By Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group.
I suppose my headline might appear as a statement of the obvious, but it does warrant closer examination. Think it through. You start up your own recruitment business, because it’s your dream. You’ve taken control of your own destiny, put the years of experience as a recruitment consultant into your own venture and now it’s all systems go.
Well actually that’s not always the case. Why? Because all too often the excitement, not to say potential, of starting your own recruitment business can get lost in …..starting your own recruitment business.
It might be a bit less demanding if you’re starting out as a bedroom recruiter, but most routes to launching a start up will present you with the challenges of incorporating your company, sorting out premises, hiring staff (I know – the irony!) and planning and executing your branding and marketing.
All of that of course can only happen when and if you’ve arranged the financial support you need. Arranging that can be an experience in itself.
Everything I’ve mentioned so far is to do with just the initial stages of a start up. The point I want to make is that things can get worse still after that.
Often, for a while, it’s alright. It’s your business. This is what you wanted. You’re sorting your branding, developing your website, honing your management skills as you resolve issues and forge together your team. You’re signing off the invoices – perhaps a little worried that there are more outgoings than income, but hey, it’s early days. You sort the nice people at HMRC and you cut a deal with your local newspaper, as well as the job boards. Phone calls. e mails. Busy.
But, you’re the boss. That’s what matters. Come the end of the day you do that thing. Hands behind your head you swing around in your ‘boss chair’ surveying your domain. And then two terrifying realisations hit home. The first one goes along the lines of ‘how much new business and client development have we done this month? And the answer comes quickly. It’s ‘none’.The second one falls into place like a the last piece of a jig saw. There’s been something nagging at the back of your mind for a while and you couldn’t put your finger on it. Then you realise what it is. You’re missing something. The one thing you really wanted to do. The thing you’re really good at. Recruitment; you haven’t been doing any of that either.
In a way that scenario is the backdrop to the entire concept of The Recruit Venture Group’s business model. We realised some years ago that what makes a recruitment start up successful is the opportunity for the person starting it to focus on what they’re best at. Which is recruitment.
What we’ve done is create a specially tailored joint venture package aimed specifically at the recruitment sector. We provide 100% risk free funding. We bring our back office to your business so that you have high quality and totally reliable IT and admin systems from the start. It’s your business but we’re there for you. Providing up to date information on taxation and legislation, as well as chasing along your cash flow, what we provide is all the things that I outlined earlier as the demands that deflect an entrepreneur’s attention. When it’s needed most.
With over 45 start ups already up and running as joint ventures with us I think we can fairly claim to have relevant experience and insight. And what’s it shown me? It’s proved beyond doubt that the most valuable commodity a start up entrepreneur in the recruitment business needs is the time to focus on recruitment; the thing they do best.