Starting your own recruitment business is an exciting step – the chance to take command of your financial future and channel years of experience into a company that you own and control.
But the process of starting up can be clouded by lack of information, misconceptions and inaccuracies.
RecruitHub works daily with experienced recruiters who are exploring their options in entrepreneurship, fielding hundreds of questions on the best way to start and scale a recruitment business.
To help bring clarity to the process, we’re sharing our conversations and tackling 10 of the biggest myths about starting up, head-on.
Without further preamble… let’s get stuck in!
Myth #4 – A ‘true entrepreneur’ does everything
Lots of founders start their companies with an ideal in mind of what ‘being an entrepreneur’ is all about.
They picture a busy business owner switching from task to task – diving in an out of sales, operations, marketing, training, finance… shielding their team from the ‘grunt work’ of running a company and working all hours God sends as they try and keep the business moving forwards.
And it’s true, to a certain degree, that entrepreneurs need to be versatile and have a handle on all areas of their companies.
But it’s very rarely the best use of their time for them to do everything themselves.
The reasoning is very simple.
Founders have a limited number of hours in every week, and what they accomplish with those hours directly impacts the progress of their business, and in turn the return they make from running the company.
As such, it matters hugely how founders spend their time:
- In sales, an hour of a founder’s time can be extremely valuable if it is spent successfully pitching to a key customer that becomes the company’s next big account – something maybe only the founder is a strong enough salesperson to do.
- In recruiting, an hour of a founder’s time adds important revenue if spent negotiating with a senior candidate for a large fee, where nobody else in the business has the acumen or influence to close the deal.
- In marketing, an hour of a founder’s time can be deeply influential if spent briefing a creative team on a brilliant new campaign idea that will unlock new opportunities or empower consultants.
- In hiring, an hour of a founder’s time creates real value if spent successfully persuading a top biller to join the team, locking in hundreds of thousands of pounds of future revenue or the potential to open up new markets.
- In strategy, an hour of founder’s time can change the course of the company if spent making the right decision about how to diversify clientele, incentivise teams, retain top performers or maximise profitability…
Conversely, an hour of a founder’s time:
- Is extremely low value if spent on manually building lists of sales prospects (they won’t do this task any better than an intern would, if given correct instructions).
- Is worth next to nothing if spent on basic financial administration (something any numerate person is able to do).
- Is wasted if spent on fixing IT issues, writing basic process documentation from scratch, updating spreadsheets or performing any of the hundreds of distracting tasks that can feel ‘important’ but are actually very low value.
There are examples in every area of business activity, and a truly successful entrepreneur learns to build their business in a way that lets them (and everyone else) maximise the value of the time they invest in the company, instead of viewing ‘being busy’ or ‘working hard’ as goals in themselves.
Business owners work tirelessly to ensure their staff are as productive as possible – using every available tool and resource to keep them away from time-drain tasks and maintain their focus on the things that actually make money and drive growth.
The most successful company founders take exactly the same approach with their own time.
This article is an excerpt from RecruitHub’s Top 10 Recruitment Start-up Myths, breaking down 10 of the most commonly-discussed misconceptions around starting a recruitment business.
