaminated stream or believing that abandoning your filthy pants & going ‘commando’ is a good idea.And, guess what? Running a business is a little like that too!

KILLING YOUR BUSINESS

We all know that your business will die if you don’t make placements or if you don’t get up in the morning and work really very hard.

We all also know that you are probably not going to succeed if you are not extremely careful with candidates or if you constantly irritate your ever-dwindling client base!

But, what is just as likely to kill your business is being ignorant of the other numbers that really count - the numbers that you can control.

The numbers that only get bigger if you are actually doing very well.

FOR NOW, FORGET THIS LOT

Ok, for now we can forget the ‘numbers’ which we Recruiters always talk about:

All of that type of stuff ought to be obvious to you all by now of course.

I mean, let’s face it, you are working for yourself now.

No one needs to be told to record those types of numbers, do they?

Naturally, you all use the KPI Workbook which SSG created to help you track your performance as a Recruiter (please refer to Page 28 of the April 2012 Dark Side).

Placements;Interviews;Candidates Processed;Ratios (of this to that).

VAT,

CORPORATION TAX &

INCOME TAX.

FOR NOW, ALMOST FORGET THIS LOT

TOO

Let’s also put onto a back burner the need to remember some other types of numbers – like your average invoice value or your drawings for the month or the cost of your advertising.

All of that type of stuff ought to be obvious to you all by now of course. I mean, let’s face it, you are working for yourself now.

No one needs to be told to record those types of numbers do they?

Naturally, you all use the CASH FLOW

Workbook which SSG created to help you track your performance as a business (please refer to Page 17 of the February 2012 Dark Side).

BUT, WHATEVER YOU DO, NEVER FORGET THIS LOT

Numbers Numbers you simply you simply

have to have to knowknow

%

£?

+

-=

Learn them, or leak cash!

10

the Darkside.tvwww.

Happy New Year?....

Inside this issue:

How to escape the2012 doom & gloom

(page 13)

Selling Up! Part DeuxDevelop a Press ReleaseMeet SSG’s New Girl

3 Ways to SYOBClare is serious (again)Making the most of SKYPE

:::

RU ?

NEXTYo

u fr

om H

ome!

Happy, content & safe inthe knowledge that whatever you

acheive will be for you and your family.Never did the phrase ‘work for

someone else’ sound so silly, you’re motivated & progressing your life

BLAST OFF! VerySoon

Why not call David on01442 200944 to chat through

how to break free

Your

Bes

t Fr

iend Bob made the break and he

is doing well. You try to be pleasedfor him of course, but as Morrisey

might sing ‘we hate it when ourfriends are successful’.Tough to watch. It should have been you.

BLAST OFF!Feb

2012

Why not call ‘The Samaritans’or Bob (ask him for a job?)

JAN

UA

RY

2012

PhD inEntrepreneurship

www.SSG-PhD.tv

PE

the Darkside.tvwww.

Fancy a PhD in Entrepreneurship?

Banks take a bashing

Inside this issue:

Selling Up! Part 1

Corporation Tax BasicsGoogle+ Exposed!The Death of Cold Calling?Who Owns YOUR Contacts?

See Page 12

NO

VEM

BER

2011

30k Basic 50% Equity!

Herts base for a GREAT Recruiter

See Page 2 for Details

RU ?

NEXTC

OM

MER

CIA

L A

ND

FS

Great New Partnership formed by Experienced Recruiters looking to

exploit their combined 10 yearsof Perm’ based Commercial and

Financial services experience.Clients are UK based with a focus

on salaries up to £50k

BLAST OFF! August2011

For more info, contact:[email protected]

ENG

INEE

RIN

G A

ND

RTR

Unusual combination of Engineering recruitment with a side dish of RTR work! This is a business led by a Recruiter with

lots of experience and lots offrustration about having worked

for someone else for too long!

BLAST OFF! October2011

For more info, contact:[email protected]

Be a VIDEO Star!Is AWR Evil?

Start Your Own BusinessTime to Sell Up?

Inside this issue:

Sometimesit’s hard tokeep up witheverything ........

SEPT

EMBE

R

2011

DIRECTOR DESIGNATE (x2)

45k + Bonus + 10% EquityNr. Heathrow

The Opportunity of 2011

Page 18 for Details

Make no mistake guys; ignorance of this holy trinity of numbers will kill more recruitment businesses this year than any number of drop outs, rubbish interviews or grumpy clients.

Let’s have a few words about each of these first then:

VAT: (see Page 12 of Sept 2011 Dark Side)

Every quarter, all VAT registered businesses (yours included) will need to complete a VAT Return, which will calculate how much money you need to physically send to the VAT.

It’s an easy calculation:

If you collect more than you spend, then you have to physically send cash to the VAT office each quarter. If you spend more than you collect, then you have to claim the VAT back from the VAT man every quarter.

CORPORATION TAX: (see Page 21 of Nov 2011 Dark Side).

9 Months after every Company Year End, you need to pay any Corporation Tax which is due on any profits that you made in that year.

It’s another easy bit of Maths:

For what the tax man classifies as a small Company (i.e. one which makes less than 300k profit each year), you need to pay a CT rate of 20% of those profits to the tax man.

In other words, if you have sales of 100k, costs of 50k, then the tax man says that you have profits of 50k too.

Profits of 50k mean that you will need to pay the tax man 20% of that (i.e. 10k) within 9 months of your year end.

INCOME TAX: (see Page 16 of Jan 2012 Dark Side)

You know the score.

You have a Limited Company which helps SSG to help you pay as little Income Tax as is possible. You take your money from your Limited Company either as PAYE or as dividends.

At the end of your personal tax year (which is March 31st every year for all of us), you need to generate a Self Assessment tax return which tells the tax man how much income you have made and how much tax you owe.

Any tax that is due must be paid by January 31st of the following year.

Bottom line, because most of your money will technically be taken out of your business (& spent by you) as dividends, unless you take out more than £40k+ in the year up to March 31st, you will not need to pay any income tax.

But, on any money that you take out of the business above and beyond the £40k (ish) level, you will have a tax liability.

SO, WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

At the end of every month, make sure that you absolutely know, 100% factually, exactly what you owe (to date) for:

How much VAT money have I collected from Clients when I send them a Recruitment Invoice?

How much VAT money have I paid out to other Companies?

What is the difference?

My VAT Liability

- every quarter

My Company Tax (CT)

- every year

My Personal Tax (Income)

- every year

Darren -

01442 200961

A FEW MUST KNOW NUMBERS

What profits do my accounts show? What is the Corporation Tax rate on that level of profits?

Pay up 9 months after the Company Year End.

1. VAT

2. Corporation Tax &

3. Income Tax.

VAT

CT

Income Tax

Page 12

Page 21

Page 16

11

the Darkside.tvwww.

Page 6

CopingOK?

Inside this issue: Inside this issue:

Clare’s Apprentices

Cash Flow Toolkit!

On the Couch!

Selling Up! Pt 4

Chris goes all DIY Get Some Funding!

On the

Couc h.....

The Power of Three!

We’ll see ...

MA

RCH

2012

MA

RCH

SSG

SSG

Love SSG?Then make

it Pay!- see Page 20 -

VAT

TINCOME

C

1. What you owe (or what the ‘year to date’ estimate of what you will owe is) &

2. When the money actually has to be paid.

1. Make sure that you ‘set aside’ the money that you owe OR

2. Set in place a payment plan to have the money ‘set aside’.

You need to know:

You then need to:

HOW DO I FIND OUT WHAT IS DUE?

Contact SSG (Darren – 01442 200 961) and make sure that you agree with Darren that your Monthly Management Accounts already show this information.

If it is not clear to you, then talk to Darren & agree a layout which clearly shows you these three key numbers at the end of every month.

WHAT IF I KNOW THE NUMBERS, BUT

CAN’T PAY THE MONEY?

It may be a cliché, but the very best thing to do is to immediately enter a dialogue with the VAT man or the TAX man.

We can help of course and amazingly they want to help too – they would rather agree a payment plan with you than see your business go down the pan!

If you stop running a business, the probability is that the tax man will not see his money!

OK - ONE MORE TIME?

You must know what liability you have;

1. QUARTERLY – i.e. the VAT Man.2. ANNUALLY (business) – i.e. Corporation Tax &3. ANNUALLY (personal) – i.e. Income Tax.

If you don’t know these numbers inside out and back to front, then guess what? – yep, ignorance can kill!

The MadnessMadness of Funding a small business!

to talk to a bank whilst only 6% thought that talking to a broker was worth the effort.

BIG DEMAND:

The irony of this lack of effort on the part of small businesses owners is that there is (apparently) a huge demand for funding at these lower levels (£25,000 or less).

Some 60% of 300 businesses asked said that they had a need for a cash flow boost.

Apparently, very few small businesses shop around for funding – only 1 in 10 businesses said that they would bother

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) also confirmed that there had been a significant increase in the number of small businesses being refused finance at these levels.

SO WHAT?

If you want to get some cash together, you have to plan it and shop around.

Never accept the first lump of cash at whatever terms are offered!

If you can give yourself a little time to plan your need then the cost (& relevance) of what is available opens up hugely.

NEED HELP:

Want to chat it through? Give us a call.

You might be surprised to discover what is on offer.

Page 15 for Crowd Funding

Explanation!

Samantha slowly realised she had

no funding options....

Small business entrepreneurs are crazy when it comes to how to fund their business – apparently.

As the owner of a ‘small’ recruitment company you are more likely to rely upon credit cards, family loans, overdrafts or ‘pay day’ types of options to smooth out the cash flow issues than you are to shop around for funding alternatives.

It is also suggested that more small businesses go under because of a lack of understanding about business funding options than go under because there are no business funding options. Apparently.

CROWD FUNDING:

The latest buzz in small business funding is known as Crowd Funding – this is where private companies (often one-man bands) sell small equity stakes to a large number of shareholders.

The latest survey suggests that up to 90% of small business owners have never heard of such an option.

One of these types of funding was outlined by SSG in the March 2012 edition of TDS.

Let’s get working on those numbers

right now!

12

Employment levels are finally rising – that’s the official stance taken by the Government, backed by genuinely encouraging numbers generated by the Office for National statistics (via the guys with NHS glasses and 40 year old acne in the back office above the pub)

And, what is more, there are more Permanent Vacancies available to fill than at any time since 2008 – according to The Recruiter and many other sources.

Recruitment Agencies are doing as well as they have been since some idiot Bankers thought it was OK to gamble with other people’s money and that it was OK to lose.

But, if you are an independent Recruiter working in a niche sector of the economy, none of this good news may be making any difference to you at all?

You might still be struggling with low interview numbers and miserable returns on your effort & enthusiasm.

So, what do you do and what markets should you gamble on?

VIEW A: EMPLOYMENT UP,

OPTIMISM HIGH

So, all of this suggests that there is more demand in the UK employment market place than there has been for 5 years and that those in employment are being paid in advance of the rate of inflation.

Everything is great then?

At the same time, there are more Permanent Vacancies to full for Recruiters.

We are moving back to a more equal market place of candidates and vacancies.

We are (it would seem) moving away from a purely ‘Vacancy-led’ market towards a more equal scenario – not quite ‘candidate-led’ but better than it was.

VIEW B: COBBLERS – THINGS ARE

STILL BAD

The Economy shrank again last quarter - this is recession. Temporary vacancies are down (despite bullish reports from some factoring providers)

Recruitment fees are being squeezed and the sheer weight of applicants for each vacancy is slowing down the response rates from would-be employers.

YOUR VIEW:

You guys keep on telling SSG the same thing – it is tough but you are making money.

You are keeping your heads above water but it is harder work than it used to be (that it ought to be perhaps?)

We know that Permanent Vacancy numbers are up (the vacancy reports tell us that anyway) but on the other side of the coin, we also know that the Temp numbers are down (margin reports tell us that!)

We know that you don’t give up – the ‘attrition rate’ of SSG supported ventures is as strong as ever.

You seem to value your independence however hard it is to keep going.

You also point the finger at the same issues as you have done for a couple of years:

“Everything is great”

“Indecision is worse than no

decision!”

“Everything is awful”

Every CV you submit takes longer to be acted upon by an employer – fact.

Every placement takes longer to complete and more offers are being withdrawn or rejected – fact.

Placement fees are still being argued over – fact.

Cash is still King and only a minority of you are actually recruiting Recruiters to work with you.

The number of people in employment is at the highest level it has been since 2008 – fact.

Unemployment Claimants are down again in August 2012 by another 15,000 – fact.

Average pay is up by 1.5% in the quarter to July 2012 (which equates to annual growth in pay rates of 6% p.a.) whilst inflation is ‘only’ at 2.6% p.a.

UK output is still falling – i.e. we are producing less than we were. Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is down – fact.

Public Sector Employment is down by 235,000 in the last 6 months (teachers, nurses, council workers) – fact.

Businesses are not being lent money to expand their businesses and the housing markets is not bouncing back – fact.

Part Time solution toa Full Time

Problem....Employment levels are finally rising –that’s the official stance taken by thee

y e

– e

Need a Strategy to cope with the Economy?

13

A “PART-TIME”Solution....

to a “FULL-TIME”Problem....

Unless you are being every lucky or extremely good at what you do these days, it is still hard to make money – especially in the Temp’ market place.

SO, WHAT’S HAPPENING REALLY?

Without getting too technical about it, we are faced with a classic scenario faced by economies fighting to get out of recession:

‘‘Output continues to fall, pushing us

further into recession whilst

unemployment rates also fall’’

In other words, employment rates are up but only because workers are accepting part time work instead of full time jobs.

Yep, you guessed it, the statistics are right but the facts are still not great.

Every claimant coming off benefits (& so apparently reducing the rate of unemployment) is not necessarily taking a full time job.

Many thousands of previously ‘unemployed’ workers are now employed but only in part time posts.

Employers are still struggling so hard to actually produce anything that anyone wants to buy that they are having to cut back on full time employees and recruit part time staff – not temps’ but part time permanent staff.

THE OPPORTUNITY?

Recruiters are supposed to be like sharks – right?

Well, like any good shark, you need to keep pushing forward to stay alive!

Whilst we Recruiters are often labelled as sharks (in a bad way!), it is apparent that not many of us actually behave that way.

The tendency for most of us is to just keep doing the same old stuff and hope that things get better.

Rather than genuinely plan ahead and work against a plan, we simply pop the kettle on, have a bit of a moan and keep going.

If you place Temp’s, then you just keep trying to place Temp’s.

If you work on high level Perm’s, then that’s what you do, ignoring the low

hanging fruit (because it is a bit mouldy perhaps?)

Finally, if all else fails and you think that the ‘grass is always greener’ then statistics show that most Recruiters will decide to try to work the Recruitment To

Recruitment market!

The old nonsense that as a Recruiter, you know exactly what a Recruiter looks for in a job and you know exactly what an employer wants is still high on the list of rubbish that we all seem to spout when faced with the need to change!

So, what is the opportunity?

‘’Embrace the change in the

demographics of employment & start

placing Part Time staff’

Yep, start to think about specialising in recession busting Recruiting!

Give the employers what they need and offer qualified applicants what they feel they need to get back on that first run of employment again.

WHAT MARKETS?

The latest statistics are a little muddled still but seem to suggest that right across the employment spectrum; employers are keen to recruit full time talent at a

part time rate.

If you have a highly qualified anything, then the likelihood seems to be that an employer would love to hire that talent but on a part time basis.

Imagine a RTR agency comes forward and offers you a great Recruiter but on a part time basis & a part time cost.

In all probability, you would want a great recruiter and you would want to pay that Recruiter a part time salary if you could get away with it!

THE EMPLOYER ‘PITCH’

Why not try to help – & not to sell.

Be open with the potential employer – tell them that you appreciate that the cost of employing full time talent is high and that using an external Recruiter to find that guy simply adds to their risk – you understand their dilemma.

Tell them that you can see that in a market where prices are still low and where their output is being squeezed, they might need to provide even better service to their customers but at a reduced cost to their business.

You understand that the current market requires better service at a lower cost.

Tell them that you will only charge the equivalent of a 10% fee on the pro-rata rate that your part time workers will be employed.

Ask them to then pay another 5% of a full time placement fee IF they subsequently employ your part time applicant on a full time basis.

Don’t tell them that you want to form a proper, mutually rewarding relationship based on shared risk – actually do it!

THE APPLICANT ‘PITCH’

Why not try to help – & not to sell.

Same meat, different gravy here too guys.

Tell the candidate that you understand that they need a permanent job really.

Convince the candidate that you will still try to find them a full time permanent role but that you know they their CV needs to say ‘employed’ rather than ‘job seeker’.

Tell them that you work with a small number of employers who are trying to help talent back into the market place by sharing the risk of employment with the applicant.

“It’s not always easy to motivate

Candidates....

but you have to try!”

14

Power of Three!

Unleash the

RSVP....

You are very

welcome to attend

a free Business

Review with

SSG

Tell the applicant that the willingness that they can show in taking a permanent part time role is the best testimonial that they can ever have.

Tell them that you get paid more to find them a full time permanent post but that you appreciate the need to get them ‘employed’ before the market changes the way in which they are perceived as candidates.

Remind them that you have seen the ‘CV Stigma’ attached to the apparently long term unemployed.

Don’t tell them that you want to form a proper, mutually rewarding relationship based on shared risk – actually do it!

WHY BOTHER?

This is not a case of ‘pass it forward’ – it is being pragmatic, it is being a serious business, it is being a shark in the best sense of the metaphor.

Not only will you help your own business by being one of the few to recognise the change on the employment demographic, but you will generate goodwill here, there and everywhere!

Employers will come back to you with full time permanent vacancies.

They will remember that you were innovative & helpful.

Applicants will talk to other applicants but just as important, they will talk to their employer - both now and in the future.

If you are thinking about marketing strategies, try this.

Be the first to do something positive – the first to stop moaning, stop worrying and the first to solve a problem which is new to our generation.

Well, first you need to get your head in the right place.

This is a strategy which should run alongside what you do right now, not replace what you do right now!

If you are working 10 hours a day already, you may need to think about how you are working. If you still need a new strategy but if you are ‘normal’ then you are probably faced with that terrible scenario which we have all faced as Recruiters:

‘’I am struggling but it doesn’t seem

that I have an awful lot of work to do”

You know that score, you need to make more money but there doesn’t seem to be much work to actually do – not many vacancies and not many great candidates.

OK – so, what you need to do is:

You could also make this part of a wider business review & we would be happy to help.

Why not get on touch with Clare at SSG (01442 200 957) and arrange a business review meeting?

Even if this strategy doesn’t end up being the one that works for you, it may be that by talking to us we can come up with something new for you.

But whatever you do, remember the ‘good’ Shark in you and don’t forget the tried and tested definition of recruitment insanity which is...

‘’Doing the same thing time and time

again & expecting a different outcome’’

Enough said ah?!

You will make money.

You will help an employer.

You will help an applicant.

Do a little research. Ask your current clients if this might be helpful.

Chat to some of your longer term unemployed candidates.

Advertise a few ‘vacancies’ and get some candidates on your books who would accept this strategy.

Craft a personal ‘CV and covering note’ for your clients and give it a go!

15

Pop’s Pantry

Preheat your oven to gas mark 5

Prepare / dice all ingredients and then dice the chicken breasts

Add all ingredients into an ovenproof dish.

Mix together well and add any additional seasoning (salt & pepper)

Add any other vegetables to suit your own taste

Put into the oven for around 45 minutes to an hour

Make sure all chicken and vegetables are cooked thoroughly

Serve with salad

Enjoy.... Yummy!

4 diced chicken breasts

3 large diced peppers

Diced onion

1 Tin chopped tomatoes

1 Tin tomato soup

Fresh Basil

Dried mixed herbs

Add other vegetables / ingredients to suit

Salt and Pepper for seasoning

Easy Chicken Casserole :The How:The What:

Comfort Food for Fed-up Recruiters

Welcome to new kid on the block, Cassia

Resourcing. A rarity in that this company is within walking distance of our offices here in Berkhamsted. We wish Louise all the very best as she embarks on her new venture in IT recruitment.

Breaking News .....It’s amazing what goes on out there in ‘SSG

Client-Land’!Here are a few snippets of news from around

the ‘network’.

d on assia

ty in within

fficeswish

shein IT

HAVE

YOUR

SHOUT!

Newsworthy itemsWelcomed by

[email protected]

Many congratulations to Gloucester based Jones

and Stone who have secured a place on a tricky PSL in the financial sector – we hope it all goes really well.

Congratulations to Barnes Frank who have smashed into the

healthcare space with their usual drive and enthusiasm. The company is expanding with the addition of another team member who is currently being schooled in the Barnes Frank way of recruiting. We look forward to seeing the impact Maria has on the business and wish her a great career in this fast growing business.

Well done to Taylor

George and Coleman

Grace on some really fat fees (near to £20k) for one deal – not bad going!

Congratulations to aviation specialists, Platinum 21 who pick up

the award for “dark horse” recruitment agency of the year – Kathryn makes the task of placing errant pilots into private clients in the middle east look like a walk in the park and is expanding her business as a result of the success she has in this market.

Lots of questions surrounding the problems of getting registered for

VAT this month. It seems that HMRC are changing their criteria for this process; DDR Staffing,

Semplice and CDC Technical have all had to grapple with this ‘new way’ this month Fingers crossed for

Purely PA who are on the brink of securing

some potentially incredibly lucrative business in Afghanistan – in a market far removed from their current one of placing Director’s Secretaries in London! A speculative piece of work 6 months ago has led to the company being chosen as sole agency for the placement of mining engineers into a very specific arena – we wish Jason all the very best of luck in this diversification!

Congratulations to Peterborough based industrial recruitment

agency, Recruit Mint who continue to go from strength to strength in their market. A mark of their success is their continual focus on future pipeline and this has gathered momentum very quickly in a tough market – we predict an amazing 2013 for this new company and they continue to be very much one to watch.

We wish Cathy Richardson of CR Associates all the very best as she takes a

well-deserved sabbatical from her business. Cathy has built her company up in such as way that its standing in the automotive aftermarket space and her financial success in this market means that she can take some time out. We look forward to hearing all about her travels when she returns in 2013

What’s New Pussy Cat?

16

V.exciting new start up workingin the Perm’ Technical Engineering marketKeen footy fan (can‘t

be easy being Scottish AND a football fan!)

has decided to jump ship after a solid stint with his former employer.

Good luck to him & another business

North of the border

BONNYSCOTLAND!

Oct2012

For more info, contact:[email protected]

Ah, like a familiar friendor a warm bath or a

fresh pair of underpants, it is always great to

welcome anotherCommercial Recruiter!

5 years of the HertsTemp’ market

knowledge is aboutto translate into

keeping at least 70%of all billings - yippee!

AN OLDFAVOURITE!

Oct2012

For more info, contact:[email protected]

Rob

ert

from

Ric

kman

swor

th JOKER! £50

WINNER!

JQ:

A:

Why did the Recruitment Consultant tip-toe past the medicine cabinet?

So she wouldn’t wake the sleeping pills!

Am

y fr

om C

royd

on

JOKER! £50

WINNER!

yy

J

If a Recruitment Consultant and Estate Agent were falling off a buliding, who would hit the ground first?

A: The Estate Agent because the Recruitment Consultant would stop to ask for directions!

Q:

Send us your funnies

and we’ll give you £50 for each one we print!

We must be mad!

£50

Congratulations to Smart10 who continue to push the boundaries and

who have been rewarded with a place as finalists in the Herts Business Awards – we expect lots of sparkle and clinking of champagne glasses at the presentation night in November – good luck to the team on their well-deserved place in the finals - photos please!!

Welcome to newbie, Watch House Recruitment who will work the IT and

Engineering market – we wish Darren all the very best in this new venture.

Some Nappy

News to celebrate!Congratulations to welfare to work agency Genie

Personnel, who have a new young consultant in the form of Baby Amber Sophia – all achieved without the need of 3 wishes and some huge bloke appearing from a lamp!

Ale

x fr

om P

eter

boro

ugh

JOKER! £50

WINNER!

g

JQ:

A:

Why was the Recruitment Consultant up the tree?

Because he was raking up the leaves!

Did you know?.......

8,000 Recruiters receive this

...........

Congratulations on a first deal for CDC Technical – the first of many for

Matthew we are sure!

Very sad to see the closure of Roberts and

Sachs who, after a long and at times bitter legal fight, have decided to cease trading. We wish Lizette all the very best in her next career move and we will all miss her very much.

Sentio Solutions continues to take on the most prestigious of clients

and seemingly walks onto PSLs in the way most of us would saunter into Sainsbury’s! We continue to have great admiration for Rob’s attention to detail and sheer chutzpah in the face of apparently impenetrable PSL walls and sliding doors!

Congratulations to building services recruiter, Arco, who have

really exploited their pole position as Tier 1 supplier for a major client – Joe and his team continue to work tirelessly on their Clients behalf and have the added enjoyment of bossing the likes of Randstad around lower down the Tier structure!

Actually, it’s all languageswith this one.

Experienced Recruiter withmany years of languages

recruitment knowledge has decided enough is enough & it’s time to do her own

thing. For her the war is over! Let’s just hope

that the stronglinguistics market inEurope helps her to

‘win the peace’

DOUBLEDUTCH?!

Oct2012

For more info, contact:[email protected]

17

WHY RECRUITING…… LOOKS EASY!

One of SSG’s great friends and super successful Clients (Esther Greenwood of Satarah) recently noticed an article quietly demonstrating the true art of being a Great Recruiter.

This is a parable which every Recruiter ought to memorize and challenge themselves to repeat to at least three grumpy, ungrateful End-Clients every year.

Have a read and let us know what you think!Thank you Esther!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There is an absolutely wonderful children’s book called 20 Heartbeats about a painter who paints a horse for a very wealthy man.

I hate to ruin it for you, but I have to say what happens.

The rich man pays this famous painter to paint his favorite horse. But years go by and the painter won’t finish the painting.

The rich man finally shows up at the painter’s house and demands the painting.

The painter obligingly whips out a piece of parchment, dashes off a horse in black ink with his brush, and then hands the painting to the rich man.

All this takes less than the time of 20 heartbeats.

The rich man is, of course, aghast. He storms after the painter to demand his money back.

However, as he walks after the painter, he sees what has been taking so long.

All along the walls are hundreds and hundreds of painted horses. The painter wasn’t procrastinating, he was practicing.

The rich man then finally takes a look at the painting that he purchased so long ago, now in his hands.

It’s a perfect horse, a horse so real that he whistles to it.

As every art form takes discipline and practice to look easy, every kind of work takes years of diligence to perfect.

Recruiting is no different, but few professions look so simple. It’s really hard to pass along a piece of paper, right?

You can almost hear hiring managers thinking to themselves, “Yeah, I’ll bet your fingers are really tired from dragging all those resumes from a folder into an email. Real hard work.”

Few jobs seem so easy to duplicate.

The end product of recruiting, for one thing, is someone’s else’s work – it is someone else’s talent, ability to interview, and everything else they have that gets them hired that is the end product of the recruiter’s process.

It’s hard to pinpoint the recruiter’s exact role in this pseudo-science.

Did they identify the talent? Spot them? Find them? Assess them? Understand the job? The culture? Have the right database? The right connections? The right insight into the department or hiring manager psychology?

Did they make a lot of calls or know some secret strings to search for in Google?

It’s hard to say what it is exactly that the

recruiter does and so it’s easy to discount the recruiter’s role entirely.

However, we might be looking at it wrong. A recruiter’s value can’t be found within the process of a single hire. It can’t be found in that space that sometimes spans twenty heartbeats between talking to a manager about a job to the identification of a possible talent.

You have to look at everything that comes before that identification to see the value of a good recruiter.

A great recruiter creates the conditions for that magic luck to strike. They don’t talk to a lot of different people. They talk to everyone. They don’t want to know their clients or their company’s competitors, they want to know everything that’s happening at every company in their area.

It’s a massive amount of work that requires constant rejection, failure, stress, and is compounded by the minutiae of job offers and the uncertainty of human emotion.

That’s why very few succeed at recruiting. It’s not like there is anything special about that one placement. There is nothing about identifying a candidate and getting them a job offer that requires any particular kind of magic, or even a college degree for that matter.

Unlike a beautiful painting, anyone or any recruiter can luck out and make a placement or two. But the background required for long-term recruiting success is much different.

It involves the deep study of companies, products, markets, assessment, and professions coupled with a kind of brute force stamina to doggedly pursue the talents of other people.

This is the process that forges the recruiter’s talent. This talent, when functioning at its best, is impossible to find.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks again Esther – I, for one will use this story as often as I can, whenever I can with whomever I can!

18

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

& no, thinking is not the

same as wasting time!

AND IAM

WORTH IT!

RECRUITMENTISN’T

EASY....

OK – this may sound daft, but as a group of superstar Recruiters and Incubation Service Providers (that’s us by the way), we need to start to talk the same language!

It is really important that when we discuss your Company Monthly Management Accounts & your business Cash Flow that we start to understand the difference between:

A GENERATED PLACEMENT:So, as a Recruiter we all know that we think of a Generated Placement as the moment that a candidate confirms that they are taking the job and they give you a start date.

Most months, we all work towards ‘generating’ our monthly revenue target (e.g. 10k) and as the month progresses we might achieve that target as a result of three placements:

Mr. SMITH accepted a job at Marconi starting in December (5k fee).Mr. JONES accepted a job at HOOPERS starting in January (3k fee) &Mr. BROWN accepted a job at SSG starting in January (2k) fee.

So, we would all say that this month (which we will call November!), we ‘generated’ 10k.

This is really an internal target and of no interest to the tax man, vat man or anyone outside your closet family and friends (who don’t really care – they are just being nice you know).

AN INVOICED PLACEMENT:Right, here we are in December and we ask SSG to blast out the invoice for the 5k fee for Mr. Smith (generated in November).

It being a new month, we may well have also ‘generated’ another placement or two in December, but that is nothing to do with what we INVOICE in December.

In December, we INVOICED 5k (one placement)

This means that on your Profit & Loss sheet (part of your Monthly Management Accounts), you will see 5k on the top line.

Of course, you haven’t actually got the

1. A Generated Placement2. An Invoiced Placement &

3. A ‘Cash Flowed’ Placement.

money yet, but the invoice has been raised and the P&L recognises this wonderful event!

The tax man & vat man care about this 5k! This is now an external event!

A ‘CASH FLOWED’ PLACEMENT:If you are smart, not only do you ask SSG to produce your Monthly Management Accounts (which are really a historic look at what has happened in your business), but you will also ask SSG to generate a CASH FLOW for your business (which is really a projection of what money will come in & go out of your business).

It is now January & yet again you may well have ‘generated’ some more placements, but we are only concerned with the placements which were generated in November and have been invoiced since.

Let’s assume that you expect your invoices to be paid in 30 days (following the delivery of your invoice to the end client).

This means that the latest situation is as follows:

November: Generated 10kDecember: Invoiced 5k.January: Received 5k & Invoiced another 5k (i.e. our 3k & 2k placements)

So, your CASH FLOW will say that you receive 5k in January (1 placement). This means that your CASH FLOW will include this 5k as ‘money in’.

We expect the other 5k of November ‘generated’ placements to show in our CASH FLOW for February (i.e. 30 days after they were INVOICED)

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT:Because you have to think of ‘generating’ placements as your monthly target. When those placements actually get invoiced (i.e. the start dates) and when those invoices get paid are just happy events – they are not what you should target yourself on.

You must target yourself on GENERATED income and make sure that each month; you start with a clean slate and try to ‘generate’ more placements – whenever they might start!

Recruitment terminologyRecruitment terminology

19

POINT THE FINGER ......

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