Hire for attitude, train for skill
Hello again! I have been reading the blogs and have had a few more thoughts on the issues that some of you are raising.
A client mentioned to me last month that he’s started trying to be a bit more innovative in his business, which I think is a really valuable exercise. We run a Business Ideas Workshop that aims to help you see beyond your current way of doing things, pushing you to think about your product differently and about innovative new ways of working (crucial in the light of the global economic crisis we’re possibly heading into.) One of the challenges of business is you get into a very narrow focus and can’t see the wood for the trees. That’s why your business advisor is useful because you can bounce ideas off them and they can say, “Well, you’re being very narrow minded here” and “Have you thought of this?”
Now, saying that, I’m going to completely contradict myself! One blogger was talking about the difficulties of juggling multiple jobs, all very different. A phrase I learnt a few years ago was “Jack of all trades, master of none”. I think it’s important not to over-stretch yourself but to take a step back and look at which things you’re best at (i.e. most profitable at) and to focus on getting that up and running before you develop another project.
Stock control is another crucial issue. One blogger runs a dress hire company and was talking about the quandary of selling dresses when they are reaching the end of their hire life. However, if she sells a dress, she has to purchase more to replenish the stock. This is a cash flow issue. When you hear of a business going under, it’s normally not because they haven’t got good business ideas, it’s that their cash flow doesn’t work for them. A business could be waiting for a client to pay them and if they don’t pay at the right time, their business could have serious cash flow problems! This blogger will have to carefully consider whether she can actually afford to sell the dress; while she might benefit from the quick cash that comes from a sale, does it cover the cost of buying a totally new dress? She has to weigh up her options and see what works best for her business.
This one I’m very passionate about; hiring the right staff. You MUST invest in the recruitment process. An excellent phrase a company I used to work for came up with is “Hire for attitude, train for skill”. You should hire somebody because they have the right attitude – even if they don’t have the right skills, it is possible to train them. If you get the right attitude working for your organisation, promoting and believing in your business, then it’s a better investment for you. If you hire for skill, you’ll end up having to recruit new people every few years, which takes a lot of time and effort because they don’t feel any loyalty to your business.
Somebody mentioned marketing again. Business Link are putting on quite a lot of marketing courses, covering subjects like how to turn your website into a customer magnet. A lot of people are using Facebook and other things like that instead of a website and while I’m not saying that social networking sites aren’t a way of reaching customers, (because I know for some people it’s been very successful,) our workshops are about trying to make your website work for you and how to get it high up on the search engines etc. I would really recommend the Business Link workshop if you need help with marketing or sorting out your website.
If you do use Facebook as a marketing tool one of the best marketing tools I have seen on here is:
1 – joining local groups and sticking a wall message to all of them – with a discount for group members
2 – using your profile to ‘network’ – keep in touch with customers, possibly as a mini newsletter……. But – you are right, this should be incidental to the companies main web site – Links on the main site to the facebook account is good and vice versa.
I hope this was helpful! Feedback is very welcome!
