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Ok, let’s dive in for today. What’s Cooking?

Making Dough

If you are working as a recruiter for an agency, do it just for a few years at max.

Then, quickly launch your own agency and build your brand and empire.

I did it and so I know you (recruiter or industry professional) can do it too!

I’m going to lay it bare for you. Recruiters hardly earn what their work is worth. Coupled with uncontrollable inflation, your salary increment (if there is one!) will never keep up.

We all know that and it’s not helpful to keep reminding ourselves of that.

Instead, what you don’t know is your own economic value and I will share a real life case study. My case study if you will.

There is a reason why I talk about 3X-ing your revenue when you strike out on your own.

First of all, it’s not an imaginary figure I use as clickbait.

In my earlier years in recruitment, I did 20 placements per year and the billing turned out to be S$240,000. Now, that seems a respectable performance, but it wasn’t as I think back.

What the figures above translated into is that each placement was S$12,000 on average and with inflation accounted for, that is like S$15-16K in today’s value.

I did 20 placements. It brought in S$240,000. That means the value per case is LOW. Yet that’s just how it is with agencies which compete on pricing and you have no choice but to deliver.

Let’s review the same setup but with a different strategy.

You still aim for 20 placements and instead of charging your clients 10-15% placement fee to get their business, you boldly put out a flat rate of 20%. Some of your clients decided NOT to work with you anymore. They admonish you for your heartlessness…

You’re left with less roles and thus lesser placements.

From 20 placements, you fell to 10.

50% revenue gone in a blink at your wrong decision to increase service fee, or so you lamented.

However, each of the 10 placements is bringing you additional revenue. Instead of S$12,000 per placement, you are now doing S$15,000 per placement and that 10 placements net you a total annual revenue of S$150,000.

Instead of your S$50,000/year income working for others, you now rein in 3X that amount for FEWER placements that allow you to provide HIGHER quality work to your clients.

That’s how you make 3X and more in a sustainable way.

Agencies are not out to exploit recruiters. Their business model works differently because they have more mouths to feed and overheads.

You are better off launching out on your own after a few solid years working for agency. Not only will you earn more, you will learn quickly and pivot readily whenever there is a market situation. This is not that direct with agencies because one small move affects everyone and all stakeholders think differently.

Now as a solo recruiter, I hardly argue with myself.

p.s. Follow me on LinkedIn and DM “The Solo Recruiter” if you want to learn how to launch your own agency.

Joo Kwang
​Author of Solopreneur’s Guide to Recruitment Business

​About this newsletter: You are receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly TSR (The Solo Recruiter) newsletter. Every week, you learn the strategies that successful recruiters use to grow their businesses. So you can also do the same and launch your business.