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

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2011

30k Basic 50% Equity!

Herts base for a GREAT Recruiter

See Page 2 for Details

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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:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

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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

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BLAST OFF! October2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

13

I.T. MattersSelling a BusinessGill and MMA’sRecruiters in a BarVoice of VikkiSerious Stuff

Two NewAnother Two3 this timeAnd 2 More!

Cold Calling!Survey TimeEconomics ‘101’The SSG PhDEntrepreneurs’ Relief

Exciting Vacancies!Belly LaughComfort FoodDon’t forgetWorth a ReadNext Time

Well, we asked for feedback following our first effort at publication of TDS last month & boy, did we get it?!

So, no complaints from us even though we did in fact get the odd complaint from you! Fortunately, most of the feedback was positive and there were only one or two occasions where we contemplated suicide as an alternative to another attempt at getting it right!

Truthfully, we are very grateful for the response and hope that we have incorporated most of your observations into this & future versions of TDS. It seemed that the one consistent complaint went something along the lines of ‘what took you so long?’ – which is a nice way we hope of suggesting that we ought to have made more of an effort historically to get the word ‘out there’ about what is on offer for budding entrepreneurs and their businesses. Fair enough.

The most savage and (hopefully) unique ‘feedback’ was sent by an existing client of Support Services Group who attempted to send an anonymous email from her private email account (which is in fact partly made up of her name!) who observed that we should ‘shove TDS where the sun don’t shine’ (which must be rainy Manchester I guess?). Oh well, you can’t please everyone!

So, anyway, keep the comments coming please. We are genuinely keen to improve TDS with each issue and appreciate that every publication needs to be at least vaguely useful to justify the trees that have been felled in the name of ‘communication’.

Highlights this issue include news of the launch of the SSG Doctoral Programme in Entrepreneurship (www.SSG-PhD.tv). This unique initiative has already been attracting some welcome publicity but really kicks off in January 2012. We also start our series of articles aimed at exploding the mystique of how to Sell Your Business – great fun and full of direct advice of what needs to be done to extract value from your business. Chris Ion waffles on about Google + whilst Gill explains why your Monthly Management Accounts are so important. As ever, Clare is serious about her ‘Serious Stuff’.

Anyway, please enjoy and let us know what you think – hopefully avoiding 4-letter fuelled tirades and remembering to be careful about which email account you use when letting ‘someone have it!’.

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

Greedy?

Lazy?

Maybe.

Other Stuff

Are Banks all the same?

Features

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19

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26

27

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For the latest SSG Launches, please take a peek at pages ...

3

THE DEATH OF ‘COLD CALLING’?For most of we merry band of Recruiters, cold-calling can leave us, well - cold. Hammering the ‘phone all day to find new vacancies is hard work, irritating to the potential Client and largely unsuccessful. ‘All part of the Recruiters job’ we are told – just tough luck, a numbers game. Yada yada – just get on with it!

Let’s face it though, digging up a vacancy via an unsolicited ‘phone call which a prospective Client is actually happy for you to work on usually means that the vacancy is toxic in some way! The job is rubbish, the money is worse and along with the requirement to work-nights and weekends the boss has bad breath! (& that’s just a job at SSG!).

Charlie sometimes regretted wasting

his youth on cold calling...

SOULTION

So, thanks to a great partnership with a brilliant Company called Innovantage, SSG can now offer all of our clients up to the minute VACANCY LISTINGS!

Not just any old vacancy listing mind you, but a listing so pumped full of steroids and additives that even the infamous Columbian Drug Lord Pablo

Escobar would be interested in a regular supply!

The results of ‘Cold Calling’ are often

just ‘Toxic Vacancies’

WHAT IS IT?

As often as you wish, any SSG Client can choose to have us generate a Vacancy Report covering any market sector and any UK geography. You define the terms of the report (market and geography) and SSG will email to you an Excel based report covering the Employer Name, Address, Vacancy Date, Job Title, Vacancy Location, Salary, Advert Copy (if available), Telephone Numbers.... & so on

EXAMPLE

Let’s say that every week, you want to know what SOFTWARE VACANCIES there are in Bucks, Herts and Bedfordshire or, you want to know what RECRUITER VACANCIES exist in Glasgow – or CNC VACANCIES in Birmingham. You get the idea of course!

HOW?

Innovantage is what is generically known as a Sales Spider – in that the clever software used by the Cardiff based Company tracks (daily) over 1.5 million live online job postings from the UK’s leading job boards and hundreds of thousands of employer websites, and helpfully differentiates between direct employer and agency advertisers.

This is ‘lead generation’ software at its finest.

WORTH IT?

Recruiters can use the system not only to generate vacancy listings, but also to track customers and competitors. So, in addition to generating the vacancy listings for SSG Clients, we can also perform targeted searches (which can be saved) using a range of parameters including location, discipline, salary, private or public sector roles, and job type . On top of that, the system enables you to continue building your database of key contacts and decision makers.

But I guess the most obvious benefit is that the software saves you invaluable time & (often wasted) effort (i.e. cold calling!).

COST?

As a SSG Client, we are able to offer you this service for free, thanks to the cooperation and generosity of Innovantage in allowing us to contract with their wonderful business.

NEXT STEPS

Please contact Catherine White on

01442 200 945 to find out how to make the most of this amazing system.

The ‘Sales Spider’ that never stops!

Something New

How does it work / what features are

available?

The idea is to compartmentalise your contacts into different sets – “Circles”. Using “Sparks” & “Hangouts” to get information and communicate in real-time through both Video-Conferencing and blogging.Circles:Ever thought of your Boss as a circle before? You can now.....

“Share information / photos / conversations with

different sets of contacts (whom you choose)

and in different ways”

The next best thing to Teleportation!“Beam me up Google +”

I can see this being a really useful advertising medium – particularly for offering specific jobs to those subscribing to the relevant job type (more about that in How Can You apply this to your Business).

At the time of writing I was unable to find out how this works – whether they are Google-controlled feeds or whether you as a recruiter with a Google+ account can set this up and use it as an advertising stream.I particularly see this as useful in the Retail and Media Industries – film releases, new album from a particular artist, special offer at a supermarket this week only etc.

I’m not sure how “commercial” this section is but I can imagine it will be used heavily for marketing targeted products / services – perhaps in a similar way to Google AdWords (where you sponsor certain keywords to enable your Google advert to appear when someone searches on that word – for example if someone searches for Engineering Jobs on Google then you may have sponsored Engineering as an AdWord to display your advert in their search results).

Hangouts:

Where the cool people go to socialise!Using video-conferencing this is the next best thing to Teleportation! You can have multiple people involved in the same video-conference – so you could join your candidates and clients up with a video link and hold interviews over the web – and watch how your candidate gets on – brings a whole new way of interviewing (at least for first stage interviews anyway). It’s a great way of keeping in touch visually – although it may tempt you to not go out with your mates and just video chat with them of course!

What is it?

The aim is to re-invent the way we network and to make sharing online more like sharing in real life. By compartmentalising your contacts you can communicate with them all from one interface – and choose which contacts can see each other and talk / communicate with each other – both in real-time (video-conferencing) and through the blog style system (system to add comments regularly, logging your activity / emotions / events online – either for people to see or just to act as a journal or diary, called Blog based on it being a WeBlog).

You can share information / photos / conversations with different sets of contacts (whom you choose) and in different ways.

So, in short it’s Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all rolled into one – assuming that you have contacts that have a Google+ account.

If you’re familiar with the Venn Diagram, this idea is based on that, overlapping circles, sharing some content in the overlaps and keeping the rest unavailable to each circle – see Venn Diagram below:

Google+ is the easiest way to differentiate between and communicate with people in all areas of your life, assuming that all the people involved in your life have a Google+ account of course! Keep your friends and family separate from your Boss and work contacts. Use Circles for Candidates – perhaps in different disciplines – and Client Contacts. Perhaps a separate circle for work colleagues and one for bosses. These Circles can then be combined – for example work colleagues can share with client contacts. Combine and share your Friends “circle” with your Family “circle”.The basic idea is to share the right stuff with the right people.

Sparks:

Sparks of inspiration sparking innovation and interest.......As in sparks of information or sparks of interest. Here you allow targeted information and offers for those times when you want to just be “fed” something you’re interested in.

Chris’ IT Review

a simple Venn Diagram

Family Friends

Candidates Clients

Me

advertising. As the service grows in popularity I am sure that there will be ways of targeting specific jobs to people choosing their “sparks”. It seems that currently it is google-led in terms of content but it is inevitable that this will be opened up to advertisers (and I’m sure it will work in a similar way to AdWords)

Assuming this is the case, there will be the facility to sponsor a “spark” and have you adverts delivered to the user in their chosen “spark” – for example a candidate

in your candidate “circle” might put “Engineering” as a “Spark” they are interested in – so you may be able to target your “Engineering” Job adverts through this stream.

The video-conferencing as mentioned above could be used for both your initial interview with a candidate and also as a first interview with a client. You could use it for talking to your own staff and also if you have multiple contacts at a company that you want to discuss roles with, it opens up the possibility of having a meeting without having to co-ordinate a physical meet at their head-office.

These are of course just suggested ways of using it. I am sure if you get yourself subscribed you will find other ways to benefit.

How do you get started

The system is currently in “Limited Field Trial” and as such is only open to the privileged few that have been invited by Google or an existing Google+ member. If you receive an email invite, it is as simple as clicking on the email, adding a profile (name and gender) and clicking go. We expect this to be removed when the system goes “live” so I won’t waste too many words on joining right now.

If you know someone who is already subscribed, ask them to invite you – they’ll probably be only too keen at this stage as it is early days.

When they do, don’t be too disappointed if it still doesn’t let you in. They have a limit on the number of subscriptions they are allowing at this stage.

Huddles:

Like Cuddles by Text!...Turn texting into conversation by texting multiple people at the same time – like the Hangouts but by text. Useful if you’re having a debate about a candidate with multiple HR people (as an example)

Photo storage and sharing

I’ve got something to show you......but only if I let you......You can upload photos instantly with your phone and choose who is allowed to view them from your circles. Photos are uploaded to a private storage area. You then give access to chosen circles to allow them to view them. This could be useful for storing candidate photos and giving access to them to your clients.

Who’s it for?

In a word, ANYONE! Sorry, that’s a word and an exclamation.

If it takes off (hopefully better than Google Wave a couple of years ago!) then this really could be “the one” to use both for Social and Business Networking. It allows you to do both under one roof and keep them separate – or combine them if you’re as sad as me and business is pleasure etc...!

It will take a while for Google+ to gain sufficient users and networks to be set up but if you are one of the fortunate ones to have been invited (more on this in “How do you get started” later), it would be worth signing up. I’ve just done it and found a couple of regular contacts already – admittedly they are personal contacts!

LinkedIn will probably remain “the” business network, at least until this gets some wind under its wings but it realistically could replace Facebook and Twitter fairly quickly. There are rumours of Facebook creating a “groups” system so the jury is out until that is fully released.

Is it any good?

The idea’s got mileage!....On first look this looks fantastic. An easy way to get everyone you know under one roof and use this as a useful tool to keep in touch – and of course as a business tool to save mileage and inappropriate candidate submissions. It could speed up the whole recruitment process by arranging first interviews via video-conferencing and allows you to

very fruitful and was all about getting as many people (whom you don’t know) as possible to add you as a “friend”. It’s a lot of work to get it working properly – Google+ could prove to be similarly frustrating – or fruitless.

In short, it is a great idea that’s being tested. So long as enough people see it as a good idea and subscribe to it, it has potential to be fantastic. A bit disappointing in its current beta format but watch this space......

How can you apply it to your business?

Simple – as a tool to group candidates by suitability / ability and skill set. Ditto with your clients – by discipline, skill requirements, position seniority levels etc.

The 2 big things as far as I can see are the Video-Conferencing of multiple parties and the “Sparks” targeted information /

group your candidates in terms of suitability / ability and skill set. In the words of the great Eddie Izzard “the possibilities are endless....”.

Possible drawbacks: If you merge the wrong groups in the wrong way you may find your clients going direct to your candidates and vice versa!! Caution needed when sharing contacts!!

It could take quite a long time for all of your contacts to get subscribed to Google+ so may be another flash in the pan approach to networking if not enough people take up subscriptions (free). I know I got fed up with Twitter after a couple of weeks as it didn’t seem

Google+ can be Google+ can be used by everyone - used by everyone -

including including YOU!YOU!

Did you know?.......

8,000 Recruiters receive this

...........

Ala

n fr

om S

urre

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JOKER! £50

WINNER!

y

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A:

Why did the Consultant bring a ladder to the pub?

Because he heard the drinks were on the house!

Jane

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WINNER!

JQ:

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Two Senior Recruitment Consultants walk into a building....

You’d have thought one of the would have seen it!

Our Survey Results

Banks Are All The Same.We all know the score. Banks couldn’t care less about the little guy.

Banks have taken the Mickey for such a long time that they really don’t know right from wrong anymore.

The Banks were largely responsible for the hideous recession of 2009 and the current contagion issues faced by the whole of Europe are a consequence of their sharp practices & dull wits.

They stink & worst of all, they don’t care that they stink.

It all starts with their deplorable attitude to individuals and quickly permeates the veneer of ‘customer care’ which they exhibit when dealing with small businesses. They get fat and we get fleeced – right?

‘’When you need support, they won’t provide it. When your business is flying & you don’t need help, they offer cheap loans, incentives and free gifts!’’

‘’If your personal Credit History is less than 100%, loans are either impossible to get or offered at ludicrously high interest rates.

If you are self employed, mortgages are less common than UK Call Centres & all

Banks charge stupidly for any form of help, support or facility’’

Whilst our recent survey of Bank

Performance certainly highlights some of the traditional issues and familiar challenges faced by fledgling

Recruitment Businesses, we wonder if it is fair to label all banks with the same lousy feedback.

They can’t all be that bad – surely?

Is it not just the case that if you actually bother to ask for feedback, you are more likely to hear from those who are disaffected (often with good reason of course) than you are to hear from happy bunnies?

Maybe so, but perhaps we should look specifically at some of the typical areas of impatience and dissatisfaction of some of our Recruitment Start-Up Clients (2011)?

So, help us out and have a quick look at the results below and think if you agree with the ratings given to each of the areas examined.

If you have time, please give us your feedback – ‘Every Little Helps’ or so we are told!

Allegations of Greed were

strenuously denied

By the way, ratings-wise – here is our explanation key:

(1) Survey Misery % - the higher it is, the worse our respondents feel about the banks.

(2) Frustration Score – the higher the score, the worse respondents feel about the banks.

(3) Bank Explanations – the lower the score, the more ridiculous our respondents felt the banks to be in their response to complaints.

(4) Resolution Ease – the lower the score, the harder it felt to get the banks to rectify / explain their mistakes.

1: OPENING A BANK ACCOUNT:

Our recent experience suggests that there is undoubtedly a common trend developing when trying to open a Limited Company Bank Account for a Recruitment start-up business.

The issue is not so much to do with the irritation of relentless paperwork, personal credit checks (even if the Bank Account in question is NOT asking for any credit facilities at all), I.D. requirements (at seemingly MI6 levels of suspicion) or even the inexplicable Bank ‘loss of paperwork’ scenario (apparently more common these days than would appear anywhere near reasonable).

Customers are not

‘Happy Bunnies’

at the same time as Banks take responsibility for the Euro Crisis just before Mr. Jones get back his £25 for receiving a letter he did not invite.

Survey Misery %: 99% Frustration Score: 7/10Bank Explanation: 1/10Resolution Ease: 0/10

3. FACTORING

For those of you not familiar with factoring as a concept, factoring is meant to be a quick and easy way of turning your recruitment invoices into cash – allowing a Recruiter to ‘pay temps’ before he is paid by his end client for example.

It is almost impossible for a Temp-based business to ‘run temps’ without having a factoring facility. It would require far too much ‘available cash’ for a Recruiter to consistently pay temps before his end client paid his recruitment invoice to survive in the market without a factoring facility.

Amazingly, suckers that we all are, the real bug bear is in fact ‘none of the above’.

The frustration is much more to do with the absolutely stupid, incomprehensible and utterly bewildering TIME that it takes to open even the simplest ‘money-in, money-out’ bank account.

SSG Clients have recently reported delays of literally MONTHS when trying desperately to give the Banks new business. These delays to opening an account are met with no explanations which are vaguely reasonable to any living soul.

In chasing the progress of Account Openings for our Clients recently, we have been repeatedly told that the reason that accounts have been promised and then delayed for a period of weeks and even months was a ‘problem with the I.T at the bank’.

What a load of rubbish! – Or phrases like it come to mind. I think we all suspect that small businesses are being treated

with the same contempt with which Sir Alex Ferguson regards his ‘noisy (Manchester) neighbours’.

Survey Misery %: 70% Frustration Score: 9/10Bank Explanation: 1/10Resolution Ease: 2/10

2. BANK CHARGES

All Banks charge for seemingly anything & everything. Receive a letter – get charged. Unauthorised overdraft of a £1 – gets charged at £25.

Recall a cheque – get charged. Walk past their premises holding a Starbucks Coffee?

Watch Eastenders in your Underpants? (OK, we agree with the Banks that it is a chargeable offence to watch Eastenders!

We have no official position on the Underpants dilemma by the way – that comes down to personal choice and personal hygiene).

Either way, the perception is absolutely that Banks are callous and completely inflexible in the methods of charging client’s.

Whatever the truth, the feeling is that a Bank will do almost anything to issue a charge of some kind.

What also seems to be perceived as ‘fact’ is the notion that once charged, it is almost impossible for a customer to successfully apply for a refund.

Hell is likely to freeze over whilst Darlington win the Champions League

I.T. Systems are Slowing Banks

down....

Experience levels of Recruitment varied between

Banks

Did you know?.......

SSG launched

Yep, in 2010........

new businesses

- that’s a lot

markets within which they operate.

In other words, no provision is made for the particularly tough cash-flow issues faced by all start up businesses and absolutely no innate understanding of Recruitment as an industry is evident.

Most of our sample survey genuinely feels that their contacts at a bank would not understand a placement from a banana or Gross Profit from a gross waistline.

It seems that if a Recruiter were to ask an Account Manager at a bank about candidate procurement, advertising rates, industry debtors days or anything else particular to the recruitment sector, you are likely to get a very brief silence followed by the sound of a childish giggle of embarrassment!

Can that really be the case?

Is it fair to suggest such a lack of understanding? Surely not?

A SURPRISE:

SSG contacted Lloyds Commercial Finance who themselves faced a difficult period over the last few years of course. This is not our surprise.

We invited them to address specifically the issues raised by our survey. This is not our surprise either

We asked them to come to our office and tell us why they are different.

We asked them to come along with some tangible examples of how they could help small businesses. We asked them to prove what they knew about Recruitment.

None of these requests are our surprise.

The surprise is that they accepted the

invitation! – With good grace and a smile too!

So, the challenge has been issued and the good sports at Lloyds are coming into meet with us and we WILL report back on what they say....

Maybe all Banks are Not all the same? Now, that would be a surprise!

The provision of factoring facilities is a massive market and the good old banks make a great deal of money from the provision of this type of finance (which is really a ‘loan’ - as the bank are advancing cash to pay a temp on the basis of a recruitment invoice being raised by the Recruiter)

Our survey suggests the following might be true:

Banks are loath to offer factoring facilities to start-up Recruitment Businesses.

If factoring is provided, the Bank will always want to impose a ‘Deed of Guarantee’ on the recipient of the service.

Charges begin with scandalous ‘up front fees’ (i.e. a Debenture Charge) just for opening a facility.

Charges continue with an on-going Service Charge of typically 1-2% of turnover (not 1-2% of GP but Turnover!).

Charges leap forward with the seemingly miss-named ‘discount charge’ (which is really the interest charged on the money advanced).

Charges then migrate swiftly into a ‘Minimum Service Charge’ each month (typically around £300).

So, even if you do not use the factoring facility, it will cost you £300.

Nice business if you can get it!

If anything goes wrong with the account – you WILL be chased if your Company cannot pay the outstanding Bank fees

If you think that it isn’t easy to get into

a factoring agreement, try getting out of it!

Survey Misery %: 60% Frustration Score: 6/10Bank Explanation: 4/10Resolution Ease: 3/10

4. MARKET KNOWLEDGE

Bankers take no time to understand either the particular problems of small business or the complexities of the

Mr.Smith was pleased to

have finally settled his

loan with the Bank

Survey Misery %: 80% Frustration Score: 7/10Bank Explanation: 4/10Resolution Ease: N/A

OUR CONCLUSIONS:

Ok – it seems clear that the average Recruitment Start-up business is not happy with the service, attitude and performance of banks in general.

I guess that is not a surprise.

It also seems obvious that the average Recruitment Start-up business is bewildered by the charges the banks apply to even the most basic of services. I guess that is not a surprise.

It seems clear that the average Recruitment Start-up business is almost convinced that these criticisms are not particular to any one bank or another.

I guess that is not a surprise.

An Idiot’s Guide toAn Idiot’s Guide to the Economythe EconomyEver wondered what the hell the News Papers are on about?

Too embarrassed to ask the difference between the Eurozone and the G20.

No idea what a triple AAA is?

Do you need a little Quantative Easing after a heavy lunch?

Well, thanks to the collective intellect at SSG (such as it is), what follows is a sort-of Idiots ‘Guide to the Economy’ & all that type of stuff....

Austerity

Economic policy aimed at reducing a government's deficit (or borrowing).

Austerity can be achieved through increases in government revenues - primarily via tax rises - and/or a reduction in government spending or future spending commitments.

Right now, our Government are working mainly to reduce future spending meaning that there is a squeeze on Public Spending, reducing employment and therefore (so the criticism goes) reducing tax income!

Bailout

The financial rescue of a struggling borrower. A bailout can be achieved in various ways:

providing loans to a borrower that markets will no longer lend toguaranteeing a borrower's debtsguaranteeing the value of a borrower's risky assetsproviding help to absorb potential losses, such as in a bank recapitalisation

How can we be ‘out of the Euro’ but

part of the ‘Eurozone’ crisis?!

This is obviously what the Eurozone is trying to achieve with Greece, Italy, Spain etc

Base rate

The key interest rate set by the Bank of England.

It is the overnight interest rate that it charges to banks for lending to them.

The base rate - and expectations about how the base rate will change in the future - directly affect the interest rates at which banks are willing to lend money in sterling.

This is very important to us all as most lending costs are tied in with the Base Rate (e.g. a variable mortgage is usually quoted to you and me as ‘2 points above base’ or such a number above the base rate).

Credit crunch

A situation where banks and other lenders all cut back their lending at the same time, because of widespread fears about the ability of borrowers to repay.

This whole thing started back in 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the USA.

If heavily-indebted borrowers are cut off from new lending, they may find it impossible to repay existing debts.

Reduced lending also slows down economic growth, which also makes it harder for all businesses to repay their debts.

Credit rating

The assessment given to debts and borrowers by a ratings agency according to their safety from an investment standpoint - based on their creditworthiness, or the ability of the company or government that is borrowing to repay.

Ratings range from AAA, the safest, down to D, a company that has already defaulted. Ratings of BBB- or higher are considered "investment grade".

Below that level, they are considered "speculative grade" or more colloquially as junk.

If a leading economy has their credit rating lowered then other countries are less confident about lending money to that economy – i.e. the lender is worried that the economy in question may not be ‘good for the loan’.

Default

Strictly speaking, a default occurs when a borrower has broken the terms of a loan or other debt, for example if a borrower misses a payment.

The term is also loosely used to mean any situation that makes clear that a borrower can no longer repay its debts in full, such as bankruptcy or a debt restructuring.

A default can have a number of important implications. If a borrower is in default on any one debt, then all of its lenders may be able to demand that the borrower immediately repay them.

Lenders may also be required to write off their losses on the loans they have made.

Double-dip recession A recession that experiences a limited recovery then dips back into recession.

The exact definition is unclear, as the definition of what counts as a recession varies between countries.

A widely-accepted definition is one where the initial recovery fails to take total economic output back up to the peak seen before the recession began.

ECB The European Central Bank is the central bank responsible for monetary policy in the eurozone.

It is headquartered in Frankfurt and has a mandate to ensure price stability - which is interpreted as an inflation rate of no more than 2% per year.

It all started in New York with

Lehmans

Economics ‘101’

Please pay me, so that I can pay him,

so that he can pay you......

Your Mortgage is probably tied

directly to the Base Rate

G7

The group of seven major industrialised economies, comprising the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.

G8

The G7 plus Russia.

G20

The G8 plus developing countries that play an important role in the global economy, such as China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

It gained in significance after leaders agreed how to tackle the 2008-09 financial crisis and recession at G20 gatherings.

Haircut

A reduction in the value of a troubled borrower's debts, imposed on, or agreed with, its lenders as part of a debt restructuring.

Leverage Leverage, or gearing, means using debt to supplement investment.

The more you borrow on top of the funds (or equity) you already have, the more highly leveraged you are.

Leverage can increase both gains and losses.

Deleveraging means reducing the amount you are borrowing.

Libor

London Inter Bank Offered Rate. The rate at which banks in London lend money to each other for the short-term in a particular currency.

A new Libor rate is calculated every morning by financial data firm Thomson Reuters based on interest rates provided by members of the British Bankers Association.

Monetary policy

The policies of the central bank.A central bank has an unlimited ability to create new money.

This allows it to control the short-term interest rate, as well as to engage in unorthodox policies such as quantitative easing - printing money to buy up government debts and other assets. Monetary policy can be used to control inflation and to support economic growth.

MPC

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England is responsible for setting short-term interest rates and other monetary policy in the UK, such as quantitative easing.

Quantitative easing

Central banks increase the supply of money by "printing" more. In practice, this may mean purchasing government bonds or other categories of assets, using the new money.

Rather than physically printing more notes, the new money is typically issued in the form of a deposit at the central bank.

The idea is to add more money into the system, which depresses the value of the currency, and to push up the value of the assets being bought and to lower longer-term interest rates, which encourages more borrowing and investment.

Some economists fear that quantitative easing can lead to very high inflation in the long term.

Rating

The assessment given to debts and borrowers by a ratings agency according to their safety from an investment standpoint - based on their creditworthiness, or the ability of the company or government that is borrowing to repay.

Ratings range from AAA, the safest, down to D, a company that has already defaulted. Ratings of BBB- or higher are considered "investment grade".

Below that level, they are considered "speculative grade" or more colloquially as junk.

Rating agency

A company responsible for issuing credit ratings. The major three rating agencies are Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch. Recession

A period of negative economic growth. In most parts of the world a recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth - when economic output falls.

In the United States, a larger number of factors are taken into account, such as job creation and manufacturing activity.

However, this means that a US recession can usually only be defined when it is already over.

Toxic debts

Debts that are very unlikely to be recovered from borrowers.

Most lenders expect that some customers cannot repay; toxic debt describes a whole package of loans that are unlikely to be repaid.

During the financial crisis, toxic debts were very hard to value or to sell, as the markets for them ceased to function.

This greatly increased uncertainty about the financial health of the banks that owned much of these debts.

FINAL NOTE:

If there is anything that you would like to understand a little easier, why not drop us a note and we will get the intellectual Giants of SSG on to it for you (no promises of course!).

Back to school?

They say that education is wasted on the young. They also say that ‘education’ is too academic, not relevant to the ‘real World’. I have even heard them say that as Recruiters, we are all such ‘know it all arrogant little Devils’ that we would all agree that ‘book learning don’t make no difference to me mate’..... Perhaps?

Well, it is time for a change!

In a unique initiative between Support Services Group (‘SSG’) & St. Mary’s University College, we have created a fantastic opportunity for interested Applicants to not only complete a Post Graduate M.Phil or PhD programme but also to get paid for doing so!

This formal partnership between SSG & St. Mary’s University College has been designed to generate ‘Real World’ pragmatic Research Outputs for the Recruitment Industry. Focussed entirely on the development of Entrepreneurial Research, this innovative programme represents a very special opportunity.

Fully Funded StudyAll tuition fees paid by SSG.A salary of around £20-25k p.a. provided by SSG.Formal study (Research) leadingto a Masters or Doctoral Qualification

The

SSG

Doc

tora

l Pro

gram

me

in E

ntr

epre

neu

rship

wit

h

St

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y’s

Univ

ersi

ty C

olle

ge, Lo

ndo

n

Can you help our Can you help our Budding Entrepreneurs?Budding Entrepreneurs?

SSG will pay all of the University Tuition fees, provide a generous Salary, mentor your studies in partnership with the incredibly talented University team & champion your ideas, ambitions and research ‘outputs’.

A Little Detail:

David Jones of SSG and Professor Lance Pettitt of St. Mary’s got together to figure out how best to entice talented Applicants to generate pragmatic solutions to business-based conundrums within the Recruitment Industry.

It was soon agreed that together, SSG & St. Mary’s would embed a Doctoral Research Programme in (Recruitment) Entrepreneurship within the School of Management and Social Science at the Twickenham campus of the University.

SSG would ‘cough up’ the funds required to do so & St. Mary’s would provide the necessary tuition, support and research facilities. A genuine partnership between Business & Academia.

Interested Applicants (see right for a little more detail on who they might be!) would be invited to work with SSG & St. Mary’s to ‘work up’ suitable Research topics (see right for a little more detail on what they might be!) & invite motivated individuals to enjoy salaried employment with SSG whilst simultaneously undertaking to complete a programme of research at doctoral level.

SSG

To put it simply, we are looking for high calibre individuals who want to combine practical Entrepreneurial Research (leading to an outstanding qualification – i.e. M.Phil / PhD) alongside challenging employment within an exciting & unusual Company (that’s SSG by the way).

intellectual property but also to the success of the core SSG business (which is, as we all know the ‘launch & on-going support of Recruitment Businesses for budding entrepreneurs’).

You might be recently graduated with a 2:1 or above in a relevant discipline OR you mightbe 3 or 4 years out of University with a big bag of complimentary experience slung over your metaphorical shoulder.

You may even be an experienced Recruiter looking for something new and exciting!

Whoever you are, you will be happy to be based out of Hertfordshire and hugely excited by this unique opportunity.

You must be intelligent, mentally agile, amusing, self deprecating, practical, interesting & interested.

Suitable Research Topics – a Little

More Detail:

You might already have some great research ideas which SSG & St. Mary’s have yet to uncover.

You might have recently thought about how to develop and apply the latest

Based out of SSG’s head office in Hertfordshire, suitable applicants will combine their M.Phil / PhD Research with practical employment within our Recruitment Venture Incubation Company.

50% of your time is likely to be spent on pure Research and the other half would be dedicated to delivering your Research Outputs to existing SSG Clients & the wider Recruitment Community.

So, now we are talking about youyou rather than them! (Did you see what I did there?).

Interested Applicants – a Little More

Detail:

We want to identify individuals with a genuine interest in pragmatic Research within the arena of (Recruitment) Entrepreneurship.

You will want to contribute not only to the stock of common free-to-access

wizzy-wig solution to the most irritating of (recruitment) business challenges or you might just have an instinct of what might help Budding Entrepreneurs become more successful?

Although SSG will continue to welcome Applicants to submit their ideas for research, the emphasis will be on research likely to provide innovation and support for the Recruitment industry and particularly for Recruitment Entrepreneurs.

The ‘on-going’ research ‘outputs’ must help SSG to provide additional support to our existing group of businesses.

Current topics under serious consideration include:

You will have guessed by now that our Research web site goes live at around the same time as the Houses Of

Parliament were to have been blown sky high.

SSG will be running regular updates of the progress of the Doctoral Research Programme over the coming months.

Feel free to get involved! It might be fun!

David Jones

01442 200 944 / 07967 562 847

What to do Next?

If you are reading this article sometime after November 2011, you should first visit our web site (www.SSG-PhD.tv) for a detailed explanation of how ‘it all works’.

Alternatively, if you are wandering through this edition of TDS before Guy Faulkes lights his fuse, then you ought probably just get in touch with SSG for a chat.

The ‘Social Media’ challenge to Job Boards (for Candidate Procurement).Innovative finance for a start-up business

Successful Incubation of Recruitment Entrepreneurs.

Having said all of this, we sincerely hope and expect that there are a million exciting and relevant potential Research topics floating around in the minds of thoughtful, dynamic and motivated Applicants.....

Another North Westbased start up!

The hot bed of Recruitmentthat is Manchester

launches a great new business specialising in

Construction andEngineering - with all of the

challenges associatedwith CIS & difficult

payment terms!

BLAST OFF!Sept

2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

Fed up withworking “through” an

Agency rather than owningher own business, our

Partner is determined tomake up for lost time andyears of poor commisions

BLAST OFF! Nov2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

Sales an

d Marketin

g

A

LAST OFF

Sales an

d Marketin

g

Selling a Business - Part 1

Part 1 - Some BasicsHow tounlock

the value

We have all sometimes wondered how it is that an apparently ordinary Recruiter can casually walk away from a small recruitment business (which they just happen to own) with literally millions of pounds jangling in their pockets.

Every two minutes it would seem, some lucky chap features in the current edition of The Recruiter, smirking away next to a posh Corporate chap shaking hands and smiling in that irritating way that successful people sometimes do... It is enough to make you physically want to throw up – all of that money for a business which was probably built on the back of the efforts of other hard working & diligent Recruiters.

‘Wish it was me’, we all privately day dream....

So, how do these ordinary Recruiters do it? Are they ‘ordinary’? Who actually buys Recruitment Companies and what exactly do purchasers get for their cash - the recruiters, the clients and the database? What can be worth so many millions?

Well, you will be thrilled to know over the next few publications of TDS, we are going to show you exactly what happens & how you too might one day get the chance to be that chap shaking hands with the Corporate-suit!

SOME BASICS

Here we go then.... Many small Recruitment businesses are purchased by PLC Recruitment Companies or by Support Services Companies or Venture Capitalists (maybe even Private Equity mobs led by ‘Dragons Den’ types).

The Vendor of the business (i.e. the Recruiter fortunate enough to own the Company) will sell the Equity of their business (i.e. the ownership / shares) in exchange for a multiple of the profits of the Company

The multiple used in valuing the Company will be generated by the purchaser, once the ‘guys with the cash’ have looked closely at the business and made an estimate of what they believe the Company will ‘earn’ in the next few years.

As an example, let’s say that our little Recruitment Company (‘ABC Limited’) currently generates £300,000 of profit in a year. A purchaser might look at ABC Limited and feel that the business is robust & will probably continue to make at least that profit for the next 5 years or more (they call this the estimated Future Maintainable Profits of the Company – the FMP).

Easy Corporate-math will therefore suggest that the multiple which ought to be applied to the valuation of ABC Limited’s £300,000 worth of profits p.a. is 5. In other words, the would-be purchaser values ABC Limited at £1,500,000.

THE BASICS +

So, it is easy to see what might directly affect the amount of money that a Vendor receives for his business. It is not so easy to see what the purchaser actually based their ‘guess’ at the ‘right multiple’ on though is it?

As an example, let’s imagine that three individual Vendors all own a business which is making £300,000 profit in a year. They all walk into an East End pub (let’s call that pub The Queen Vic’) laughing out loud, but one of the Vendors happens to laugh the loudest:

Vendor 1 (called Dirty Den) sold his business for £1,500,000 (on a multiple of 5) whilst Vendor 2 (Dot Cotton) received £1,800,000 (using a multiplier of 6) but Vendor 3 (Alfie Moon) is the luckiest of all with a sale valuation of £2,100,000 (a multiple of 7).

Words To Learn Today:

Vendor

Multiple

Purchaser

Future Maintainable

Profits (FMP)

Price Earnings Ratio (PE)

Due Diligence

MMA

Information

Memorandum

IM

PBIT

Gearing

Acquisitions

Organic Growth

Cucumber

Tractor

Jelly Beans

Giraffe......

A “deal” isn’t always a

good deal!

How would your

Business be judged?

In other words, should the purchaser apply different ‘multiples’ to their valuations of the three businesses for some reason, the hard-cash that each Vendor receives for their equally profitable business can vary wildly.

This tidy logic happily allows us to illuminate a few of the basic principles that affect the amount of money that any recruitment business is worth.

Clearly, it is NOT just the profits of a business which generates the valuation. Dirty Den’s business may not be as squeaky clean as Alfie’s for example. Dot Cotton may have less of a Management Team in place than Alfie but Dot’s accounts are up to date whist Den is still in debt with the VAT office.

Just as it is not just solely the number of bedrooms in a house which generates the sale price of a property, there are also a significant number of other things that make a business (or a house) worth buying.

If profit represents our metaphorical number of bedrooms, then let’s think of the following as the business equivalents of things like location, garden size, bathrooms and so on:

Market Sector Management Structure Employee Attrition Rates Legal compliance Accounting Standards End-Client demographics & on & on & onIn other words, when a potential purchaser examines the Accounts of ABC Limited, they may well need the business to generate a certain level of profit (i.e. have a certain number of bedrooms) before they are interested in buying the Company, but that is only part of the story.

The purchaser logic is sound enough – if we pay 5 times the profit levels for a business that will continue to generate at least that level of profit for 5 years, then we are really ‘in for free’ after that!

FMP BASICS +

What we now need to understand is what criteria a potential purchaser is going to use to generate their FMP.

Surely as the owner of ABC Limited, it would be great for us to be able to persuade the purchaser to apply a higher FMP to the business which in turn would generate a bigger multiple which would eventually lead to a higher valuation?

Let’s start to call the multiple that is applied to the valuation of ABC Limited by its grown-up name – a PE.

A PE is shorthand for Price Earnings. Therefore, when we ramble on about multiples, we are really waffling about Price Earnings Ratios. To be blunt, if ABC Limited is a shabby little business with iffy accounts and dodgy legal documentation (just typical of Dirty Den), then our purchaser is likely to err on the side of caution and keep his offer low.

If, however ABC Limited is neat, tidy, and legally compliant & has a good Management Team in place (and run by a lovely chap like Mr. Moon), then it is probable that our purchaser will push the boat out and offer lots of cash to our happy Vendor.

FMP BASICS

Remember we mentioned Future

Maintainable Profits (FMP) a little while ago? We suggested that the multiple that any potential purchaser might use to generate a valuation of ABC Limited was really a reflection of how many years the business might continue to churn out at least the current profit level of £300,000.If the purchaser estimates that the business can roll along post-sale for at least 5 years at the same (or higher) profit levels, then maybe a multiple of 5 is about right.6 years might be a good starting point for a valuation of a business on a multiple of 6 and of course, a multiple of 7 times profit would suggest that a purchaser is estimating that the business will operate at these profit levels (or more) for 7 years.

Planning

to get away?....

Did you know ..........

Over 8000 recruiters

Could read this

H

R A

ND

ACCO

UN

TAN

CY

West Midlands base,our Recruiter Partner

is initially going to worksolely on Perms butwants the flexibility

to offer Temp-basedsolutions too-more

paperwork for SSG but

perfectly do-able!

BLAST OFF!Nov

2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

Weour

is inis

to

A great market butincreasingly tough as Schools

move towards demandingmore ‘consultative’ solutions

to teaching cover.Our new colleagie will use

all of her fabulouscommunication skills to

convince new clients thatshe can deliver.

CRB & List 99 included

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2011

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SUPPLY TEACHING

Perm-based Recruiterworking on UK and

overseas Aviationprojects - not engineering

but airport staff frompilots to baggage handlers.

Tough market if youdon’t have the rightcontacts and skills

BLAST OFF!Nov

2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

AVIATION TAKE OFF!

Let’s recap:

£300,000 profit x a PE of 5 generates a sale price of £1,500,000.£300,000 profit x a PE of 6 generates a sale price of £1,800,000.£300,000 profit x a PE of 7 generates a sale price of £2,100,000.

So;

If the purchaser looks at ABC Limited, believes that the business will roll on for 7 years generating profits of at least £300,000 and agrees to pay a multiplier (PE) of 7 = happy Vendor.

OR

If the purchaser looks at ABC Limited, believes that the business will only roll on for maybe 3 years generating profits of at least £300,000 and will only agree to pay a multiplier (PE) of 3 = not so happy Vendor.

OR

If the purchaser looks at ABC Limited, believes that the business is not trading legally and has iffy accounting policies & reports the Vendor to the Inland Revenue = ‘banged-up’ Vendor. You asked for it Dirty Den – you can’t treat people like that...

VALUATION BASICS

Another Business (XYZ Limited) makes £300,000 profit and the owner of this business wants to sell up. Our chubby business owner dreams of losing a few pounds whilst playing golf and getting his teeth professionally whitened with some of the sale proceeds.

Chubby gets his Company accounts presented to a would-be purchaser (someone like tough guy Dragon, Duncan Banatyne perhaps?). Duncan looks at the accounts and thinks that £300,000 is a good profit but wonders how much he should really pay Chubby for his business.

Duncan the Dragon decides that it is time to send the boys over to XYZ Limited.....

Chubby anxiously welcomes Duncan’s team into his office & patiently waits for a decision on what PE will be

applied to the £300,000 profit which the XYZ Limited Company Accounts record.

Duncan has sent three nasty, nosy and very clever bespectacled men over to relentlessly quiz Chubby about their three specialist areas:

Legal Commercial & Financial

The three nasty men do the best to ‘dig the dirt’ and report back to Duncan that they believe that Chubby has been lazy in keeping his legal documentation up to date. Chubby has also been over reliant on one or two customers to generate the majority of his placements & worst of all, Chubby has been economical with the truth about how much money XYZ Limited owes the VAT man....

Oh Chubby! Why did you do it?..... Why?

Duncan is not happy and tells Chubby that he will only offer 3 times the profits of the business as a sale price. Duncan applies a PE of 3 based on the Due Diligence report of his team of assessors.

VALUATION BASICS +

In a parallel Universe (somewhere just outside Slough) Chubby is down to a good weight and has spent the preceding 2 years working hard in preparation for Duncan’s team to arrive on this bright sunny Wednesday morning.

For 2 years, Chubby and his advisors have been undertaking a constant appraisal of XYZ Limited & are convinced that their monthly internal audit of the business is ready to pay dividends.

Valuations....

Just Random Numbers?....

Do you have a whole list of pragmatic resolutions to structure your Working Life or are you just hoping to shed a couple of pounds in January and make the most of that Gym Membership?

Why not let us know and we will publish some of the most useful and most amusing? There is £50 in it for you if we do!

How about the following suggestions? Do you think they are reasonable?

Wayne Rooney:

Step down as Shriek’s understudy and attend an anger management workshop.

Alan Sugar:

Dip into your millions and invest in an electric shaver.

David Cameron:

Reduce the national debt and also the disturb-ing length of your quiff.

REC:

Sell your logo to Recruiters at a cheaper price.

Inland Revenue:

Learn to love late payers of Corporation Tax.

Willie Carson (Celebrity Jungle Man):

Never walk around without your shirt on.

Jessica Jane (Celebrity Jungle Girl):

Always .......

Katie Price:

No more Plastic Surgery, ever, ever, ever again... please.

David Jones (SSG):

Do a little weight Jones.

So, remember – all you have to do is to let us know what promises you intend sticking to in 2012 and we will publish a selection and send

out £50 notes all over the place.

Got to be worth it?!

2012@the-darkside.tv

£50

New Year

Resolution?

We would love to know what you plan for

the New Year.

Perm basedwith the ‘odd-temp’

requirement, thisnew business will

focus on the HomeCounties to drum up

new Nursing and Social Care vacancies

BLAST OFF! Oct2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

1 Some Basics

2 ‘Grooming’

3 Finding a Buyer

4 Completion!

5 Tax & Exit

A Management Team is in place which evidently does not rely upon Chubby being in the office to get things done. The Monthly Management Accounts (MMA) of the business not only demonstrates clearly that the business generates £300,000 profit but that there are sufficient cash reserves to meet all future Tax liabilities.

Chubby’s team co-authored the Information Memorandum (IM) which has been presented to Duncan prior to the due diligence investigation. This IM is really the CV of XYZ Limited & Chubby is sure that every claim on the CV can be backed-up with hard evidence.

XYZ Limited has been working hard to ensure that Duncan’s three nasty, nosy and very clever men will be satisfied that the business has been well run and ‘groomed’ properly for sale. Chubby has known for two years that he wanted to hit the golf course & has been conducting his own constant due diligence of the business throughout that time.

Every month, Chubby has conducted his own mini-SWOT analysis of XYZ Limited and sought to improve just one little thing in the business each & every month.

As Duncan receives his due diligence report, he is excited by the obvious robust nature of the Management Team; he is thrilled by the spread of market sectors and bowled over by the lack of end client dependence. The growth plan of XYZ Limited also suggests that profits will increase over the next three years and Duncan can see a clear, realistic and thoughtful logic to the growth plan.

This is a business that will not only generate £300,000 for maybe 6 or 7 years but is very likely to actually

record increased profits in the coming years.

Duncan agrees with his due diligence team that XYZ Limited ought to be valued against a PE of 7.

Chubby wobbles in excitement......

AN EXAMPLE

Chubby wants to retire with a sale netting him £2m. What might XYZ Limited actually look like to make this happen? Let’s take a look....

Therefore, the valuation of our example business would be 7 x the PBIT – i.e. 7 x £318,000.

So, in this example, we are suggesting that it would be reasonable to seek a purchaser for the business willing to pay an ‘initial consideration’ of seven times the PBIT of the business. This generates an ‘initial consideration’ for the shareholders of the business of £2,226,000.

Easy Steps....

Get all of your building blocks ready....

Chubby still generates Placements himself – c.£100,000 p.a.

XYZ Limited employs 12 Recruiters in total, 4 of whom are Managers, who each bill £100,000 p.a.

Each Manager leads a team working in different but complimentary recruitment markets. Each team member invoices an average of £80,000 p.a.

With each of the four teams generating annual revenues of £240,000 & Chubby pitching in with £100,000, XYZ Limited has total revenues of £1,060,000.

This £1,060,000 represents gross profits, NOT turnover of course.

XYZ Limited is well run, well groomed and well prepared for sale. It operates on a reasonable profit margin of 30%.

With PBIT therefore running at £318,000, the business is presented for sale.

A reasonable multiple of profits (i.e. a reasonable ‘PE’) associated with this level of Company sale may be around 7.

Where we might hope to seek an ‘initial consideration’ valuation based on a PE of 7 (used in Chubby’s example exit), a glance at the pages of the Financial Times will confirm that the ‘big boys’ trade on much higher multiples.

This makes it logically very easy to see why a PLC might want to buy-in the PBIT of a smaller venture.

If the purchasers business is valued at a PE of 12 for example & they can buy-in profit via the purchase of a Company valued on a PE of 6, they have apparently doubled the value of their purchase!

In other words, if the PBIT of the purchaser prior to an acquisition is £1,000,000 and they are valued at 12 times their PBIT, then their value is apparently £12,000,000. If they then buy-in the PBIT of a smaller business at a cost to them of 6 times the PBIT (i.e. on a PE of 6) they can add this purchased PBIT to their own.

For example, if a PLC acquired PBIT of £300,000 is added to the purchasers existing PBIT of £1,000,000 creating a larger business with PBIT of £1,300,000.

Suddenly, the value of the purchasers business increases from £12,000,000 to £15,600,000 – an increase of £3,600,000 at a cost of just £1,800,000!

NEXT TIME IN PART 2!

The fun just gets even funnier as we take a more detailed look at what Chubby did to get his business ready to be sold. This is all about ‘Grooming’ – making sure that the business you create is a business which someone would want to buy.

SERIOUS WORD ABOUT PURCHASERS:

When a Recruitment Business is sold, it typically attracts a ‘trade sale’ where the purchaser might be an existing Recruitment Organisation looking to grow through the acquisition of smaller businesses.

Such Recruitment Organisations are often PLC’s looking to purchase attractive ventures either through their reserve funds (‘savings’) OR via ‘gearing’ (i.e. borrowings from familiar financial institutions such as banks or Venture Capitalists).

The motivation for larger organisations to purchase existing businesses is fairly clear. If these larger businesses can ‘buy in’ profits, they hope that these additional profits will add significantly to the bottom line of their own PBIT.

The easy logic is that rather than a PLC having to spend a number of years hoping to increase their own value (which is of course also a PE based multiple of their own PBIT) they can ‘purchase’ profit.

This ought to mean that the successful acquisition of a smaller recruitment business will add profit (& therefore value) without the need to spend years trying to develop traditional organic

growth of their core business.

This acquisition strategy also means that larger businesses can buy market share in areas (geographic or market sector for example) in which they do not already have a presence. This can be tremendously helpful in allowing the purchaser the opportunity to exploit emerging recruitment markets (again, either geographic or market sector) without the frustrating time delay associated with organic growth.

Larger organisations tend to operate on PE based valuations which carry higher multiples than would be appropriate for smaller independent recruitment ventures.

“The ‘big boys’ trade

on much higher

multiples”

HELP NEEDED!You are probably already aware that www.SupportServicesGroup.tv identifies experienced Recruiters who want to run their own business? I am sure that it no longer remains an industry secret that SSG will launch a business for that Recruiter & then provide ‘On-Going Support’ to that Recruiter & their business.

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER & INNOVATOR (£30-35k)

We are looking for an exceptionally gifted individual to join our team in Berkhamsted (near Hemel Hempstead) to help to provide on-going support to new and existing Recruitment Businesses. This is a role that requires an extraordinary combination of skills and experience. Sitting alongside your intuitive understanding of all aspects of Recruitment, you will then need to demonstrate fantastic empathetic support skills – knowing when to research solutions, investigate improvements or just to provide a sincere shoulder to lean on.

You will be looking after the very real issues faced by Budding Entrepreneurs. This is tough – you have to really care, to genuinely want to help – all of the time, whatever the circumstances. Equally, you need to be tough, innovative and constantly seeking improvements which will add to the SSG Offering. You will also be required to identify new applicants for SSG, using job boards, LinkedIn etc.

This is not a passive role. You have to be pro-active, engaging, amusing, determined, level headed, almost workaholic. No prima donna, you will want to get your hands dirty every day working in a team which is tremendously strong, supportive and close. Forget 9-5, this is something much more fun, much more engrossing.

Fancy a chat? Please contact me to find out more and to convince us that this is the right role for you.

Clare Armstrong – 01442 200 957 (8am-9pm)

North West start-up again!This time, our Recruiter

partner is building on his6 years of experience to

really focus on the demand for

permanent employees within Mechanical

& Engineering - tough but big fees

BLAST OFF!Oct

2011

For more info, contact:clare@supportservicesgroup.tv

PERM’ BASED M&E

If you would like to chat through any aspect of generating an exit strategy, why not give me a call? We can chat through what needs to be done and where you get the help you need to join Chubby on the golf course

David Jones01442 20094407967 562847

“We must have your

Bank

Statement for the

complete

month! - pretty please?!”

MMA’s - A Monthly Health Check...

SSG produces a set of Monthly Management Accounts (MMA) for their clients. They are an important document which shows how your company is doing month by month.

The Management Accounts are raised a month in arrears. For example, if the current month is October, the accounts will be produced for September. The reason for this is if we tried to produce them in October , the information would be incomplete and the Management Accounts would not make any sense.

In order for SSG to produce a set of Management Accounts which give a fair interpretation of the client's company finances, at the beginning of each month, we ask clients to submit the following information:

1) Expenses – personal money spent on behalf of the business to be claimed back from the business. Ideally we like receipts to be submitted along with the claim forms, although copies are acceptable providing clients keep original receipts safe in case they are asked to produce them at any time.

Among the expenses we expect to see is a mileage claim form which lists 'round trip' mileage to visit clients or interview candidates. Client's can claim 45 pence per mile up to 10,000 miles travelled in any personal tax year and then it drops to 25 pence per mile until the next tax year begins on the 6th April.

2) Bank Statement for the complete month.

3) Purchase Invoices, which you receive for any item or services bought for the company including telephone bills, office equipment or furniture.

4) A list of all cheques written during that month so they can be coded correctly on the accounts system.

All of the information is collated into one useful document which we call the MMA.

The document contains among other things:

Key Dates and Figures

This page contains very important information and I urge you to take note of the content even if you just glance over the rest of the MMA.

This page advises you in brief of the following:

1) When Corporation Tax needs to be

paid. Usually 9 months after your company year-end so if the date of this is March 2011, then the Corporation Tax will be due December 2011.

There is also an estimated rolling figure of how much the Corporation Tax is at that time.

2) VAT due date which is the end of the month following the end period date, i.e. VAT period 1st July 2011 to 30th September 2011, the VAT needs to be paid by 31st October 2011.

As with the Corporation Tax, there is a rolling estimated figure of how much VAT is due.

Gill Miles

Did you hear about the recruitment consultant who got excited because she finished a jigsaw in 6 months because the box said “2 to 4” years?

Two Recruitment Consultants lock Their Keys in the car. One of them tries to break into the car whilst the second stands by watching. Finally the first Recruitment Consultant

A Recruitment Consultant walks out of a bar.... what? It Could Happen!!

A Recruitment consultant was painting his house when his wife came home to find him rushing about like a mad thing with his brushes. 'Why are you working so

Submit a joke and if we

publish it .........£50!

jokes@the-darkside.tv

£50

2 Recruiters

Walk into

a Bar........

says “I can’t do it, I can’t get in the car!” The other Recruitment Consultant replies “keep trying! It looks like it’s going to rain and the roofs down!”

fast?' she asked. 'Well, you see the paint's running low and I want to finish the job before it's all gone.'

“We really can’t tell you

enough how important

these figures are to your

Business, please take

note!”

3) PAYE + NI due date is set at the 19th of the month following the last salary date, i.e. September salary deductions of PAYE and NI will be due for payment by the 19th October.

The amount of PAYE and NI due is also shown.

There is also a calculation at the bottom of this page which shows if you have been frugal with the withdrawals from the business, or too much has been taken out which would mean that you could have serious cash flow problems and end up paying 25% Corporation Tax on the amount overdrawn.

Profit and Loss There are two pages of Profit and Loss figures.

The first page shows the current month and year to date figures on the following:

1) Income = Recruitment fees both Temporary and Permanent.

2) Direct Expenses = salaries, sales adverts, including job board access, service charges.

3) Admin Expenses = rent and rates, utilities, equipment, telephone, printing and stationery, mileage / travelling expenses, legal and professional fees, split fees, bank charges and sundry items.

4) Corporation Tax = Additionally there are any Corporation Tax and/or Dividend payments shown.

The second page shows the monthly profit and loss running total of the above mentioned items from the client’s company periods one to twelve. This means if your company’s year starts 1st June then this is period one, July, period two, and so on and so fourth until period 12 which will be May.

Balance SheetThe balance sheet shows figures for the previous and current months and is divided into three sections:

2) Current Assets =

a) Debtors – money owed to your company by clientsb) Current Bank balance

1) Fixed Assets = equipment owned by your company over £1,000.

“Profit and Loss?

Directors Loans? If you

don’t understand it, call

us! We’re here to help

you!”

Don’t lose your head

over MMA’s

c) Factoring account balance (This is the amount of factored money which you have drawn down on and owe the Factoring Company if you use this service)

3) Creditors – which include

a) Trade creditors – invoices owed by your companyb) Temporary Staff holiday pay accrual – if your employ Temporary Staff.c) Directors Loan Account. Shareholders’ funds are amount of money that would be remaining if there were no further transactions as at the balance sheet date.

Directors Income and Directors

Loan Account BalancesThese pages show monthly salary, expenses and any dividends paid against Director’s withdrawals from company bank account.

There are also dedicated pages for Corporation Tax and VAT which show in detail the information mentioned on the Key Dates and Figures page. There is also a General Company information page which lists the Directors, Company Address and Registration Number, plus the VAT Number, Year-End date and Bank Account details.

I would like to reiterate the importance to supply the information mentioned at the top of the article when it is requested at the beginning of the month in order for the Management Accounts to be as accurate as possible so that come the end of your Company‘s Financial Year, the year-end accounts which are sent off to out-side accountants are a fair representation of how much the company has made against money spent and that you do not end up paying more Corporation Tax than necessary.

If there are points raised in this article of particular interest to you, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss further.

Since 2003, we have launched over 130 new Recruitment Businesses in a myriad of Perm’ & Temp’ markets. We have detailed and expert knowledge in almost all recruitment markets and have enjoyed tremendous success in helping Recruiter Entrepreneurs make the transition from Employee to Business Owner.

There are no catches, no hidden charges and no restrictions. Equally, there is no easy ride either! For our Recruiter partners, the process is hard work, challenging and relies upon their Recruitment Expertise. It isn’t easy and every business that we have launched will tell you that.

But it is fun and potentially hugely rewarding. If you want to find out more, please have a browse through our web site and then perhaps give me a call for the traditional ‘Confidential Chat’.

David Jones01442 200 944

david@supportservicesgroup.tv

SUPPORT SERVICES GROUP?

sine

The Voice of Vikki

Right let’s talk Corporation Tax!!

Again like VAT it’s something your Ltd Company based in the UK has to pay to HMRC.

Corporation Tax is payable on your Company Profits at Year End, which if your Company was set up in July 2010 your Year End would be 30th June 2011. The current rate is set at 20%. (These rates are based on rates the Chancellor sets in the Budget each year).

So for example……….. If your Companies profit at Year End is £23,000, you would pay Corporation Tax @ 20%, which works out at £4,600, to HMRC.

Whenever a new Company is Registered with Companies House (we will Register you) usually within 6 weeks it triggers the process for your Business to Register for Corporation Tax.

All the details will be sent to your Registered Office (which is where we are based), form “CT41G” will need be filled out and sent to HMRC by us within 3 months of your Business becoming active, thus registering you for Corporation Tax. HMRC will then send us form “CT610” which relates to your deadlines for filing and paying your Corporation Tax so will need to be kept in a safe place!

Corporation Tax is known as Corporation Tax Self Assesment by HMRC, which basically means that your doing the leg work for them!

This usually translates to your Accountant working out the correct figure of Corporation Tax to pay rather than HMRC working out your figure.

So for example …….. your Company Year runs from 1st July 2010 to 30th June 2011, (12 months) your Corporation Tax payment will need to reach HMRC by 1st April 2012, (9 months from your year end, total of 21 months) and your Company Tax Return will need to reach HMRC & Companies House by 1st July 2012, which your Accountant will file.

This is the rule, but generally the following tends to happen:

Deadlines are Deadlines - we all hate deadlines, but the fact is that HMRC likes everything to be in place at the right time or they start charging interest for late payment returns!!

This is totally down to your Business (your Accountant) giving you your figure and HMRC will only know how much you’re paying once you submit your payment and your Company Tax Return.

Corporation Tax is due 9 months after your Company Year End, which effectively gives you 21 months of tax break before you have to hand over your hard earned cash!!

ACCOUNTS Made& a tiny bit Simple!

FACT!

Corporation Tax is due 9 months after your Company Year

End

“Like VAT, your Company has to pay Corporation Tax to HMRC”

Accountant sends you your Year End Accounts for checking, signing & returning to them

Accountant state a figure for your Corporation Tax (relating to your profit @ Year End)

Check your date for submitting your Corporation Tax, make your payment to HMRC (if applicable)

Accountants file your Accounts on-line to HMRC & Companies House.

WANTADVICEABOUT

......

Please Contact

DAVID JONES

01442 200944

david@supportservicesgroup.tv

Banking?

Software?

Payroll?

Job Boards?

Tax, VAT etc?

21

So for Example …………Corporation Tax Due £4,600 spread over 9 months until your payment is due would be approx. £511/month. This is a good way of assuring you have the funds to make your payment to HMRC on-time and don’t get any interest charges!

Still unsure about Corporation Tax?

?CALL US TODAY!

0845 475 9449

So for Example …………Corporation Tax Due £4,600 spread over 9 months until your payment is due would be approx. £511/month. This is a good way of assuring you have the funds to make your payment to HMRC on-time and don’t get any interest charges!

We will register your Business for you

Paying Corporation Tax? Your Business is doing well!

Pop’s Pantry

Looking for ways of reducing your profits for the year and therefore reducing your Corporation Tax?

These could be little items but it all adds up to reduce your profits and therefore reduce your Corporation Tax.

So maybe you would like to “Save” to pay your Corporation Tax.

A good idea would be to set up bank accounts specifically for your tax liabilities ie your VAT & Corporation Tax, every month transfer an amount so you can pay your Corporation Tax in full when your payment is due!

submit any expenses you have incurred whilst visiting your Customers/Clients, claiming for instance, Mileage, Entertaining, Subsistance.

anything purchased on behalf of your Company out of your Personal Monies, ie Tea, Coffee, Cleaning products, newspapers

claiming for use of office at home, utilities

You can keep a check your Estimated amount of Corporation Tax you owe. Every month when you receive your Monthly Management Accounts just go to the Corporation Tax page and check the Estimated figure for and up to that period. This however is an Estimated figure and will change month to month depending on your Business so keep an eye on this!

CORPORATIONTAX@The-DarkSide.tv

Conclusions:

Corporation Tax has to be paid by every Business that has Year End Profits.

Want to know more or need help in getting all sorted / up to date? Just get in touch with me via

Don’t get too dis-heartened with having to pay Corporation Tax it means your Business is doing well and making a Profit!

You must pay any monies due to HMRC within 9 months of your Year End.

Send in expenses you have incurred for your business to reduce your profits, therefore pay less Corporation tax.

Set up a separate bank account to “Save” to pay off your Corporation Tax in full when due.

Keep an eye on your Estimated Corporation Tax every month on your Monthly Management Accounts.

Problems with paying your Corporation Tax? Get in touch with us or HMRC, the longer you leave your payment outstanding the more interest HMRC will charge! Don’t panic we are here to help you!

If however you are having trouble making your payments to HMRC please call us or call HMRC, as they will add interest on and make your payments higher!! They will be able to advise you as to what to do next. “The Estimated

figure WILL change from month to

month depending on your Business so

please keep an eye on this!”

Place the kidney beans and salsa in a small pan and heat through gently.

Arrange the nachos on four heatproof plates; spoon over the bean mixture

Scatter over the jalapeno peppers and top with the grated cheese. Place under a medium hot grill for 1-2 mins until the cheese begins to melt.

Serve immediately with guacamole

Enjoy.... Yummy!

400g can Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed

2 x 170g tubs fresh tomato salsa

200g packet nachos or tortilla chips

30ml (2tbsp) sliced jalapeno Peppers(from a jar)

175g (6oz) Cheddar Cheese (grated) Guacamole to serve

Crunchy Nachos :The How:The What:

Comfort Food for Fed-up Recruiters22

Access to LinkedIn contacts

can be denied!

Clare’s Serious Stuff

Are you LinkedIn?Or Ready to be Shut Out?

We all know that Social and business networking sites are proliferating. As of 22 March 2011, LinkedIn reports more than 100 million registered users.

Many employers now actively encourage employees to register and to develop existing and prospective client relationships using LinkedIn. Employees, often during work time, are busily building up extensive networks of contacts.

The information being collated by an employee on LinkedIn is a potentially valuable asset which may be used to compete against the employer after the employment relationship has ended, for example, when a Recruiters leaves employment to start a business on their own (or preferably with the support of SSG!).

We think that the use of LinkedIn therefore raises some interesting questions for employers, particularly in respect of the protection of its business interests and, more specifically, its client lists.

These are questions that will also affect the ease with which Recruiters can launch a business of their own.

OWNERSHIP

The question of ownership is likely to be a disputed one, especially after the employee has left employment.

The Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 (the "Regulations") provide that a database made by an employee in the course of employment is the property of his employer, subject to any express agreement to the contrary.

It would be unlawful to copy or extract such a database from an employer's IT systems.

However, although the Courts have held that lists of email addresses contained in an employer's email system are databases that belong to the employer, it is far from certain that LinkedIn contacts held on a third party server and not backed up by the employer would be considered as databases for the purposes of the Regulations.

If not, then an employee would potentially be able to retain the LinkedIn contacts for his own benefit on termination of employment.

CONFIDENTIATLTY

Certain information that is not so confidential as to be a trade secret may fall into a second category of what the Courts have termed "mere confidential information".

This is still proprietary information belonging to the employer and, so long as an employee remains in employment, employees may not use or disclose this information without breaching their contractual obligations. This usually includes the employer's client lists.

In the absence of an express contractual provision to the contrary, "mere confidential information" acquired during employment may be used by an employee after employment for his own benefit in competition with his former employer

It is open for an employer to protect this information post-employment.

In one case, an employee uploaded his employer's client information to his LinkedIn profile with a view to using it for his own business postemployment.

Post-employment, the employee argued that the information was no longer confidential because it had been made publicly available on LinkedIn.

The Court seemed to accept that. However, it held that if the employee had uploaded the information not for his employer's benefit but for the benefit of his post-termination business, the employer would have a claim against its former employee even if the confidentiality in the information had been lost.

An employer could, or course, expressly state that such information is confidential and must not be uploaded or copied to an employee's LinkedIn profile. It could insist on a return to index cards and rolodexes.

However, that would prevent the employee, and ultimately the employer, from enjoying the benefits that LinkedIn offers its users.

POST TERMINATION RESTRICTIONS

A well drafted post-termination restriction preventing an employee from soliciting clients or prospective clients would almost certainly prevent

Why so serious Clare?

23

Confidentiality is so important

an employee from using his LinkedIn profile to solicit the custom of his former employer's clients.

However, it is sometimes difficult to determine what constitutes solicitation and what does not.

It has been suggested that setting up in business and appealing generally for custom will not amount to solicitation.

A specific and direct appeal to a former employer's clients would, however, amount to solicitation.

Possibly one of the first steps a former employee will take on taking up new employment will be to update their LinkedIn profile with details of their new role and employer.

This will immediately trigger an automated message to that user's LinkedIn contacts, including his former employer's clients.

That action alone may fall foul of a well drafted non-solicitation clause, if it was found by a Court to be a targeted approach to clients.

However, until tested, whether updating a user's LinkedIn profile in this way would amount to solicitation remains open to some doubt.

The answer to this may be to include a non-dealing clause, which would avoid the need to prove solicitation altogether.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The use of LinkedIn and other networking sites present new challenges for employers trying to protect their business interests.

However, the extent to which the law will allow such protection using more

traditional concepts, such as database rights and confidentiality, remains unclear.

Therefore some might recommend that employers;

This would also suggest that as an Employee thinking about jumping ship, you ought to take special note of what your current employment contract says about it all!

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter.

Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Social Media ‘Law’ is sill not clear

Review and if necessary update existing policies on confidentiality and client lists to include information on LinkedIn.

Ensure that non-solicitation covenants are sufficiently broad to prohibit solicitation using LinkedIn.

Consider including in employment contracts a well drafted non-dealing covenant if you do not already do so.

Include a provision in employment contracts and/or termination agreements to require an employee to delete client contacts from LinkedIn on termination of employment or even to delete the account in its entirety.

I wonder why I am relegated to Page 24,

Column 3?

I wonder why SSG think that you might be more interested in Entrepreneurial Relief (Page 25) than me? – what sort of perverted nonsense is Entrepreneurial Relief anyway – for $10 more, it comes with a Happy Ending no doubt?

One column is all I get. How can I even begin to tell you what is currently frustrating me with such a little space? Well, I am going to try anyway:

And one more thing, please complain to SSG about stuffing me into Column 3 of Page 24. It isn’t good enough and I won’t accept it.

Newsletters – what sort of arrogant super Geeks think we want to read all about their business? Oh how exciting that Accounts have a new employee or the Techie twit has a new server. Who cares?

Double Dip Kissing – why do ugly women think that we men want to do the ‘double dip kiss’ routine every time we see them? Bad enough that we have to be European all over the place, never mind having to try and avoid overweight women with too much make up.

‘Zumba’ Classes – why is it so strange that I want to Zumba with the Yummy Mummies?Why is it that my Lycra outfit is ‘unsuitable’ but perfectly OK for others?

Public Toilets – why do they smell? At what point is urine the fragrance of choice?

My Nephew – All athleticism and angst. Has no one told him that in the end it doesn’t really matter if John got-off with Rachel or if they get 10 A* GCSE’s – there are no jobs anyway & Rachel turned him down anyway

My Two Sisters – fat tummies and huge excuses. Noting is fair it is always everyone else that gets the breaks - I’ll give them a break all right.

Shop Assistants – why do they all lick their fingers before handing you a plastic bag that costs you 5p & always has a hole in it anyway?

Ant & Dec – why are they so nice? It drives me insane that I want to hate them but can’t, they have such nice smiles and always seem so cheerful.

Gary Barlow – same reasons as Ant & Dec, only more so.

24

Even the toughest of Entrepreneurs

needs a little ‘Relief’ at times

Entrepreneurs’ Relief!

A change to the

This tax has historically been known as a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) – i.e. a tax on any capital gain you may have made whilst holding an asset.

CGT is therefore a tax on the ‘profit’ you might make on certain types of sale.

Some items are excluded or exempt from CGT and others might attract ‘relief’ from the terrors of CGT.

A ‘capital loss’ might be used to reduce a future capital gain and the first little bit of any gain is tax free (up to a certain, ever changing threshold called the ‘annual exemption’ which is currently £10,600 p.a.).

For example, in the good old days, if you started a Company the shares would be deemed to be worth £0 on Day 1. You then work like a dog and build that Company into an asset which you might sell for say £500,000. This is viewed as a capital gain of £500,000 of course.

The proceeds from that sale are worth £500,000 to you and the Government would want their slice of the action. The CGT rate can vary but tops out at 28%.

WHAT NEXT?

Obviously, if you are a business owner and do not intend selling up for few years, this whole ER thing may not seem that urgent......

BUT, it is very important to understand what you might need to do in order to qualify for ER at a later date. This is known as ‘Tax Planning’ & is something which very few of us take seriously enough!

So, to find out more, please take specialist advice or ring and chat through the basics with us here at SSG.

NORMAL DISCLAIMER

As ever, please remember that anything contained within these fluffy pages is intended to act only as a catalyst for you to investigate these serious issues further if you wish.

Don’t make any decisions based on our ramblings but please be encouraged to seek specific, professional advice from a superstar expert!

In other words, sell a business for £500,000 and expect to pay 28% of that sum as tax! (i.e. £140,000 – ouch!).

NEW RULE:

From June 2010, we now have three rates of CGT – from 28% down to the lowest rate of 10% if ‘ER’ is claimed! ER is shorthand for Entrepreneurial Relief!

In other words, as a business owner (& therefore an Entrepreneur) the Government recognises that your hard work not only generates cash for the tax man (Income Tax, Corporation Tax, VAT and so on) but you also generate wealth in others (e.g. employees who also pay tax).

So, over the course of your working life, you may now claim ER on the sale of any CGT-related assets (terms & conditions apply of course!) including your business shares and pay only10% CGT (rather than 28%).

For our example above where you would pay 28% of £500,000, you ER related CGT bill would now be just 10% (i.e. you pay just £50,000 rather than £140,000 - a saving in tax of 18% of £500,000).

FEW CAVEATS:

ER comes with a few caveats of course but nothing that is too difficult to overcome if you plan carefully for a sale.

Your life time limit to claim ER is on assets up to a combined value of £10,000,000 (you should be so lucky!!).

The Company must be the individual’s personal company.

You must be an ‘officer’ (e.g. Company Director) or employee of the Company.

You need to hold at least 5% of the shares of the Company.

The 5% must be shares which have ‘voting rights’.

You must have held your shares for at least 12 months prior to the sale of the shares.

In a time characterised by an increasing tax burden, reduced services and hyper economic tension, the Chancellor has finally done all budding Entrepreneurs a useful favour!

Until quite recently, if you owned a business and wanted to sell that business you would expect to be heavily taxed on any proceeds from the sale of the Company Shares of that business.

TAX RATE

A plan to cut your CGT rate

by more than 50%!

25

How They Started in Tough Times: How 25 companies started and thrived during an economic crisis.

This book examines twenty-five companies & examines how they began and succeeded despite the economic downturn which gripped the world.

David Lester (With Contributors). David Lester started his first business when he was just twenty-two years of age, by the time he was thirty he had sold the company for millions. He is currently an author of books and writes for a number of national newspapers and magazines and speaks on Radio and publicly. Since the sale of his first company he has owned others and invested in many more.

This books looks at twenty-five business, all of whom started up during a recession but flourished none the less. Each company is well known and still going strong. The author writes a short, broken down bios of the company’s founders, how they started, their troubles and finally their success. No story is much more than ten pages long and the bite-size chunks make it enjoyable and easy to read.

Well the majority of us look at the state of the economy at the moment and think, why on earth would I start my own business? It could be financial suicide! But this book proves that this is not actually the case. It will boost your confidence and inspire you as well as warn you of some things to keep an eye out for and possible issues you may come up against. This is an interesting read as all the businesses under scrutiny are well known and many are innovative, and let’s face it we all want to know how they got there!

If you are going to take one thing away from this book it will probably be this one lesson: No matter what your business, no matter what the economic landscape looks like at the time of inception, if you like what you do, if you are good at what you do and if you have the willpower to succeed, then you will do so. And that is an inspiring thought for everyone.

I suppose I could say I wanted to know the exact recipe for a successful business but then this book never claimed to deliver that, it simply teaches us important lessons and motivates us to go for it ourselves. But if I am honest there is very little to dislike about this book, it is well written, entertaining and sometimes humorous. It does what it says on the tin and tells us the story of how twenty-five businesses succeeded despite the hard times during which they were initiated.

David Lester is the author to the How They Started series and other titles include, “How They Started – How 30 Good Ideas Became Great Businesses” and “How They Started – Global Brands”.

Published by Crimson press, ISBN 978 1 85458 549 3, Priced £12.99.

This book is well worth a read even if you are not thinking of starting your own business and is useful to those who are - Inspiring stories, nicely written:

WORTH A READ?

OTHER WORK:

WANT ONE?

DISLIKE:

RATING:

KEY LESSON:

WHY BOTHER:

OVERVIEW:

AUTHOR:

IN A NUTSHELL:

Ha

TITLE:

Don’t Forget .......

Ask SSG about

Catherine 01442 200945

Website AmendmentsJob BoardsRecruitment Training

Emm

a fr

om L

iver

pool

£50JOKER!

WINNER!

Q:

A:

Did you hear about the Recruitment Consultant who bought himself an AM Radio?

It took him a month to realise he could play it at night!

Ale

x fr

om K

ent

£50JOKER!

WINNER!

Q:

A:

A Consultant ordered a pizza and the Waiter asked if he should cut it in to six or twelve pieces

The Consultant replied:

“Six please, I could never eat twelve pieces.”

And

y fr

om S

olih

ull

£50JOKER!

WINNER!

Q:

A:

What’s the best way to get hold of a Recruitment Consultant?

By the neck....

26

SELLING A BUSINESS – PART 2

In this issue (see Page 14) we began to look at what you need to do to develop a recruitment business which you might actually be able to sell for your life-changing millions! Next time, we will progress from the ‘Basics’ and start to look at how to ‘Groom’ your Company, ready for would-be purchasers to carefully scrutinise before making you an offer.

This is all about getting your Company ready for that glorious day and outlines some of the practical steps that need to be taken to get the business in shape.

3 WAYS TO SYOB

Ok, so we didn’t have space in this issue to look at the three ways that you could start your own business! (As we suggested that we would last time around).

Well, next time we really will make a big effort to identify the three primary routes to a business launch – i.e. Self Fund, Business Angel or Incubation.

Invaluable solutions for anyone interested in making the transition from employee to Business Owner.

THE BANKS HAVE THEIR SAY!

Our recent survey (see Page 7) suggested that most Recruiters view ‘Banks as all the same’ – that they don’t care and that they don’t know the recruitment market from the Common Market.

We laughed at their apparent ineptitude, giggled at their inability to grasp the concept of a ‘placement’ & despaired at the ludicrous charges they impose on their ‘Customers’.

Well, let’s try and be fair and give them a chance to fight back. We talk to Lloyds – are they any different?

HOW TO DEVELOP A PRESS RELEASE

If you have ever fancied yourself as a bit of wizard with words, then why not put your talents to good use and develop a Press Release for your business?

Clare Armstrong will walk you through what needs to be done and who needs to know when you want to broadcast to the World.

Watch out Murdoch, there could be a new kid on the Wapping block!

You looking for some“Investment?”

Some friends of ours are

gonna make you an

offer.......

Alternatively: www.supportservicesgroup.tv- Investment without the risk -