Only 32% of SME businesses have sought external advice or information on matters affecting their business in the last 12 months.
Source: BIS

Less than 5% of SME businesses had significantly increased growth plans for the coming 12 months.
Source: BIS

Of the SME businesses that sought advice in the last 12 months, 28% needed help with their business strategy.
Source: BIS

70% of businesses questioned didn’t seek advice o key issues because they felt it was too expensive.
Source: BIS

61% of business owners didn’t know where to go for business support and advice.
Source: BIS

49% of start-up businesses will cease trading within 5 years.
Source: BIS

42% of SME businesses view cash-flow as being an obstacle to the success of their business.
Source: BIS

38% of SME businesses sought finance to support working capital and cash-flow.
Source: BIS

Only 28% of SME businesses increased their annual turnover in the last 12 months.
Source: BIS

Only 41% of SME businesses anticipated a profit / surplus increase when compared with the previous 12 months results.
Source: BIS

Small Business demand for external finance is at the highest level seen since December 2007.
Source: BIS

8% of SME businesses anticipated closure or a transfer of ownership in the next 12 months.
Source: BIS

Only 39% of SME’s were ‘very confident’ of success when applying for finance.
Source: BIS

Of the SME businesses that sought advice in the last 12 months, 51% needed help with their key financial issues.
Source: BIS

Only 11% of SME businesses are planning to move premises in the next 12 months.
Source: BIS

Only 34% of SME businesses reported any new or significantly improved processes in the last 12 months.
Source: BIS

Just over 50% of SME businesses delivered new or significantly improved products or services in the last year.
Source: BIS

76% of failed businesses suffered from either weak financial management or weak marketing capabilities.
Source: BIS

Businesses with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37% chance of surviving four years and only a 9% chance of surviving 10 years.
Source: BIS

Over 25% of owners feel their marriage or personal partnership have been adversely damaged by their business and are left too tired for sex. Source: BIS

Only 35% of SME businesses felt they have a ‘very good’ relationship with their bank.
Source: BIS

62% of business owners didn’t feel they could trust the business advice that was currently on offer.
Source: BIS

48% of owners didn’t feel that the right type of advice existed currently for their business.
Source: BIS

Only 16% of businesses had used some form of business mentor in the last 12 months.
Source: BIS

87% of consumers believe that SME businesses are a critical element of the overall economic health.
Source: BIS

48% of SME owners say what they need most to stay afloat through the recession is more customers.
Source: BIS

Of the small businesses that sought advice in the last 12 months, 23% needed help with their marketing and advertising.
Source: BIS

Only 39% of SME businesses have recruited new employees in the last 12 months.
Source: BIS

Just 30% of SME businesses are planning to recruit any new staff in the coming year.
Source: BIS

14% of SME businesses feel they will need to lose staff in the next 12 months.
Source: BIS

Less than 40% of SME businesses plan to undertake any staff training in the next 12 months.
Source: BIS

Less than 40% of SME businesses invested in training to develop Leadership and Management skills.
Source: BIS

Over 40% of SME businesses have no idea how much their recruitment and selection costs.
Source: BIS

80% of business owners admitted to having a problem in successfully balancing the competing demands of work and home.
Source: BIS

Every business owner deserves the right to learn how to increase sales, multiply their profits with our help you can!
Source: BIS

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Case Study - SurePay Limited

Part of a dynamic group of companies, SurePay is a leading provider of back office solutions for businesses across the UK, primarily in the Recruitment Sector. The company was looking to employ a new Company Accountant. This was a high profile role, the job-holder being required to not only develop and sustain effective financial and management procedures for both the SurePay group and its clients, but to also act as a key business enabler, with experience in the design and delivery of strategic projects to drive essential service improvement and change initiatives.

Having invested in significant print and online advertising campaigns, the company had been unable to attract the right calibre of candidate. As a result, they had been in talks with a number of recruitment agencies who had quoted fees of between 20% - 28.5% of starting salary, which equated to minimum fess of £13k through to over a whopping £18k!

Even with a better quality candidate, SurePay would still have had to devote further time, cost and effort to the actual selection of the right candidate.

I was already working with the group on the design and delivery on a number of key management development initiatives and, given my background in recruitment and selection, I was asked to review the company’s current processes and make recommendations as to the most efficient / cost-effective way forward.

Working closely with the MD and General Manager, I was able to make the following proposals:

-    The redesign of the current Job Description and Role profile for the Company Accountant to better reflect the experience, skills and behaviours necessary to be effective in the role.
-    This information could then be used to create a new Job advert; one that gave a clearer picture of the needs and demands of the actual Company Accountant role, and also acted as an initial candidate ‘screen’, to allow unsuitable applicants to ‘deselect’ themselves at an early stage.
-    Focused advertising in key media (online and print), with a proven track-record in senior accountancy roles.
-    The creation of an ‘ideal’ behavioural profile for the Company Accountant role. In my experience, most businesses recruit people for their technical capabilities, and fire them for their behavioural skills – or lack of! Given that this new job involved considerably more than just a traditional accountancy experience, it was important to get the right behavioural attributes, including; exceptional communications skills, the proven ability to influence others, and the capacity to operate in a fast-paced, challenging environment.


-    A complete restructure of their selection process; this had previously entailed an interview with one or more of the senior management team; however, given the seniority, complexity and salary attached to the role, it was critical that any candidate was put through a rigorous, but time and cost-effective process that provided a complete 360° perspective of the individual. I recommended using a competency-based interview – focusing on specific examples from a candidates previous work history; a personality profile to check behavioural compatibility – both with the role and the wider company culture, and a series of psychometric tests to assess an individual’s ‘mental horsepower’ and learning capability.

SurePay accepted my recommendations, and the revised advert was placed with three advertisers – two online and one print; all with the required track-record in delivering quality candidates.

The outcome was the receipt of 4 candidate CV’s; a far lower response than for the previous adverts, but all of whom were of the desired calibre and, consequently, all were taken to the selection stage. Whilst the MD and General Manager had initial ‘informal’ interviews with each of the candidates, I and two colleagues ran the one-day selection centre. From this, one candidate (who, on the day, came out head and shoulders above the other applicants) was recommended for consideration by the SurePay board and was subsequently taken on by the company.

The whole process took just over 1 month to complete, and SurePay got the right candidate for the role – in terms of experience, expertise and behavioural fit.

The project was brought in for just over £8,500; a saving of £4,500 and that didn’t include the potential opportunity cost of SurePay’s senior manager’s having to run the selection centre – conservatively estimated at around £2,500 – and also the impact, given their lack of experience and / or expertise in recruitment and selection of hiring the wrong person.

Research has shown that, on average, it costs 3.5 times the actual job salary to recruit and train somebody into a role; now this may be verging towards the ‘teaching you to suck eggs’ territory, but for even the most junior employee, earning say, £12,000, that equates to £42,000 – in this particular case study, the wrong decision would have cost them nearly 5.5 times that figure!

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