In honour of International Women's Day, this article was written about our co-founder, Sarah-Jane and I, got to where we are now

Since the founders of the ICM Group, Kirstie Jackson and Sarah-Jane Woodstock, are both female, it feels fittings to dedicate an article to their story on International Women’s Day.

The ICM Group now consists of International Career Master, ICM Pro Logistics, ICM Exec and ICM Courier, so their story is one of success.

Kirstie studied IT at college and supported herself throughout by working in a well-known high street hard ware store. She liked dealing with customers, talking to them, helping with queries and earning money. So, after 2 years in to her 3 year course, she decided to leave and start working instead. 

Kirstie start her working life in the male dominated transport industry as an Office Co-Ordinator. The company she worked for was a small freight company - the work was varied, the role interesting and she thrived in the male dominated business. She found the men she worked with very straightforward - if someone had a problem, it was aired immediately. 

When Kirstie was looking for a change, she spoke to a family member about the recruitment industry – her aunt had had a bad experience and thought Kirstie would be good in a recruitment role and could deliver a better service. Kirstie interviewed for a well-known high street recruiter and was instantly offered a job. 

Kirstie’s progress was phenomenal – she turned her hand to recruitment incredibly well, loved the thrill of working with candidates and clients, solving their recruitment headaches and loved converting cold leads. Within 18 months, Kirstie had moved from being a Perms Consultant, to Branch Manager. 

The atmosphere within recruitment was very different to what she was used to in the transport industry. It was female led and she worked with a very young team, the turnover of staff was high and the calibre of staff was low. Kirstie felt she knew the industry so well and was progressing brilliantly, but she had a yearning to do things her own way….

Meanwhile Sarah-Jane was on a journey of her own – she too started in an unrelated industry. At college she studied Health and Social Care which took her into some incredible roles working with both the elderly and severely disabled children, for a total of 4 years. But the roles were emotionally draining and Sarah-Jane wondered if this was the industry she wanted to continue in.

She spoke to a friend, Laxmi, now The ICM Group’s PA, who was currently working for a company that were looking for sales staff. It was in this role that Sarah-Jane really got a taste for sales and reaslied how good she was at it. She always knew she was a people person, but she thrived on the challenges a sales role brought with it. She continued in that role for approximately 5 years before being made redundant.

It was at this point that Sarah-Jane approached the same well-known high-street recruitment agency that Kirstie had worked for. While not many people would initially think of recruitment as being a sales-based industry, essentially it is – Sarah-Jane knew she could lend her excellent sales skills to recruitment, so she joined the team.  

Sarah-Jane started her career as a Perms Consultant, then moved quickly to Temps Consultant. She was great with people, able to work with clients to alleviate their recruitment problems, but was also great at working with candidates and successfully placing them in roles.

She moved quickly through the ranks and was also promoted to branch manager within a very short space of time. Sarah-Jane loved the leadership role she took on and thrived as a nurturing and caring manager. 

Sarah-Jane’s remarkable stint with the high street recruiter came to an end when she decided to return to her native Jamaica. It was here that she demonstrated her ability to work her skills in a different industry. Her new role was in PR for a well known Rum company - again that fire in her belly ignited when she got to deal with different people and different challenges in different environments. 

But when she returned to the UK 5 years later, she went back into recruitment - Sarah-Jane was put into a branch with low performance – it would be her responsibility to bring it back up to its former glory. The role was incredibly high pressured but she was pleased they had faith in her ability.   

But it was after this role that Sarah-Jane started to wonder if she could go it alone. She had a number of years’ experience under her belt, had excelled in each role and was becoming increasingly frustrated with not being able to do things ‘her way’. The recruitment agency she was working for was hugely limited by location because each worked out of a branch, whereas if Sarah-Jane decided to set up her own business, she could take those shackles off. Having worked for the same brand, Sarah-Jane knew Kirstie wanted to take those shackles off too – and who better to launch with.

Sarah-Jane and Kirstie launched International Career Master in 2015. While they certainly had the know-how, it was really tough getting up and running. The brand was unknown, clients had to be talked into using and trusting them. They weren’t always taken seriously and if invoices weren’t paid on time, which they often weren’t, it meant cashflow problems and no accounts department to hand it over to. 

The business started with permanent roles because they’re most lucrative. While there were knockbacks for the unknown brand, there were clients who bought into Sarah-Jane and Kirstie’s past experience and soon the business was growing - they decided to take on their first consultant – the demand was there and the girl’s great reputation was speaking for itself. 

They quickly realised how exposed they were and how hard they were going to have to - their most challenging time came when the collapse of an important contract nearly took them under. The strength and determination they showed was admirable. 

With International Career Master progressing nicely, Kirstie and Sarah-Jane started to notice not only a big demand for roles in logistics, but they saw an opportunity in the Training & Development area too, and so added that to their business model.

Their ambition showing no limits, they started to branch off into other areas, they just needed the resource to do it - Kirstie and Sarah-Jane were happy to outsource and were wise to acknowledge they couldn’t do everything themselves – something some business owners take many many years to learn. 

So, on International Women’s Day, Sarah-Jane and Kirstie applaud all the other businesswomen going out into the unknown with just their determination to see them through, but they share their story to prove it’s possible.