Find. Build. Sell.

CHAPTER 6Build your team

An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning on each other, become a strength.

Leonardo da Vinci

I spoke at a business event a while back. At the end of the speech, a man got up and asked me a question: ‘What are the top three most important elements in running a business?' he asked.

‘People, people, people,' I said.

He thought I was joking, but I wasn't. That advice doesn't make for good ‘copy' or a shareable meme on social media, but ignore it at your peril. Whether you're a one-person band or a multinational, if you don't focus on your people, you're cactus, and when I say ‘people', I don't just mean staff: I mean suppliers, customers and everyone else in the supply chain.

How to build a loyal team

I have over 350 staff on my team, and a lot of them have been with me for more than 20 years. That's loyalty. They've been with me from the get-go when funds were low and debt was high and we all had to pitch in and dig deep to make the bloody thing work. I've had fights, fires and floods, even deaths in my pubs, and yet my team have stuck with me through thick and thin. I've learned a few things along the way on how to hire (and keep) good staff. If you're about to hire staff and don't want to make a mistake, take a look at some of the strategies I've used that have worked well for me.

But first, before you hire anyone, it's worth discovering how much your staff are really costing you. I mean really costing you. It's probably more than you think. ...