Smart50 rank: 9
Revenue: $5,230,822
Growth: 138.10%
Founders: Matthew Sampson, 25, Adam Brown, 34
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 10
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.aspectpersonnel.com.au
Like countless entrepreneurs before him, Aspect Personnel co-founder Matthew Sampson had a steady job before he decided to strike out on his own.
Well, Sampson wasn’t quite like every other entrepreneur. He had only been in his “stable” job for two years and he was just 22 when he set up Aspect, a recruitment company that focuses on engineering, town planning and architecture industries.
He immediately found out how tough things could be running a business.
“I was naive, though this naivety gave me (unjustified) confidence in my own abilities. While I believed I had a good technical grounding in my profession (which in retrospect, I didn’t) I was certainly not prepared for the complexities of running a company.
“I significantly underestimated the legal, logistical, financial and emotional intricacies of running a business.”
There was also the issue of his age, which he admits made it hard to build confidence in the business.
“Whether it be banks, investors, potential clients or potential staff, there was often an immediate concern amongst them about my age and associated maturity and level of experience.
“What I learned from this is that age is not an important attribute to someone’s success in business. Bravery, determination, ambition, persistence – they are key characteristics that are important to success, not age.”
Those qualities helped Aspect produce average annual revenue growth of 138% over the past three years, with revenue hitting $5.2 million in the 2010-11 year.
The patchy economic conditions have required Sampson and co-founder Adam Brown to remain flexible and be prepared to tweak or adjust tactics to ensure they could stick to their business plan.
After many recruitment firms were forced to shut during the depths of the GFC, Sampson can see the market turning and new players are starting to emerge.
“Our particular markets used to be dominated by a select few established recruitment consultancies. Relatively low start-up costs and barriers to entry have invited smaller start-up businesses to try their hand in recruitment.”
Sampson will keep working on improvements to the business to stay ahead of the pack. To this end, the company has employed an accredited management and quality consultant to fine-tune its internal system.
“As Aspect grows in size, it has become much harder to monitor the quality of the services we provide and to ensure that it meets the levels that we set ourselves when there were only two of us sitting in the office,” Sampson says.
