Starting a recruitment agency is not necessarily a case of snapping your fingers and watching everything fall into place, but that doesn’t mean you have to hold yourself back. While there are good reasons to put off beginning your own agency, there are also many false barriers that people use to delay themselves, either because they’re not certain of the process, or because they lack confidence in their ability. Here are 7 common reasons for people delaying themselves, and 7 reasons why you shouldn’t let them stop you.
1. You Don’t Need an Office
Many people looking to start their own business will be thinking about offices. After all, that’s probably where you’ve spent a majority of your time working, and it makes sense to have a professional space to work out of. However, when you’re starting fresh, you want to keep costs as low as possible until you can get to grips with your finances, and an office is an expense you don’t need. Consider working from home, turning one of your rooms into a dedicated study to keep a professional space. Meet clients in cafés or hotel bars, and use a registered address to give the impression of having an office. You’ll look professional, feel professional, and save on costs.
2. Be Your Own Boss, Avoid Investors
If you’re looking to start your own recruitment agency, chances are that it’s because you wanted to be in charge of your own operation. Trying to get someone to invest in your business is often going to completely negate your freedom, since most investors will be looking at your agency in terms of their own interests. They’ll take equity and expect you to meet targets, and you’ll end up in the same frustrating position you started in. Avoid investors and you’ll be able to keep to your original goal: be your own boss.
3. Start With the Basics, Then Build Up
You don’t need much to start your own recruitment agency. A computer, preferably portable like a laptop, and a phone are really all you need. LinkedIn and job boards’ trial periods will give you free ways to look for business, and you can even save on internet costs by using free Wi-Fi spots. Your two basic tools will get you a long way, and once you start turning a profit, then you can look to upgrading.
4. Work Around Restrictive Covenants
Commonly, recruitment agencies will work restrictive covenants into their contracts, to avoid situations where employees take clients with them when they leave. In turn, this encourages recruiters to stay with their current agency, to avoid having to build up a new client base. If you let this stop you, though, you’ll never get started, and restrictive covenants can’t stop you completely from searching for business in the area. Use the skills you already know to build a new client base, making sure to avoid breaching your covenants.
5. Maintain Your Online Presence Without a Website
Like an office, a website is a luxury that is hardly necessary for a new recruitment agency. Using LinkedIn and online directories are perfectly good ways of being discovered online, and having a holding web page with contact details can be enough to drive interest. Create a website once you have time for it, but don’t wait for one before you start.
6. Use a Financing Service to Fund Contractors
It’s a vicious cycle: you need money to make money, but where does that first bit of money come from? It can be difficult to find someone who trusts a start-up business to pay back loans, but an invoice factoring company will often be happy to help as long as you have potential business to fund it. A company like Fund My Contractor can really help new businesses in this awkward situation by helping you to start investing in lucrative contract placements as soon as possible.
7. You Don’t Have to do it Alone
Going from a medium or large recruitment agency to a single operation isn’t just a business consideration, it can be something of a social one. If you enjoy the elements of working in a team, suddenly finding yourself alone can be difficult. Partnering with someone else can help alleviate some of the loneliness as well as some of the challenge of running a business by yourself, or working in a shared office can give you freedom without solitude. If you take the option of working from home, then using the same café regularly can also help sociability once you become a ‘regular’.
You don’t have to wait around for everything to line up before you go into business by yourself. With a couple of simple start-up items and some good working practices you can start your recruitment agency from the ground and build up as you go. Once you’re in business, you’ll see how easy these options are to bypass.
Article provided by Stewart Roberts, Commercial Director at Total Back Office Solutions Limited.
