“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” The words of American entrepreneur and author Scott Belsky.

I’m not given to quoting business ‘gurus’ or collecting those plaques for the office walls. You know the ones. They’re very ‘inspirational’. But, the words of Mr Belsky got me thinking.

Recruitment professionals are renowned for breaking out of the day job to start up their own businesses. It’s a big step of course, but in some ways the shift from running your own desk to running your own business isn’t that great. They’ve pretty much learned how to find clients, match them to candidates, and ‘do the deal’. They know how to hit the targets and make the right impact on the bottom line. It’s just that they’ve become disenchanted by doing it for someone else.

So, if you think about that, for the person likely to start up a recruitment business, the idea is already there.  What it’s all about, is making the idea happen.

The weakest falter at the first hurdle.  They never get started at all. Those with a more determined streak soldier on, for a while. Often, beaten down by bank managers, slowed down by self doubt and, ultimately, pressing the pause button to ‘do it next year’ they put the dream on hold.

And there’s that point again. It’s not that any of them didn’t have the idea. They simply couldn’t make the idea happen.

It’s that concept that’s at the heart of what The Recruit Venture Group do. As Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group I head up a team whose sole aim is to make recruitment professionals’ ideas, or dreams, of business ownership happen.

Over time we’ve identified what elements are needed to achieve that. We know that finance is key. We provide 100% risk free backing. We know that planning, mentoring and strategic input at the outset is essential. We provide all of that.

Our experience proves without a shadow of doubt that the best possible administrative systems and back office facilities are non negotiable. So we provide those too.

A recruitment business cannot survive unless it has a control of cash flow that borders on the ruthless. We have the people to help with that.

Which brings me full circle. With all of those facilities available what’s stopping you from being the next recruitment professional to turn a dream into a reality?

 

There’s a big problem with small businesses in the UK. They’re scared of heights.

Not of the vertical sort, of course, but of the growth that will take their enterprise to the next level. When you have a successful small business, scaling that operation up is not easy, but there are huge benefits.

But the lack of businesses making that jump has led to the UK Government creating the Scale Up Institute, whose mission is find out why so many businesses are struggling to kick on. It wants to make this country the world’s best in which to scale an enterprise.

Fortunately, those who partner with The Recruit Venture Group to launch their own recruitment start-up will have access to all the support the need to push that business forward.

As well as the barriers to businesses scaling up, the Scale Up Institute has identified some of the key advantages businesses have if they can scale up.

They are:

• Scale up businesses are more productive, with high levels of productivity twice as common. Workers typically generate £235,000 in turnover each!
• Growth becomes a habit with scale ups. They expect to grow in the coming year, with 77% expecting 20% or more turnover growth and 52% expecting 20% or more employee growth
• Scale ups naturally create more jobs as the business expands
• Scale ups are more pioneering and innovative in their respective marketplaces. They are twice as likely to have innovated than their peers
• They are great places to work, with a vibrant dynamic atmosphere that creates high quality jobs with high levels of employee satisfaction
• Scale-ups typically have greater diversity in the workforce
• They are good corporate citizens, with 74% offering opportunities for young people through apprenticeships, internships or work experience
• Scale ups can operate across all sectors, including recruitment

The benefits to scaling up, as you can see, are vast, and by launching an enterprise with The Recruit Venture Group, they break down the barriers that rivals face in taking that next step.

Those key blockers include access to growth finance, access to the right business leadership and mentoring, and having processes within the business that are easily scalable.

Not only does The Recruit Venture Group put up all of the finance for launch, it also is able to fund the natural growth of the business. If the business case for expansion is there, then there will be the money to back it all the way..

Because The Recruit Venture Group is all about giving talented recruiters the freedom to focus on the core business of recruitment, central to the model is providing all of the back office support needed, including accounts, payrolls, IT, legal, HR and marketing. These processes are all scalable, so when the business grows, so does the support.

And finally The Recruit Venture Group team has decades of experience in recruitment as well as their own specialist areas like finance, legal and marketing. The team is able to provide mentoring and other support on every step of the journey to scaling up.

Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group, said: “I want to make clear that if you launch a recruitment start-up with our support, there are no limits to your growth. The Recruit Venture Group model is all about freeing up experienced recruiters to see how far their talents can take them with a range of back office, financial and mentoring resources.

“It’s proven that scale up enterprises are more innovative, are better places to work, have happier staff and ultimately, are far more profitable. All the businesses we partner are set up for that growth, meaning that not only is launch day exciting, but so are the prospects for accelerated expansion.”

Partnering with The Recruit Venture Group really is about taking control of your career, while building and shaping a business legacy. There’s no need to be afraid of growth – with The Recruit Venture Group’s support, the scaling up of your business will come as naturally as the job of recruitment itself.

 

Unless you don’t have the time and the money…

 

‘Leaders gasp nettles’ is a quote from David Ogilvy. Some call him the ‘father of advertising’. He founded legendary advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather and much of what he thought and wrote holds as good today as it did in the 1950s and 60s.

So let me start with that gem – ‘Leaders grasp nettles’. You know what he’s saying. People who create things, make things happen, start up businesses – they’re the people who ‘grasp the nettle’. The ones who seize the day, and face the challenge.

The key word there, for me, is ‘leaders’. If, like thousands of recruitment professionals, you’re thinking about starting up on your own, it’s leadership that will mark you out as a success. You will need to make that step change from employee to employer, take responsibility and drive the business, your business, forward. You will need to  grasp the nettle.

What we can do is take the sting out of it. The Recruit Venture Group exists solely to help recruitment professionals start up on their own. We provide 100% risk free finance. We help with incorporating your company, sorting out your branding and even arranging premises.

More than that we give you access to our operational systems. With our back office behind you the admin is sorted. And that leaves you free to get out there, win business, develop clients and build your business.  To lead. To grasp the nettle.

It’s at that point that you might find yourself relating to another quote from David Ogilvy. ‘I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do’. That little gem may have come from a different era, but think about it. Your own business will be something you really want to work at. With the kind of backing we provide you’ll be able to focus and you probably will put in the extra hours. When the staff are with you, because they want to be, it’s fair to say you’ve become a leader.

Funnily enough one of Mr Ogilvy’s quotes applies to us at The Recruit Venture Group as much it does you. He said ‘ We help our people make the best of their talents’. That is pretty much what  we do. We’ll help you make the best of your talent, experience, enthusiasm and drive by giving you the backing and support you need to start up your own recruitment business.

It’s there for you to do. If you’re serious about it there’s nothing to stop you. A ‘phone call to me could be a better way to start you.

Because, as Mr Ogilvy also said, ‘The way up the ladder is open to everybody’.

Grasp the nettle.  Call me.

 

Unless you don’t have the time and the money…

 

Gareth Southgate’s greatest achievement could be galvanising the people of England around their national football team once again. But how did he do it?

It’s worth remembering that when first appointed, Southgate was criticised for being ‘too nice’ and lacking a ruthless side needed to be a successful England manager.

But two of his earliest decisions disproved that notion early on. His bold move to drop Wayne Rooney and play a new system with a philosophy that focused on allowing players to express their talent showed real character.

But what are the wider lessons for people looking to take their own recruitment career to the next level? What can Southgate teach us?

To succeed, a bit of bravery and trust in your own ability is needed. There will be many talented recruiters out there who believe they would be perfectly capable of running their own agency. Those people who have sat on a safe salary for several years, but are being stifled, and are not able to explore their full potential.

The Recruit Venture Group was set up to give people that little bit of confidence they need to take their careers to the next level by launching their own recruitment start-up.

That begins by putting up 100% of the money needed for launch. There’s no risk and no financial pressures.

Next, in order that the talented recruiter is able to go out into the marketplace and do the job they do best from day one, The Recruit Venture Group takes care of all of the back office functions of the business, including IT, accounts, payroll, marketing and HR.

These two elements give the new business that chance to thrive. Taking care of the finance and the back office burden gives the new business owner that ability to focus on the core job and take it in the direction they think is best. That first day of opening offers remarkable potential.

The Recruit Venture Group knows the talent is out there, and that’s why the model is set up in the way that it is. The 43 businesses that have already been launched are working proof that the system is working. Those that have since taken charge of their own careers wonder why they didn’t do it sooner, and often tell of the sheer liberation of finally being able to shape their own business, enacting the strategies and approaches they always thought would be successful, but were ignored by their former bosses.

Let’s go back to football.

For all the supposed ‘Golden Generations’ of England players, the feeling after tournaments in the past was usually one of a missed opportunity, of seeing talented players fail to perform to their ability. For some reason, the players froze, they were scared, and they didn’t believe in themselves. You only need to look at England’s dismal penalty shootout record before this World Cup as proof.

In work, as in sport, it is always a real shame if a clearly talented individual isn’t ever quite able to realise their potential.

Southgate appears to have instilled a new attitude of calculated risk taking, of ambition, and of taking ownership of your own future.

That couldn’t be a more appropriate outlook for someone who wants to take charge of their own career, their own earning potential and, ultimately, their own legacy. By partnering with The Recruit Venture Group, that journey goes from impossible dream, to exciting reality.

 

 

The Royal Norfolk Ball is an important event in the county’s calendar. A fantastic opportunity for individuals and businesses to get together, have a wonderful evening and raise money for a good cause,Continue reading

Starting a business can be a challenge, but what about making it grow to the next level?

A report into how the 5.5 million small businesses in the UK ‘scale up’ their operations has found there are huge difficulties in making steps towards significant growth.

The Scale Up Institute, which is tasked with breaking down barriers to small business expansion, has written a report detailing what is stopping businesses going to the next level.

Those barriers include having access to growth finance, getting the right business mentoring support and having processes that can be scaled as the business expands.

But for recruiters looking to start their own business with The Recruit Venture Group, a plan for scaling up will be in place from day one.

The Recruit Venture Group’s model all about overcoming any barriers to growth and central to the model is to allow a thriving business to grow naturally.

 

• The Recruit Venture Group will put up all of the finance for growth.

Not only does The Recruit Venture Group provide 100% of the money needed for launch, it will be there at every step of the business’s development to provide finance for that next phase of growth, from opening new offices, to branching into new sectors or any other significant expansion. If there’s a good business plan, there will be the finance to back it, it’s that simple.

• The Recruit Venture Group offers all the back office capacity needed to scale up a business.

Those partnering with The Recruit Venture Group do so knowing that all of the accounts, payroll, HR, legal, marketing and IT functions are already dealt with, so they can focus on thing they do best – recruitment. As the business expands, that back office support expands, meaning there is no lag or limit in growth. All of those key back office processes are scalable by design.

• The Recruit Venture Group provides mentoring and business guidance from a team with decades of experience

Expanding a business can be a leap of faith. But The Recruit Venture Group team, which already supports 43 growing businesses, draws on a vault of experience that amounts to decades between them. Those looking to scale up a business can share their plan with that team and refine and review it with experienced people possessing a variety of specialisms.

 

 

The Recruit Venture Group’s Managing Director, Paul Mizen, said:

“The evidence suggests that scale up businesses are more innovative and productive. So much so that they are a real focus of the Government because of the transformative effects they have on the UK economy. On average, employees of a scale up business generate an amazing £235,000 turnover each.

“When we partner with a talented recruiter with industry experience under their belt, we do so not just to launch the business, but also to nurture its growth. When it comes to scaling up that business, you can be the best recruiter in the world, but if you haven’t got the finance and support for growth, it will never happen. We understand this, and that is why our model is set up to break down barriers to business expansion.

“We have businesses which are always planning for that next step, from taking on more staff, to opening new offices, and expanding into new markets in new areas. Our funding and back office support means that as long as the figures stack up, we’ll be there to back it every step of the way.”

But the reality for most is that, according to the Scale Up annual report from 2017, half of businesses fear they do not have the right business support for their growth plans. But the Recruit Venture Group meets that very challenge as a central part of its model. The financial, back office and advisory support is always at hand.

In a tricky climate for scaleups

The Recruit Venture Group is showing the way forward for how to successfully grow an enterprise.

 

Was it all a dream? Did England really just win on penalties in the knockout stages of a World Cup?

After years of heartbreak, in which England have never won a World Cup shootout, it’s hard to look past the calming influence of manager Gareth Southgate as the reason for England’s success.

Back in 2013, when he was then-England under-21s manager, he talked about eradicating England’s culture of having “a fear of failure”. For years, talented generations of players have frozen on the big stage, never really fully expressing their talent, never being bold and brave and taking a risk.

But England’s win against Colombia, in the most pressured circumstances possible, showed that the battle against fear and risk-averseness is finally starting to be won.

In business, it’s also well known that fortune favours the brave. Good entrepreneurs didn’t get where they are by playing it safe. While they have a respect for risk, they do not fear it, and that’s the difference.

The recruitment industry is full of talented individuals who are collecting a steady salary, but who clearly have the potential to run their own business. Many people will have considered it, but so many never go through with it.

Why?

It surely comes down to fear of failure – the very thing that has held back the England team all these years.

The Recruit Venture Group is set up precisely with the aim of enabling recruiters with several years’ experience under their belts to realise their potential and launch their own business. It’s unique joint venture model couldn’t be simpler or quicker and offers a pathway to owning your own business unlike any other.

There’s certainly no cause for fear.

First, it puts up 100% of the finance, meaning the financial risk to person taking the plunge is zero. There’s no need to go to banks asking for loans, and no need to put up personal assets or finance.

Next, it takes care of all the things that so often bog down businesses both in terms of cost and time. It will organise and project manage the launch of the business, from the legal matters and paperwork, to securing premises. It will then provide ongoing back office support from day one, including accountancy, payroll, HR, IT and marketing and PR.

And finally The Recruit Venture Group’s team has decades of experience in recruitment, meaning that there is always mentoring on hand at any stage of the business’s life.

These new business owners from the first day of trading are meeting clients, meeting candidates and filling vacancies. Everything else is taken care of. It’s that freedom to focus on the core job that has made The Recruit Venture Group model so successful.

The 43 businesses already thriving are testament to the fact that The Recruit Venture Group is able to make those business ownership dreams a reality.

And although this is a joint venture, it is very much a business controlled and owned by the person making that leap. It is their strategy, their business model, their brand above the door.

Paul Mizen, Managing Director, said: “I’ve been in recruitment for well over 20 years in a variety of roles, and I’ve seen many people who are in safe, salaried positions who would be perfectly suited to running their own agency.

“But I also understand the reasons why they don’t try. They have a mortgage to pay, they might have a family to support, and they think that starting a business could lead to financial ruin if it fails. Ultimately, they become frustrated because they know they could do a better job than their bosses.

“But if England’s World Cup run has proven anything, it’s the fact that anything is possible if you put fear to one side. Fear holds you back.

“So that’s why from initial contact to business launch day, The Recruit Venture Group is there to take care of the aspects of business that are less familiar and put minds at ease. We simply let talented recruiters recruit. That’s what they do best and that is what will give the business the best chance of success.”

 

Starting a small business is full of personal risk, particularly when the boss is relying on the value of their home to keep it afloat.

The Sunday Times reported this month that nearly half of borrowing by the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises is backed the business owner’s own property.

That makes such businesses horribly exposed to house price changes and relying on a property to be a never-ending cash machine is, in my view, simply madness.

Starting and running a business is a huge financial gamble, which often puts personal property on the line. It’s no wonder many are put off.

There are many talented recruiters out there who are perfectly suited to making the leap to launching their own start-up, but feel unable to because they have a mortgage, are married with children or are simply not prepared to risk things like their beloved home in order to make it happen.

That’s perfectly understandable, and it’s precisely for reasons like this that The Recruit Venture Group exists in the first place. If we meet a driven, successful recruiter, already in the industry and wanting to break free and forge their own business future, we will put up 100% of the finance to make it happen through our unique joint venture model.

No ifs, no buts – if we like the business plan, we make the cash available. That person doesn’t have to even think about remortgaging the house, living month to month off credit cards, or going cap in hand to lenders who will have them over a barrel.

Not only can they embark on their business journey without the stress and hassle of raising finance, but we also take care of all of the costly and time-consuming back office functions like HR, IT, payroll, accountancy, marketing and legal services. Believe me, that’s another huge saving given the cost to contract in some of those services. Again, this is all about liberating talented recruiters to go out into the marketplace and do what they do best from day one to make their business thrive.

The Sunday Times report also found that company directors own housing property worth £1.5 trillion. Lending against these assets is a ready source of finance, particularly for small businesses. But a 10% fall in house prices would wipe off £4.5 billion in annual business investment, seriously impacting small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Recruit Venture Group is working in partnership with 43 recruitment businesses right now, and not one of them would need to gamble on a house price rise if they wanted to invest to expand their business.

If a business owner we support has, for example, a sound plan to open a series of new offices, The Recruit Venture Group can make the money available to enable that expansion. While another small business owner might have the stress of borrowing against their house to make it happen, our partners are given the cash and allowed to get on with it, hassle free.

The business world can be unforgiving, and small business owners have more challenges than most when it comes to surviving. Fundamental to the success of any start-up is knowing how to reduce risk. That may sound counter to what entrepreneurship is all about – risk taking – but new businesses are only as strong as their financial backing at the time. And nobody can convince me that a business model reliant on annual house price gains is a good way to foster start-up growth.

Luckily for talented recruiters, there is another way, which not only allows recruiters to forget about risking their homes, but also offers the full suite of back office support that will allow them to focus on making their new business a success.

An Englishman’s home might be his castle, but it shouldn’t be relied upon to be the company cash machine as well.

 

 

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Starting a new business isn’t the hardest part. Making it survive and grow is the key challenge.

In the UK, there are a growing amount of new business start-ups – 589,000 in 2017 alone at one estimate. But how many of those will go on to thrive remains to be seen. Some may have already hit the wall.

Once established, successfully ‘scaling’ a business is seen as the next big challenge. A successful small business won’t necessarily translate to a successful medium or large-sized business. The latest data shows that just under 31,500 businesses successfully ‘scale up’ annually. Given more than half a million launched last year, that’s not many.

Fortunately for people in recruitment, starting a new business is a lot easier than in some sectors. A talented recruiter with several years of experience under their belt, good local knowledge, a decent contacts list of clients and a driven and enthusiastic personality, has the potential to run a very successful business.

The Recruit Venture Group’s established model already offers these experienced recruiters all of the finance they need to get started, as well as providing all the back-office support needed to allow the business to focus generating revenues from day one.

But the Recruit Venture Group’s unique joint venture model not only gets these businesses established but actively supports scaling up. Here’s how.

 

A robust trading statement for the first year or two may be encouraging for a new business, but it might not necessarily impress the bank manager enough to part with the finance needed for serious growth. The Recruit Venture Group’s outlook however is to be ambitious and positive about the businesses it helps support. If trading is going well, it will unlock finance to open additional offices and expand the workforce, for example, without the onerous terms and conditions of a traditional lender. If the growth is there, the finance is there to support it.

 

Taking on more staff, for example, means more demands on payroll and HR. Opening new offices requires legal, marketing and other administrative support. Fast growth requires additional help from the accounts and IT side. These are all material considerations for most small businesses, costing time and money, and potentially holding back growth. But The Recruit Venture Group’s back-office support framework is designed to cope with the expansion of its partner businesses. In short, businesses can scale easily because the back office infrastructure is already in place, and with no financial or time cost involved for the person running it.

 

Business is a lot to do with networking. Knowing other talented people is vital and experienced contacts to call upon when opportunity knocks is hugely valuable. However, many small business owners don’t have fully formed networks to call upon at a moment’s notice. The Recruit Venture Group, however, has a huge array of talented individuals with vast experience in the recruitment sector, and in business generally. If there’s a barrier to growth that crops up, the chances are that one of The Recruit Venture Team will have come across it – and knows the best approach. If there’s a legal issue, marketing opportunity, HR problem, or simply an occasion where an experienced head is needed to bounce ideas off, The Recruit Venture Group is there to lend advice when its needed.

 

One of the best ways to grow a business is, to be frank, to copy the success of others. The Recruit Venture Group has 43 such success stories already up and running. That’s 43 businesses, all in the Recruitment Sector, but serving different industries, in different geographies, in different local economies and all with individual strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. That means The Recruit Venture Group is the hub through which all of those experiences and learnings can be shared (without giving away anything confidential, of course). This growing vault of knowledge can be tapped into whenever barriers to growth emerge.

 

Good recruiters don’t always make good statisticians and accountants – and they shouldn’t need to. But the numbers and data coming out of a business is vital to understanding how it can grow. Accountants and other consultants are expensive – but can be crucial to spotting a trend or opportunity that could unlock growth. The Recruit Venture Group has a skilled team of accountants and data analysts who can take a good look through the books and spot weaknesses and opportunities for growth. Doing business is a lot about gut instinct and drive, but when the numbers tell a story in black and white, that is usually something worth listening to. Understanding what is driving the growth of business, and, crucially, holding it back, might hold the key to successfully scaling up. The Recruit Venture Group offers that insight as an integral part of its unique business model.