David set up Coreus after watching one bad hire take down an entire department earlier in his career, and has been helping SMEs attract, recruit and retain the right talent ever since. The pair discuss the true cost of a poor hire, often cited as four times a person's basic salary once recruitment, training, disruption and lost productivity are factored in and agree the real toll is even harder to measure than that.

The conversation also explores why authenticity, not a polished job advert, is what actually attracts the right candidates, with David encouraging business owners to involve existing staff in the selection process as a "cultural check" for new recruits. He also challenges owners to rethink how much of hiring they hand over to others. "Recruitment has to be one of the last things you delegate," he explains. "For as long as you can, you need to be involved, even if it's just at the very end process."

Rachael shares her own experience of learning this the hard way, recalling a time she delegated recruitment and found the quality of candidates coming through no longer matched the firm's culture, a mistake she's determined not to repeat.

It's a conversation Chadwick Accountants has proactively with clients navigating growth. "We see the cost of getting this wrong up close," Rachael says. "So we make sure it's part of the conversation long before it becomes a crisis."

The full episode, "Your Next Hire Could Make or Break Your Business," is available now on FFS, For Finance's Sake on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube and Podbean.