Entrepreneurs will make the recruitment and training of quality people their single biggest financial investment over the next 12 months, according to the Entrepreneurship UK: 2008 report by Deloitte.
In the survey, 31% of entrepreneurial businesses identified a shortage of quality talent as the main barrier they face to achieving their business growth targets. In turn, this has prompted many organisations to recognise the need to address this issue by prioritising expenditure - despite the slowdown of economies across the globe - with 27% of businesses making the recruitment and training of quality personnel their main focus for investment.
Tony Cohen, Head of Entrepreneurial Business at Deloitte, said, “Entrepreneurs have a voracious appetite for growth and a passion for success. As the owners and managers of their businesses, there's a lot at stake and it comes as no surprise that their greatest financial investment for the year ahead will be in recruiting and training the right people to help grow the business.”
Interestingly, almost half (49%) of the entrepreneurs surveyed rely on external recruitment, with just 23% opting for internal promotion. This strategy reveals a conspicuous disparity when comparing it to their ideal recruitment process of promoting internally (47%), instead of recruiting externally (38%).
Cohen added, “Internal promotion and external recruitment will go hand-in-hand in any business, as the key is finding the right quality talent. However it's particularly critical in growing businesses where a weak or missing skill will be more pronounced. The recruitment process is dependent on the skills requirement and direction of the entrepreneurial business at a particular time in its development.”
According to Deloitte’s findings, almost half of the entrepreneurs surveyed are looking to boost their revenues by over 30% in the next year, with a quarter of the respondents looking to achieve 25-50% revenue growth over the course of the next three years, in spite of speculation that the economy may take years to recover from the ongoing financial markets crisis.
Technology, media and telecoms businesses were the most positive, expecting an average of 26% growth in the coming year and 111% over the next three years. Even the consumer business sector, the least optimistic of the eight industries surveyed, predicted revenue growth of up to 18% in the short-term, rising to 48% over a three year period.
Entrepreneurs interviewed were realistic in admitting the economic slowdown would probably have an impact on sales and delay their growth strategy, although a fifth of respondents believe it will have no impact at all on their business.
(Courtesy The People Bulletin)