...Not easily BUT it’s the best thing I ever did so don’t hold back and take the plunge if you can.
I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to get into recruitment but I did know it might be something that I would enjoy as I’ve always found people interesting. I knew I wanted to have my own business at some point but needed to learn the ropes first, so I initially joined a company called Badenoch & Clark where I set up and managed a contract FMCG desk and then moved onto a smaller agency to help them build out a contract and permanent FMCG business. After 5 years across both agencies I decided strike out on my own.
In 2012 I founded Talent Professionals. Based on my business plan, I had enough cash saved up to survive for 12 months without collecting any money, but that was only if I cut back on almost all spending. I moved home with my parents (rent-free, though I did have to cook the odd meal!) and a friend of the family gave me an office space - again rent-free - for the first 12 months. Other friends chipped in to help with my website and branding which was key to keeping costs to a minimum.
For the first 6 months, I was on a strict non-compete from my previous employer so most of 2012 was all about winning new clients and, thankfully, my experience of setting up teams / desks before had involved a lot of cold-calling so I picked up the phone and prayed people would listen. I found that telling my story to prospective new clients didn’t fall on deaf ears. They listened, felt compassion and gave me a chance.
My single biggest tip to anyone starting up on their own is to be yourself. When talking to prospective clients listen to their needs, tell your story, your struggles, your vision and they will buy into that way more than a big sales pitch. Don’t forget - people buy from real people.
My plan was to build Talent Professionals on firm foundations so initially I focused on placing permanent vacancies, mainly because I didn’t have the cash reserves to fund contractors before the business got paid... and because the business didn’t have a track record the banks weren’t prepared to lend against the invoice values. I had a good first year but things were still tight. Everything I earned I put back into the business.
Looking back, my plan was always to scale the business out, hire people, grow, etc. But I realised quite quickly that what I enjoyed most was the autonomy of working on my own, working closely with clients and candidates and not having the hassle of managing people... being hands-on and at the front of the business was exciting so my ambitions changed. I scrapped the original plan, ploughed on by myself and got a lot of enjoyment seeing the business grow.
Since the early days, I’ve spoken to a number of my contemporaries who did the exact opposite of staying small and most, if not all, seemed unhappy and stressed-out. I would say almost all of them wished they had kept things small and were now recognising that the days of scaling an Accounting & Finance recruitment business and selling for a lot of money were long gone! This gave me the reassurance that I had made the right decision - when you work on your own it’s sometimes very easy to second-guess things!
Working on your own can be tough. It can be lonely, there’s no one there to make decisions for you so the buck really stops with you. Having a support network of people that you trust is super important, keep them close and ask them for help if you need it.
In 2018 I learned this the hard way. My contractor book grew too quickly and although the business was making money, cash-flow was in a bad way. I had to pay my contractors 30-60 days before I got paid, the quick increase in contractor numbers meant I didn’t have enough cash reserves to fund them. So why did I take on so many contractors if I didn’t have the money to pay them? I thought I did, and it almost cost me the business. Three times.
My accountant at the time didn’t have the experience to advise me, he wasn’t close enough to my business so we parted ways and very quickly I brought on board a company that would act as my outsourced accounting function. They had the expertise in the contract recruitment sector, the owners had a great amount of credibility in the industry and a network that proved invaluable. They moved me to a new financing house that gave us the headroom to fund our existing contractors, plus capacity to grow. They streamlined the pay and bill process and also provided fantastic management information so I had the tools to make better, quicker decisions. Without them by my side the business would have gone bust!
Fast forward to 2021. My business structure has grown and matured a bit but I’m still the only day-to-day recruiter. With the bank funding and support around me we have grown substantially. The contractor book now represents 80% of revenues and is a consistent revenue stream for the business, whilst permanent recruitment is steady business that I absolutely love.
Fundamentally though, the business is the same as it’s always been. It’s been a rollercoaster journey, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
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