Financial Rewards

If you were to take just half of your average yearly billings as an employment consultant & generate them through your own recruitment agency, the cold hard maths will always show that you will ‘take-home’ more than you would if you had achieved those same yearly billings in your employed role.

Bill less, earn more. Bill the same, earn more, Bill more, well… you get the picture. But it’s not just about “the money”, we know; it’s about what that increased earning potential can bring you, your family & the future you hope to have. That could be having the ability to put your children through private education, help your wider family in ways that your employed role might not allow, add to that pension pot or maybe put a down payment on “that house”.
Financial reward is not the be all & end all but it’s certainly a factor – duh?

Freedom & Autonomy

The definition of this particular driver has changed over the years we’ve been lucky enough to do this. Years ago, freedom & autonomy was about one thing & one thing only – not being shackled to your desk between the hours of 9-5, eating your lunch ridden with guilt because your boss is clocking your every moment (& mouthful).

Now freedom & autonomy means more than just having that control over your day back; freedom & autonomy spans across all walks of your personal life, whether that be being able to build a business around your growing family or log in from anywhere in the world because well, you can.

But it also spans across your professional life; it’s about having the freedom to work with the clients you feel best fit your business & the ways you want to be perceived in the market, it’s about designing recruitment solutions around the needs of your clients (contingency, retained, consultancy, RAAS, TAAS etc) rather than being restricted by archaic rules & regulations from your employer.

Flexibility & Control

We get it, we really do. You’re an experienced recruiter who knows their market, their vertical, their clients, their candidates very (very) well. Sometimes you just need to have the flexibility to do things your way. Not out of some narcissistic desire to be “in control”, but instead out of a genuine understanding of what your market needs.

But recruitment is an autonomous career!… You’re given command over your desk, control over how you manage the clients you work with & given free rein to build out your particular area within the business however you see fit – & yet you say you want more?! Well.. yes Mr. Line Manager, yes I do.

At the end of the day you want to have control over the direction of your career, you want to be able to build a business & career that compliments other parts of your life; not detracts from them.

Pride & Recognition

Sometimes entrepreneurship is in the blood.

You’ve grown up around it; your dad ran his own business when you were younger, your auntie worked for herself since before you could spell “placement” & every summer you spent time working with your Uncle in one of the many businesses he had when you were growing up.

You had first hand experience of the successes, the struggles & most importantly, the reality of what running your own business really looks like & it was that reality that has always excited you about the prospect of doing it for yourself. You’re excited by the challenge, you’re excited that it’ll test your abilities & importantly you’re excited about the sense of pride it’ll give you & personal & professional recognition you deserve.

& that’s not just from your friends & family. There will always be part of any successful recruiter that is seeking that professional validation around what they do & how they do it; it’s OK to view your own agency as that sense of achievement.

Natural Progression

Recruiters are an ambitious breed. Constantly striving for more; whether that’s a bigger basic, a more favourable commission structure, a clearer progression path, a fresher challenge – there is not a recruiter in the market who doesn’t strive for that sense of progression.

So for so many, the idea of starting, developing & growing their own recruitment agency feels like the next natural step. It just makes sense!

So often we talk with ambitious, motivated & experienced recruiters who just feel like they’ve hit a glass ceiling with their current employer. They’re not critical or disrespectful of their employer as, more often than not, they’ve given them a heck of a lot over the years – they just know that, for them, there’s more for them to achieve.

More to achieve that can’t be achieved working for someone else.

I’m bored, there must be more?

“I could stay here, in this agency, for the next 10-15 years & be OK. I know I’ll earn well, I’ll be secure (whatever that means) & I’ll tick along until I’m ready to do something really different”.

If my son had a pound for every time I heard that, he’d have just about enough to buy the newest & hottest PS5 game (if you know, you know!).

I suppose what we’re trying to say is that for so many recruiters we work with they just feel like they’re treading water; months, quarters & years are passing by & what they feel they have to show for it is not equal to the work they are putting in. If they don’t do something about it, make a change & at least explore the idea of starting & developing their own agency, they know they’ll regret it.