I recently moved to a lovely apartment overlooking the Kent coast in Canterbury, and decided to try out one of the quaint coffee shops in Whitstable for my usual Americano coffee with two shots of espresso…

The lady behind the counter looked at me and said:

"You what love", "we do coffee, cappuccino and a pot of tea."

I paused momentarily, when she started tapping her fingers on the table...

Seeing I was the only one in the shop, I couldn't quite grasp why this 'sour puss' was frowning at me and becoming so impatient...

"Just a cappuccino then, please," I said.

In the back of my mind, I thought there was no way this lady could be the owner of this shop; and if you do have a business, even if it's a coffee shop, no one cares about your livelihood more than you…

You know, I do have sympathy with workers who have to deal face-to-face with the general public.

When you work in a customer-facing business, you must deal with people of all sorts.

With my free recruitment start-up workshop events, we have people who phone up and regularly give my staff grief...

As I always tell them, there are more knuckleheads out than there are in!

Here's a taste of what we have had to deal with…

knucklehead #1

A person emails my team with a list of 20 questions at 9 am.

Follows up at 9.10 am with a "Can you answer my questions, any time today!"

9:30 am, a second email arrives with a simple "Why are you ignoring me!" message.

9:45 am email arrives with a "Do you guys never answer your emails" message.

10:15 am email arrives full of expletives, accusations, questioning our existence etc etc...

Here's the deal:

Firstly, we receive over 100 or so emails A DAY.

Many wanting a reply as soon as possible and it's just not feasible for me or my team to sit down and spend the whole day replying to emails….

Knucklehead #2

Angry people... boarding on psychopathic…

These people seem to be lurking around the internet, looking to be offended at any given time.

Here's an example of what happened to me a few weeks back...

I got an email from a woman that went something like:

"Hey Joe, I'd like to work with your company, I think you are an excellent entrepreneur, and we would be a good fit"…

"The problem is, I know nothing about the recruitment industry, can only work from home, part-time, and I would need a pay advance from you as an act of good faith on your behalf"…

I replied that I was not looking to take on any extra staff. However, I would like to wish her all the best in her job hunt…

All nice and dandy, so I thought.

A reply, shot back within two minutes, which said:

"You bleep, bleep, bleep, who the hell do you think you are!"

"You know nothing about me, my family or my situation. How dare you dismiss my application out-of-hand without at least seeing me for an interview!"…

"You can go and"…

Well, I will just leave it there…

Sweet ah?

So listen, having your own home-based recruitment business gives you the freedom to work when you want, where you want, and equally important, with whom you choose to work…

It gives you rewards that very few other businesses can provide, and I've loved every one of the 40 or so years I've been working in the industry…

But, unfortunately, you will have to deal with the odd knucklehead from time to time...

Always remember, if you really want to live your life to the fullest and realise your greatest potential, you must be willing to run the risk of making some people mad...

People may not like what you do, people may not like how you do it, but these people are not living your life...

You are!

So, a word to the wise: step up to the challenge, believe in yourself, and do what it takes...

Right now is a great time to start your very own home-based recruitment agency, so what are you waiting for?…