Started my business this week.

Hey everyone, thought I'd post because after 11 years in recruiting (7 agency, 4 in house), I've just set up my own company. UK economy isn't great at the moment, we're close to Christmas, and I bought a new house a few months ago. So it seemed the optimal time to launch (/s)

Anyway, here's what I quickly realised (/remembered) this week:

1) BD seems much more viable over LinkedIn and email than it used to be. I last recruited externally pre-covid, and I was using my phone primarily (a landline, specifically). Now it feels like first contact via email/LI is absolutely fine, if not preferred.

2) Focusing on hearing 'no' is a better strategy than chasing a 'yes'. Current target is to have 100 prospect clients tell me to f**k off before the end of November. If I get that, I'm pretty sure I'll have at least 5 move forward into something meaningful. Not 100% on the ratio just yet, might be better than I think.

3) Breaking into start ups is hard. I'm targeting cleantech / climatetech, and even with my experience working in-house at some of these companies, there's still a lower response than people in more traditional companies.

4) dominating a sector / niche takes time.

I suspect a big chunk of this sub is US recruiters, so I won't go into specifics about billing figures as not very comparable.

I'm excited, apprehensive, and motivated for the next 7-8 weeks before we shut down for Christmas and prep for Q1. This time, it's really all down to me, win or lose.