Start-Ups Your Engines!

Bula! Oh god sorry, you see I’ve been away. I’m doing my best to be that cliché of someone who’s just returned from overseas. While it would be great to say that I adore the great nation of Fiji and its people it would be a tad disingenuous. As I didn’t step foot outside my resort, a more accurate statement would be that I loved the tiny section the Sheraton occupies and its wonderful staff. Perhaps I’ll return on a cultural mission to integrate and intertwine with the land Anthony Bourdain style. Till then, I’ve made peace with my kava coming from one of the recreational officers in the lobby as opposed to an authentic villager. Conventional thinking dictates you go on holiday as a pat on the back for working your socks off. However, the market hasn’t exactly been bouncing as of late which gave me mixed emotions about sauntering off into the sunset. To further compound my unease, not one, not two, FOUR live roles came my way from a couple of excellent agencies on the day of departure.

I’m not going to sit here and say that I struggle to switch off. If I’m on holiday I’m usually a few time zones away and a few brewskis deep. Saying that the art of compartmentalizing is a lot easier when there is a ‘work you’ and a ‘non-work you’. You may not see such a distinction but there is one. I remember when I stopped wearing a shirt and tie to work and started wearing weekend clothes to the office. There’s a code-switching that takes place. I’ve found in our industry, the more aligned your outside and inside work are the better. As a sole trader, there’s no other option, you are your brand and you wear it. Another huge thing is, if you stop working then nothing happens so that stops the splintering of persons pronto. 50+ blogs ago I wrote a piece on Thinking About Starting Your Own Recruitment Agency? Some Game of Thrones-level foreshadowing there! It’s the natural order of things, after a certain amount of time the siren call of having your name above the door becomes too loud. However, it's become less prevalent in recent times until recently so, what's halted the pitter-patter of new agencies lately?

It’s not rocket science. Post-Covid the only constant has been inconsistency, and uncertainty tends to put the kibosh on any risk-taking. Not entirely though. While it’s true that when times are good it’s less of a brainer to start up your own shop. However, inspiration can come from a push as well as a pull. If you’re being instructed to hit certain lofty targets in a difficult market, you start to want to eat the entirety of what you kill. Some people may even have been deemed surplus to requirements and created a brand with some good old “I’ll show em’ energy. Some may have even priced themselves out of the market and have reacquainted themselves with a desk reigniting a passion long forgotten. It did feel like back in the day the launch of a new agency was a little more frequent, but it's been encouraging seeing the emergence of other agencies in the market recently, a trend that I predict we will only see more of as the market heats up and something that will continue as long as the rewards outweigh the risk. We even have options for investments into your new agency if you see fit. Although I understand, the person promoting that service is dipping their toe into some rec-to-rec.  

The truth is, it’s not that hard to set up a recruitment agency, it’s keeping it going that’s the trick. A shining example of this took place just this week down in the South Island. Canterbury-based Trinity Employment Services was liquidated, a recruitment agency that allegedly owed $1.5m in tax to Inland Revenue. Only for an almost exact agency to be registered by the same owner 3 hours later. The Press has done the write-up here so I won’t, but it doesn’t seem like the owner was acting nefariously, by the accounts of her employees she was a good egg. These things I guess can happen when you take your eye off the ball and can only serve as a cautionary tale for those that are on the precipice of going alone. For me, I think the more the merrier when it comes to agencies. We all want our candidates to have as many options as possible and it keeps the spirit of competition alive and well. As long as people are doing it for the right reasons, adding value and committing 100% then it can only be a good thing for the industry.