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 #8 – It doesn’t matter who you hire first
When it comes to growth, many new agency owners fall into the trap of building their cash reserves without much thought as to who or how they will hire to grow their business.
With a basic notion that ‘more heads = growth’, they approach hiring without a long-term business strategy in mind, feeling confident that more capacity must be a good thing – and that consequently it doesn’t matter much who is hired first, as long as they’re productive.
Many have no clear basis for deciding whether to opt for a full or split desk model, nor do they link the design of compensation plans with the strategic objectives of the business.
They hire people based on whether or not they can find a way to turn them into a profitable ‘head’ or ‘desk’, without thinking much beyond the immediate 12 months ahead…
Consequently, their companies grow haphazardly.
Along the way, they structure teams, incentives, market segmentation and management tiers not around an effective and cohesive roadmap, but around whoever they happen to bring into their organisation.
And, while this approach can work, it’s a very risky game to play.
Agencies are built on people, and behind almost all successful founders are a handful of key hires that were brought into their companies at the right time and who have dramatically helped shape and accelerate business growth.
Conversely, hiring the wrong people in the wrong order can create major obstacles to scaling a business, forcing companies to work around gaps in skill sets and letting the ‘tail wag the dog’ regarding how teams grow and function.
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.
