To begin with I would like to express my personal pleasure at having joined the Genius Team. The blog is a fantastic resource for everyone involved in the recruitment industry – across the full spectrum of job roles and specialisms – because of the forum it provides for sharing expertise from some of the most knowledgeable people in the business.
As the Managing Director of Hamilton Bradshaw, I sit on the board of more than 10 recruitment companies, where it is my job to drive growth within every one of those organisations. Through my blogging I hope to impart as much advice and know-how so that you too can create highly profitable and valuable recruitment companies.
For my first piece I want to address perhaps the most fundamental of all business questions: why do we start a business in the first place?
In my experience of meeting with innumerable entrepreneurs there are commonly three main drivers behind starting your own recruitment business…
- Ability to be your own boss – ownership and control over your own destiny and success
- Higher income – running your own business allows you to extract a greater share of profits
- Capital realisation event – the significant wealth creation opportunity when you sell your business
The first two reasons are well-documented, but the capital realisation event is often neglected. In order to make this happen you need an exit strategy. It is completely understandable for your exit strategy to be low on your priorities (or not even feature at all) – running a recruitment business can often require you to focus all your energy on the day-to-day management – but this is, in my opinion, a big mistake. Building your brand, developing your consultants and managing your clients could take up every hour of the day if you let it, but without an exit strategy , when the times comes to sell your business (or your stake in the business) you will inevitably fail to achieve the optimum price.
Every exit strategy is completely different, shaped by the business in question, the people that run it and the market(s) it operates in. Of course, you can alter your strategy as your business develops and grows – the path to wealth creation is winding – but it should always be your focus. By sticking to your strategy you will increase the value of your business and improve its attractiveness to investors.
Running your own recruitment business is a huge challenge, yet it is also extremely rewarding. The empowerment you feel is second to none and if the business is managed properly the on-going financial rewards are irrefutable, but when all is said and done, nothing is quite as rewarding as the final exit cheque.
