Successful joint ventures can redefine what work-life balance looks like
Contrary to popular opinion, breaking out on your own can be one of the best ways to achieve that elusive work-life balance we all strive for.
There’s no denying that when you launch a business, you need to put in the hours. You can forget your ‘working time directive’ of a 48-hour week – that goes out of the window when you’re an entrepreneur.
But while that’s accepted, many people in salaried roles forget just how many hours they themselves are working.
His previous salaried role as a senior operations manager for a large recruitment company regularly saw him working 80-90-hour weeks.
Not just long hours, but also days spent out on the road, with overnight stays, travelling around the country. He also often disagreed with his bosses’ approach and despite putting in those hours, he had none of the control or, for that matter, earning potential, compared to if he was working 80-90- hour weeks in his own business.
And Andrew knew it.
He contacted The Recruit Venture Group about support for starting his own business and has not looked back. The Carestaff Bureau has taken off and he now finds, because he chose to set up his business close to home, that his work life balance as an entrepreneur is actually better.
Andrew said: “People say you have to put in the hours to run your own business, and you do, but now I have far greater flexibility in life. I have three children so working locally and being able to take time out when needed for family matters is a huge advantage. That’s a huge transformation from what life used to be like.”
People who are contracted to a 37.5 hour, 9am-5.30pm job may already find themselves working much more.
If they perhaps get in at 8am, work through until 6pm, and don’t take much of a lunch break, that soon adds up to about 55 hours per week. Add in a check of the emails in the evenings, and maybe sorting out a few tasks on a Saturday morning and suddenly you might find yourself up around 65-70 hours per week. Already the salaried employee is starting to put in the hours of someone with their own business. Suddenly, making that leap doesn’t sound like such a great departure from what working life is like anyway.
Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group, said: “Sometimes experienced recruiters in salaried positions are worried about the hours that you have to put in to start a business.”
“There’s no doubt that getting a business off the ground takes a lot of time and energy. But what makes The Recruit Venture Group special is our joint venture model which takes away those time consuming ‘back office’ functions like HR, payroll, accounts, marketing, legal and much more.”
“That’s a huge administrative time-saving. We therefore enable the people we support to actually get on with the job they do best – building networks among clients and providing them with the quality candidates they need. The people we have supported to launch their own business – 43 in total – were already working long hours before they got started with us.”
“And when you’re building up a profitable business, it’s surprising how quickly the time flies!”
Not only does The Recruit Venture Group save time by handling the back-office functions, it also provides 100% of the finance to get started, so the only things recruiters need is a few years of experience under their belt and energy and enthusiasm.
Andrew’s Carestaff Bureau business has certainly benefited, with a second office opening within 18 months of launch and is on course to launch another four within the next few years.