TBOS speaks to many Recruitment Consultants each week who are considering ‘taking the plunge’ and starting their own recruitment agencies.  One of the questions we always ask is “what is the motivation for starting your own company?” as this can often help us to understand what kind of agency they are hoping to grow.  Each Consultant has their own story and reasons for this, and that coupled with the fact that they are calling our office shows that they are serious about beginning their own recruitment journey.

Below are some examples of the type of Consultants we meet who are ideal candidates to start their own recruitment agency:-

1. YOU ARE THE TOP BILLER IN YOUR COMPANY

If you are the top biller in your agency then why would you not consider starting your own agency?  If you are bringing in large profits to your current agency and only receiving salary and commission payments then the remaining profit is going to fund the billers not hitting their targets and lining the Director’s pockets.  However, if you did this yourself under your own agency, it would be your own pockets you would be lining.

2. YOU HAVE BUILT YOUR DESK FROM SCRATCH INTO A SUCCESS

If you can build a successful recruitment desk from scratch once, then you can certainly do it again.  When you leave your current agency to start a new agency, it is likely you will be restricted by covenants that stop you from contacting and doing business with your current clients; to have the ability to not rely on these for your new business is crucial.

3. YOU ARE MANAGING MULTIPLE STAFF OR A TEAM

Often, as you grow as a Consultant and your placements increase, there may be a need for you to start managing Resourcers and even other Consultants.  This is to not only to ensure you can fill more placements, but also to hopefully develop the next generation of Consultants.  However, this is another way of increasing the agency profit margin and can distract you from making your own sales targets.  If you are used to managing multiple staff within your current agency, it will be the same process when taking on staff within your own agency.

4. YOU ARE FRUSTRATED BY THE COMPANY CULTURE

As with any job, Consultants working in agencies can often become disillusioned with the way the company is run, such as: changes in processes; internal promotions; increased targets; payment and commission structures. For a Consultant who wants to bill and be rewarded for their efforts, these changes can often be the trigger for the decision to start their own agency – you wouldn’t face these issues because you would be making the rules for yourself.

5. YOU WANT TO BE MORE THAN AN EMPLOYEE

Whilst not everyone is cut out for being a recruitment agency Director or owner, there are a large portion who strive to be something more than just an employee. Consultants with ambition, focus and a strong will to succeed in business are ideal candidates to start their own agency as they do not want to be constrained by someone telling them what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

6. YOUR DIRECTOR IS GETTING YOU TO CONTROL YOUR OWN TEAM PROFIT & LOSS

This is a key indicator that you may be ready to start your own agency as this is a duplication of the responsibilities of a Director and business owner.  If you have to control your team’s salary costs and overhead spend against the team’s profits on a monthly/quarterly basis, then what is stopping you from taking the plunge?  It may be the Director is teeing you up for a promotion, but would they really give you the full control and shareholdings you would have if you were running your own agency?

TBOS has set up over 100 new start-up recruitment agencies over the last 7 years and most of the initial discussions with the Director(s) have been based on the scenarios shown above.  The Consultants who fit into the categories above have often been successful at starting and growing their own businesses as they have demonstrated this previously.  TBOS works closely with these types of business owners to provide the help and support they need with their back office and accounting services so that they can concentrate on continuing to recruit and growing the profits of their own company.

For more information on how TBOS can help you start up your own recruitment agency, please contact our office.