Mass exedus of staff - good or bad thing?

Hi everyone,
Well it's been a good start to 2010 work-wise, and an absolute disaster employee wise! We had a fantastic week when we came back, although the 2nd week was quiet. Discovered we are running at a loss again. Took a look at our spending, our staffing costs and our general overheads. As it happened we lost all of our domestic cleaning staff in one week, so that sorted out some overheads! Decided not to get stressed about it. We cancelled all the domestic cleaning which was less than 4 hours per shift. Laid off one casual guy due to lack of additional work and because we discovered by doing a time-in-motion exercise that one guy could do the work of two with just a few tweaks, we saved some more on overheads. We also discovered that 5 of our 4hr + jobs were making more than 7 of our small jobs, so the small jobs are no more. I started interviewing immediately and found a house-husband who, as it turns out, is very good at house-work. We started him today (Monday) so we'll see how it goes. The networking is going well. Had three recommendations since Christmas. One for a letting agent, one for a private landlord who own a few properties and one for an office in Central London. All i need to do now is find some staff!!

Still doing my marketing using Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle ideas, although it has been put on hold this week due to lack of staff. I am getting really good at Swipe and Deploy as taught my Bill Glazer. Sending out a direct mail shot to small business's who might need out services, with a free packet of biscuits inside. Because I hate doing followup calls, I have asked a virtual PA to do it for me. Now, my colleague felt that we should do it ourselves to save on costs, but we just don't feel comfortable doing it and so the followup would never be carried out and the work may never come in. I'm told Follow up is so important, it makes sense to ask someone who does it for a living to do it. I will let you know how it goes.

We have been offered our start up loan for the letting agency, but again it is on hold until I can sort out the staffing problem. Which is a pain as we have found a good location for a shop front which used to be a letting agent. Now you may think I'm mad, but local people and people getting the train in the morning know there is a letting agent there, so we already have potential clients.

Sent out a few quotes for office cleans. One seems quite positive so feeling optimistic. Have a feeling this will be a good year for us, even though we have a bad start staff wise. Maybe this is a godsend as it means I can cut back waste and 'dead wood' within the business. Reminds me of a song 'Always look on the bright side of life' !
see you next time
Annette
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