For the attention of: My Employer

Dear Employer, I’m starting my own recruitment agency… and here’s why.

Dear Employer,

I know you’d probably expect me to say I never thought I’d write this but, honestly, I think I always knew I would.

I wasn’t 100% sure when & in what circumstances but, the thoughts were always there &, I suppose over the last few months, it’s just become the right time for me. Personally, I’m in a good place & professionally, I know I can “do it” & with everything else that’s going on at the moment it just feels like the right time to have ultimate control over my career.

Which means that ultimately, it’s the right time for me to move on & start my own recruitment agency. I know this may come as a little bit of a surprise but I suppose that’s part of the reason why I wanted to write this letter to you today – to explain my reasons around leaving the realms of employment & starting my own recruitment agency.

You see when I first started in recruitment, all those years ago, I initially started thinking about the idea of starting my own agency after my first few deals – I’m sure you remember them? It was with that Client in Reading that I managed to take a few roles from within my first few weeks of joining the team. You came with me to meet with them & the parking at Reading station was daylight robbery, so much so that we even joked about increasing our fees to cover the cost!…

I remember becoming aware of the idea after those first few deals; not because they were easy (because my goodness they weren’t!) but because of the economics. & I’m not na?ve, I know how commission works & I was content with that – but I just couldn’t help but let my mind wander into the realms of, “imagine if I retained the bigger slice of that fee pie”.

& then, you know, life happens. A few years pass, I have some great billings years & as a result, the idea was always still there & every new client that I brought on & every deal I made, the idea grew – &, really, it was simply a matter of timing.

I suppose sitting where I am today, so intently driven & fixated on the idea of starting my own agency, I look back at certain periods of my employed journey & can see that there were little catalysts that gently pulled me to where I am today.

Whether that be the time that I had my territory cut in half; I’d always worked within that geography & over the years I’ve made some great money for this company off the back of that geography & then, seemingly just because it was doing really well, the company decided to take half of that away from me. & I don’t know whether that’s just a philosophical clash but, in my eyes, if the company was going to touch any area & introduce a new consultant into any “patch” – it wouldn’t be one that has consistently generated the incremental revenue that mine has over the years.

I’ll be frank with you, that annoyed a little bit.

But it happened any way & yeah, it did leave a little sour taste in my mouth. My other half was a little more “emotive” shall we say about it, arguing that it was just another indication that I would never have the ultimate control I wanted unless I took the leap & started my own agency. & that was, I suppose, when the conversations “at home” changed from “shall we do this?” to “what do we need to get in place so that we can do this?”.

& then there was the time the commission structure was “realigned”; in other words, changed. While I do understand, I understand things change & every business has its costs, but I have worked very hard for this company over a long period of time & I suppose my personal situation now means that ‘time’ is more important to me than it was before.

One of the huge upsides of recruitment & this fantastic sector is that (generally speaking) there’s a correlation between time & reward; the more time you spend working, the greater the potential reward. I.E I know if I bill more for this company, I’ll make more BUT I know that if I were to bill even half of what I generate now, but through my own company, I’d have a better take-home than I do now; not to mention more time, freedom & a business that is 100% owned by me.

I’ve worked the numbers, I’ve mapped the market, I’ve looked at my verticals, I’ve looked at my billings history – it’s the right move for me.

But I know the reasons behind me wanting to start my own agency go a little deeper than just the operational surface level stuff; I want what I see recruitment business owners up & down the country, have. Heck – there’s even consultants that I know who have started their own agencies & are making a great success out of it.

Like Karen! You know, “consistent Karen”; the consultant I worked with for 4 years who sat next to me & was Mrs. Reliable who one day jumped ship & set up shop on her own. She’s managed to replicate exactly what she did for those 4 years but now for herself; & she’s done it all while raising a family, travelling (when COVID permits of course) & working only with the clients she actually wants to work with. Which, I can only imagine, has increased her sense of pride around what she does & has made her an even more rounded recruiter than she was once.

I’m not frustrated because I don’t think Karen is capable (because she is!); I’m envious because I know I could do it too & I know I could build a vehicle that gives me & my family the freedom we need & also provides me with the professional pride around knowing that the business that I’m building is based around clients I have a real affinity towards, which I know will help my build a culture within my agency that I can really be proud of.

Am I concerned about ‘making the leap.? Not from a recruitment perspective, no.

I’m apprehensive about everything else that goes with starting, running & growing the business, yes. I think that’s a product of two things; (1) I’m a great recruiter but I know that there’s a difference between being a great biller & being a recruitment business owner. (2) You guys, my current employers, have done such a great job over the years of allowing us to just focus on the billings that I’m just unaware of everything else that goes on.

But, & I won’t go into it too much here, I’ve found?this company?that will help – that’ll take everything else away from me, all while allowing me to retain 100% ownership of the business. & when I say everything, I mean everything. Accounts, compliance, back office, marketing, creative, technical, job boards, LinkedIn, Tech stacks, business advice, scaling support; whatever I need, I’ve got it with them.

Like you know when those changes in IR35 happened & it was causing us a real headache because it changed the compliance landscape of our market? & we saw our billings dip because we had to spend all that time working out what the company needed to do to ensure we were compliant; or when we had that client (yep, the one from Reading… sorry) that just decided to stop paying our invoices; or when “he who must not be named” left the business & managed to circumvent those restrictions we had in our contract due to a few wording technicalities & it forced us to spend some serious time (not to mention the cash!) re-doing those employment contracts to make sure we weren’t vulnerable like that again?

Well, those are areas (plus much more of course) where this company is going to help me.

Anyway, I suppose the reason I wanted to tell you that is because I want you to know I’ll be doing this properly, that I’ll be respecting my restrictions, respecting your clients & respecting the employees within your business; of course, I will be.

?I want you to know that I have really enjoyed my time here, I really have . & that there is no counter-offer that will change my mind because I know that if I want to earn more money, if I want to have more freedom, if I want to have more flexibility & if I want to have the pride attached to building a business I know I will be proud of (to the level you are of yours); I will only get that from starting my own agency.

So, please take this as my formal resignation.

Reason? To start my own recruitment agency.

Kind regards,

An entrepreneurial recruiter fixated on starting their own recruitment agency.