Are you starting up a new recruitment company? As with every business, a business plan is essential for helping you to make a success of your new venture. And as there are a few special considerations for recruiters and agencies, a business plan template simply won’t do.
A business plan can help you to decide what your long-term and short-term goals are, and how you are going to reach them. It can be daunting to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and begin writing your plan, so here are four questions your recruitment business plan should be answering:
1. What Are Your Goals?
Your goals might relate to how many clients you would like to have on your books, how many positions you aim to fill within a certain period of time, or any financial milestones you would like to meet. Whatever you want to achieve, you can use your business plan to set out your goals, and then use this as a basis for everything else you do. Everything that follows within your business plan should somehow help you to meet your ultimate goals.
2. Who Is Your Target Market?
Your recruitment company might specialise in a particular industry, such as construction and engineering, or sales and administration. Or you might specialise in jobs with salaries over £50,000, or temporary placements. The way you place yourself in the market is an important part of your business plan, and you can use this to help shape your unique selling points, marketing strategy, daily operations, and financial decisions.
3. How Will You Appeal To Clients and Candidates?
Recruiters have two sets of people to think about – the clients they are finding employees for, and the candidates they are considering for each position. You will need to think about how you are going to attract candidates as well as clients. Although your clients will be paying you, you won’t be able to do anything without job seekers. It is a good idea to nurture your relationships with both sets of people so that your clients know you are working to find the best employees for your company, and candidates know that you want to help find the right position for them. For a candidate, there’s nothing worse than recruitment agencies who don’t seem to care about them, or try to offer them positions that are nothing like what they are really looking for. As these people are essential for your business, it is a good idea to use your business plan to address how you will grow these relationships.
4. What About Finances?
Finances are an essential part of any business plan, so for your recruitment business plan you will need to consider all of your overheads, income, and profit projections. How much will you need to charge your clients, and what will your price or commission structure be? How will you make sure your price structure is fair for your clients and also profitable for your business?
If you’d like some help writing a recruitment business plan, get in touch with cbm! Contact us online using the form on the right or call 01604 420 420.