Why do You Want to Start a Recruitment Agency?

There are many reasons that people decide to set up their own recruitment agency – natural born recruiters are often keen to branch out on their own, whether they have been employed by a high street agency or a niche agency.

Before you decide to start your own employment agency, take some time to think about what motivates you and what your aims are for your own business. You need to take this decision very seriously because starting your own recruitment business can have major financial implications for you and your family and can bring complications with your current employer.

To Be Your Own Boss

If you have a burning desire to be your own boss and you have relevant recruitment experience, starting your own employment agency can be very fulfilling. You will need to be very disciplined with your time and be totally self motivated. In the early days of setting up your own agency, you will only have your own drive and ambition to motivate yourself – if you are used to having your boss or team leader tell you what to do each day in your current role, you will need to be very honest about whether you are able to make the most of your time when you are in charge of your own ‘to do’ list.

In time you may also be responsible for motivating your own employees, so it is worth learning the right skills before you start recruiting.

You Are Frustrated in Your Current Job

There is nothing wrong with the motivation for starting your own recruitment business coming from frustration in your current job, in fact, over 70 % of recruitment agency start ups are by recruitment consultants previously employed in another agency. Most people who succeed in recruitment find that they ask themselves why they are allowing their employer to take at least 80 % of their fees when they are doing the majority of the work. Good consultants realise that they could be earning far more by starting their own agency, while being able to address any operational issues.

These issues tend to be connected to the honesty and target-based factors of recruitment. Consultants invariably start to feel uncomfortable with some of the unethical recruitment practices that they can be encouraged to do in order to reach their targets.

A key cause for frustration in recruiter’s jobs can also be the fact that each month seems to start at zero. While this is the case for many commission-based jobs, it can be demoralising to realise that there is a frantic scrabble in the last week of the month, only for the board to be wiped clean on the first day of the next month. Many people feel that they want to build something, grow a business that does not seem to be so focused on the short term.

Money

Money is a big part of recruitment. Good consultants can earn excellent salaries. If you start your own recruitment agency you need to be prepared that there will not be a guaranteed salary, but there will be far greater rewards than your current cut of your commissions. You may choose to set your fee structure to undercut your competition, or be comparable on price but offer a better service. Either way, if you have a solid client base and are self motivated, setting up your own recruitment agency can be a great way to earn great money.

If money is your only motivation, you may be more suited to a more fast paced, high turnover recruitment sector, such as industrial temps, whereas if you are keen to earn a greater percentage of your commissions but still aim to offer a quality, personal product, you may choose to work in a more specialised sector.