Business Rebound

We experienced a slow summer in terms of business on both the contract and direct hire side. In listening to other staffing firms in the areas in which we compete, we weren't alone. The interesting thing is that things have been picking up in the fall, so much so, that our contract business is stronger than anytime in the last 18 months. Demand has returned and our biggest challenge continues to be finding talent for our clients. In an economy like this, most accountants that want a full time position are either working or are confident enough in their ability to find work that they aren't willing to work as a contractor. This limits our talent pool and makes our job particularly difficult. At this point, most, if not all of the heavy lifting is on the recruiting side of our business as the demand continues to roll in from existing clients as well as new ones.

On the direct hire side, business has come back with a vengeance as our order boards are full and we just successfully completed a large number of searches over the last few weeks. The key now for is to find internal recruiting talent in our Santa Clara operation to help spearhead our search business.

When it comes to changing jobs, Money talks

We were surprised with the responses we received in regards to a survey we conducted of several thousand candidates that we have interviewed over the years. In our poll, we found out that almost 80% of all employees would be enticed to leave their current position with only a 20% increase in pay. Click here for a link to the survey result. http://www.prlog.org/10022748-when-it-comes-to-changing-jobs-money-talks.html

This high percentage came as a bit of a shock to us as well it should to all employers that are out there.

We also had several other questions we asked that provided interesting results. I'm thinking I may publish some of these as well.

Cool New Search

We just started working on a great search for a client that also happens to be a good friend of mine. He is CEO of a cool firm that is designed to increase the number of sellers of goods on EBAY. Apparantly, when EBAY first started, its intention was to be a marketplace where users could sell their used items. What has happened is that it has evolved into a place where the volume is now driven by large companies selling new items.

My client has created a revolutionary business process (patents pending), together with the ease of hand-held mobile technology that empowers a new generation of online sellers.

Their basic concept is helping people turn clutter into cash. All of us have junk sitting at home in our house but we are either too lazy or don't care enough to sell it. You will now be able to call an 800 number and they will dispatch a representative to your house who will come armed with a hand held device that can photograph and upload directly to EBAY for a listing. If you have a question on pricing, they can tap into a large database that will spit out how much you should expect to make on the item.

Additionally, they are able to grow quickly because they are building out a sales team through a MLM model in which they simply focus on hiring the top 25 distributors and then they take care of bringing on others. In only a few short weeks, they have built an amazing team.

They have come to us to find a CFO for their publicly traded firm ( traded on pink sheets) We are tasked with finding a financial executive that has the foresight to see the amazing possibilities with this company who also possesses a strong financial background and a willingness to be hands on. For the right person, this will be a great opportunity. We feel that it is big enough that we are willing to trade a large portion of our fee for stock in the company.

While this is a challenging post to fill, it is fun to work on.

Intro Blog

Having never blogged before, I am struggling to determine what to blog about. I run a regional specialized recruiting firm that is based in Northern California and with offices in Santa Clara, CA, San Ramon, CA, Bellevue, WA and Phoenix, AZ. Our firm specializes in staffing accounting and finance positions on a contract as well as direct hire basis. We also own 50% of an IT staffing business that focuses its efforts on contact and Direct Hire placements in the IT Arena.

It is my intention to share any insights that I feel may be of interest, including the areas of hiring, leadership, staffing and running a small business. Any input is appreciated.

Ted Macauley