Ramayan, Book 1, The by VALMIKI: Recent Episodes
James Blackwell - Recruitment
The Ramayan(a) is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is attributed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon (sm?ti). The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. (Summary from Wikipedia)
Several recruitment business owners come to me tired, frustrated and asking how I have managed to build a growing business, whilst working less hours and still win new clients. The simple answer is strategy; I have created a unique strategy that has allowed me to develop a lifestyle that suits my needs within my recruitment business. This blog post will share with you a couple of tips and tricks into how I have achieved this.
This month saw the 2 year anniversary of my business, Ronald James. When I first started, I took a huge risk and started up with just a £15,000 loan, one credit card, running the business from my home and a small serviced office. Today, we have a team of 5 in the office, 12 remote staff and have nearly reached the £1 million revenue mark in just under 2 years. I wanted to use this article to not only share some unique tips and insights of what I have learnt within the first two years, but to showcase to others, that anyone can set up their own business. Tip Number 1 - If you are thinking about starting a business, make sure you’re the leader of the business. It required extreme grit and determination throughout our first year to establish the brand, get the ‘Ronald James’ name out there, and market myself as the figurehead of the business. During this time I met with as many business owners as I possibly could, to ensure I surrounded myself a strong network who became our fundamental client base within the first six months. It’s important to note here that a crucial feature of securing your first clients is adding value. As a business owner you must give value first, and with that will come the monetary reward Tip Number 2 - Surround yourself with mentors. Self-development has become extremely instrumental to me; from day one I have invested a substantial amount of time into personal improvement. I ensured that I surrounded myself successful people who could share with me their unique tips and tricks on how to effectively operate and maintain a successful business. Before starting the business I would meet with them for a coffee and make sure I found out some key ‘golden nuggets’ of information on what it truly meant to be successful. Tip Number 3 - Always have a day plan. As a business owner, planning your day allows you to maximise your time. From day one I have had a day planner in which I would list my tasks to do, targets to hit, goals to strive for and document everything I needed to achieve that day. Now I even go one step further and colour code my tasks, allowing me to work on the business, not in it. Tip Number 4 - Always watch the cash. “Cash is King”. An infamous phrase shared with me when Dragons Den’s James Caan was looking to invest in my recruitment business. It is a quote that has stuck with me and has since encouraged me to keep cash at the forefront of my mind. In the beginning. I dedicated a lot of my time to maintaining our finances- I would ensure our invoices were paid on time and closely manage our outgoings. Although a strategic decision for a start up, this mindfulness did mean we had to make sacrifices within the office, such as cutting back on expensive business tools and office tools in the beginning. Tip Number 5 - Enjoy the journey As business owners we are always working towards the end goal, and it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that. However, it’s vital that you enjoy the journey. Running a business isn’t all about achieving the end goal, it’s about how you get there. Make sure you celebrate your success, enjoy the moments where you secure new clients, attract new talent, grow your team. Balance work life with family life, especially in the early stages as it’s easy to get consumed by the excitement of your new business.
There’s a lot of discussion between the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk and Tai Lopez, debating whether you should work harder or work smarter. In a situation like this, on one end you have Gary V who believes in working hard, whereas on the other you have Tai Lopez, who sells the idea of working smarter i.e. investing in self education. Gary V pushes the hustle you have to do when you start a recruitment business. I can really resonate with this, because in the beginning it is all about working hard. You need to put in the hours and the effort in order to be able to take that step towards freedom. Before my time as a business owner I worked in a recruitment firm, where the culture was to be the first one in the office and the last one to leave. I knew that to tear away from that, I was going to have to work ‘smarter’. This is where Tai Lopez comes in. From Tai I discovered the importance of systemising your business and building processes that could be completed by anyone, not just myself. As a result of this, I now have Monday’s off and work the hours that I choose which allows me to maintain that great work-life balance. Working smarter is really the way to go when you want to build your recruitment business. It’s funny, because I work less hours, yet make more money. This is because I’m focused on the hours that I put in, where I produce good, quality work. Then in my free time, I’m able to work on my coaching business or on personal development - so I’m still technically working, just on the business, rather than in it. To summarise, in the beginning you will work harder, however as the business grows you must learn to work smarter. Technically, you should be working less and less the better your business does. It’s important to build your business around the lifestyle that you want, not around you as an individual. There are so many business owners who are unhappy outside of work, as they’re extremely immersed and very involved in the business. The easy way to prevent this is building a lifestyle business, in which you’re able to delegate the tasks and source them to the right people.
Personal development is a topic I feel particularly passionate about. ‘You are your best investment’ - when you invest in yourself, it means taking on the importance of educating yourself. A really simple way of investing in yourself is by reading books, and educating yourself through text. This blog post shares with you the my top three reads of the week, and some key tips I have taken from my favourite reads.
This Podcast within the Ronald James Podcast Series will discuss the importance of meeting your clients face to face, and share with you a few tips for when you do. This year I realised how important it is to get across your personality and to meet people in person. Nothing can take away the one-on-one relationship you can build by meeting someone for a coffee, taking an interest in what they do, understanding their needs and giving value. There are various systems out there, interesting products and great automated tools; but nothing will ever take away the human to the human element of building a relationship- and that's a fundamental part of growing a recruitment business.
This podcast gives a brief introduction to the Entrepreneur James Website. Over the coming weeks and months I will be sharing some unique insights into how I've overcome the challenges and journeys I encountered setting up my own recruitment business.
What I'd like to be covering today is how to build a one million pound recruitment lifestyle business. Now, the reason why I wanted to cover this was because there seems to be a lot of recruitment business owners setting up a recruitment business across the UK and across the world. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel!