How many internal meetings have you sat through listening to your boss set out the KPIs for their business – and your job?

The Key Performance Indicators that will measure how well you’re doing against their targets.

It’s pretty certain that, as a seasoned recruitment professional, you’ve got a good track record in meeting them. The track record of your being rewarded for doing so is probably not quite so clear cut though we’re guessing.

Which is probably why you’ve often thought about setting up on your own. Setting your own targets would come with being in control of your own destiny; and hitting them would generate your own rewards.

If you’re serious about that we’ve got a new definition for KPI – and we think it works for you, and us.

We see this three letters as standing for some essential elements in starting up a recruitment company.  

Knowledge. Progression. Innovation.

One at a time, they stack up like this.

Knowledge. To start up on your own you’re going to need industry and market knowledge. Frankly, if you’re considering starting your own recruitment company it’s likely to be a given. You’ve probably notched up five years or so experience, and almost certainly spent three or so of those in a specific sector, or running a desk. In fact, it’s your knowledge of the business that’s driving your ambition to start up and do it your way.

You’re also going to need support from people who have recruitment knowledge. We have that. Lots of it. At The Recruit Venture Group we have one aim; to help recruitment professionals start up their own businesses. And we really know the business. We’re the largest joint venture recruitment operation within the UK.

Progression. That’s what you want isn’t it? Career progression. Starting your own recruitment business opens up the potential for that in a way no internal promotion ever can.

To do it well though you’ll need to see progression as a goal of your own business. It’s not about starting up and standing still. It’s about getting started and growing. Building a business based on your own ideas is central to the dream. You’ll build it better if you offer something progressive – something that will leave the competitors behind.

And you’ll need great people behind you. We’re here. Progression is a byword at The Recruit Venture Group. We’ve grown to now have a combined sales turnover of in excess of £131 million. We support startups to launch and then stay with them, delivering guidance. We’re always up to speed with latest industry developments – because we’re dedicated to Progression. Ours and yours.

Innovation. A new business won’t succeed unless it’s seen as innovative. Why would a client, or a candidate, come to a new consultancy unless what it offered was demonstrably new? Or innovative? This is where you get to put into practice those ideas you’ve been harbouring on how better to service HR departments, speed up the service and care for candidates. And keeping your foot on the innovation pedal is key. Maintaining the momentum is what will make you stand out.

It’s what’s made us noticeable too. We’ve never stopped, and we never will stop, innovating. New systems, new techniques and new ideas are what underpin our growth. And it will help yours.

Fairly sure you have, as we mentioned earlier, five years or so experience, and around three or so of those in a specific sector, or running a desk, and you’re serious about starting up your own recruitment business we think you’re the sort of person we could help. And we really do offer a lot of help.

We provide 100% risk free funding. You’ll have shares in, and draw dividends from your own business. You’ll be able to pay yourself a salary too.

We’ll help with premises, and branding. We’ll give you access to our state of the art back office and systems. We’ll monitor your invoicing and keep your admin spot on.

It’s the time of year for organising the new diary. More and more of us have gone electronic of course. But many a recruitment consultant still likes a paper based diary. There are even a few sightings of Filofaxes around the industry still.

But, whether you’re buying a new paper diary from Amazon or blocking in a few dates on your computer calendar, it’s still the time of year when you start to organise the dates and commitments for the next year.

Here’s the thing. Are you filling in the same old same old and beginning to get that feeling of ‘here we go again’? You know – holidays – oh, no, better wait until I know a) what weeks the boss wants to take and/or b) hang on until I know I can even afford a holiday? And then there’s ‘quarterly review’. Roughly the same dates as last year and exactly the same things – can you do more, for no more reward. Pencil in that conference they said you could go to last year but budgets meant you got stepped down at the last moment. Still they said I could this year. But best to just pencil it in at this stage.

And what’s this, written in the back pages of last year’s diary.

‘Things to achieve this year’. ‘Get promoted’. Didn’t happen. ‘Start my own business’. No, that didn’t happen either.

It’s all a bit ‘familiar’ isn’t it?

Ah yes – there are those other notes you made at the back of the diary sometime last year – and the year before – about starting up on your own. ‘Find finance. Find premises. Don’t launch until I have fully operational systems’.

It all proved a bit too much like hard work didn’t it? The action list became more of an obstacle course and then nothing happened.

So do it differently this year. Aim higher still. Set a real target. ‘ I will start my own business’.

And top of the new action list should be ‘Talk to The Recruit Venture Group’.

We’re here solely to help recruitment professionals start up their own businesses. Our business model is proven, all over the country, and our track record is one of growth.

If you’ve got five years continuous recruitment experience, and you’ve spent three years or so running your own desk, or specialising in a sector, now could be the best time ever for you to talk to us about starting up.

We provide all the legal help you need, and we help with premises. You get 100%, risk free, financial backing, and access to our back office systems. In other words you get solutions to all those problems that thwarted your previous plans.

You’ll be running your own business, holding shares in it, and drawing dividends. You’ll be able to draw a salary too, and that’s a huge relief when you’re a new start up.

This could be the year that’s not the same as all the others. This could be your future taking shape. You could be running your own company this year. And running of your own diary too!

When you launch your own recruitment company your initial concerns are obviously very much to do with the short term. That’s not to say you won’t have thought about the future, but the fact is there’s a lot to do to get up and running. And it’s exciting too. You’re living in the moment.

It’s a moment of finding premises, arranging finance, hiring staff (ironic – but true!) and getting your systems up and running. And of course finding clients. And candidates. It’s about making you mark.

But moments turns into days, and weeks, and months, and years. The long game is important, because it’s your future you’re dealing with. There’s every reason to believe that it will be a bright future for you. But, if there’s one downside to the future it’s simply that nobody can accurately predict it.

Who for example, a couple of decades ago, could have predicted the massive increase in technology and I.T. jobs? It’s a market that’s changed out of all recognition. In fact some recent research shows that it’s real estate jobs that have increased even more than science and technology, and no-one was predicting that. Neither were any experts foreseeing the drop in manufacturing roles, or agricultural jobs.

The point is that to run a recruitment business you need to be hard wired into research, trends, sociological changes and market developments. And that is a challenge and requirement that many an entrepreneur overlooks in the heat of the launch. Often they realise it too late, when that heat has cooled down to a chilly budget forecast for the next quarter.

Getting it right from the start is essential. Which is why we’ve developed a package specifically for recruitment professionals who want to start up their own businesses – and stay in business way beyond the start-up period.

Firstly, we’re there with you from the beginning.

With full financial backing to launch your business, plus the autonomy that comes with shares and dividends in your own company, you’re supported from the outset. That’s 100%, risk free, financial support by the way.

Able to pay yourself a salary from the start, you’ll have that extra peace of mind that allows you to focus on your business and with our complete back office and support system you can run things your way, with our back up.

Secondly, we’re in it for the long term, as we know you will be. We’ll have the data and research to keep you aware of what sectors are growing, and which ones aren’t. We don’t have a crystal ball, no more than anyone else. But we do have more experience, more knowledge and as much resource as anyone. And it’s there for you to use. For all the years to come.

So if you’re a recruitment professional with around five years consecutive experience in the recruitment industry, and ideally three years track record within the same sector, and you feel it’s time to start up your own recruitment business, talk to us.

We’ll get you started. And stay with you for the long term.

If you tick those boxes, APPLY NOW

The last thing a recruitment start up wants.

The business world is full of lists. Leaving aside the check lists and ‘to do’ lists that you probably live by, there are the lists of ‘key attributes in business’, ‘the top ten things a startup needs’, ‘the five worst things people have ever done at the office Christmas party’…..moving on.

Oddly, in a recently published list about entrepreneurial qualities, ‘Risk Taking’ came last. It makes sense if you see it as something you really don’t want or need. And yet, not to take risks is seemingly counter intuitive to being an entrepreneur.

At The Recruit Venture Group we tend to put risk taking a way down the list though. Steady, but far from unimaginative, management is what’s got us to where we are as the largest joint venture recruitment operation within the UK. We don’t take risks lightly.

More importantly we realise that it’s risk, and the fear of it, that stops would be recruitment startups from getting started. The risk of going it alone, without the security of a regular salary. The risk of borrowing money to get started and then having to pay it back. The worry of personal domestic bills; the effect on lifestyle.

Sometimes even the most ambitious recruitment professional, with all the right ideas, can falter because they perceive that there’s too great a risk.

That’s why the very foundation of our business model is 100% risk free finance. That’s what we deliver. With that, and our full support, including use of our sophisticated back office function to drive your administration, a startup can focus on the key tasks of building the business through acquiring candidate and clients, and concentrating on the service.

With that comes the ability to draw a salary from day one. And with that comes a stability and ease of mind that serves to further the focus even more.

Helped from the earliest stages with premises, branding and legal issues a joint venture partner with us is as free of risk as any start up business can be.

And our risk? Well, we certainly look to minimise it. For example we want to know that you’ve had five years continuous experience in recruitment. That you’ve spent three years or so running a desk or concentrating on a particular sector. We want to see your business plan.

So far we’ve done rather well. We have joint venture partners all over country. And they’re doing well. Because they can get on with the job without worrying about the risk. They grow. We grow. We can help more people. People like you.

You’ve seen the ad a hundred times. It probably describes what you do now

Recruitment Consultant Wanted

Running a busy temp desk you’ll be a self starter setting goals for yourself Continue reading

It’s a different take on cash flow.  In a new business the problem is that there’s often more ‘take’ than ‘give’.

Those early days can be a worry, with bills and salaries going out, before income come in. In essence that’s the definition of cash flow. It comes in, it goes out, and if the business is run properly there’s some left over.

But actually there’s another problem sometimes and, ironically, it’s often created by the very enthusiasm and zeal that drove the recruitment professional and new  entrepreneur to start up in the first place.

Let’s paint a familiar picture. A seasoned recruitment consultant is frustrated by the job. Running his or her own desk the consultant is effectively running a business of their own anyway. But without the rewards. Ambitious and full of ideas on how to create the best consultancy the area has ever known they decide to do it. They leave – to go solo. Maybe it’s a bedroom start up. Maybe it’s a bit more substantial. Maybe the plan was to take an office but somehow those clients that were supposed to leap across to the new business didn’t do it, because there were some contracts that got overlooked in the excitement, and then there were those clauses in the consultant’s contract that were similarly overlooked but come the day revealed that there were rather a lot of restrictions on just what he or she was allowed to do. So suddenly it is a bedroom recruiter business. Lots of potential. But smaller.  Not quite the original dream.

Either way, or perhaps after breaking out of the bedroom, the business needs finance and, somehow or other, a loan or an overdraft got sorted out and now the aforementioned recruitment consultant is the boss, and there’s some money in the bank. Right now. Not thirty days after invoices went out. It’s there now.

It’s brilliant! No longer constrained by internal requisitions, or the stern face of the Finance Director, our new boss can do whatever they want. It’s their business after all.

New furniture? New signage? Total rebuild of the website, because let’s face it the current one is only that downloaded template put together to get something up there. Or, wait, a new car? It’s important. No really it is. It’s the face of the business when visiting clients. It says something about the business. Really.

The point is, and perhaps those predictions are a little harsh (then again, are they?) that the excitement of running your own business, having the very autonomy you craved, can make you spend too fast and too soon.

Suddenly the cycle of ‘place the candidate, send the invoice, thirty days later get paid’ isn’t the cause of the cash flow dilemma. You are.

We’ve got a different take on that.

At the Recruit Venture Group we provide 100% risk free funding, shares in, and dividends from, your own company and full access to our back office and systems. We guide you through the legalities of setting up your own business, help with branding and websites and provide even an invoicing service.

Supported to that extent you’re able to pay yourself a salary, and benefit from that stability and peace of mind.

It will be your business, but as one of our ever growing number of joint venture partners you get the best of both worlds. Autonomy for sure. But a watching eye, a friendly mentor too. We won’t pour cold water on your enthusiasm, but we’re there to ensure you don’t let the company credit card get overheated either.

In truth, after we’ve set you up as a company, sorted the legalities, arranged premises and covered the website and marketing you shouldn’t need to buy much before the first income arrives anyway. But we’re there. Just in case.

If you want to start up your own recruitment business

here’s some advice.

Get off your ‘but’ and do it!

Yes, if that ‘but’ had had two ’t’s’ it would perhaps have been a slightly rude headline. But we’re not rude. Just making a point. Forcefully.

All over the country, there are recruitment professionals who think about starting up their own companies. We know that because we work with a lot of them. A lot of them we partner and see them turn their dreams into reality.

There are though lots we don’t see, and a lot that never take that step. And the main reason they don’t is that they never get off their ‘buts’. They usually start with ‘But’ I can’t afford to take the risk. I would do it’, they say, ‘but’ how would I get funding? They often go on to say, ‘f I got funding I could imagine starting up, ‘but’ how could I support myself when everything would be tied up in the business.

Some, not many, but some, have the financial resources and still, they falter because they ask questions such as ‘but’ what about the legal stuff like incorporating a business?

‘But’ what about branding and websites is a big ‘but’. It’s realistic to acknowledge that you might well need professional guidance ‘but’ is that good enough reason to stop there?

Ok. Dream ticket. It’s all sorted out that far. Somehow you’ve managed to get almost ready to launch. Then comes – I think I could do this now ‘but’ how will I install the systems and software I need to run the business to current industry standards?

And even then there’s still doubt. ‘But’ how could I possibly manage the cash flow, which is notoriously demanding in a recruitment business?

Let’s imagine all of those doubts removed. Ok. ‘But’ how do I stay on top of legislative changes, industry rules, and trends? ‘But’ Brexit. ‘But’ whatever! If you’re serious about doing this. About running your own recruitment business you will have to get off those ‘buts’, and we can help.

At The Recruit Venture Group we have one aim; to help recruitment professionals start up their own businesses. We do it by being there at the very start – the legal and incorporation stage.

We provide 100% risk-free funding. It’s your business and you’ll have shares in it and draw dividends from it. You’ll be able to pay yourself a salary too.

We’ll sort premises, guide you on branding and we’ll give you access to our state of the art back office and systems.We’ll track your cash flow, monitor your invoicing and keep your admin spot on.

And on top of all that, we’ll be there to keep you advised of changes to employment law, recruitment rules, and industry trends.

But, (sorry!) there is one thing. If we’re going to look to help you we need to know that you’ve had five years continuous experience in recruitment and that you’ve specialised in a specific sector for around three years.

If you tick those boxes, APPLY NOW

Starting your own recruitment business?

Go with the flow.

Cash Flow that is……

If you’re thinking about starting up your own recruitment agency it’s highly likely that you’re driven by more than one factor. Ambition – to develop a business based on your experience. The desire to do it your way. The need to control your own destiny.

And, let’s be honest, the potential rewards are high on the list too. Why wouldn’t they be? You’re an entrepreneur.

Properly set up, and well run, a recruitment company of your own can satisfy ‘all of the above’.Keywords to note there are ‘properly set up, and well run’.

Let’s skip a stage for a moment and get beyond setting up to ‘well run’. It covers a myriad of disciplines, taking in the management of staff, finding the clients, delivering the right candidates – all of which you’re used to because you’ve probably already got five years experience and you’re likely to be running your own desk by now.

What you’re probably not exposed to – yet – is cash flow.

When your startup is just that – a new startup – you’re going to have more money going out than coming in. There are costs attached to setting up your business and the problem is it might be a while before there are clients attached to it. And then some more time passes before they actually pay you. That’s stage one.

Stage two kicks in when you are up and running but now you need to ensure that those lovely new clients do actually pay you. On time.

Stage three? We hesitate to go there but bad debt looms like a spectre over any business. Getting it resolved means having resources.

All of this can apply to any business. Some cash flow problems are unique to the recruitment business though. Think about paying temps before the client pays you. And your business plan has, we assume, acknowledged the, sometimes, long period from search to placement – to getting paid.Cash flow can be the making of a business – and the breaking of it.

In our experience, it’s one of the most important factors in running a recruitment business, and indeed in setting one up. Which brings us neatly back to the point we skipped earlier.

At The Recruit Venture Group, we specialise in helping recruitment professionals to start their own businesses. We provide 100% funding to create a risk-free backing package. We provide the legal help, the systems, the branding and the admin support.We also ensure that a line of credit is in place for you, and we process and chase your invoices. In short, we make the cash flow – flow.

It’s your business though. You’ll be paying yourself a salary, drawing dividends and running the company. Which, with us behind you, is somewhat more manageable.

If you’ve got the sort of experience we mentioned and you’re serious about starting up –APPLY NOW.