1. Employing people

2. Full time employees  Full time employment is by far the most significant part of total employment in the UK.

3. Benefits  Higher output may be possible  Available all the time  Build better working relationships  Build good relationships with customers and suppliers  Easier to take advantage of training opportunities.

4. drawbacks  High cost  Lack of flexibility

5. Part – time employees  Small part of overall labour market in terms of numbers, but is growing in significance.  Examples  Term time workers  Zero hours contracts

6. Benefits  Flexibility  Seasonality  Extend trading or production  Can attract different types of people  Job share = greater variety of skills  Retail valuable staff who do not want to work full time  Can be useful to new businesses.

7. Drawbacks  Difficult to access training  Communication can be difficult  Less able to build relationships with customers and suppliers  Costs may be higher.

8. Temporary employees  Benefits  Level of staffing is flexible  Some projects only take a certain amount of time  A business may lack skills for a certain period of time  A small business may want to make or sell a product or service for a fixed period of time.  Maternity cover

9. Drawbacks  May not know the culture or workings of the business  May not be as motivated a permanent employees  Communication problems  Customers may not like a continually changing workforce.

10. Consultants and advisors  Some small businesses may need vary specific help and advice often about the general running of the business.

11. Benefits  Gain the benefit of specialist skills with out the cost of employing full time people.  Entrepreneurs can add to skills base when they need to.  Business can adjust size of workforce up and down quickly  Avoids need to search for and recruit staff  Business start ups can gain the advice of specialists in the early stages of the business.

12. Drawbacks  Consultants will not know the business as well as employees.  Consultants may not be as motivated as full time staff.  Consultants can be expensive.