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The team at Isotope have been helping motivated & talented recruiters start their own recruitment businesses for a very long time.
With such longevity & a team of genuine experts that are both exceedingly capable & fiercely passionate about what they do & how they do it; I think we’d have to be idiots, heck down right buffoons (!), not to have picked up a few things over the years when it comes to our advice to motivated recruiters around how to start a recruitment business in today’s market.
& so, in the interest of not waffling on too much here, I’ve condensed some of our thoughts into 3 areas here. 3 pieces of advice that we hope will help you answer the question around how to start a recruitment business.
While the advice you will hear today is not sector-specific but instead written to give any recruiter some of the tools & insights into what it takes to start a recruitment business, Isotope have a number of sector-specific guides to help recruiters in specific markets; check out our Recruiters Guide to starting a construction recruitment agency for example.
Now I don’t know you yet, I don’t know your story, I don’t know what you’re looking to do & I don’t know how we might be able to help you just yet; but what I do know is that, over the years of working with people just like yourself, we know that what it takes to effectively launch & support a recruiter in their own agency is something that we’ve become obsessed with.
When I was younger I used to play a lot of “Fives” – it’s a bit like the game of Squash, just with hands instead of rackets & outdoors instead of in. & during every game I would always drag my foot; if I hit the ball with my right hand, I would drag my right foot along the ground & if I hit the ball with my left hand, I would drag my left foot. Fine for me; not so great for my shoes.
Ignorantly (clearly) I assumed that trainers were trainers & that my Nikes were suitable for the game I was playing. Safe to say a year or so into my Fives career & I realised that this was not the case. So it was recommended to me by my Fives coach at the time that I should get some Fives specific shoes because, well, they were specialists.
They understood Fives, they knew the market like the back of their hand, all they did was Fives shoes. They had found a niche & ran with it (if you pardon the pun).
So I guess my question is, as a recruitment start-up, why would you not opt for the same logic? If you’re seriously thinking about starting your own recruitment agency then I would strongly imagine that you know your market, you know it like the back of your hand & therefore you know the value a focussed, specific & targeted agency can bring to both a client looking to hire the right talent for their business & a candidate looking for the right role to suit the skillset & passions they have.
We’ve seen so many journeys over the years & what has become so clear & so consistent is that at some stage, that might be from Day 1, 12 months into the business or in some cases even further down the line, most agencies thrive because they understand the importance of focusing on a niche within their market. But I know, especially when you are starting out & just beginning your entrepreneurial journey, that this can feel tough; after all, you end up turning business away & why would you do that?
Our advice is always the same; talk to the team here at Isotope about carving out a niche within your market, have the confidence to commit to that niche & know that this will mean that you become selective about your client pool (after all that’s a result of creating a niche agency).
“So, sorry Max, you’re telling me that I should say no to business from Day 1?” In essence, yes. I know there is a tendency & a desire (in some cases) to work with everyone; after all, business is business right?
That’s true but the question is – is this the type of business that will help build your agency in the way you desire? Now I know everything is circumstantial & that there may be times during the lifetime of your agency where you feel you have to deviate a little bit from your “core offering” for the good of the client, candidates or your agency.
But if & when you can afford to be selective in who you work with, perhaps it’s worth being selective.
Well, this leads quite nicely on. Cor, it’s like I planned this blog?…
Having been fortunate enough to support & work with so many recruitment consultants over the years across various sectors, all striving to build their own unique recruitment agencies, I think we’d have to be idiots not to have picked up a few themes when it comes to what hurdles our clients face when starting their agencies.
& while I can’t in all consciousness vouch for myself here, I know the team we have here at Isotope aren’t idiots & therefore one of the consistent themes that we always talk to our potential clients about is their own personal finances.
Generally speaking the only area that Isotope would not look to financially support our clients in, is with their own personal finances while the business ramps up (although this is something we support a handful of clients with from time to time – SEE HERE) & while the advice we tend to give is always specific to the requirements of that particular recruiter, here are some common areas we would encourage you to think about.
#1 Operating a Perm’ based business
Generally speaking, allowing for the natural gestation periods, notice periods & restrictive covenants our ventures will always have to abide by, we tend to suggest that it would be reasonable for a perm’ only recruiter to have between 4-6 months “salary” behind them before starting their own agency. This 4-6 month cushion will allow you to focus solely on the business & be able to make decisions for the business that will actually benefit the business rather than making an emotive decision for the short-term gain that will impact your long-0term business potential.
#2 Operating a temp’ based business
Generally speaking, we tend to advise a “salary” around 3-4 months for businesses operating in the temporary space. This is primarily down to the back office infrastructure (most notably the payroll & factoring provisions) we would ensure all our ventures have in place from the outset of their agency.
With such facilities in place, we tend to see ‘GP’ arriving with our clients a little quicker than those operating in a purely perm’ focussed agency & therefore the speed in which you can draw from the business is also brought forward.
“Why launch a new business is such crazy & disruptive times? My answer is quite simply, for that exact reason!”
One of our clients said that – this one, to be specific.
I thought it typified the mindset & mentality that you need to have when you venture out & start your own recruitment business.
Be disruptive. Be bullish. Create an impact & remember why you started.
If you’re a recruitment consultant fixated on the question of how to start your own recruitment business & becoming Recruitment Entrepreneur, then we really hope this blog has given you the foundation to explore the idea further. & if that’s the case then, of course, we’d love to hear from you. Learn more about how Isotope can help you start your own recruitment agency & help you in creating the recruitment agency you’ve always strived for.
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