Business Basics adopted by FullEmploy

I believe that all types of business have similar processes to each other and that some of these processes are so basic that they apply to all businesses without change. The only things that change are the way these processes are implemented due to current circumstances. These processes are:

1. Business Foundations
2. Business Support Functions - Admin and Functional Support
3. Business Processes - the most variable as they depend on the type of business

1. Business Foundations

This is encapsulated by the 4 Corners of the Business World:

a) Business Premises - All business activities occur within premises

b) Staff - All business activities are performed by people

c) Resources - Equipment, Tools, Raw Materials, and Training are needed to perform these activities. The Staff need to be Trained to use the Equipment and Tools to shape the Raw Materials into the finished products/services that'll be sold for a profit.

d) Money - the above 3 corners give us an idea of what the costs are going to be. In this corner, it's the sources of money available that are discussed when starting up a new business or expanding an existing one. Profits or cashflow will be the source for everything else.

Entrepreneurs should start by describing their venture in terms of the Business Foundations i.e. where are their activities going to be performed; how many Staff will be needed; what Equipment, Tools, and Raw Materials are needed; and what training is required not only on the use of the Equipment and Tools but also on the techniques required to produce the products/services.

The Money aspect should be discussed when all the necessary processes have been planned. The above will give you a running total of expected expenditure.

2. Business Support Processes

a) Payroll, Pension, HR

b) Accounts including accountancy

c) Legal Services

d) Customer Services including relationship management

e) Skills Development

 f) Product Development

g) Sales and Marketing

h) Procurement

In big companies, Payroll and Pensions are in one unit and HR is in another. Training, hence Skills Development, is an HR function but they don't carry out the actual training; they simply coordinate the training activities i.e. provide a monitoring role. In a later blog, I'll describe the need for delegation where authority is delegated with the work but control and responsibility remain with the delegators.

Similarly, Sales is in one unit and Marketing is in another but they work closely together. In small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Sales and Marketing are usually in one unit if at all. Usually Sales staff double up as Marketing operatives. Customer Services is part of the Sales Unit as it's the Sales team who close the deals and provide after-sales care. The Marketing team simply bring in the sales leads.

Similarly, Accounts and Legals can be separate units in big businesses; SMEs can outsource them. The Accounts unit keeps track of all transactions which are used to prepare the financial reports and submit tax and VAT returns to HMRC and Returns and Accounts to Companies House. The Legal unit would give advice on compliance and a defence on any litigation.

Skills Development is a strategy used by HR when developing staff. Product Development is similar to Skills Development but is applied to goods and services. It's also a province of HR as it's the Staff that are developing the products.

3. Business Processes

This section is different for each business. For FullEmploy it involves the following:

a) Building relationships with Employers to identify jobs and job skills and negotiate a contract where the Employer either keeps the post open until the training is complete; or hires the candidate as an apprentice and sends him/her for training as any other employee. This will be done in 2 stages: Client Manger gets job details and uses it to create a Business Plan for the candidate; then negotiate with the Employer.

b) Build Relationships with the Unemployed providing them access to the Skills Database which will contain background info on the Employers so that he/she can select a job that is closest to his/her capabilities. When a candidate joins FullEmploy, he/she is assigned to a Client Manager. Then when he/she selects a suitable vacancy, he/she is reassigned to the Client Manager who manages the Employer that holds that vacancy. The candidate still has to go through a vetting procedure/interview to make sure they're suitable.

c) Build relationships with Training Providers to ensure they have the required skills, if not, we'll work together on building capacity. Details such as cost and duration are noted and shared with the Employers and Funding Agencies. This relationship will include monitoring the progress candidates are making on the course provided. Strict and difficult decisions need to be made regarding where inefficiencies lie.

d) Build relationships with Funding Agencies to see if they can pay for the training. If not, we'll negotiate with the politicians especially Cabinet Ministers. FullEmploy's aim is to get the Government to pay for the training as Industry bosses are reluctant to train staff because they get poached by companies who can offer higher salaries. The latter is our selling point i.e. we don't poach staff from one company and place them in another. If the Government pays for the training, it'll create a level playing field thus preventing wage inflation which translates to lower prices hence lower inflation. FullEmploy will coordinate this activity by creating a Skills Database to reduce the skills shortages and the Government will only pay for training on this particular skill for this particular job which has a vacancy with this particular Employer.

e) Build a relationship with Politicians who can help us perform the activities in d). Once we get the politicians on board, they'll help us gain credibility and persuade the Cabinet to pay for the training.

f) Build relationships with organisations that can supply unemployed people. I've identified Shelter and Crisis, the Homeless Charities, as sources of more difficult candidates because we have to house them before we can find them jobs. This problem needs to be resolved. If we can't get a sufficient number of unemployed people from the various sources, we'll have to advertise for unemployed people and either negotiate with employers if they can pay for the training and recruitment - the chances are they won't. So we have to use e) to get political leverage.

g) Once we've proved the concept in one ward, we'll deploy it in every ward in the UK. This will be done by using the top-down approach which was the original method I wanted to use until I was persuaded to start small and grow organically like everyone else. I wasn't persuaded by that argument because I wanted to be different. What stopped me was the money required (£1.5bn). It was too much for anyone or any syndicate. Another thing that stopped me is credibility as this is my first venture - I sold it to myself by planning to hire 12 Regional Directors who'll hire as many County Managers as there are counties in their region who'll hire as many Area Managers as there are Local Authorities in their Counties who'll hire as many Ward Managers as there are wards in their area who'll hire as many Client Managers as necessary to reduce unemployment and maintain them at low levels in a reasonable period of time.

h) Once we've proved the UK model, we can deploy it internationally.