Getting a new business off the ground is no mean feat, but growing it is another challenge.

Over the years we’ve worked alongside business owners who have started from scratch and scaled with relative speed, and one of the key things we’ve seen is that success is very much down to focus, especially in the early days.

Don’t try to be all things to all people…

Tempting though it may be, every second you spend outside of your niche is time you are not spending on developing and proving your expertise. Instead, devote that time to delivering in your sector where you can really add value and deliver a quality service to your clients.

In the early days, you need to build your firm’s reputation in your niche sector develop a good client base and build trust with great candidates. Prove that you are the go-to expert and that’s how you will fuel your business to power your growth.

Knowledge of a particular field is valuable – spend your time building your knowledge, skills and network instead of diluting your offering by trying to work in areas that are less familiar to you and that others can do better.

Workwell Outsourcing offers a complete suite of funding, back office and payment solutions designed for small, growing agencies as well as large, enterprise-level concerns. Our team partners with each business we support, helping and guiding agency owners through the minefield of challenges they face.

We’ve learned so much over the years that we’ve been working with recruiters who have grown. I’d say that focus and dedication to their niche has been the most important factor. Less successful businesses show a pattern of being too thinly spread and the owner often generates much less income.

The importance of a business plan…

Make a deal with yourself at the start. Create a consistent focus by writing a business plan. It’s a good way to ask yourself awkward questions about your business and spot gaps in your knowledge or capability.

Have the confidence to know that you’ll achieve your goals by sticking to your plan and doing what you do best, not by trying to be all things to all people.

The business plan should outline the sectors you know well and the opportunities within those sectors. You can get super-clear about your value proposition to those sectors and identify ways to make your business stand out with a USP, which in a service business like recruitment is usually in-depth knowledge and slick systems and processes to support clients’ needs.

Then, once your foundations are in place, you can look at building your capability, either with new services or by branching out into new sectors. But doing so in a focused way will, again, pay dividends.

Be purposeful when you try anything new. For example, decide on a sector or a new service, assess the opportunity and what’s involved, and then map what you’re going to do into your business plan. That way you have a roadmap for your own learning and adaptation, creating genuine capability, strength and resilience in your business, and you don’t waste time chasing opportunities in a haphazard way.”

A good back office and funding arrangements are crucial throughout your business journey, particularly in the early days when you really can’t afford to make mistakes.

Funding should be built around your needs and preferences, and adaptable to your company’s changing needs. Similarly, back office support and services should suit your size and omit unnecessary complexity. The focus here is to serve your clients and their candidates professionally and with consistency, enabling you to build a firm reputation that helps you move to the next stage of growth.

Get in touch to find out more about how a partnership with Workwell Outsourcing can help support your growth goals or complete the form below to download our guide to the pitfalls to avoid when growing a successful recruitment business.