I'm back in the game...
My weekends are hectic, never quite enough time for anything. It means I start Monday’s sluggish and tired… I feel hungover despite no alcohol… the result is an early morning blog with coffee as I try and kick start my day… Forgive me for being self-indulgent today… the blog is about me and my business, not the business at large. Like others I blog to commit to paper the ideas that are in my head, making a public record of my intents and desired outcomes…
Last week I caught up with a number of people that I hadn’t spoken to for a while… both candidates and former clients… several said a similar thing…
“Hey Martin, I thought you had given up the recruitment thing, got yourself a real job?”
I guess to the outside world maybe I had ..?
Last year I spent 6 months an interim for one client and a further 3 as a business coach for a number of high growth technology organisations… yet I still feel firmly that I operate in the recruitment space, no matter what that might actually mean.
But let’s be clear… and for the avoidance of any doubt... I’m back in the game…
I have been working on several things building on a combination of what I like, what I am good at and what will generate some income… this last bit is always interesting… I work with a number of inhouse recruitment professionals and those that are salaried laugh at this a little bit… maybe I’m just jealous of their regular monthly incomes but I think the need for commercial success goes hand in hand with delivery of a high quality service…
I have blogged in the past about how on occasion I have struggled with my split personality (me vs. my business) but have now got to the branding compromise that works…
martindangerfield.com is having a facelift as we speak by @tomstables and should be live any day now… this will be my site… my blog will move there although will be developed featuring guest blogs from adjacent industries and people that have an opinion about recruitment but might not necessarily be in it… it will be about me and the projects I work on… one of those projects will be my key business mckinley|resource…
mckinley|resource over the years has been many things to many people… whilst it has always kept it’s focus on the IT and technology market and recruitment into those sectors it has done so at different levels whilst the team has grown and contracted several times...
Over the last few months the strategy has become clear. I won’t name him but the VC I met on Tuesday has reminded me of some basic truths… focus on margin… get some scale… and you won’t make any money being an evangelist however passionate you are about things…
So.. mckinley|resource… I’m doing a website now to reflect the changes… if that works I’ll get in done professionally, if only to have it non-flash so I can see it on my iphone… The focus on service remains but the means to an end have changed… there are now two distinct offerings:-
- consulting will see a portfolio of standalone offerings, each able to be integrated with each other yet each adding value in their own right…
- managed services a modular portfolio of services that will allow clients to select service lines most appropriate to their current need, combined with the ability to ramp up or down…
It’s not quite there yet but I will be sure to let the world know when it is… I will need your help as a client or a partner… collaboration is the key to success but we will all need to play our part…
Part of the delivery plan over the next few months is to seek tangible investment into the business to allow me to develop some of that scale that has been missing…. Either through something like crowdcube or individual business angel/VC… or a combination… we’ll see how it looks when the business plan is completed…
As part of this reflection of time and money I am also getting involved in a joint venture… an organisation currently branded knowledge. with the aim of developing innovative attraction and engagement programmes for large corporate clients that get that the world has moved on but are still applying transactional process into an environment that has become all about connections… but more of that another day.
Thank you for your time today… if you got this far you deserve a reward….how about I buy you that coffee we promised ourselves… let me know when you are free at martin.dangerfield@mckinleyresource.com, @MDangerfield or you could even call on +44161 955 3647.
M.
about mckinley|resource® and Martin Dangerfield
mckinley|resource® is an innovative recruitment practice providing executive search, recruitment, talent advisory and project resourcing services. Delivering full UK and European coverage, we focus on identifying and engaging talented individuals within the IT services, IT outsourcing, management consultancy and technology marketplaces.
We can deploy for a day, a week, a month or longer. This means we can support your recruitment peaks, deliver spot advice or have an on going engagement. All we need is a desk in your office and a brief that we have agreed and signed up to. We won’t ask you to sign any long term contracts either. We have already proven to be a great success for our clients and are happy to work completely autonomous or alongside your current HR team/recruitment agency. Not only can we help free up the process to help find great new people but help you to look after the great people you already have.
To learn more about our approach give Martin Dangerfield (email, linkedin, twitter) a call on +44161.955.3647.