𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐒𝐌𝐄 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲?

Roughly 60% of my clients fall into the broad bracket of being a SME. That is broadly defined in the UK as businesses with an annual turnover of between £2m and £50m. Sometimes it can be hard to persuade the owner of a SME to invest in an Executive Search company to help them with their Talent acquisition. 

 

So why should a proud owner of a business they have often built themselves, spend their hard-won profits on a service when they can do it themselves? After all, recruitment’s easy, right? 

 

There are many reasons, but I think a very compelling one can be described through a short analogy. 

 

Yesterday, I had the electrician round. Earlier this week, my fuses started blowing for no clear reason. After trying to identify the fault by unplugging and re-plugging everything on the circuit, checking wiring where I could for loose wires with no resolution, I realised I had reached my level of competence. 

 

I could have watched ‘how to’ videos on You Tube, read books on residential wiring and spent days trying to resolve the issue. But my time is much more valuable serving my customers. 

 

Time for the expert. 

 

My electrician (whom I have known for years and kept a good relationship with), popped round between jobs, spent 90 minutes with me and identified and solved my problem. Clearly, he charged me, but it was money well spent. 

 

My point of relating this story is that most of us can do a little of many things, but when we need a problem solved, we need to recognise when we have reached our level of competence, or that our time is better spent concentrating on the things that the business does well. 

 

Then it is time to call the experts. 

 

I’ve had 25 years of experience in executive search helping employers identify, attract and retain talent. If you would like to know more, contact me at: george@grovehouseexecsearch.co.uk or call me on +44 (0) 7876 124330.