Want to start your own recruitment business, but need some backing?
You've got the experience. You've got the contacts. You know your market.
You might even have a pretty good idea where your first placements will come from.
But there's still something stopping you.
Perhaps you don't have enough savings to give up your salary. Maybe the thought of financing contractors makes you nervous. Or perhaps you just don't fancy spending your evenings sorting invoices, accounts and payroll.
This is where finding the right recruitment business investor or backer can make a real difference.
What does a recruitment business investor actually do?
That depends on the investor.
Some provide money in exchange for a share of your company. Others might offer loans or access to funding.
And some, like Hilton Lord, provide investment alongside the practical support needed to establish and run a recruitment agency.
There's an important difference between having somebody help finance your business and having somebody help you run the operational side of it.
Both can be valuable. It depends on what you need.
What does Hilton Lord offer?
We help successful recruiters start their own recruitment businesses.
You bring the recruitment experience, industry knowledge, client relationships and ambition.
We provide the infrastructure and support behind the business.
That includes:
- Help setting up your company, brand and website
- Recruitment software, job boards, LinkedIn, data
- Payroll, invoicing, bookkeeping and credit control
- Legal, compliance and HR support
- Contractor and temporary worker funding arrangements
- Business advice and ongoing support
We also provide initial investment where needed to help get the business off the ground.
Our arrangement gives you 75% ownership of your company, and you're its sole director.
You make the decisions, run the desk and build the business.
We're there to help with the rest.
Find out how the Hilton Lord partnership works.
Can I start a recruitment agency without savings?
Potentially, yes.
A lack of savings doesn't automatically mean you can't start your own recruitment business.
If you have the right experience and a convincing plan, we can discuss additional investment to help support you financially during the early months.
This generally involves us taking a slightly larger percentage, with an option to repay that additional investment and return to the standard arrangement. We'd work through the figures and agree what's sensible for both parties.
The important point is that you don't necessarily need a substantial personal savings pot before you can have the conversation.
What if I recruit temporary workers or contractors?
Funding is often an even bigger consideration if you work in temporary or contract recruitment.
You might have to pay workers every week while your clients pay invoices considerably later.
Even a successful agency can struggle if it doesn't have sufficient working capital.
Hilton Lord can provide contractor funding alongside the systems and people needed to manage timesheets, payroll, invoicing and credit control.
Will I still control my own company?
Yes. That's rather the point.
We're not looking to give you another boss.
Under our standard model, you own 75% of the company and remain its sole director.
You decide which clients to work with, which sectors to recruit in, whether to employ people and how ambitious you want to be.
Some of our partners want to build substantial recruitment companies. Others are perfectly happy running a successful business with a small team, or on their own.
Both are fine with us.
Either way, the day-to-day direction of the business is yours.
Who qualifies for recruitment business investment?
Not every recruiter is ready to start their own business.
At Hilton Lord, we generally look for people who have:
- At least four years' agency recruitment experience
- A consistent billing history of £150K or more annually
- Strong knowledge of the market they want to operate in
- The drive and independence needed to run their own company
You don't need to have managed a large team or know how to prepare a balance sheet.
But you do need to know how to recruit and generate business.
We support recruiters across permanent, temporary and contract markets, in a wide range of sectors.
See what we look for in a business partner.
Is it better to use a recruitment business investor or start independently?
There's no single right answer.
If you have plenty of capital, understand the operational side of running an agency and want to own every share, starting independently might be the right choice.
But it's worth considering the full picture.
What will your systems cost? How will you finance temporary workers? Who will handle the accounts, contracts and credit control? And how much of your time will be spent doing those things instead of generating fees?
With the right backer, you may give up a percentage of ownership but gain support that allows you to concentrate on growing the business.
The best arrangement isn't necessarily the one where you own the highest percentage.
It's the one that gives you the best chance of building the business and life you want.
Let's have a conversation
If you're an experienced recruiter who's been thinking about starting your own agency, we'd be happy to talk.
You don't need a business plan at this point.
Just tell us a bit about your experience, what you're billing and what you'd like to build.
We'll tell you how our model works and whether we think we'd be a good fit.