Expert View WHY YOU NEED TO
BE MORE GOOGLE by Richard Few
founder of Sales Geek
There any many tough things about starting out in business and trying to scale a brand but attracting and acquiring talent is high on the list.
If you can’t inspire others to get on your bus you will struggle to get out of the starting blocks, let alone scale.
For me it starts with defining very early on who you are, what your values are and what your purpose is.
Values-based recruitment is at the heart of how we hire. We seek out the best people who believe in what we believe, behave how we behave and will not just be a ‘culture fit’ but a ‘culture add’.
This starts with making yourself attractive, so the best talent finds you. A part of your marketing budget and resource should be focused on talent acquisition not just client acquisition. If people want to work for your
brand scaling becomes a whole lot easier and a lot more enjoyable.
As a young business you often can’t compete on salaries with bigger businesses, so you must compete in a different way. It’s no different to sales and selling your product or service, if you don’t create a genuine point of difference then the lowest common denominator is money.
Create a strong brand identity centred around your values, have a clear purpose and invest time in inspiring others to join your mission.
Having a team of likeminded people who share your belief in your goals is so powerful that it allows you to go and compete on a national or international level.
Lastly, once you find these amazing people do everything you can to look after them and help them achieve their goals.
Both appointments are on a part-time basis and the non-execs work strategically with Stephen and the board.
The group is also looking to bring in a group sales manager who will report directly to the board, an appointment that will allow Stephen and Geoff to step back from their current day to day roles and spend more time working on, rather than in the business.
Stephen advises: “Surround yourself with people that are way in advance of you. You are the conductor of the orchestra, that doesn’t mean you have to be the best pianist or oboe player.
“The orchestra has great musicians, but it needs that person in front of them with the baton.
“You drive the strategy and the vision. Work with people who have already done it and they’ll tell you exactly what to do and how to do it.”
Business experts stress that effective leadership and the ability to boost leadership capacity to encompass growth is fundamental to any scaleup journey.
A ScaleUp Institute survey in 2019 revealed there were still gaps, particularly around peer-to-peer networks and non-executive director access.
The institute says that leaders in rapidly scaling companies need to learn to cope quickly with changing demand.
Ben Rhodes is managing director of Lancashire- based recruitment specialists Tailor Made. He says it is vital that companies looking to scaleup and grow have the right senior management team in place.
He says: “If you don’t you are effectively having to manage day-to-day, hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute.
“Getting the right senior team in place means that, after a period of settling in, you can look at strategy, you can look creatively, and you can spend time measuring performance.
“It gives you time to develop and understand a set of statistics that can support your growth. That monitoring can be a real game-changer.”
Two Zero is a dynamic scaleup support network for ambitious Lancashire companies aspiring to grow 20% per year.
Ben Rhodes
When it comes to recruiting that top team, Ben says it is important to understand the culture of the business and the detail of the role and the pressures of the job you are looking to fill.
There is a financial investment in appointing a new senior member of staff that goes beyond a simple salary. Ben says: “Getting it wrong can be costly. If that person you have recruited leaves within 10 or 11 months, that can be a huge hit on the bottom line.”
Building momentum: page 27
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SCALING UP
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