The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast Season 7 | Ep21 - Josh Huggins on driving a trade sale exit with a 5-year earn-out process before starting his own agency!
On this week's show, I'm delighted to be joined by Josh Huggins, the founder of GS2, a global sustainability search recruitment firm headquartered in Basingstoke. The business is just over 18 months old, with eight employees.
Josh shares his journey from being a professional footballer to starting his own recruitment business.
After becoming the second-largest shareholder at Principal People he, alongside Simon Bliss, led the process of selling the business.
He had to wait five years and faced many challenges before making the bold decision to leave and start GS2.
Takeaways
- Negotiating an exit from a previous company can be challenging, especially when it comes to non-compete agreements and investment decisions.
- Focusing on operational billing and setting high standards can help build a strong foundation for a recruitment agency.
- Investing in personal branding and leveraging platforms like LinkedIn can have a significant impact on client retention and business growth.
- Internal recruitment plays a crucial role in building a successful company and finding the best talent to drive growth.
- Having a clear vision and exit strategy can guide the long-term goals and direction of a recruitment agency.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast and guest introduction
01:25 Josh Huggins' background and journey to starting GS2
03:20 Overview of GS2 and its divisions
04:39 Target market and clients of GS2
06:02 The changing recruitment landscape and opportunities in a post-COVID world
07:00 Josh's background in football and transition to recruitment
10:46 Joining Principal People and the growth of the business
16:28 Transitioning to a senior role at Principal People
20:44 The process of selling Principal People and the challenges faced
27:51 The decision to start GS2 and the challenges faced
36:48 The attempted buyback of Principal People and the decision to start GS2
40:33 The exit from Principal People and the start of GS2
44:28 Naming and structure of GS2
45:23 Negotiating the exit and setting up GS2
47:39 Starting GS2 and building the team
49:21 Returning to operational billing and setting standards
51:15 Recruiting levels and service offerings
52:08 Investing in personal branding and learning from Hoxo
53:07 Changing the mindset of recruitment and staying connected with clients
55:28 The impact of personal branding on revenue
57:21 Bringing Tom Glanfield on board and internal recruitment
01:00:15 Building GS2 with an exit in mind
01:02:09 The vision for GS2 and future growth
__________________________________________
Hoxo Message
Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?
As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.
This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.
But it can be different...
If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.
A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.
Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily and the results have been amazing!
You can have this too!
Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY
If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Anderson (The creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!
Get access to:
- 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on LinkedIn
- Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template
- Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results
This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!
Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.
__________________________________________
Episode Sponsor: Vincere
Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.
Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and
configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.
You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in one easy click. You can also offer candidates a quick and easy job search interface, so it’s made easy for them to find their perfect role.
And for your clients, you can offer them unique logins so they can access everything
they need 24/7, so they can rate and review candidates and arrange interviews.
Find out more on vincere.io/rag