The good fairy, Growth N. Prosperity had returned from her much deserved vacation and was very upset to find the damages that evil Lord Economic Forecast had brought upon her charges. She went to the good staffing company telling them, "I have thousands fold like yourself, and you can choose to ignore the spell cast upon you." The good fairy pointed her wand at the mirror and said "Observe, how to make the spell cast upon you go away. Do the last and then the first and all in between". The good company watched and learned, evil Lord Economic Forecast was never seen again.

Failing the history lesson. A "bad market" is not causing your slump. Staffing Industry Analysts Inc., the well-respected publishers of SI Review and Staffing Industry Report, projects in their annual staffing review that all market segments except light industrial will experience a growth rate in 2001. The overall staffing industry will grow 6 percent in 2001, a "soft economy."

Slow growth is not a decline in market size. The dollars are still there and some staffing company, somewhere, is receiving them. Our economy has endured a "recession" about once a decade for the last two hundred years. The best firms use old techniques to prosper in a slow growth scenario.

Believing fully in the news media. The media needs news and will sensationalize as necessary. The full truth with unbiased reporting is boring, time consuming and does not support ratings. A layoff or other bad news needs to be viewed in context. The dot com frenzy is a classic case in point, without the aid of venture capitalists and stock speculators, would the average dot com have even opened its doors for business?

Internal staff cutbacks without productivity increase. Less internal staff to recruit and sell means less opportunities and lower volume. A staff cutback without a significant productivity increase from those remaining means lower customer service and encourages a slump. The capacity to produce is the limiting factor of growth. Perhaps, evil Lord Economic Forecast moonlights as an accountant.

Training cutbacks. More productivity from internal staff is a critical success factor in the current economy. Where is the sanity of hiring a new internal staff employee and not giving them the training to succeed? Where is the sanity in not giving an existing staff person additional skills to succeed when a replacement search is far more costly? Evil Lord Economic Forecast loves it when training budgets are cut and self-inflicted profit declines occur.

Advertising cutbacks. Advertising and marketing are most effective in a down cycle. Many competitors become less visible as a result of misguided budget cuts. A classic marketing principle declares that a customer needs to be exposed to your firm at least twenty times to have brand recognition. Focus upon market exposure, and penetration.

Depending on the Internet job boards. Internet job boards reliance has created an abundance of lazy, low skilled recruiters. Only a small percentage of those actively looking for employment are listed on the Internet. Learn networking skills from an old-timer or quality trainer.

A stagnant Candidate database. Historically about 10 percent of the typical staffing candidate database will become inactive each year. Steady growth requires a similar percentage increase in the candidate database size.

Lack of discipline focus. Pick the dirty dozen disciplines and focus upon them. The learning curve to be full service is long and inefficient. Effective and efficient is the easiest way to growth and profitability. Get excellent at your core competencies!

Competing on price. The only firms competing on price in the current economy should be those who cutback services. Do not believe that clients are not willing to pay for superior talent; they can only compete in their business endeavors with the best talent. As Stephen Covey say, "No margin no mission"

Under utilizing trade association resources. An appropriate trade association membership is an absolute necessity. Knowledge is power. The quality of trade association programs and periodicals rises in difficult times. One article or education seminar might be your competitive edge against the uninformed. A trade association membership is an outsourced competitor and market segment intelligence expert.

Paying candidates under fair market value. The temptation to support profits by over negotiating with your candidates is huge and everyone loses. Underpaid candidates are a short term profits with a long-term liability. No good ever occurred when an employee feels they are underpaid.

E-Newsletters. SPAM exists because it works! A tasteful weekly e-mail newsletter with company news and available to interview candidates to current and potential clients is a very effective business builder. What is the branding value of touching a client 52 times a year?

Search backwards. Any result query from a front office package should be worked from the end to the beginning. Our logic-based society typically processes the most recent files alphabetically. Try calling a "Z" record that has not been talked with in two years and expect good things to happen.

Hours availability. The number of staffing firms with no evening or Saturday availability is amazing. It is a buyers market from the candidate and client perspective. Unavailable is lost opportunity.

Stress coping. Stress burns people out. Eat right, get exercise, and play. Talk with a significant other, friend or peer on a regular basis. A stress laden, poorly nourished, over-worked, flabby, caffeine or nicotine addict is no way to go through life.

A personal board of directors. Form a personal board of directors of ten people from non-staffing firms and meet monthly with them to exchange leads, knowledge and support. Each board member should come to the monthly meeting five sales leads or prospects. The anti-slump value of fifty prospects per month is considerable.

Activation calls. That front office database assembled from years of effort, advertising and networking is only 70 percent utilized at best in most staffing firms. Run a query to find out what percentage of the candidates and client databases have not been contacted in a year or more. Make activation calls a planned daily activity.

Low or ineffective technology. The sellers market is gone for the near future with the buyers (your client) controlling the show. A qualified candidate quickly to the client is a front office technology issue. High technology will generally win over limited technology. The time cycle from job order acceptance to the submittal of qualified candidates is short, a quality front office recruiting software often being the difference.

Thank you notes. All personal contacts should be followed-through with an e-mail or voice mail thank you. The 5 percent of all recruiters and salespersons that follow-through with a thank you are remembered. Courtesy and manners count.

The dying art of cold calls. The prospecting cold call is alive and well with a new wrinkles, voice mail and e-mail. Learn to leave effective voice mails. Your e-mails should be well written and spell-checked.

Not meeting face to face with clients. The need to make the best hiring decision is even more mission critical in 2001. Long distance selling is dead. Name and face recognition with your client breeds accountability, needs understanding and responsiveness. The staffing industry is about client and candidate relationships. The expectation that your client will provide job orders to a firm when they have not seen representative in six months or more is false. Long live the client lunch.

Identify the source problem. Stop and spend some time to identify the source problem(s). Symptoms are not the problem. A slump in the current market is a company internal issue and not a market issue. Be truly honest; ask peers, bosses, candidates and your clients about the real problems.

Monitoring the wrong metrics. Revenues, placements and profits are RESULTS. Always monitor the CAUSES of the result if you want to change the result. For example: a salesperson in a slump could focus on client meetings or a recruiter on outbound calls. Correlate workflow activities such as calls, meetings, and submittals to the dollar results on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. Change the causes not the symptoms to change the result.

What you believe to be true is true; the mind will make it so. A slump is no more than a subtle decline of good work habits and business thought patterns. The definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting a different result. The good fairy pointed her wand at the mirror and said "Observe, how to make the spell cast upon you go away. Do the last and then the first and all in between". The good company watched and learned, evil Lord Economic Forecast was never seen again.