A typical small to midsized company doesn’t have much fat so watching and controlling costs is an everyday part of life. One cost under routine scrutiny is the cost of recruiting. Most of the largest costs of talent acquisition are hidden in variations in new hire performance and management time spent on trying to do it yourself. Cost effective recruiting involves attending to these real costs, not just the direct cash outlays. In this article we will help you understand what is driving your cost of recruitment and help answer the question: „Is there a better and cheaper alternative?“

The Biggest Cost: Variation in New Hire Performance

The biggest cost an organization can incur in hiring is getting a poor performer. Hiring a person is not like buying a physical asset (like a PC) because the variability in new hire performance is so much greater. You may calculate that a Dell notebook will have a lower total cost of ownership than an HP notebook or vice versa; but you won’t go far wrong with either brand. The same can’t be said for hiring. It’s easy to go very wrong with a hire and the costs of making a sub-optimal choice dwarf all the other cash costs involved in recruiting.

The obvious wrong hire is the one you fire or who resigns after a couple of months. All the direct and indirect costs of hiring and onboarding have to be incurred a second time to replace the failed hire. However, the largest cost to your organization is not the obvious failed hire; it’s the poor hire that is slow to learn the job, never performs very well, doesn’t fit the culture of the company and is certainly not bench strength for the next level up. This type of person will cost your organization money month after month and most likely will become a turnover statistic.

So the CFO’s number one question when looking at controlling hiring costs has to be „Are we reliably following the right hiring process to ensure that we are attracting and hiring only top performers?“

The Second Biggest Cost: Wasted Management Time The second biggest cost for organizations that don’t have a specialized recruiting department is the cost of management time. Does the plant manager end up spending a couple of hours crafting a poorly written job placement ad instead of looking at ways to cut defects or improve productivity? Is the sales manager spending the afternoon sorting through 50 unqualified resumes instead of shadowing a rep on a sales call?

Recruiting is time consuming and if your managers are spending time doing work that a specialist could be doing faster and better then that is a waste of an expensive resource. It’s not just the cost of a manager’s salary that is of concern; it’s that they are distracted from leading their department, being productive and adding value.

The CFO’s second question is „Do we have the right people working with the right hiring process to ensure that we are attracting and hiring only top performers?“

The Final Set of Costs – Direct Cash Outlays

The direct cash costs of recruiting are highly visible and are mainly sourcing related (e.g. the newspaper ad, the job board ad, the cost to attend a job fair) or agency fees (if you use a search firm). From an accounting point of view what is nice about these costs is that they are easy to track but they difficult to define in term of receiving value for money spent. Value here should be defined by a great quality of candidate response not a great quantity of responses. Would you rather attract five candidates with the skills, knowledge and behaviours to be a top performer than 50 candidates who are far from qualified? Time spent implementing a poor process to attract poor quality is a wasteful and costly burden on your recruiting staff and is unproductive.

The risk is that in trying to reduce these visible costs, organizations inflate the less visible costs. If cutting back on sourcing or employment agency expenses leads to lower quality of hire, longer time to hire or more management time spent on recruiting then it is a false saving.

The Argument for Outsourcing and Agencies

As we’ve discussed, if you look at the income statement you won’t see the two biggest costs involved in recruiting (poor quality of hire and the time your managers spend in running an inefficient recruiting process); what you may see is the cost of using a recruitment process outsourcer (RPO) or employment search agency. Is this a cost to be avoided?

The argument for using third party service providers in recruiting is the same as for any other aspect of the business: very often a specialized third party has the expertise, a finely honed process, an investment in technology and the economies of scale to do the work better, cheaper and faster than you can do in-house.

One shouldn’t underestimate the value a third party can bring to recruiting. A good search firm is up-to-date on the latest search tools, they have a modern applicant tracking system, and they are well trained in sourcing and selection. In particular, if they really are experts in this area then they have access to passive candidates that your firm just won’t have. Passive candidates are people who are not actively looking for a job but can be lured to the right opportunity. Professional recruiters invest a lot of time in building a network of high quality passive candidates, something very few organizations can do in-house.

If a third party can deliver top quality candidates then chances are they are saving you a lot of money not costing you a lot of money.

What About Your HR Department?

As soon as we talk about recruitment outsourcing or employment agencies someone will say „Shouldn’t our HR person be doing all our recruitment?“ The quick answer is „No, maybe not. Let’s understand why. If you talk to full-time recruiters working in a Fortune 100 company they’ll take pains to explain why their job isn’t anything like HR. A good recruiter has a singular, aggressive, sales like approach quite removed from the multi-disciplinary process oriented style of a great HR professional.

If your organization has a single HR generalist then they will certainly know something about recruiting, but they won’t be an expert. It’s also unlikely that they’ve been allocated sufficient time to do a thorough job of sourcing and selecting candidates. Depending on your needs an HR generalist may be able to handle most duties effectively, but for many companies it’s asking too much for them to create and implement an effective recruitment process. Drawing upon the expertise and resources of outside service providers can assist to fill in the gaps in the process and produce better results. This is a far better option compared to making a bad hire and compromising your productivity, performance and profitability.

What to Do

Recruiting is a tough area for CFO’s to tackle because the most visible and easily calculable costs are not the most important or even the second most important costs. The job of the CFO is to ask tough questions around „Are we confident we are getting top quality candidates who will add value to this company?“, „Are we allocating recruiting work to the right people using an efficient and effective process?“ and „Are we shooting ourselves in the foot with senior managers spending time recruiting at the expense of their real job?“

We can’t just assume that a good HR generalist can do all the work so we need to look at the value of third party providers. The value of a search agency or RPO is assessed on the quality of people they bring to your organization. Focus on quality and the value will be there.

Now can you afford not to use an employment agency?

Small business failure rates have usually been soaring; small industries take up about half of America’s private sector. And this uneasy economic era is not making the situation any better. No matter what stage your business is in, whether you’re a start-up or have been around for countless decades, it may be advantageous to read some articles about small business advice. Many of these steps are proactive ways to manage your company and guarantee its survival.

First, guard yourself from legal responsibility. Consider filing articles of association as a limited liability company (LLC) in your state. Though the formalities could be simple, the tax implications may not be; it is best to receive some official instruction. An additional form of safety from legal responsibility is on paper agreements.

This piece of suggestion in presenting your customers with a written agreement is more than just professionalism; it is a declaration of your policies between those involved that clarifies the services you recommend. It doesn’t have to be complicated in order to be valuable. Not to mention, insure your business. You may be surprised at how little it will be for this peace of mind.

An additional level of protection is how you take care of your money. You should already have an accountant who takes care of your taxes. Nevertheless, if you become familiar with tax deductions and the yearly changes in tax codes, you may obtain additional payback. Secondly, do not joint your personal and company accounts. Provide a separate business credit card and keep the IRS pleased by not using it for individual expenses. A great part of regular small business advice for start-up ventures is to contain at least six months‘ worth of resources in the bank. Even when you’re reputable, having these extra resources can get you out of an unpredicted downturn.

The third level of protection has to do with people. Inspecting the references of the people you want to hire and receiving their acceptance for a background check will be time well used. And it may be advantageous to contain autonomous contractors rather than staff. Consult with your financial adviser and read the IRS website on the topic of the differences and ramifications among the two.

The last level of protection has to do with producing a name for yourself. In this I.T. period, some great small business advice is to get a significant web domain, and buy it before someone makes you pay a large amount for it. Also, if you assemble a product, consider a copyright or a patent, whichever best fits your needs.

Lastly, if you were proactive and things happen outside of your control, evaluate the damage, secure the damage and have the stamina to know you can continue on. Stay on top of what’s going on around you via the media. The type of knowledge you acquire could come from lessons learned from the failures around you as well as the successes.

In a very short period of time we have seen some interesting changes associated with the internet. When it comes to attracting adult attention the internet sits solidly in the number 2 place behind television. Another demographic change is that adults 55 years of age and over now makeup almost one third of all internet users. This means that today, more then ever before, there is more buying power and prospects available to people wanting to buy and sell over the internet with the different e-commerce or shopping cart solutions now available. Other external factors driving on-line shopping include things such as the recent gas price increases and the move to more environmentally conscious green solutions. One more buying shift will be the change from higher income level families being more likely to purchase over the internet. Because of ease of access, a green consciousness and the cost of getting around more and more people from lower income levels will turn to the internet as well.

In 2008 over $133 B US was spent over the internet in the U.S. alone and this figure is estimated to increase to over $203 B by 2013. In Canada, by the end of 2007, $13.8 B Canadian of on-line consumer transactions had taken place with this number forecasted to grow to $22.8B by 2012. (eMarketer Feb. 2009) Considering such numbers it is safe to say that any business that has the ability to sell On-line and does not is making a strategic mistake. The good news with these growth numbers is that it is certainly not too late to take advantage of on-line shopping and buying and selling over the Internet.

Its difficult at best for anyone who reads a paper or watches or listens to the news to not be feeling down about the current economic reality. As with everything else in life however we can choose to be negative or we can search for the opportunity. And there is plenty of opportunity when we look at the internet. We know that by typing www we have almost instant worldwide fame or infamy. Its easy to get a message or advertisement out to virtually anyone who has an interest in it. When we overlay Shopping Cart technology it becomes even more powerful. Many of us would like to do more for our families and for ourselves but the economic circumstances for many is this is just not possible given what we are bringing home. Internet and e-commerce mean the possibility of multiple income streams are becoming a new option for many. If you have an idea or product and the interest to make them a reality you can also leverage a second or even third income. And the availability of many excellent Affiliate Programs means you don’t even have to have an idea or product right now. You can use someone else’s product or service and represent it while you learn the e-commerce game and work on your own idea.

In today’s economy cash stretched businesses are moving away from the traditionally more expensive advertising methods of Newspaper and Yellow Page ads and are taking greater advantage of both the Internet and the many new Social Advertising media such a Face Book, U-tube, Twitter and more. And here’s why! No matter how bad the economy appears, and although it may appear that it is bad everywhere, there are always pockets that continue to flourish and even prosper. This is why the Internet is such an important technology in this economy. These pockets will change over time as different influences kick in or depart. The constant is that your presence on the Internet combined with your e-commerce abilities, means that your business is always open, always available to these people that are still ready to purchase today.

Just being on the internet ready with an e-commerce solution does not guarantee your success. If your shopping cart has auto-responder capabilities or the ability to automatically send out e-mails thanking your customers for buying and helping them get started, that’s a big plus. But today’s competitive reality means you need more. Everyone is eyeing the internet as a potential safety net but as in any business the individuals working the smartest will be the ones that are most successful. First of all we have to acknowledge that there are two types of buyers. The people ready right now and the people looking to gather information for a future decision. Your success in the now market will be a function of your website, e-commerce solution and marketing strategy when they arrive at the site. Your future shoppers are more of a challenge. They are surfing to gather as much information as they can on their particular area of interest. Once they’ve visited your site you need to begin a multi-media approach of educating and training them on your product or service and provide them the validation they need to accept the fact that your solution is the best and you are recognized as an expert in your area. In this case you need to engage the services of a different expert in marketing. For an example of a company with these credentials check out www.AutomatedMarketingSolutions.com. The social networks such as Face Book, U-tube, Twitter and others are excellent for staying in touch with your prospective market when you want to see how your product or service is being received, for testing ideas and to keep up to date with any negative service issues as they arise. The most important thing to remember is to not limit yourself in how you reach out to your prospects and do not limit the ways they can stay in touch with you.

The last two years have not been kind to large companies and some of their outdated practices have given rise to significant animosity. Ill mention AIG and let it go at that. However, we can still learn from them. For example, a February 2009 report suggests that CMOs or Chief Marketing Officers, in their list of Top 10 Priorities for 2009, list the integration of their traditional media and marketing programs with internet services as number 2. There are obvious advantages of doing this and they include reduced costs and overhead in the marketing departments. For the entrepreneur and the small to medium business these same benefits accrue. An on-line enterprise combined with an e-commerce capability, if properly thought out and marketed, can be the key to a second income and additional peace of mind. It could be a stepping stone to a whole new business. As with everything else in the world however, how effective we are in using these tools to attract, convert and retain will differentiate us and our success.

In today’s world, businesses are faced with many decisions when it comes to marketing and advertising. How do you get started? What media to use in your marketing campaigns. These are just a couple of the immediate challenges. The reality is that all of the options available will work to one degree or another. The key to your success, regardless of the medium you select, is to present yourself in a manner that appeals to your prospect. When this is understood, you can be successful regardless of your selection.

More often than not, people follow the generally accepted trends and styles. This happens with the clothes we wear (anyone remember Beatle Mania?), the beer we drink (what age are you?) and the way we advertise in say, the Yellow Pages. Try scanning the Yellow Pages and you will see numerous pages of similar looking business card layouts and wording. What happens is we start to subconsciously purge the look-a-likes and carry on until we see something that is out of the ordinary.

The most interesting, and different, ads that I have seen appear as a public service announcement. They have headlines like: Warning! Don’t Even Think of Using a Travel Agent Before Calling FREE Traveler Awareness Hotline! Copy below this ad would offer free advice on how to book the best rate for your next trip. I was scanning the travel section because I was looking to book a trip. This advertisement, because it was different, caught my eye. To make it really successful it also had an 800 number at the bottom to call for a Free Report. There was no sponsor so the whole presentation was non-threatening. I was given a safe way to get information I wanted without having to speak directly to a Travel Agent whose job it is to push, and sell me.

This same method can be used regardless of the medium you select for your advertising. It can be Yellow Pages, Business Cards and Val-Pak Coupons. The key is to use the criteria that make it different, interesting and non-threatening. Even though the principles are basic there is a definite knack to this type of marketing.

I have learned of a company, that over the last 12 years, has developed automated systems that allow business people to incorporate any type of marketing and/or advertising into an overall Marketing Strategy. That company is Automated Marketing Solutions or AMS. They differentiate themselves by not only providing solutions, but by educating their clients on the proper techniques to use including how to create the right message by the form of media being used. It doesn’t stop there. AMS provides the capability for a company to place their ENTIRE Marketing Program on Auto-pilot. Once a business marketing program (including voice messages, e-mails, faxes and other broadcast and mail out collateral) is compiled and sequenced, their Lead Management System or LMS provides the unique ability to control and manage the program without any further human interaction.

The benefits to this system include significant time savings on what would otherwise be labor intensive tasks. It also provides consistency in marketing messages. It also means that businesses never need worry about losing customers who misinterpreted your lack of contact for lack of interest. To learn more about Direct Response Marketing and how it can benefit your business, visit Automated Marketing Solutions today. See how quickly and economically you can implement and start benefiting from AMS tested and proven technology and experience.

The average household consists of four people. Most of the time there are two adults and two children. In the modern day economical situation, it is almost impossible for two adults to commute to different places of employment, due to fuel inflation. There are some awesome residual income opportunities available if a person knows where to look.

There are many books available explaining what residual income is and how it works. The first step is to choose which method or type of residual income you desire. There are usually coaches and mentors that will walk you through the steps in creating streams of income. The amount of resources available will depend on which method you pick.

Another opportunity for residual income is a drop shipping provider. Drop shipping is fairly simple. What happens here to help generate cash, is you will sign up with a web based store. You will be assigned an id number. Then for every sale that is tied to that id number generates you cash via the sale of products.

Marketing whatever you have available is relatively easy. You must define a target market. A target market refers to those most likely to desire what you have available. There are several ways to find a strong target market. Once the target market is defined, it is your responsibility to get your product into their hands.

The new American dream is to earn a lot of money with the least amount of physical labor. Residual income does exactly that. Imagine getting paid a small amount every time an advertisement is looked at. Do you realize there are millions if not billions of people that check out items just for personal information purposes. Ultimately, you get paid for them to look around.

Residual income opportunities are gaining popularity because people can make this type of income from the home. There is no commuting, no babysitter fees, and best of all no mean bosses that only take a good worker for granted. The company is yours, so any decisions made will reflect directly on the amount of preparation taken prior to opening your mind to exploring residual income opportunities.

Similar to any other on-line residual income opportunity, there are plenty of scams. Steer away from these by doing a thorough research before actually signing up. There is no penalty for doing your homework before committing to any residual income opportunity.

To bring this to an end, there are a few guidelines that will be available for studying by the person choosing to explore residual income opportunities. These guidelines lay the foundation for secure methods of income. Analyze all the avenues and the pros and cons involved within your type of residual income. Then allow the money to flow into your account with ease. Your computer can make you an extreme amount of money.

Affordable SEO services are a crucial next step for budding internet businesses. Having set up your e-commerce enterprise and established yourself within the market, one of your key concerns will be finding a quality yet affordable search engine optimization company. This search can be a difficult process that requires real care.

One of the primary things that you should be looking for in an SEO company is great customer service. All business people, regardless of their background, know the importance of top notch customer service. You want to make sure you’re dealing with helpful and trustworthy people to help see you through any problems you may have. This way you make sure that you have genuine peace of mind. Therefore, some form of live, interactive communication should be available whatever the time of day.

SEO companies will have a number of ways of increasing your exposure to potential clients. This means that you’ll need to make sure the company that you engage has all of the latest techniques and technology at your disposal. Top of the list of desirables should be techniques such as video website marketing. This is a fantastic modern tool that will not only permit you to stand out from the crowd, but to communicate directly with your target audience, thereby forming a unique relationship.

As affordability is a key issue, you will need to look at being provided with an all-around package. In recruiting an SEO firm, you trust the company to put the word about your business out to potential customers. These customers will hopefully become your future clients, and thus you want value for money. After all, the sales and traffic created as a result will reflect the quality of the service offered.

Before embarking on this process, it’s worth remembering that you are making a seriously important decision about the future of your business, and thus it’s imperative that you don’t rush into things. Consider all of your options so that you can achieve a deal with the best SEO company within your price range.

Search engine optimization is one of the most important facets of an Internet marketing campaign for an online business. An SEO company can provide the services required to make a web page attractive to the search engines so it can begin to rank well and appear on the first pages of the results.

A properly optimized website has the opportunity to reach the very top of the search engine results pages in any of the big three major search engines. A good example of some the Internet marketing strategies these companies employ include: paid search marketing, contextual advertising, and competitive analysis.

One of the most frequently used techniques of Internet marketing is paid search marketing, which essentially is putting pay-per-click advertisements on various websites. When a visitor finds a website through using keywords that relate to a website, as an example forums, then she or he will see the advertisements about products or services that are being offered by that companys website.

There are a number of uses for paid search marketing, but it is most often used for companies that want to keep their name in front of potential customers, even on pages other than search engine results pages. Its another way to offer advertisements based on popular keywords.

Another form of Internet advertising services offered by SEO companies is contextual advertising. This is simply a text ad that is put into a web page and display either products related to keywords on that web page or display the website itself.

A competitive analysis, while its not technically advertising, is a crucial component of an Internet marketing campaign. The process involves an in-depth analysis of a websites competition for a given keyword. A good SEO company can use the information discovered in this analysis to develop a marketing plan that will give a website a leg up and maintain a good position once it has been achieved. It can also quickly inform the company what pages are underperforming and which ones need attention.

Ranging from normal advertising such as paid search marketing and contextual advertising to in-depth analyses of the competition surrounding certain keywords, an Internet marketing company will provide excellent services that are aimed to keep web pages on the front pages of search engines.

Getting to the top three of the search engine results means that potential clients or consumers that search for the specific keyword phrases that are used by your specific website will see your website more often and you will gain higher visibility and as a result get more traffic which with a properly structured website should lead to a higher conversion rate. The more individuals access a website because the see it when they conduct their searches more, the more likely that businesss products will sell, which directly relates to an increase in revenue for that business.

Given the state of the economy in recent months, it is easy to vilify our current economic model as unconcerned with the average citizen. It is easy to forget the contributions of numerous non-profit organizations to easing the financial crisis. There is now a new idea in business today: giving back. Indeed, it is not an idea that has ever seemed to catch on, but indeed, trying times call for helping measures.

Filling in the gaps are non-profit businesses and organizations. Indeed, they have gained considerable ground in the public consciousness as of late. It could be argued this is due to the fact more people need help and indeed, non-profit organizations are there to do just that. To be sure, people enjoy having their money re-invested in social and family services. Whether that re-investment is jobs, infrastructure, or more food, people want to know what they give goes a long way.

The failure to plan accordingly is not a lack of scope, but a lack of focus. The struggle of every non-profit organization, then, seems to be management. As a typical non-profit is not necessarily interested in profit for the sake of merely making one, there tends to be a propensity for non-profits to fold well before their potential has been realized.

Failure to plan is planning to fail. A plan is not only essential it is imperative. The failure of a non-profit seldom has to do with the dedication or passion of its employees or its beneficiaries. The failure lies in a lack of foresight. It is well enough to begin a non-profit dedicated to feeding homeless people, but the question is: „How?“ Like a for-profit business, a non-profit must develop and articulate its goals.

It is a given fact that for-profit businesses aim to distribute their earnings amongst their shareholders. By sharp contrast, a non-profit organization is preoccupied with distributing its earnings to the people or causes it is dedicated to helping. The development of a business model is ironically necessary for the successful non-profit. Without the proper guidance and attention to detail, a non-profit is not long in the tooth.

Keeping a website on top of a search engine’s results requires some knowledge of search engine optimization. Fortunately for webmasters, there are now professional website optimization firms that can assist in getting a website better optimized for search engines. These firms use different methods to achieve the same goal which is to get websites on to the front page of popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo.

Some of the methods and strategies a website optimization firm might use include local search engine optimization, social media integration, and the judicious use of website analytics. Each of these will affect a website differently but all can help reach potential customers.

An effective website optimization firm will employ all or parts of all of these tactics to find success in the search engines. Website analytics is a good place to start. This refers to the process of analyzing the reports generated about a website to discover what keywords are driving customers and what keywords are leading to conversion. An optimization firm for websites can take those keywords and optimize the site to rank even better for them.

Website analytics has the added benefit of telling a webmaster what other details about where a customer came from, such as what website was used, or what sites referred the customer. This sort of information can tell a firm what else they need to do to make the site more accessible.

Another method often used by website optimization firms is a comparatively recent development called social media integration or marketing. In the past few years social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have significantly changed the way many business look at advertising online.

A search engine optimization firm such as SEO.com can assist any webmaster to get more traffic get information about their website and online business on a social media website to gain more traffic and increase the conversion rates. More traffic and higher visibility means more customers and a higher revenue for the business, which is a great opportunity for the business.

A third method is known as local search engine optimization which basically means optimizing keywords on a web page to match certain geographies. This is mainly used for manufacturers that sell products that are very geography based such as mountain bikes. Regardless of the method, using a website optimization firm will help any webmaster get more visits to his or her website.

Regardless of the methodology used, using a search engine optimization firm like SEO.com will help any business owner or webmaster get more traffic to his or her website. Utilizing website analytics is a crucial step in determining which keywords are best to use. Additionally using social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook for advertising is a wonderful way to attract more site traffic and visitors for a webpage and a search engine optimization firm can assist in obtaining success for any website.

Max Factor is still one on the world’s most famous cosmetics houses. In the UK many of its iconic products, Crme Puff, Pan Stik and 200 Calorie mascara are still as popular as ever and its new products also sell well. The story of the company and its founder, often called the Father of Modern Make Up, are as extraordinary and romantic as the films that made him famous.

Max was born of Jewish descent in Poland 1877 and named Maximillion Fakbrowiczin. His apprenticeship to a pharmacist as a young man gave him the technical skill he needed to create his innovative products. He left Poland for Russia and opened his first shop in Moscow where he sold his perfumes, skin creams and cosmetics. He was soon discovered by the theatrical companies and performances by actors wearing his cosmetics led to his appointment as Cosmetics Consultant to the Russian Royal family. His cosmetics were worn by the National Opera and the Russian ballet.

Increased anti-semitism in Russia and Eastern Europe forced him to emigrate with his family, to America in 1904 where his name was Americanised to Max Factor at the immigration reception point on Ellis Island.

With the very small amount of money he had been able to bring with him Max made his living by selling his creams and perfumes at fairs around the United States before settling in Los Angeles where he opened his first Max Factor Beauty Salon in 1914 having seen the opportunities presented by the infant movie industry.

Film make up was heavy and stiff and looked frankly horrific. In 1914 Max invented the first flexible greasepaint in 12 shades and it was an instant hit. Max soon found himself the make up artist for the stars. He created the now familiar look of most of the great movie actresses. Bette Davis, Clara Bow, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow and many others were his creations and their many fans around the world were soon clamouring to try the products for themselves.

Max Factor created many of the modern products we still use today; he is even credited with inventing the phrase „make up“. He invented Lip Gloss in 1930, nail varnish and Pan Cake in 1934 and Pan Stik, still popular today, in 1948. The first cosmetics concealer was Max Factors Erase in 1954.

Max died in 1943 and the business was continued by his son Frank and by other family members until 1976. Today Max Factor is owned by giant multinational Protor and Gamble. Here in the UK Max Factor is as popular as ever. Colour Adapt and Lasting Performance foundation, Lipfinity Lip Gloss and Max Factor’s excellent range of mascaras are still best sellers and are heavily advertised on television and in magazines.

The situation in the United States is sadly very different. Max Factor has fallen out of favour and sales have declined. Proctor and Gamble have announced that they will discontinue Max Factor in America in 2010; Max must be turning in his grave! But the brand’s many fans in the UK will be thrilled to know that Max Factor will still be available in the UK, hopefully for many years to come.