After a successful first year trading, we wanted to share some of the learns we have had from starting Mackie Myers Ltd. There is no one size fits all manual to getting a business off the ground  – although we certainly tried to find one! Hopefully our experience to date may be of use to some, be it within the recruitment space or otherwise…

Take your time…
Our aim is to build and scale a business that provides long term value to our customers and partners. We have taken a long term view on many of the decisions we have made and have looked to build a quality infrastructure that can scale. It takes time to think this through, build a proper business plan and get the right solutions in place. Try not to rush into things – do it right the first time whilst maintaining a mindset of continuous improvement. Whilst we took the ‘bootstrap’ approach to our start up, we still took the time to develop a quality business plan and slide deck as if we were pitching for investment. Having this in place has been invaluable in holding ourselves to account and striving for better.

Free your mind…
As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. You may have developed your expertise over a long period of time within a specific industry as we had, but it is ok to do things your own way. Now is the time to get creative, innovate and give stuff a go. You will find you enjoy the experience more and you will develop USPs you might not have expected when you set out. With our flexibility ethos we are constantly trying to find new ways of delivering value for our customers and this approach has been instrumental in driving our growth.

Your Network…
We have been humbled by the amount of support and advise we have received from an array of different contacts. Whilst the business world is a competitive one, we have found that people genuinely want to help others succeed. Customers, suppliers, industry peers, friends and family – if you pick up the phone and ask for help, people will often find a way to do so.

Outsource…
One of the driving forces behind starting our own business was to learn new things, which we have certainly done this year. However, there are plenty of things that you will never be good at and you should choose quality long term suppliers to do it slicker and quicker. As an example, we would be lost without our accountants who are recruitment industry experts and have scaled up their services as we have needed it, from basic bookkeeping now through to managing our contractor finance facility.