Smart50 rank: 7
Revenue: $2,242,717
Growth: 166.20%
Founders: Sophie Macdonald, 31; Kye Macdonald, 28
Based: Queensland
Employees: 18
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.skyerecruitment.com
Australian-born Kye MacDonald was working in recruitment in the UK when he met his future wife, Sophie. They got talking about how far behind the Australian recruitment market was to that in the UK and saw an opportunity to come back to Australia. They founded Skye Recruitment in 2006 and reached $1 million revenue a little over a year and a half later.
"Recruitment can suffer from having a poor reputation with customers, and a tough working environment that causes stress and burnout in employees," Sophie says. "We wanted to build a company with strong professional ethics that would be valued by our customers, as well as a company that had a fun and happy working environment."
They started the business from their home and focused on the civil construction and buildings, civil engineering, mining, and oil and gas sectors, recruiting permanent, temporary and contract staff. But although they knew the recruitment industry well, they did not know how to run a business.
"The most challenging part for us was to surround ourselves with the right people," she says. Ironically for recruiters, they made poor recruiting decisions and had to let staff go.
"We also associated ourselves with some professionals who were not well placed to advise us in terms of our business goals. We have since found business partners that are more aligned to our goals, and we have streamlined our recruitment processes to ensure that the staff we hire fit with our company culture," she says.
One big mistake they made was to set up a structure that left them significantly exposed to risk. "From that we have learned the importance of partnering with skilled specialists, and making sure that the third party advice we take is aligned to our goals," she says.
Part of the reason they got the wrong advice in the first place is they went to a mum and dad accountant. "We now have an accountant that understands fast growth businesses but it did mean we had to completely restructure our company which was time-consuming and costly, but has protected us against further risk."
The pair wishes they had taken on more money earlier. "This is something we are looking at now," says Sophie.
They are looking to expand and hire more consultants to diversify their business further into more niche sectors including architecture and chemical engineering. "We are also considering potential acquisitions. Our goal is to become the number one technical recruitment agency in Australia."
The company was affected by the downturn, hiring less staff than anticipated (nine new staff in the past year). However, Sophie says she has built strong relationships with customers and are now included even when clients are reducing their numbers of suppliers.
"We have invested in our staff in terms of training, coaching and mentoring," she says. "Our work is fun. We organise events such as staff sports competitions and outings, and we encourage everyone to enjoy their time in the office. We even have an office Wii, which is the cause of plenty of banter and competition! If people are happy at work they are more likely to be motivated, and to bring that positivity to their client dealings."
Their industry is changing fast. "With the engineering boom it was initially the case that more agencies were emerging, but the downturn has now eliminated a lot of those agencies from the market. There are more candidates on the market now, clients have reduced or tightened requirements for staff and clients are looking for value-adds to agency services such as industry advice and salary surveying, beyond the initial 'finding of a person'," she says. "Clients are looking to put formalised agreements with recruitment agencies in place."
And as the industry matures, more legislation creeps in. "This is impacting our business. This happened in the UK recruitment markets around five years ago, and at that point agencies had to undertake a lot more paperwork to ensure that they were protected against claims concerning workers that were unfit, unqualified or illegal."
The pair understand the importance of online in recruitment and are striving for a point of difference. "Currently the online recruitment market is dominated by a small number of generalist job boards that purely provide job advertising services. They do not provide a complete recruitment solution," Sophie says.
"Our online presence currently includes all the features and capabilities of a job board while at the same time providing information, guides and advice that is relevant to our specific industries. We also provide an employer online service that allows us to integrate closely with our clients and improve the service."
She says they are adding active tracking of applications, employer tracking of roles and candidates, accounts and financial management, pod casts and training materials for candidates.
A new website has also significant increased direct business, she says. They are also fans of Facebook and recently set up a company page. "We are now in the process of inviting our clients and candidates to become 'fans' of us. Through this page we can share company news and information, and direct marketing and branding efforts. It is also a facility through which we can post our jobs and link directly to our customers."
Her final tip to other entrepreneurs? "Seek out a balance between your personal and business lives. This was something that was not so relevant to me in the early stages, but has become increasingly important the bigger we get."
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