When we decided to start a business, we had a dream but we didn’t know how to get there.
Kate Barclay and I had worked together ever since our very first proper day of work as graduates at Hays Montrose in 2002. We had worked together setting up desks, divisions and finally branches of agencies. Although we were delivering huge profits to our bosses, we weren’t really being valued for our contribution or being offered any further opportunity for progression. We could stay put and carry on ad infinitum or we could realise the dream of having our own agency.
We are recruiters servicing the facilities management and maintenance markets and so generally deliver a high volume of temp business. As such, to pay out all those wages every week, we needed a cash injection to enable us to compete in our space. We realised early on that in order to create the company that we had been dreaming of whilst sitting behind our desks, we needed to look for investment.
On the daily commute we spied an advert on LinkedIn looking for ‘the next Recruitment Entrepreneur’, this wasn’t just offering financial investment but also the huge incentive of advice from the best in the industry as to how to get us to “the dream”. We started off at this point on our journey with Recruitment Entrepreneur…
We were clearly experienced in our field and were very successful billers but what was going to convince James Caan CBE to invest in us?
We spent months creating a business plan. We looked at why our market was great and unlikely to be hit by the economic instability that disrupted others. We considered with strategists how best to create our business within the market, looking at current gaps in supply considering which elements would be our focus. We considered the movements and trends of our clients’ businesses to tailor packaged provisions of service and ensure our setup would best respond to their needs. In short, we looked at our market from every conceivable angle, with strategists, finance specialists, legal wizards and recruitment gurus to create a business plan that, under intense scrutiny, would show how and why we would succeed in our space.
We got the investment we needed, wrote our resignations and the following month we created our company, Total Facilities Recruitment Limited.
Next week, our company will be three years old. With the support of great people with invaluable expertise we have we have created a business that services the biggest names in our industry. We have been able to grow and support our clients’ needs and create a profitable company. Yes, we had great relationships in our industry and we were good billers, but more than that, we had great planning and great mentors.
If you want to join us on our journey, please get in touch with me at louise.walsh@tfrecruitment.co.uk or, if you have a dream of your own, why not realise it through Recruitment Entrepreneur.
