Is this you?

You've already established yourself as a top recruiter. You have won and retained new business and you have an excellent rapport with clients and candidates alike.

You've seen how much of your hard work goes into lining your employer's pockets. Naturally you want to keep more of the fruits of your own labours.

Your dilemma

You've thought about setting up your own recruitment agency but the trouble is, it isn't easy and, it costs a lot of money.

For starters you need premises, staff, IT systems, payroll and factoring. Then you've got all those pesky rules and regulations to stick to. As if setting up a business wasn't hard enough anyway!

Then you need money, lots of it, to pay for your staff, office lease and other overheads such as furniture and utility bills. Advertising and marketing will quickly eat into whatever cash you have left. What are you going to live on until you start making a profit?

You might have considered working with a business incubator or taking out a franchise. They'll give you a proven business format to work to and they may take some of the back office burden off your hands.

Trouble is they want even more of your money in return: typically between £20,000 to £30,000 upfront in fees and 15% of your turnover forever.

Think how much you will pay them over 5, 10 or 20 years.

On top of this, you'll have to work by their franchise rules for as long as you're in business. They'll tell you what to do: from where to site your office, down to the colour of the carpets and they are only interested in making your business as big as possible to maximise their slice of your income.

This may be great for the most ambitious but most owners want to grow their companies to the ideal size for them, not someone else.

A better option

Between 1998 and 2004, with input from 2 of the top head-hunters in the world, I perfected a head-hunting format aimed at filling positions paying salaries of more than £40,000.

Not only was my service faster, but it resulted in a higher standard of candidate and exceptional completion rates. In a very short time I became a market leader and made a first year profit of £185,000 (about £244,000 in today's money). How many start-up recruitment businesses do you know that make a profit in their first year, let alone one this size?

More or less all I needed to get started was 2 telephones, a PC, a filing cabinet and a spare bedroom in my house. My administrative burden was minimal, leaving me free to grow my business and make more money. By mid-2004 I had made enough to retire.

Now I coach a very limited number of carefully selected people to my proven format, mainly for the pleasure of seeing them succeed and build the lives they have always dreamed of. To each of these close relationships I bring 9 years of pre-eminent executive search and coaching expertise, backed up by more than 12 years of high-level blue-chip sales and marketing.

As a recruiter you'll already have the essential people skills to succeed and many of the essential attributes for success, but be prepared to unlearn some of your recruitment habits. Also to be most effective and profitable, it pays to focus your efforts on recruiting in a single industry sector. That said if you haven't specialised in an industry in the past, it doesn't take long to pick up the essential knowledge.

I charge a single up-front investment fee in return for intensively training you on my format over 2 months. Thereafter, there is an ongoing monthly retainer for as long as you need my input and support. That means no binding long-term commitments on you, nor any franchise tie-ins. As soon as you feel confident, you can dispense with my services and keep 100% of your future profits.

Although not always the case, in most circumstances, the fee from your first placement should be enough to clear my charges and all your business set up costs.

With a business proposition as strong as this, why stay stuck in a dead-end job? Why take unnecessary risks going it alone with the 'big idea'? And why waste your money on a restrictive franchise?

"Paul's approach consistently delivers great results... his placements are of a very high quality and do so well here". Pauline Wiseman, Head of Human Resources, Honda UK.

How I made my first £million

Paul Eyton-Jones, MD, Beechbrook Consulting

Click here to read my case study

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