Show me the money! Part 1

​In this two-part series I will take a closer look at the progression from recruiter right through to business seller, broken down into four key stages:

Part 1 - Becoming a recruiter

Part 2 - Becoming a leader

Part 3 - Becoming an owner

Part 4 - Becoming a seller

The purpose - to give insight and guidance from first-hand experience.

Part 1

Why become a recruiter?

As one of my ex colleagues once asked me "who has this much fun and gets paid good money?" (He had previously been an accountant). Recruitment is not for everybody of course. It requires resilience and graft as there are knock-backs and very few short cuts. The people element of dealing with clients and candidates make it fascinating, occasionally frustrating but never boring. The variety is huge and it is easy to measure your success. The rewards in the form of OTE and incentives are usually very attractive.

Part 2

Why become a recruitment leader?

If you aspire to management you must first demonstrate that you can manage yourself well. You also need to be sure that your motives are well placed. There are still far too many instances where big billers get promoted into positions they’re unfit for - to the detriment of them as well as their staff. This is usually due to one of two reasons:

• Their success as a fee-earner is due to a laser-like focus which borders on selfishness;

• A lack of understanding or interest in how different people like to learn and develop.

For those who aspire to management for the right reasons the financial rewards are sometimes less obvious than one might think. Yes the base salary will probably be higher but your commission and bonuses will be influenced by the quality of staff you hire, the revenue the team produces and, ultimately, by the profit number. Your billings are also likely to remain an important factor whilst you build the team up to a critical mass.

The principal satisfaction of management is watching how people develop and finding genuine enjoyment in their successes. This in turn will enable the manager to develop a succession plan which facilitates progression. This is one of the hallmarks of the successful leader of the future.

Other useful tips for budding entrepreneurs:

• If management is about doing things right, leadership is about doing the right things.

• Have a strong set of values you believe in and learn that it’s OK to say ‘No’ to people. We can all live with the occasional fudge but make sure it’s the exception and not the rule. Setting dangerous and unhelpful precedents can cause very real problems.

• You can make a loss lots of times but you can run out of cash only once.

The next part of this blog will take a closer look at the consideration of ‘becoming an owner’ and then eventually, ‘becoming a seller’.