Which problems are you facing ?

Louis Text Republic

Hi All,

I'm asking this question specifically for Business Owners or Managers : what are the most urgent and sensitive problems you are facing today in your business ? Also, which industry are you in ?

You can be as specific as you'd like.

I'm asking you this question to create content that will help professionals solving their problems.

Thanks in advance,

Louis

PS: if you don't want to share those in public, you can send me a private message!

Gloomtastic!

Lack of consumer confidence is the no. 1 concern for my business which is in children's entertainment.

Bandara

Getting good retail staff with experience

Close to impossible

dbran

Lack of confidence and consumer spending in the economy and getting paid

professore

Getting paid. Plenty of work out there but Getting Paid !!!!!

Louis Text Republic

Thank you for all your replies so far, I really appreciate it.

Gloomtastic!, can you please be more specific when you say :

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Lack of consumer confidence is the no. 1 concern for my business which is in children's entertainment.

Thanks again,

Louis

Gloomtastic!

Louis Text Republic wrote: »

Thank you for all your replies so far, I really appreciate it.

Gloomtastic!, can you please be more specific when you say :



Thanks again,

Louis

When consumer confidence is high people spend a little bit extra. When it's low they rein in all spending.

Earlier this year, news in the media was generally good, this equated to a boost in business enquiries and actual spend. Then the Local Property Tax came along with the media going into doom overdrive. The level of enquiries dropped.

Hope that helps!

Louis Text Republic

Thanks, yes, it's very helpful

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

When consumer confidence is high people spend a little bit extra. When it's low they rein in all spending.

Earlier this year, news in the media was generally good, this equated to a boost in business enquiries and actual spend. Then the Local Property Tax came along with the media going into doom overdrive. The level of enquiries dropped.

Hope that helps!

MidlandsM

cashflow .......tis tight

UBERTILT

Pricing Vs. Perceived value.

robertdoyle

Hammertime wrote: »

Getting good retail staff with experience

Close to impossible

I find that there are lots of willing and enthusiastic staff both young and old. It really is an employers market out there. If you can target a person that you believe will have a genuine interest in your product or business, it is very easy to train them in. You have to think, a lot of the college students looking for work are smart kids, once they are pleasant, all they need to learn is about the product and the till system.

Experience should not be essential. As I said, its an employers market.

Bandara

robertdoyle wrote: »

I find that there are lots of willing and enthusiastic staff both young and old. It really is an employers market out there. If you can target a person that you believe will have a genuine interest in your product or business, it is very easy to train them in. You have to think, a lot of the college students looking for work are smart kids, once they are pleasant, all they need to learn is about the product and the till system.

Experience should not be essential. As I said, its an employers market.

I couldn't disagree more !

MidlandsM

how can it be an employers market, when there's no decent candidates?!

robertdoyle

The unemployment rate was over 14% in March 2013, thus there are quite a number of people in search of work. I have not come across anyone that has had difficulty hiring in years! When you say retail staff, I assume you mean somebody to stock the shelves, work the till and be polite? If you can't find somebody suitable for that role your obviously looking in the wrong place.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

MidlandsM wrote: »

how can it be an employers market, when there's no decent candidates?!

How do you figure there are no decent candidates? We've the highest unemployment level we are likely to see in the next 19 years. If your having problems hiring i'd either you are not offering fair compensation or else when you hire you are not correctly motivating the staff. Is it possible you've just had a bad isolated experience?? Your title says Midlands - having two businesses in Portlaoise The last three jobs opening we've had have had a massive amount of applications and the quality of those applications was well above the job minimum requirements.

herthabsc

Well now that we are on this subject. This is one of my most difficult aspects. Trying to find somebody who is ambitious and creative with sales is very very difficult. Yes we have 14% unemployment but be damned if I can find decent people. I have got my local TD, chamber of commerce and now am going over to my local social welfare office to try and get decent CV's. Getting off the ground is tough but finding staff is even tougher. I thought with unemployment it would be a lot easier but it ain't. It is a nightmare that is taking up a lot of my time.

robertdoyle wrote: »

The unemployment rate was over 14% in March 2013, thus there are quite a number of people in search of work. I have not come across anyone that has had difficulty hiring in years! When you say retail staff, I assume you mean somebody to stock the shelves, work the till and be polite? If you can't find somebody suitable for that role your obviously looking in the wrong place.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

So i agree that Ireland has a shortage of high skilled sales people, but the real answer to that is to find someone enthusiastic and create a training system to bring them up to the level you need. Ireland should have a world class sales training educational college but alias we dont.

What i feel you might be experiencing though is that you are in start up mode so funds may be tight, really it's the lack of capital / maybe experience that you need to bring someone in at a fair compensation and sell them on your project.

By it's definition you are not going to find a great sales person, who is ambitious and creative, sitting around wait for you to find them. They will be out there selling themselves and creating opportunities and jobs for themselves. There is no cheap way to get an expensive job done, on a long term basis without adequate remuneration - either pay in cash or equity, but don't expect someone to further your aspirations without you meeting their aspirations too.

syklops

One aspect of my job is business development(finding clients) and the biggest problem we are seeing is finding clients. People seem unwilling to part with cash.

On the finding people for jobs thing, we see it on boards all the time. "I've sent out 800 CVs and got no responses". People are using the shotgun method to try and get jobs and its not working. If I was going for a retail job in the morning I would big up all(and admittedly lacking) retail experience on my CV, and I would write a cover letter which brought attention to my experience, and I would try to make up for it by coming across enthusiastic, and energetic.

herthabsc

Totally agree. This is exactly what is happening. The "shotgun" approach. Fire any amount of cv's off regardless of the job title or your experience. Maybe it works for some people in that they will luckily get one or two positive responses. Far better that they tailor their CV and cover letter and try to impress for their job they are going for.

Louis Text Republic

Thanks for all your replies guys, it's very helpful, trust me.

Louis

fasttalkerchat

Hammertime wrote: »

Getting good retail staff with experience

Close to impossible

Where are you based? PM me details, I might have a candidate.

robertdoyle

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Where are you based? PM me details, I might have a candidate.

I love this comment!

UBERTILT

herthabsc wrote: »

Totally agree. This is exactly what is happening. The "shotgun" approach. Fire any amount of cv's off regardless of the job title or your experience. Maybe it works for some people in that they will luckily get one or two positive responses. Far better that they tailor their CV and cover letter and try to impress for their job they are going for.

I run an employment agency and can't begin to tell you how annoying the "Shotgun" approach is. When I opened the agency my mission was to reply to and serve each and every applicant to the best of my ability. After receiving a few hundred shotgun applications I soon learned to use the delete button.

eg. Portuguese Fraud Detection Agent Required...4 out of 125 applicants spoke Portuguese.
Slot Technician Required. Full drivers licence essential...Applicant wanted to know if he could take the machines on a bus as he didn't drive..

herthabsc

Haha. That made me at least laugh!

bogwalrus

cash flow. coffee shop.

UBERTILT

bogwalrus wrote: »

cash flow. coffee shop.

Ever thought of additional revenue streams?
Online gaming terminals keep bums on seats and an affiliate deal with the right gaming company can provide a surprisingly high monthly income.

syklops

bogwalrus wrote: »

cash flow. coffee shop.

Decent internet would attract me to spend a bit longer(and spend a bit more) in your coffee shop. Most places it is just crawling along.

herthabsc

I will write a separate post to this but my biggest problem is lack of experience in driving a business forward Louis. My business has started and all the foundations are there but I am the only one driving it forward.

Basically I am stuck and not moving forward but swimming against the tide so to speak. I would so love to find someone who is a dragons den type person who has experience in guiding a new start up going forward, has time and is not looking for financial incentive now/share but in the future when the company is successful. I am not looking for investment but more experience.

I would be also interested in hearing from someone who is unemployed but has worked in business development and is able to live off a small basic salary until we move forward. Maybe I am in dreamland in such a senerio and I am sure that there are loads of people out there in a similar situation but I am only really coping on to my one now.

On a separate note but from a previous thread, I have decided to give up on looking for a sales person. As a start-up it is probably better looking to outsource sales. If anybody knows of a good company/person who work mainly on a commission basis please pm me. Thanks.

UBERTILT

http://intern.jobbridge.ie/

herthabsc

Thanks Ubertilt. I put my add on Jobbridge and I got a reply back from a lady who has got 20 years of business development in Spain and has just returned home and is finding it difficult to get a job. As you said, you found a very good person on Jobbridge and they are working wonders for you. I hope that the same happens to me. I am meeting up with her on Monday and we will see how it goes!

DubTony

UBERTILT wrote: »

I run an employment agency and can't begin to tell you how annoying the "Shotgun" approach is. When I opened the agency my mission was to reply to and serve each and every applicant to the best of my ability. After receiving a few hundred shotgun applications I soon learned to use the delete button.

eg. Portuguese Fraud Detection Agent Required...4 out of 125 applicants spoke Portuguese.
Slot Technician Required. Full drivers licence essential...Applicant wanted to know if he could take the machines on a bus as he didn't drive..

This is interesting. Aren't the agencies in many cases their own worst enemies? I've spoken to some and I've been told that it's easier to run an ad than to go back through the CVs they have on file. So even after taking the time to meet with applicants some agencies never contact those people again for positions they are probably qualified for. The result is that desperate job seekers, getting no results from agencies, simply "shotgun" the CV in the hope that they'll get something. A double edged sword I think.