Season 7 | Ep35 Paul Smith on completing the MBO to buy out his original partners and take full ownership of his recruitment agency!

I'm joined by an old client of mine, Paul Smith. Paul is the Managing Director of Deploy Recruitment, a specialist infrastructure and technology recruitment business heavily invested in the rail sector. 

Paul started the recruitment side of this business just over 10 years ago. 

In this episode, he tells me about the last year and how he completed the MBO to buy out the original Partners and fully own the company. 

Today, so many recruitment founders partner with other people — whether business partners, back office providers, solutions providers, or investors. 

And I see so many get to a point when, a little bit down the line, it doesn't feel like the right fit anymore. 

Paul is open about why he decided to buy out his partners, the risks (personal and professional) he faced, and how he ultimately got it done. He also shares the emotional side of the process and how he’s felt since taking ownership. 

A super honest guy who does not mince his words. That's what I love about Paul.

For anyone who's thinking about selling to their employees as an MBO, completing an MBO in the future, or buying out a business partner, you've got to listen to this episode.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast

00:29 Overview of Deploy Recruitment

01:27 Paul's decision to buy out the company

03:23 Paul's experience with laser eye treatment

04:21 Overview of Deploy Recruitment's services

05:20 Expansion into other industries and territories

06:17 Challenges and opportunities in the industry

07:15 The importance of infrastructure maintenance

08:12 Issues with technology and connectivity

09:08 Benefits and challenges of electric vehicles

10:34 Introduction to Paul Smith and Deploy Recruitment

11:04 Paul's background and decision to join Deploy Recruitment

12:19 Joining a non-recruitment company and leveraging their resources

13:44 The growth of Deploy Recruitment

14:41 Finding clients by observing train stations

18:12 The challenges of cash flow in the industry

20:08 Expanding into different sectors and offering additional services

22:14 The importance of process and procedure in the rail industry

23:13 Servicing internal projects and external clients

24:09 The 24/7 nature of the business

26:06 Managing on-call responsibilities

27:44 Understanding turnover, gross profit, and net fee income

28:14 Offering flexible payment options to clients

30:09 Expanding services and finding new ways to work with clients

31:55 Using data to provide real-time insights to clients

35:11 Taking over the business

36:12 Timing and circumstance

37:07 Impact of COVID-19

38:41 Opportunity to buy the business

39:05 Transition and management buyout

42:02 Executing the buyout

44:14 Personal risk and commitment

46:00 Challenges and considerations

49:30 Being a leader

50:26 Vision for the future

57:26 Hiring good people

58:11 Streamlining operations

01:00:03 Importance of content on LinkedIn

01:02:51 Continuous learning and growth

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily and the results have been amazing!

You can have this too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Anderson (The creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template
• Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.

You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in one easy click. You can also offer candidates a quick and easy job search interface, so it’s made easy for them to find their perfect role.

And for your clients, you can offer them unique logins so they can access everything

they need 24/7, so they can rate and review candidates and arrange interviews.

Find out more on vincere.io/rag