Dear Sabrina
I think it is absolutely fanatastic that you have decided to start your own recruitment agency. Being a career woman, raising children and supporting our homes and our husbands career is very challenging.
I decided to start a recruitment agency (from home) in January 2009. I had 20 years banking/finance working experience and hold a BCom in Human Resources and Strategic Management, but with no proper recruitment experience.
It took me 6 months to set up my Legal entity and go for extensive recruitment training before I was confident enough to go out and target Clients. In your case you have the working experience so you can start up immediately.
In the South African market there are thousands of Recruitment Agencies, and finding new clients to recruit for is extremely challenging, especially when most are retrenching their staff. What worked for me was I notified all my family members who worked in medium and large enterprises, to hand out my Agency portfolio to their HR departments. ALL you need is 1 Client. I also joined a few women empowered networking groups, and made contact with HR personnel, I found refferrals worked best. 3 months in operation, with 2 clients, the next challenge was a database of suitable candidates. I started with a job portal (the cheapest) to advertise positions and find candidates and slowly started creating my own database of star candidates on Excel. Do not be discouraged as the work comes in, the candidates will find you, tell everyone you know what you're doing (hand out business cards as you shopping or travelling) and the word will get around and before you know it, you'll be a success and will be thinking of expanding and growing your business.
The best news I can give you right now is I only work half a day (2 clients is enough for 1 person to handle), the other half of the day I can be a mother, a wife, the home cleaner and the gourmet chef for my family, something I could never balance while I worked for an organisation, and the annual income you received in an organisation can nw be earned in your first month on your own.
I encourage you to fully trust your instinct and The Lord above to provide and you WILL BE A SUCCESS.
GOODLUCK, if you require any assistance or advice contact me at [Login to view]
Regards
Anita