Jimmy’s is hiring. My word. We’ve been trading for just under four years now and currently there are just three of us. There’s myself, looking after marketing and sales, my sister/business partner Sooz, who heads production and sales, and Steve, aka ‘AutoSum’, who controls our money. It’s a fantastic mix. I’m basically allergic to spreadsheets, Steve wouldn’t stand on a stage and talk about business for love nor money, and I certainly don’t have Sooz’s patience when it comes to dealing with customers.
We outsource a fair amount of work that includes our design and web stuff, aspects of marketing, accountancy, legal stuff and, of course, production. We’ve hired a few folks in the past and it hasn’t worked out. Perhaps we thought we needed to hire when we didn’t. It’s amazing, as soon as you’re in business, you automatically think you need to hire people when it’s the exact opposite.
On day one of Jimmy’s, both Sooz and I packed sample boxes. On day 1,440, we are still packing sample boxes. It now doesn’t make any sense for us to be doing this as we need to be using our time more effectively and efficiently, hence why we really, really need to hire people. We must stress that in our business it’s a case of everyone mucking in to do what needs to be done. Of course we’re all going to pack boxes when needs must, but to do it so often doesn’t make sense.
Currently we’re after a marketing person to help me, a spreadsheet/admin dude, a London footsoldier, and a national account manager. We have questioned ourselves as to what these new folks are going to bring to Jimmy’s.
Obviously we can’t hire anyone if they’re not going to help us grow, so we’ve come up with a simple strategy for the coming year - we must increase our rate of sale in existing customers. We’re not going to be snooping around for new business (although it is incredibly exciting). What we’d much rather do now is focus on what we’ve got, build our business with them and, who knows, future stockists might just come and knock on our door and not the other way round.
We’re not advertising just yet but if you’re interested in joining a pretty fun business who work like dogs, let us know. But don’t call or mail, do something a little more exciting.
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