No matter what stage of the journey your agency is at, there are four key areas of your business that should be a priority for you in 2019.
Identify opportunities for growth
Demand for the services of recruiters has never been as strong as it is right now. Because employment is at its highest levels for over 40 years, it is harder for employers to find the talent they need for their vacancies. But the talent is there and you’re best-equipped to find it.
Review your historical prospects for potential opportunities. Keep a close eye on either the sectors or geographical area that you focus on and make sure you know what’s going on from a business point of view. In other words – stay alert.
Review your business model. Will you look to stay within your current industry sector or expand into new sectors? Would this require extending your team or geographical reach? If you’re a permanent recruiter, have you considered setting up a temporary solution?
Whatever you do – spread your risk. Don’t become overdependent on one or two clients for income.
Networking can help you get in front of ‘difficult to access’ prospects. Be active on social media, update your blog with relevant content, speak to the local and trade media that serve your sectors.
Cash flow is king
Aged debt and late payments can be the death of a business. Make sure you have a process in place which you can follow. From due diligence to clarifying agreements on payment terms. What happens when an invoice is overdue? Do you have credit insurance in place should the worst happen?
Review your client base as not all business is good business. You need to learn to let go of those draining your profits. You can have the most impressive order book in the world, but if your clients are slow at paying their invoices, the impact on your agency could be severe.
This is more critical if you run a temp desk. Imagine what would happen if you secure a great contract to supply a dozen workers, but you can’t pay them each week because of cash flow issues. Having the capacity to scale up quickly is a great selling point. However, you need to ensure you have the right recruitment finance support in place – one that will guarantee access to the funds you need when you need them.
Keep your house in order
Take a look at your diary at what you did over the last two weeks and compare it with what is planned to do over the coming fortnight. Is there any difference in the activity? Chances are, yes. This is because there is often a disparity between what is planned and what actually happens.
You may have good intentions to focus much of your time on strategy, your people and business development. However, some of these will have been parked in favour of admin tasks, such as raising and sending invoices, chasing late payers, organising contracts, checking for compliance…the list goes on. While such tasks are essential, they are also time-consuming and eat away at your profits, not to mention distract you from revenue-generating projects. Instead, look to outsource these things and win back the time you need to focus on growing your agency this year.
Get your head in the cloud
Review the technology you currently use. Statistics show that recruiters spend around four hours every week simply updating their systems – often multiple systems. Simplicity have developed a recruitment solution specifically for recruiters. The technology combines your front and back office processes via a single cloud-based management platform, reducing the risk of errors and saving you time in the process.
To seize the wealth of opportunities for agency growth in 2019, you need to have the right partner in place to advise and support you. You focus on the clients and candidates. We can focus on providing you with a flexible recruitment solution that allows you to grow at your own pace. Interested? Contact one of our Recruitment Business specialists today.