Page 155 - James Caan - The Real Deal

14 · Having Fun

Of course, the more they billed, the more they would earn, so
this went down well. ‘I’m going to spend time with all of you
making sure that my clients are taken care of, and together I
believe we can build something to be proud of.’
Everyone likes to feel that the company they’re working for is
on the up, and the team responded brilliantly. It was now my job
to look to the future, and mentally I sketched out a new job
description for me as managing director. I wasn’t an accountant,
I didn’t really understand balance sheets, but I knew that if I was
going to build the business I had to learn: that was my job now.
I started to look at new sectors: should we be in IT, for instance?
Or should we offer in-house training programmes, or company
cars, or BUPA cover, or pensions? I considered every aspect of the
business and looked for ways I could turn it from a boutique into
a corporation. I found it strange not always worrying about how
my candidates were doing, but I was finding my new challenges
very stimulating, which meant I was enjoying myself. I actually
found dealing with the monthly management accounts really
interesting, and seeing patterns in our billing, our costs and our
margins was a revelation. Slowly, things that had always baffled
me a bit were coming into focus simply because I had the time to
concentrate on them.
I was working out things such as how much it really cost me to
hire someone. When I hired a new member of staff, it took them
three months to place their first candidate, and it would be another
six to eight weeks before the invoice was settled. That meant I had
to know exactly how much money was coming in to be sure of
expanding the team. This was stuff I had known instinctively, but
now I had concrete figures and processes that would help me grow
the business.
I was also spending a lot of time walking the floor, moving from
desk to desk, and checking in with the team to help them solve
their problems. Fairly quickly, the company’s performance started

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