Legal Recruitment in Leeds and Yorkshire

Yorkshire has a thriving legal recruitment market centred around legal jobs in Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, Wakefield and York. The satellite towns based in North and South Yorkshire also have a very active legal recruitment market.

Leeds has the largest Legal Sector outside of London employing over 8,000 people in a wide variety of Legal Jobs. Leeds is a vibrant city with a rapidly expanding economy. Leeds was recently voted the UKs best city for business and also the safest City in England for women. Leeds has a growing reputation as a cultural centre to rival that of Manchester. Leeds is the second largest metropolitan district in the UK. In the latest census figures, the population of Leeds was 715,404 – making it the 3rd biggest city in the UK after London and Birmingham. Leeds rail station is the largest outside of London and c110,000 people commute to Leeds every day.

On the legal front Leeds is home to a number of Legal 500 firms including Addlesshaw Goddard, DLA Piper, Eversheds LLP and Cobbetts. For the ambitious lawyer, solicitor or legal executive seeking their next law job or for new legal vacancies then Leeds could be your next destination.

Situated in South Yorkshire, Sheffield is the ninth largest city in the UK. For those looking for a legal role then Sheffield boasts an active and energetic legal scene. Sheffield is a District Registry of the High Court and also has a county court, a crown court and a magistrate’s court. Legal 500 firms in the city include, DLA Piper, Nabarro Nathanson, HLW and Irwin Mitchell.

In the rest of Yorkshire the cities of York, Bradford and Hull tend to lead the legal recruitment market. Legal 500 firms Andrew M Jackson, Gosschalks and Rollits dominate the East Yorkshire market. In the county’s capital York, Denison Till and Langleys Solicitors are the major players. The market for solicitors, paralegals and legal support staff outside of the urban centres of Leeds and Sheffield is bright.

Small Business Valuation and Its Benefits

If you watch the TV show Shark Tank, you often see business owners who lack an understanding about small business valuation. It is estimated that over 80% of small businesses have no financial estimate as to what their business is worth, nor do business owners seem to care. This is like me asking you how much money you have in the bank and you have no idea what I am asking you. You would not run your personal financial life this way; so why would you run your business with no understanding of the value.

So why should small business owners care about valuation? The answer is simple: The personal wealth of every small business owner is directly linked to the valuation of their business. If you expect to be worth a million dollars, then you better have a business that has a valuation of one million dollars. This is important because at some point every small business owner must retire and your retirement is based on the value of your business. Consider the fact that 70% of private companies in the United States will be put up for sale by 2030 and according to the National Federation of Independent Business, only 30% of all businesses that are put up for sale are sold. This is because most small business owners never pay attention to the valuation of their businesses.

Where does valuation come from? Valuation gets assigned based on the benefit stream of your business. The most common benefit stream is Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization or EBITDA for short. When you go to sell your company and retire from your business, you will sell your company for a multiple of your EBITDA. The bigger the company, the higher the multiple and the higher the valuation. The key is to get the multiple up which will increase your valuation. This requires an aggressive growth strategy linked to the valuation of your business.

The good news is that financial professionals are now offering cloud based solutions that empower any small business owner with a road-map for increasing value. The bad news is that this road-map can take five years or more to implement. Additionally, most road-maps require a strong professional team to facilitate the process. Having worked with various solutions, I would recommend small business owners consider one of two solutions:

1. Value Opportunity Profile – This is a comprehensive assessment of your business based on interviews with your management team. Specific recommendations are made on how to increase value in three phases.

2. Value Builder System – This is a 12 month program that starts with your own self-assessment, allowing you to decide if you want to embark on the program or not. Exercises are used each month to improve the valuation score of your business.

Regardless of how you get there, it is imperative for every small business owner to recognize how important valuation is to their own personal wealth. Because so few owners seem to grasp valuation and how to increase it, having a professional outside team can help. You need someone to orchestrate and facilitate the process while everyone else runs the day-to-day operations of the business.

A Simple Product Creation and Product Launching Formula

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.