Small business: SMEs hiring staff - Terri Grace

Terri Grace of Global Beauty.

Terri Grace, shareholder and marketing manager of Global Beauty since 2002

Global Beauty, based in Wellington is the distributor of four brands, OPI, Nimue, I love... and Blinc. She talks about her approach to recruitment at the 13 year old company.

Who was the first employee employed by the founder David Weekley?

I was the first senior employee, brought in initially on secondment to introduce the beauty brand, Nimue to the New Zealand market. I brought Nimue from South Africa.
I fell in love with New Zealand, stayed on and took a shareholding in the company in 2002. As well as doing the recruitment for the company I do brand acquisition, attending trade shows overseas.

What have your learned about recruiting in a small business?

David put me in charge of all the hiring. Recruiting is something you learn over time. The first person I ever hired, I was going into it pretty blind, now I am more calculated about it.

On the two occasions where we have used a recruitment company because we were busy, it has not worked out. They did not fully understand the culture of our business. Both times I went to them to give them the brief rather than them coming to our offices. I think I would do that differently next time. I would bring them here so they could see how we operate.

Who have your recruited over the years?

We now have 20 staff including sales reps, brand managers, warehouse and distribution and a general manager, my husband Jason Grace, who joined two years ago. We needed someone to manage the financial side and set targets.

How do you find your best people?

I have found people through newspaper advertising, recruitment companies, my own networks such as my mother's coffee group where I found an experienced brand manager. What I have learned about recruitment is that you have to go with your gut feel after the interview process. We have at least two meetings with potential candidates. The first is about explaining the role but on the second interview we spend a lot of time talking about them.

Next week: You would think that any company which has fast growth has nothing to complain about. But sometimes very fast growth can bring a business to its knee if they don't have the systems in place and the advisers on hand. Tell us if you have had the good fortune to be in this situation and survive.